William Shakespeare’s famous character Hamlet says at one point:
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.
The above words gripped me as a senior in high school, and I remembered them for decades. Hamlet asks whether it is better to endure suffering or to fight against suffering.
Yet, Paul bringing the message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ tells us that our choice in life is not between suffering or fighting against our suffering, but renouncing certain aspects of our identity as sinners, and taking up a new life in Christ.
In Ephesians 4: 17-24, he writes to the Gentile church in Ephesus to stop living or even desiring to live what they were before they came to Christ. He writes:
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul tells us not to walk in the futility of our minds.Futility is defined at dictionary.com as“a sense of hopelessness that leads us to think that nothing will work out. Sometimes our pilgrimage seems so long and arduous that we take our eyes from our Savior, and hopelessness builds.” He then goes on to say that “having their understanding darkened” they are alienated from God.
The minds or persons in this condition are engrossed in the superficial perceptions of all things. For Plato, this was a mental counterpart to being chained in a dark cave and seeing shadows of puppets on the wall and thinking they are real. Not seeing anything in daylight, and because they are chained up by their masters (in the Christian case, Satan and His henchmen fallen angels) they cannot see important realities regarding the world around them, regarding their motives, regarding their desperate condition as beings facing death and eternity, and regarding their spiritual bankruptcy.
Those walking in futility are “being alienated from the life of God” They may not believe in God, or, alternatively, may believe in God superficially, and have a false idea of who God is and what His intentions are for the earthlings. They may have various subjective views about God (my father said that God was “a force”) or may have been taught by one or more of the many theologies in this world false views about the nature and goals of God, or how to access communication with and the help of the Godhead, or contaminated, self-serving ideas and ideals about what God expects of us and would have us do or be.
He or she may think that Confucius understood the need for respect, especially respect for parents, and in our rebellious age where too many children have contempt for their parents, may find study of Confucianism to be the most logical and spiritual path. In other words, people who believe they are sincerely seeking the right path may stop their search too soon. Pilgrims’ Progress is a book that reveals how people ON THE PATH may get side-tracked.
This alienation is further fed by “ignorance of God.” It is as if we were to go to a jeweler and be shown four gold rings, but actually, while all the rings look like gold, only one of them is gold. How are we then able to make a selection? What will be the basis for our determination? When we go and are told this or that about the items presented to us, what are the bases for choosing one item over another?
This alienation is also fed by “blindness of their heart.” This blindness, Paul states, is a result of two immoral qualities: lewdness and greediness. These two intentions or bad spirits which can be found in human attitudes, emotions, desires, and sinful commitments are stigmas in the soul, in our personalities, that militantly stand between humans and Almighty God.
Only if they are rejected, opposed, or at least radically minimized in one’s soul can the barriers between human individuals and Almighty God be surmounted. Almighty God is implacably opposed to lewdness and greediness. Here Paul is not only referring to lewd or greedy behavior such as being a prostitute or being someone who holds up a liquor store. Here, he is referring to motives and hidden desires that are in the background of our daily dealings with people, infect our dreams and aspirations, and color what types of entertainment we seek and even what we watch on TV, or what we talk about with our friends and relatives.
Paul ends this passage from Ephesians with some straightforward solutions to the above wrong inclinations, desires, and behaviors: he tells the Gentile believers in Ephesus to get rid of their lusts. At least half the references to lust in the Old Testament – which are found in the book of Ezekiel – refer to idolatrous behavior, directing oneself to false Gods. But in the New Testament lust refers primarily to sexual desires, thoughts, intentions, and actions. Paul, as a Biblically informed Jew as well as a convert to Christ, may very well have wedded these two usages together. The likelihood of this is reinforced by his concluding words that the readers of his letter “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” The righteousness would be with respect to suppressing, dispelling, and renouncing lasciviousness whether that be heterosexual or homosexual and not to lend oneself to idolatry.
Instead the Christ followers are to participate the holiness that comes from worship of Christ ALONE, and as Gentiles not to fall back into the primitive and false understanding of many gentiles in the Roman Empire who believed in a multitude of Gods who could and would be worshipped in temples…temples where prostitution often was practiced. Combining lust and worship of false Gods was not uncommon among Greeks and Romans, so we can see how focused and appropriate this passage is. Lust and false worship were hallmarks of pagan societies, so Paul is exhorting them to avoid all backsliding into both false beliefs, practices, and desires.
Too often in American society we combine sports idolatry with lust where we have great football competitions with sexy half-time shows with Jennifer Lopez or other cuties on the sidelines shaking their bodily parts to entrance and excite the gathered thousands and possibly millions on TV. Idolatry of sports heroes and lust are linked, and this writer has in the past belonged to a church which regularly organized the church members to watch the Super Bowl together in the church. The recent dating of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, a top pro football player, and the public’s fascination with this dating may very well be part of this deep-seated link in the American psyche between sports heroes and sex. In the Greek world of ancient times nudity of the athletes was a norm which would engender the identification of great physical achievements with the sexual dimension of life. Idolizing people or “Gods” combined with stimulation of lustful thoughts and actions is a danger to one’s spiritual well-being.
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Only unreserved commitment by faith to the grace that He offers will give eternal life and hope to the church at Ephesus or to us in the USA and throughout today’s world.
Jeffrey Ludwig
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