The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 4:17-18,
"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way."
The world exists in a spiritual blindness, a darkness. The cause of why there are so many "isms" and "schisms", cults and religions, false doctrines and bad teaching. Ever wonder why so many have a different perspective on who God is and what he is like? God resides in objective reality and truth. The issue isn't with God, it is with people. As Paul points out in this passage, the world exists in a state of darkened understanding. Sadly, people live in ignorance of God. Paul accounts for this as being due to the hardening of their hearts. As Jesus told Nicodemus, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." John 3:19-20. And, so, people live in a spiritual darkness and invent all kinds of answers to the classical philosophical questions in life, hence, "isms", "schisms", cults and religions.
But, when we respond to the gospel message and embrace Jesus Christ in faith, Paul says in this passage that it wasn't through this darkened ignorance of sinful man we came to know Christ. In fact, this darkness is lifted from our hearts when we respond in faith to the gospel message. God provides us an ability to come into an understanding of spiritual things as the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our lives.
"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.
How wonderful is this?! God brings enlightenment to those who come to his Son in faith!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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