- Feb 7, 2010
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Ephesians 4:17-20
17 With the Lords authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
20 But that isnt what you learned about Christ.
Entertainment
Todays world is loaded with entertainment. Our lives are so full of and influenced by the makers behind the parade of gadgets and shows that we barely have a chance to think for ourselves. In fact, it is getting more difficult to get away from these input devices. Where it was once normal for households to have only one TV (or none), we now have them in every room of the house it seems, and we carry devices that will enable us to almost never be without our electronic binkies.
Businesses have picked up on this obsession, so many restaurants, stores, and auto shops have flat screens lurking around every corner to keep us happy and quiet, feeding us measured propaganda along with sustaining the entertainment fix we need to survive the day. Even our company lunchrooms must have these devices, and so the handful of us who still look to escape to peace and quiet in those places are finding these intruders babbling on and on with their mindless talk shows and junk so that everyone else is properly sedated.
Mindware
When my generation first read the book (those things made out of paper) 1984, we marveled at the idea of Big Brother watching over us and spewing his constant and calculated mindware from every nook and cranny. While we could imagine the technology being developed to fulfill such a plan, it seemed unlikely in our lifetime. And here it is.
Ephesians 4:18 tells us about the minds of those in this world who reject God they are hopelessly confused, their minds are full of darkness, they wander far from the life God gives, they have closed minds and hardened hearts, they have no sense of shame, they live for lustful pleasure , and they eagerly practice every kind of impurity. Gee, that sounds like a lot of Christians today, doesnt it? Perhaps that describes your life to some degree, if you were to take an honest look at it. Our lives have been so subtly inculcated with the world that we hardly noticed.
Paul was addressing a similar situation when he wrote to the Ephesian church its people had the same kinds of battles, though the extent of the influences of the world may not have been as all-encompassing. His letter was to church people, to believers in Jesus Christ, and they were being led away from the Lord by their embracing of the culture they lived in. After pointing out the description of those who rejected God and how they lived, he reminded them that isnt what you learned about Christ. Is that what you learned about Christ?
Are we so arrogant today in America that we think we can take in all this culture has to offer and remain untouched? Youre lying to yourself if you think so, and youre passing those influences down to your children who are less equipped to process all those lies and sensuality without a lasting and profoundly negative effect.
What is the solution?
Paul, speaking with the Lords authority, states the solution in simple terms stop living like the world. Dont go there. Just say no. Turn it off. What did your parents do to try to remove the bad influence of that unapproved boy from your life? Thats what we have to do if we want to return to the Lord and once again see his Spirit working in and through us. We cannot serve both God and this world.
Our culture has fought so hard against God and his influence over the decades that he has finally stepped back from us, as described in Romans 1:18-32, and has given us over to the desires of the flesh we relentlessly pursue. The church is so much into the world, and the worlds influences in the church, that we have been neutralized and have become mostly irrelevant. Our hypocrisies are obvious to everyone else but us, and God is mocked because of our lifestyles.
Its time for believers in Christ to follow Gods command in this passage and change how we are living. It wont be easy, for this culture has reached into our very hearts and souls. It seems unreasonable to disconnect from these perks of our world. We cannot even imagine living without a cell phone, something 95% of us did without and thought was over the top not too many years ago. God is warning us that we must not live like our culture. Will we obey him and lead our children back to the Lord, or embrace this culture and lead our children the opposite direction?
17 With the Lords authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
20 But that isnt what you learned about Christ.
Entertainment
Todays world is loaded with entertainment. Our lives are so full of and influenced by the makers behind the parade of gadgets and shows that we barely have a chance to think for ourselves. In fact, it is getting more difficult to get away from these input devices. Where it was once normal for households to have only one TV (or none), we now have them in every room of the house it seems, and we carry devices that will enable us to almost never be without our electronic binkies.
Businesses have picked up on this obsession, so many restaurants, stores, and auto shops have flat screens lurking around every corner to keep us happy and quiet, feeding us measured propaganda along with sustaining the entertainment fix we need to survive the day. Even our company lunchrooms must have these devices, and so the handful of us who still look to escape to peace and quiet in those places are finding these intruders babbling on and on with their mindless talk shows and junk so that everyone else is properly sedated.
Mindware
When my generation first read the book (those things made out of paper) 1984, we marveled at the idea of Big Brother watching over us and spewing his constant and calculated mindware from every nook and cranny. While we could imagine the technology being developed to fulfill such a plan, it seemed unlikely in our lifetime. And here it is.
Ephesians 4:18 tells us about the minds of those in this world who reject God they are hopelessly confused, their minds are full of darkness, they wander far from the life God gives, they have closed minds and hardened hearts, they have no sense of shame, they live for lustful pleasure , and they eagerly practice every kind of impurity. Gee, that sounds like a lot of Christians today, doesnt it? Perhaps that describes your life to some degree, if you were to take an honest look at it. Our lives have been so subtly inculcated with the world that we hardly noticed.
Paul was addressing a similar situation when he wrote to the Ephesian church its people had the same kinds of battles, though the extent of the influences of the world may not have been as all-encompassing. His letter was to church people, to believers in Jesus Christ, and they were being led away from the Lord by their embracing of the culture they lived in. After pointing out the description of those who rejected God and how they lived, he reminded them that isnt what you learned about Christ. Is that what you learned about Christ?
Are we so arrogant today in America that we think we can take in all this culture has to offer and remain untouched? Youre lying to yourself if you think so, and youre passing those influences down to your children who are less equipped to process all those lies and sensuality without a lasting and profoundly negative effect.
What is the solution?
Paul, speaking with the Lords authority, states the solution in simple terms stop living like the world. Dont go there. Just say no. Turn it off. What did your parents do to try to remove the bad influence of that unapproved boy from your life? Thats what we have to do if we want to return to the Lord and once again see his Spirit working in and through us. We cannot serve both God and this world.
Our culture has fought so hard against God and his influence over the decades that he has finally stepped back from us, as described in Romans 1:18-32, and has given us over to the desires of the flesh we relentlessly pursue. The church is so much into the world, and the worlds influences in the church, that we have been neutralized and have become mostly irrelevant. Our hypocrisies are obvious to everyone else but us, and God is mocked because of our lifestyles.
Its time for believers in Christ to follow Gods command in this passage and change how we are living. It wont be easy, for this culture has reached into our very hearts and souls. It seems unreasonable to disconnect from these perks of our world. We cannot even imagine living without a cell phone, something 95% of us did without and thought was over the top not too many years ago. God is warning us that we must not live like our culture. Will we obey him and lead our children back to the Lord, or embrace this culture and lead our children the opposite direction?
