In Ephesians 4:17 Paul writes, “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” We know Paul is speaking to believers in Ephesus here. But when I read this I have three questions: 1) what does Paul mean when he uses the word “walk”? 2) Who are the Gentiles? 3) What does he mean by the phrase “in the futility of their minds”?
When Paul uses the word “walk”, he is referring to how someone conducts their life. How someone behaves. How someone lives. Who are “the Gentiles”? In one sense of the word it refers to someone who is non-Jewish. The other use of the term, which we see throughout the New Testament is used to refer to sinners, which is how Paul means it here. What does he mean by the phrase “in the futility of their minds”? Paul is speaking of the mindset of sinners. He seems to be saying the mind of those who are without Jesus is ineffective, useless, and not productive. So, in essence, what Paul is saying here is this: he is urging the believers in Ephesus to cease living like sinners do, who continue in their sin because their minds are ineffective, useless, not productive, and incapable of living for Jesus.
Now, this implies that those who are in Christ can still live in sin. Yes and no. Those who are in Christ can still walk as sinners do. After all, no Christian is a perfect human being. We will all fall into the temptation to sin from time to time. However, the believers in Ephesus were doing so willfully. They were intentional about their sinning, and there is a reason Paul is commanding the believers in Ephesus to cease willfully behaving like those who are not in Christ do. The reason is this: “if you live according to the flesh you will die” (Romans 8:13). That statement was made to believers in Rome and the same applies to the believers in Ephesus, and applies to believers everywhere. If these believers in Ephesus continued to “walk as the Gentiles do”, if they continue to “live according to the flesh”, they will die. To “die” means perish in hell. Just because we are in Christ does not mean we have a license to continue walking in our sin nature (Romans 6:1-16). Those who are led by their sin nature will not enter into the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:21).
But this raises a new question for me and this will be the last question we aim to answer in this blog for today: Why is the mind of the sinner futile? The answer is found in Ephesians 4:18, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” When Paul says sinners, or those who are without Christ, “are darkened in their understanding”, he is saying their minds are full of darkness rather than the light of God and therefore cannot understand the things of God. When Paul says those who are without Jesus are “alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them” he means they have separated themselves by closing off their minds to God. And the reason they have closed their minds off to God is “due to their hardness of heart.”
Futility of the mind is not a brain problem. A mind full of darkness is not a brain problem. Those who have closed their minds to God do not have a brain issue. They have a heart problem. When the heart is hard towards God the mind becomes futile, full of darkness, and ignorant to the things of God. A heart hardened against God will always yield to a futile mind and lead to a life of separation from God. For a futile mind, which comes from a hardened heart, will result in sensuality, greediness, and many other forms of impurity (Eph. 4:19). Thus, those who are futile in their thinking, incapable of living for Jesus, insisting to continue to walk in their sin, turn away from God because their hearts are hardened against God. This is why so many have heard the gospel but refuse to accept it. Their heart is hard, and a hard heart yields to a closed mind; mainly, towards God.
But the believers in Ephesus were without excuse. Their hearts had been softened and enlightened by the light of God that comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). So, their hearts were no longer darkened by the hardness of their hearts! Thus, Paul urged them to cease living like those whose heart was hardened to God. This is good advice for every believer: “no longer walk as the Gentiles do”.