Ignorant No More

(a meditation on Ephesians 4:17-5:21)

I’ve been saved! Not just from the destruction of sin, but from the “futility of my mind” that held me there: “darkened in my understanding,” “alienated from the life of God,” out of “ignorance” due to “hardness of heart” that did not acknowledge God but made me my own god.

But when the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ broke in, I learned to put off the old self – the self that lived out of what seemed right to my own mind, what felt right to my corrupted emotions, and what me the urgent desires of my fallen flesh. And I learned instead to put on the new self – renewed in spirit after the image of God in true righteousness and holiness.

And what a contrast there is between the fruit of living out of ignorance as an animal driven by feelings and desires and needs in the futility of my own thinking, and the fruit of living as a spirit-being filled with the Spirit of God and imitating Him as a dearly loved child.

But be aware, self – this isn’t just good material for deep thinking, this is good material for daily living: “Look carefully then to how you walk.” You can easily slip into animal mode if you’re not actively seeking the will of the Lord and being filled with His Spirit. How do you stay filled? Live in the constant (“in everything”) place of thanksgiving and adoration. Acknowledge that He is, and that you are His, and that He is freedom and perfection… constantly! Don’t waste a moment living in the unfruitful ignorance you once walked in – unaware of God’s existence and His glory that shines the light on who you really are.

^{Eph 4:17} Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 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. ¹⁹ They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰ But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹ assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²² to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.