futile minds

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.

Ephesians 4:17

There are four characteristics of Christ-less, futile thinking that are no longer the way that Christians should think. They are the practice of minds without Jesus. Paul describes them in Ephesians 4:18.

1. ”They are darkened in their understanding…” An unregenerate mind is dark. The very disposition of an unbeliever cannot approach the light of God’s holiness. Our culture is thus dark and ruined as collectively sinners only have dark thoughts. And it is getting even darker.
2. “…alienated from the life of God…” Not only is life outside of Christ devoid of light, it is also cut off, cast out, alienated of life. The mind of humanity is death bound as a result of sin. It is void of any hopeful, life-giving thought. It is a zombie brain. It creates a culture of death.
3. “…because of the ignorance that is in them…” The unregenerate mind is spiritually uneducated. It cannot know God unless God draws the thoughts of the ignorant to the truth of His revelation. Only the gospel can begin to address what humans need in order to know God fully and possess eternal truth.
4. ”…due to their hardness of heart.” Hard hearts reject God. Hard hearts are trapped in the stone crypts of sin. Hard hearts are encased in the concrete of rejection of God, addiction to the domination of sin, the blinding limitations of Satanic assault and worldly lies, and the worship of self.

There is only hope in salvation in Christ. Only the gospel hammer, the Sword of the Spirit (the Word of God), and the Holy Spirit’s enlightening and enlivening ministry will break through futile thinking of hearts like these.