February 21, 2024

“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. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity. Additionally, they are full of greed.” (Ephesians 4.18, 19)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

We can go again to the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land and find a real time example of what Paul is teaching to the Ephesian faith in Christ community. We are not venturing with Moses back up Mt. Sinai looking for his Jethro’s sheep put under his care and who had wandered astray. It was on that day God appeared in burning bush not consumed by fire and spoke to Moses. It was there that Moses received his calling as a shepherd over Israel to go back to the place where he had come and confront Pharaoh. It was there that Moses was given the powerful personal name of God- YHWH, I AM that I AM and all that I AM who was, is and will always be. No, on this day, Moses is going up once again into the clefts of Mt. Sinai to consult with the presence of God on “how” the people should go from there to the Promised Land. They were a stiff-necked people who walked two steps forward but with eyes turned a step back to Egypt. Even after experiencing such deliverance from Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea, they themselves crossing through the waters on dry land, they still lamented their lot in the moment. What they wanted was instant results and not a journey of faith and obedience. They wanted the blessing without the submission. They had, after all, as much of the riches of Egypt as they could carry. God had provided but not sufficiently enough. To capture the last word from Paul to the Ephesians in verse 4.19, “Additionally, they were GREEDY!”

Becoming greedy was the consequence, or was it the impetus, of the people losing their sensitivity and surrendering themselves over to sensuality and indulgences. Remember from verse 18, that such decisions were made by those whose hearts had become hardened to the undeniable truth by which they lived in fierce attempts to deny the truth of God and His righteousness. What does it mean then that “they lost their sensitivity”?

It could mean they lost their “objectivity” and had become so absorbed with their own needs, wants, desires and promotion of self and self-worth they nothing and no one else mattered. Becoming “subjective” lends itself to the consideration that only feelings not facts, especially about one’s self and one’s life condition, are the determining factors for happiness, fulfillment and success. Such thinking transforms all others into the means to an end. It easily dehumanizes and demoralizes others and commits them to a status of slave and servant without benefit.

It could also mean spiritual depravity denying the existence of the One True God. Such thinking may elevate a person to the status of “god” and all understandings of relationships as the definition of their “religion.” This thinking deludes the value of authentic spirituality. Spirituality that is depraved becomes carnal and dependent on the wills and wants of one person or a group of people over another. Racism, hate, and the subjugation of the betterment of others to the establishment of “me first” runs rampant. The modern watchword for such thinking is “entitlement.”

There may be other understandings of the “loss of sensitivity” beyond the ones I have already mentioned. But, I believe there is one more that should be mentioned here and that is moral illiteracy. The casting off of the need for a moral compass corrupts all relationships. Where there is no definitive right thinking and behavior is the license for sin to abound. In fact, the very concept of “sin” may well disappear from the human vocabulary. Without a grasp on sin, wrong, evil and corruption they run rampant and become the rule of thumb by which every person is empowered to delve deeper into chasm which began as “the valley of the shadow of death.”

Mighty ones of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, we dare not lose our sensitivity to the need to pursue righteousness as a life style and being righteous as the ultimate defining goal of right thinking and right actions promoting life over death, hope over despair, order over chaos and salvation over damnation/condemnation. Let us not become insensitive to the pure desire of living out the will of God who gives us being, knowledge, hope, wisdom and eternal life.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.