Futile Thinking

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

FUTILE THINKING

Eph 4:17-19

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 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. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

NIV

There is no question that there are some brilliant minds in this world. People who have gathered an incredible among of knowledge and use it for the benefit of mankind. However, if they refuse to accept the word of God as such and do not accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came to this earth to redeem men so that God reconciled himself to us, their thinking is futile. Great minds such as Albert Einstein gave mankind much, but in the end, if he did not know Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and remained as Paul would put it a Gentile, then his thinking was futile, and he ended up losing out on eternal life. Although great thinking is a good thing, and it accomplishes many things in the world, that kind of thinking is left in this world and perishes along with those who think with darkened understanding and are separated from the life of God.  We believe that Christianity is a thinking person's religion. However, Paul is speaking in terms of thinking regarding morality. Again, there is no question that if someone does not know Jesus personally, and refuses to see the truth of God, their moral thinking is flawed. The world sees moral thinking as distinguishing right from wrong and should be the basis for a good society. Yet, if right and wrong are based on the ideas of men, rather than of God, then once again their thinking, as moral as they think it is, remains flawed and futile. We know that men refuse the Light of the world and would prefer to live in the darkness, so their immoral thinking and behaviors are not exposed. If men try to hide their thinking from God, they simply deceive themselves and the truth is not in them. We must understand this can be applied to us as well. If we try to hide our thinking from God and want to fulfill our own thoughts, then the truth is not in us. Man looks at the outside of men, but God examines the heart. He knows our thoughts and how we process them. Of course, we have not yet attained perfection as spiritually as we think we are. We can even get caught up in futile thinking when it comes to living the Christian life. When we begin to think of ways to set certain rules and regulations based on what we think the scripture says, then we could be in the same boat as the Pharisees of Jesus’s time. They were religious men, thinking their devotion to God was unparalleled, but their thinking was flawed because they looked to the law for their salvation. Of course, we do not look to the law, but there are those who want to establish more laws, more rules and regulations that make us better Christians, which is a misnomer, as we are either saved or we are not, and it is not based on our obedience to the law, but on faith and faith alone. Yet, the world is still stuck in its futile thinking and looking to fulfill its every desire. Surely, we still have desires, and some may not be regarding pleasing God but pleasing ourselves. However, we still live in the light and so when are thinking starts getting fussy, the light brings our thinking into focus, thus we have not lost the sensitivity to God. Praise God he still works in our lives and continues to guide us into all truth, so our thinking will not be futile.