Get out of the dark
Learning how to do something must include learning how not to. Encouraging words are precious but are incomplete or inadequate for growing up towards spiritual maturity. We grow spiritually by leaving behind all the things of the dark and staying in the light of God’s love and truth. We need the truth of God’s Word to warn us, and help us to see the right pathway to avoid the dark and stay in the light of Jesus.
Scripture
Ephesians 4:17-19 ESV 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.
Bible Study Questions
Knowing how to walk, and how not to
Ephesians 4:17 ESV 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 4:1-3 ESV I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
A life that doesn’t please God is wasted and worthless
Ephesians 4:17 ESV 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.
Romans 8:6-8 ESV For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Sin keeps us blinded in every way
Ephesians 4:18 ESV They are darkened in their understanding,
Romans 1:21 ESV For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Sin keeps us separated from God
Ephesians 4:18 ESV alienated from the life of God
Ephesians 2:11-13 ESV Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Without the Gospel, our hearts are hard and ignorant
Ephesians 4:18 ESV because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Ezekiel 11:18-20 ESV And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Sin is insatiable and constantly degenerating
Ephesians 4:19 ESV They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Romans 6:11-13 ESV So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Walking in the Light is eternal
Psalms 89:15-16 ESV Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face, 16 who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted.
Isaiah 9:2 ESV The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
John 8:12 ESV Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”