The Blessed Effects of God’s Saving Grace (4:1–6:20)
Holiness is to show itself in living a pure life
In chapters 1 to 3, Paul rehearsed for the Ephesians the great things their Savior and Redeemer-God has done for them in giving them spiritual life and bringing them into the Christian church.
In chapters 4 to 6, Paul helps them understand what their response should be to such grace. What is expected of them is, to summarize it in one word, holiness. Paul has already urged them to show such holiness by striving to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (4:1-16).
Now he advances to a second area of emphasis: holiness that reflects itself in the purity of their lives and conduct. Very earnestly he warns them:
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.
It is important to realize that the holiness Paul is advocating is not to be done in order to gain favor with God or improve our standing before him. Our redemption and salvation have been completely taken care of by Christ’s work. But is it merely optional that the redeemed child of God conform his life to God’s holy will? No! As God’s representative, Paul tells the Ephesians, and “[insists] on it in the Lord,” that they are no longer to live as the Gentiles do, “in the futility of their thinking.”
The problem with the Gentiles was that they had no proper set of values. Their thinking was all messed up. Paul attaches a devastating description to them. He charges them with being “darkened” in their understanding, “separated” from God, having “ignorance” because they have “hardened” their hearts.
With such a wrong set of values and with such wrong thinking, it was inevitable that they would become guilty of wrong actions. Paul continues, “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.”
Although it is not evident from the NIV translation, in the Greek “having lost all sensitivity” is an active form of the verb. It is not that their sensitivity was taken from them; they abandoned it. The next clause also has an active verb: “They have given themselves over to sensuality.” The Gentiles did what they wanted to, but, instead of satisfying them, it simply heightened their desire for more. Paul’s point is that Gentiles in their pagan lifestyle were hopelessly enmeshed in immoral ways.
The Ephesians, of course, were Gentiles and came from precisely the kind of pagan society Paul describes. But in their case a wonderful change had taken place, a change that did not originate in any way from paganism.
Their changed and improved status came from Christ and the body of Christian doctrine that Paul and other gospel preachers brought to them. Paul invites the Ephesians to reflect on how that change came about.