If you go to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17 it gives us a detailed description of this attitude. It says,
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
Ephesians 4.17-18
I sometimes find it’s quite awesome to read the Word of God. It is accurate, it is exact in just pointing out what the problem is with mankind. We simply can’t avoid this sharpness and these exact words pointing towards our inner side, the problem in us.
So, it says that these gentiles, in the passion of lust, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, are blinded as they separate themselves from the Lord who is the source life.
And it says that they therefore become futile.
It’s very sad to know that we can be useless unless we seek for the truth and this source of the life which is in God.
We shouldn’t be useless, we should come to our senses, we should come to ourselves.
And when the Bible describes the prodigal son, his repentance, in Luke chapter 15 verse 17, I feel it provides a very interesting description.
When he comes to repent, he says that when “he came to himself” which means that the Bible regarded this prodigal son as being ‘beside himself’ or even ‘insane’ before repentance took place.
I’m sure that he was not mad, as in ‘mentally mad’, but ‘beside himself’ as he refused to repent and went away from the Lord.
The Bible describes him as being ‘beside himself’ or even ‘insane’ before repentance took place.
However, when he repented, it says that when ‘he came to himself’.
We don’t like NIV translation, but it also says that ‘he came to his own senses’.
We have to come to ourselves; we have to realize that we are sinful before the Lord. We need to repent and go back to the Lord to have life from the Lord. We have to come to our senses through repentance.
Therefore, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 34 says,
34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin;
1 Corinthians 15.34
Yeah! We’re all, I believe, you’re all good people, and you know we try a certain amount to do our own good, but the world is very dark, it tries to drag us in to join the mainstream. It’s quite frightening to see what’s going on!
The Bible clearly seems to know what would happen, what has happened, at the time when It was written and therefore says: ‘awake to righteousness and do not sin.’
We must come close to the Lord, we must stick to the Lord, we must hold this truth of the Lord, we have to hold on to this life in the Lord, we must awake to righteousness and not sin.
Verse 7 of 1 Thessalonians 4 says,
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
1 Thessalonians 4:7
It is not a new teaching. If you go to Leviticus chapter 11 verse 44, it is exactly the same verse that God speaks through Old and New Testaments:
44 For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy.
Leviticus 11.44
Therefore, whether we like or not, we must stand before this Jesus who is holy, and we should be prepared.
It is better if you are prepared before we face this Jesus who is holy. That is why the Bible emphasizes our sanctification and asks us to abound more and more in this sanctification.