Don't Be Sensual, Feel!

[NOTE: This is a really really short version of "Overcoming Sin By a Superior Satisfaction."]

"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; (19) who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

(20) But you have not so learned Christ, (21) if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: (22) that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, (23) and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (24) and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." -Ephesians 4:17-24

Ephesians 4:19 says that those who don’t know God give themselves over “to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness”… because they’re “past feeling!” This is huge. Paul starts v. 17 by saying, “don’t be like them.” They plunge themselves into sensuality, not because that’s a fuller experience of real pleasure, but because they can’t feel, and they’re trying everything under the sun to make them feel. They want to be happy, but apart from God, they’re beyond real feeling, so they indulge in booze and sex and drugs and money and pride – desperately trying to fill the void.

So Paul’s command in 17-19 says (among many other things) that the way to “no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles,” is not to deprive yourself of pleasure, but to cultivate pleasure, to cultivate real feeling – in God. That’s what I think 20-24 is about: “this is consistent with the way you learned Christ. This is how He taught you in salvation: to put off [repent of] the old dead, decaying self that corresponds to deceitful desires, (deceitful because they promise satisfaction but can’t deliver, so they leave you wanting more,) and to put on by faith the new man, who instead of decaying by lusts, is continually renewed by knowledge of God in righteousness.” This is a call to satisfaction, real pleasure, real life! Godliness is the denial of smaller pleasures for the enjoyment of an infinitely greater One!

It takes faith to believe that the unseen God satisfies more than tangible booze and overeating and sensuality. So, trusting that God is more satisfying than everything else is “living by faith,” the life that pleases God. Faith is responding to the Gospel of Christ by trusting that God is everything He says He is for you, and embracing Him as the supreme delight of your soul. To be sanctified, prefer Him over sin! To those who seek Him wholeheartedly, He promises to give the desire of their heart: Himself.

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." -Hebrews 11:6