Ephesians 4:17 – vanity of mind

This, then, I am saying and attesting in the Lord: By no means are you still to be walking according as those of the nations also are walking, in the vanity of their mind…

The previous verse was about the mutual relationships in “the body of Christ”, the follow-up is about the relationship of the believers with the nations. Such as in verse 2:2 Paul reminds his readers that in the past they also walked “in accord with the eon of this world”. But since they got to know Christ, everything changed (:20).

When Paul writes of the walk of the nations, in the first place he doesn’t list all kind of misbehaviours. Those come later, but that’s not the most characteristic. What’s wrong of the walk of the nations, is not the outside, it’s the inside. Human behaviour is managed by thinking. And because the nations don’t know GOD, their thinking is in vain. They may speak about ‘meaning’, in order to conceal that the existence (in their point of view) is pointless. Sad. But how great is it therefore to walk in the knowledge that there is a GOD, who doesn’t allow anything to happen vainly.

Delen: