The Futility of Their Minds

“Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; 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; they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness.” Verses 17-19.

The ungodly person’s greatest torment is the futility of his mind. He feels alone and forsaken. Only a new sin can liven things up for a moment, but this leaves him with an even greater sense of condemnation and emptiness. Even the ungodly person’s home testifies of emptiness, for he has “chased away” God’s blessing from himself and from his home.

God’s Spirit works untiringly to convict us at every opportunity. But if we always shut our hearts to this blessed voice, we become more and more insensitive and more and more ignorant of God’s way with man. In the end, we will become callous about what we ought to be ashamed of. Such a mind is desolate and empty, and the condemnation is oppressive. A soul can harden his heart to God’s voice to such an extent that he no longer feels condemned for committing the usual sins. Only when he goes further out in sin will his conscience sound a warning. That state is called “being dead in trespasses and sins.” Such a soul is in the kingdom called “death.” This kingdom of death will one day be cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14.) What a horrible state!

We are all going to be repaid according to our deeds. That’s why the Apostle says that we are no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds.