So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

Here begins another section linked to the previous one. In the first part of the book, Paul talked about who we are in Christ, then who he is in Christ, before starting chapter four with how we should live in Christ, starting with spiritual gifts; now he wants to talk about spiritual life.

He links the lifestyle with the mind life. He did not say we should look to ancestral curses; he did not say it is a general problem; he did not say it is about where you were born; he said it is about thought patterns.

And this is not the first time we have had the thought as the culprit, as mentioned in the Bible.

It began in Genesis. Before God judged the earth with the flood, His complaint was that every inclination of the thoughts of people’s minds was only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5).

It is amazing how God is presented as one who particularly notes the thoughts. When Jesus mentioned what defiles the man, He first mentioned evil ideas (Matthew 15:19).

When you are coming up with the list of what defiles the man, you might not start with the thought, but God does.

Any idea of spiritual life that disregards the thought life is, in my opinion, merely playing games.

And even after the flood, when God committed to not destroying humankind with a flood again, He said that decision was despite the fact that the inclination of human minds is evil from childhood (Genesis 8:21).

And while humans look at appearance, God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Therefore, if there is anywhere we want the light of God's truth to shine, it is in our thoughts.

We should want that kind of probing. It is for our own good. It is necessary. The consequences otherwise are not good.

And we just don't want to be shown only how bad our thoughts are; we want to be able to do something about them.

We want to be renewed in the spirit of our minds as Paul wrote; we want to think about what is true, etc.

We have to repent of wrong thoughts as God brings them to our attention, and not play mind games with ourselves by saying they are not that bad. And to think our thoughts are always right is the gate of hell, in my opinion.

My thinking is very important; your thinking is very important. And the answer is not not thinking at all, but to reject the evil and choose the good. Nobody is going to reject your evil thought for you. You might be chained, but your thoughts cannot be chained by others because nothing is more closely associated with you than your thoughts.

If there is a job that all of us must do, it is to be our own heart sentries.

Ephesians 4:17-18 talks about thinking without the light of God, the life of God and the knowledge of God and about being hardened.

Paul is saying it is a bad place. And in this place he used Gentiles in a negative sense, in a way telling the Ephesus Christians, you are Gentiles, but not Gentiles.

There is a mind pattern associated with being Gentiles, and that mind can be changed in Christ.

He is saying salvation did not just affect your spirit; it should affect your mind, it should affect your reasoning process, your perspective, your sense of valuation, what you regard as important.

So why is Paul telling them and insisting that they no longer live as the Gentiles do? He wants them to leave cultural considerations out of how they behave; he wants them to lean into their Christian identity in its details and in how it is relevant to pleasing God.

He wants them to have the right eyes to see what is going on around them, as God sees it, so that they will be strengthened to choose the right way. The word, as Paul writes, is bread to strengthen us (Matthew 4:4). We cannot do without it.

And Paul is using strong language here: he is insisting in the Lord, saying, take this as Christ himself speaking to you; take it like the churches in Revelation should take the seven letters from Jesus (Revelation 2-3).

This is serious stuff. Scream it loud: how you live your life is important to God! And it is in the little things and the big things; it is when someone is there observing you and when they are not observing you; it is you risking being called ignorant and naive and that you are a fool for doing the will of God, following His ways.

It is not saying, but I am saved and saved forever, and that becomes a gateway to self-deception into sin.

We don’t want to be futile in our thinking and go into self-justification for evil, the joining in with others to do evil, ruled by the need to please others, and be approved by them even when they are in the wrong, which is reflective of a darkened mind, as Paul will say in the next verse.

The point is that thoughts are powerful actions, and the act of rejecting evil strengthens you to do more. Likewise, a small act of evil strengthened you to do even more. You are building something either way, in my opinion.

Paul is saying you are different now; now you live differently.