Why Being a "Feeling" Geek Is Important (In Search Of Truth, Ephesians 4: 17-19)

(Ephesians 4:17-19, ESV)
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 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. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.


v. 17, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

Although this letter was written to a community consisting of both Jews and Gentiles, Paul doesn't think of them in those ethnic categories, but as a new kind of man, a single body created by joining the two people groups in Christ. (2:11-22, 4:1-16) So it makes sense, while speaking partially to Gentiles, that he would tell them not to live like Gentiles do. It's a reminder to them, and to us, that despite the numerous backgrounds represented in the mix, all believers in Christ are a single body unified by the redemption and adoption made possible by Jesus.

Another reminder from this verse is that because Paul warns believers NOT to live like unbelievers, it means believers CAN live like unbelievers. These descriptions of human rebellion and brokenness are all things that Christians can and do fall into.

The Greek word for "futility" as it is used here means "perverseness, depravity, and good-for-nothing". This "futility of the mind" lacks purpose and is focused on wasteful, short-term pleasure that lies outside of God's will.


v. 18, 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.

Unbelievers, and stagnant or wandering Christians, are "darkened in their understanding", meaning in the Greek that they are blinded to what is true. This blindness separates them from the "life of God", which in the Greek refers to the vital, full, active and vigorous life God intends and enables.
The immediate cause of this state is ignorance. But the deeper cause is a "hardness of heart" that results in ignorance. This expression describes a stubborn mind that refuses to change its course. It was used of the Pharisees, when they refused to budge in their view despite its demonstrably obvious flaws. (See Mark 3:1-6)


v. 19, They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Paul seemingly continues the "hardening" metaphor by describing those in this state as "callous", but in the Greek this actually has to do with a lack of feeling, in the same way that our nerve endings don't reach up to our callouses and so they're protected from pain. In fact this expression specifically refers to an inability to feel grief or pain. The person who is "callous" in this sense feels no grief or pain associated with their sin. They've turned off that sensor to go about whatever they want to do.

The Greek word for "sensuality" here is not always used to refer to sexual sin, but leans a bit in that direction. Two of my commonly used commentaries (IVP Bible Background Commentary, Intervarsity Press & The Expositor's Bible Commenary, Zondervan Publishing) and Thayer's Greek Lexicon treat it with a sexual connotation in this verse, although their reasoning isn't clear to me. Maybe it's because of its pairing with the Greek word for "impurity", which has a physical, often sexual connotation as well. It was also a common Greek practice, at the time this letter was written, for older men to molest young boys as a way of ushering them into manhood. This practice, along with the sexual practices of Greek temples, could be the reason for assuming the specifically sexual nature of this "Gentile sin".

In summary, this verse reveals that when we deaden ourselves to the sting of sin that we are meant to feel, we have nothing to prevent us from just making our lives primarily about pursuing as much pleasure as we can.


SO WHAT'S IN ALL THIS FOR GEEKS?

I suppose we're stuck with the name "Christian Geek Central" around here now, but I've never been super sold on it. Honestly, it was largely chosen for its usefulness in search engines and its succinct description of what this animal is. But despite its usefulness as a shorthand identifier, I don't want to encourage us to think of ourselves as "Christian Geeks", where "Christian" is an adjective that modifies the core noun, the core identity, of "Geek". "Geek Christian" doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, but it's a bit closer to the mark.

Our identity is not "Geek". We are "Christians", or as the word literally means, "Little Christs", walking and talking imitations of Jesus in miniature, who actually have his righteous record in place if our own. And because of this we shouldn't just blend in with other Geeks, living the way they live and seeing life the way they do.

As geek culture becomes more solitary and isolated, we should be growing in our investment in people. As geeks become outraged at the treatment of their favorite fictional properties, we should sigh, shrug and remember the things that really matter. As geeks become more obsessed with possessions and a sense of "geek cred", we should see our possessions in terms of how they serve Jesus and seek out "relational cred" with the people in our lives.

As someone who really enjoys listening to geek-media that celebrates or criticizes entertainment, I can tell you that the messages promoting materialism, entitlement and the dismissal of truth are ever-present, even if they are subtle or unintended. And in high enough doses with my brain on auto-pilot, I can get caught up in materialism and entitlement, too. Sometimes there is a fine line between enjoyment of hobbies and pursuit of them for fulfillment.

It doesn't take much time off the rails before we can unintentionally become unaware and insensitive to the hurt our actions, neglect and wrong priorities cause others. Call it social awkwardness or callousness, whatever the cause, we can find ourselves oblivious and numb to the effects of our sin on us and on others.

And since this passage arguably has an emphasis on sexual sin, I don't want to neglect it. An unfortunate quality in many of us geeks is a lack of impulse control when it comes to pleasure. That can easily carry over into our greatest potential source of physical pleasure, our sexuality. And this can lead us to unbiblically enjoy sex outside of the marriage relationship (1 Corinthians 7:8-9), or to engage in a thought life that makes other people objects for our pleasure (Matthew 5:27-28). We can reach the point in either sin where we don't feel like anything is wrong with what we're doing. We can "have a peace" about it, but it's a peace that is inconsistent with the truth when examined and exposed in the light. It's a peace based on the unfeeling hardness of heart being warned about here.

When we reach these kinds of hardened, callous states, we can find ourselves wondering where God is, and why we're not experiencing the kind of vitality, transformation and freedom we're supposed to have in Christ. These verses tell us that becoming deadened to our sin is the reason the "life of God" is absent from our experience.

Recognizing our identity, getting real enough with ourselves to admit our mess, and seeing God's perfection enough to feel the sting of our sin and turn away from it. That's how we avoid being absorbed into the world, how we experience the relief of God's grace, and how we keep ourselves available for the free and empowered life God wants to give us.




Resources typically used to prepare this study include:
"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House)
"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press)
"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press)
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Blueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality)