Don’t miss the insistence
Remember verse 17? Paul said, “Don’t live like an Egyptian.” Well, he did not say it exactly like The Bangles, and the lyrics to that song don’t immediately make a lot of sense. The thing to note though is that life like a Gentile does not make a lot of sense either. That is why Paul insists and calls God as his witness that they should not live that way. It is futile. It is not helpful. It is darkened. Check out this passage in Proverbs.
13 The woman Folly is loud;
she is undisciplined and without knowledge.
14 She sits at the door of her house,
on a seat at the highest point of the city,
15 calling out to those who pass by,
who go straight on their way.
16 "Let all who are simple come in here!"
she says to those who lack judgment.
17 "Stolen water is sweet;
food eaten in secret is delicious!"
18 But little do they know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of the grave.
(Proverbs 9:13-18--NIV 1984)
Many other versions use the word hell for the word grave. While the saved do not go to hell, their deeds are judged by God. Why run on the treadmill of hell? What unpleasantness will follow you to heaven when your life is judged by the fires of God’s testin’.
Callous life
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:19–ESV)
What is a callus? It is hard, protective skin that develops in places of overuse. A lot of work with a shovel will give you thickened skin. Long play on a stringed instrument will do the same. Those calluses decrease the sensitivity so doing those activities hurts less and the skin holds up better.
When a person repeatedly rubs their conscience in the wrong way it, too, will lose its sensitivity and develop a hard shell. A callous is said to develop on their heart. If one plays the prostitute too much or plies a sea of lies the conscience loses its worries. Its voice loses its insistence muffled below the thick, sound absorbing shell. It may whine and whimper but the voice becomes stiller, more silent. That way it will not hurt so much and the person can keep at it.
I find it interesting that when spiritual sensitivity is lost the sensual is chased. It is as though one’s pleasure centers will be stimulated one way or another. One way is by doing it right following God’s light. If this is abandoned then one heads off to pleasureville. Hungry for stimulation such a person greedily hunts for experience. These hungers tend toward impurity.
In Jesus’ time, he found himself in a lot of squabbles with the Pharisees. In one of his interchanges, he said that it is the things which come up from the heart that make one unclean. Things that he put on that list were evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.
When a sensitive conscience dabbles in those deeds they feel the tingle of electricity. Their conscience shocks them. Do it again and again, however, and the zip received diminishes. It is like putting on electrician’s thick rubber gloves. You can grab the bad and still feel fine, or at least tolerate it.
You may decide that you want to take the wheel off your car by turning the nut to the right. If you are Mr. Incredible you may actually be able to take the wheel off by turning the nuts to the right. Problem is then the bolt will be broken or more likely the threads stripped. The spare tire is not going to stay on that car. It will not spare you or speed you back down life’s journey.
When you decide to keep on sinning you only get further and further into the spiritual ditch. You give up and get a life full of muddy wallowing.
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