What Will Never Satisfy

"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." - Ephesians 4:17–18 (NKJV)

Years ago, I was eating with my seven-year-old. I looked over and said, "Son, stop smacking while you eat." He looked right back at me and said, "Daddy, don't say 'stop smacking.' Say 'chew with your mouth closed.'" He didn’t want to be told what not to do. He wanted me to be more positive. (He also didn’t see the irony in the fact that he just told me what not to do). But I thought, “This is the world in miniature.” We don't want to hear the negative. We don't want to be told what to stop doing. But Paul begins this section about the new life in Christ with a negative command. He will follow it with positive commands too, but he starts with the stop.

In Ephesians 4:17, Paul writes, "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind." He's talking about people who don't know God, who have never surrendered their lives to Jesus. Don't walk the way they walk.

And how do they walk? In the futility of their mind. That doesn't mean they're not smart. They might be brilliant academically, brilliant in their field. And yet there's a futility to the mind of anyone who has not given their life to Jesus. That word “futility” means empty, useless. You can have achievement after achievement after achievement, and if it is not leading you toward a personal relationship with Jesus, it is leading to a dead end.

Paul continues in verse 18: "having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart."  A futile mind leads to a darkened understanding, which leads to a lifestyle of sin and moral compromise. It's just downward steps, one after another. They don't even think straight anymore.

The Message paraphrase puts it this way: "So I insist, and God backs me up on this, that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch, not only with God, but with reality itself." Have you spent time with a coworker, a friend, a family member where it feels like they've lost their grip on reality? They didn't start there. At first, they were just rejecting God. But they kept going down that path and eventually lost their sense of what's real, what's true, what's right.

In July of 1945, the USS Indianapolis was heading home from the Pacific after delivering a cargo of enriched uranium that contributed to the end of World War II. A Japanese attack sank the cruiser. Of the roughly 1,200 men on board, about 300 lost their lives almost immediately. The remaining 900 were stranded in open ocean with no fresh water, a blazing sun overhead, and sharks circling below. Four nights and five days later, only about 316 survived.

One of those survivors was the Chief Medical Officer, Captain Lewis Haynes. He said,

"When the hot sun came out and we were in this crystal clear water, you were so thirsty you couldn't believe it wasn't good enough to drink. I had a hard time convincing the men they should not drink it. The really young ones, you take away their hope, their water, their food, they would drink the salt water and they would go fast. I can remember striking men who were drinking the salt water just trying to stop them. They would get dehydrated and then become maniacal. They would lose their minds." [1]

He also described mass hallucinations. One man would see something, and then everyone else would see the same thing. He said even he had to fight hallucinations off and on, but something always brought him back. The salt water was right there. It looked drinkable. He had to keep convincing the men around him: don't drink that. You'd think it would satisfy you, and instead you'd just want more, which would lead to more dehydration, more hallucinations, and one step closer to death.

Meanwhile Jesus offers Himself as living water. John 7:37-38 reads, "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" The Bible also says that as Christians, we have Jesus inside us by the Holy Spirit. We have the living water inside of us. While He offers us the truth and the right way to live, the devil is handing out salt water. It looks like just what you need. It looks like it might satisfy. But it never does.

I remember going on a mission trip with a friend, and we were clearly told: "Don't drink the water. Your American stomachs aren't used to it." Under the blazing July sun, the man in charge of handing out water kept pouring cup after cup for everyone. He got so thirsty that, in the end, he started drinking the water himself. You can guess what happened next. He spent the rest of the week paying the price.

That is what the devil offers. "Just live for this." "Pursue this." And you know what it does? It pollutes your mind and leads to the same hallucinations. Why do people agree with so much of what this world system says? Because they've been drinking its water. It doesn't satisfy them, and it doesn't satisfy their neighbor either, all while Jesus is standing there offering living water.

Reflection Question: What "salt water" has the world been handing you lately, and in what specific area of your life do you need to stop drinking it and turn to Jesus instead?

Dear Heavenly Father, Forgive me for drinking what the world hands out and then wondering why I feel empty. Right now, I choose to stop. I choose to turn to You. You are the living water, and I need You more than anything this world can offer. Fill me, Lord. Renew my mind. Clear out every hallucination the enemy has fed me. Help me see what is real, what is true, and what is right. In Jesus' Name, amen.

Adapted from: The Path to True Life Change (Eph. 4:17-24)

[1] Naval Historical Center, “Recollections of the Sinking of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) by Capt. Lewis L. Haynes,” http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq30-5.htm. As quoted by Bryan Chappell in Ephesians: Reformed Expository Commentary (P&R Publishing, 2009), 215-216.