“VANITY OF THE MIND”
One of the blessings that would come from the arrival of the unity of the faith was that God’s people would be joined together (Ephesians 4:13-16). The unity of the faith would come once revelations (messages) would cease coming from heaven (I Corinthians 13:8). There is never a time when knowledge has not been coming to mankind through the physical world. Paul, when speaking about knowledge vanishing away, refers, then, not to knowledge disappearing but rather that knowledge from God would cease or be reduced down to inactivity. Once the messages ceased, then the church would be in possession of complete knowledge, that is a unity of the faith.
The Christian life is in conflict with the culture around it. Paul therefore warned the Christians in Ephesus to not walk like the other Gentiles walked. The Christian life is said to be a “…walk in the light, as the Lord is in the light” (I John 1:7). Such a walk is in opposition to the world of darkness around it. Coming to Christ through obedience is said to be a deliverance from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13). Several times within the book of Proverbs the warning is that we are not to be taken in by the lives of those who are ungodly. Paul wanted these brethren to not be taken in by the “wisdom” of the Gentile world.
Paul describes this wisdom of the world as the Gentiles walking in the vanity of their mind. The Gentile world without written revelation still knew God but refused to glorify Him as God (Romans 1:21). This failure to acknowledge God caused them to become vain in their imaginations. This vanity in their imaginations led their foolish hearts to be darkened. Once more it is the conflict between light and dark, righteousness and evil. The Gentiles would spend time and energy to promote to the world that they were “wise”. Such promotion ends with them becoming fools (Romans 1:21,22).
God, through Paul, returns to this theme in the book of Ephesians. This vanity of mind led them to a point where their understanding was darkened (Ephesians 4:18). Jesus, in Matthew 13, explains the parable of the sower. In particular, the first kind of heart was the one by the “wayside”. Jesus said this kind of person continues to hear the word of the kingdom but does not UNDERSTAND it (Matthew 13:19). This failure to understand results in the devil being able to catch away the seed out of the heart before it can germinate and grow. Those Gentiles whose hearts were darkened came to such a conclusion because they refused to understand the will of God.
They refused to understand the will of God and thereby they were alienated from the life of God. Why do we have such a hard time understanding that particular principle? If we are to have the life of God within us spiritually, then it must be on the basis of our understanding of the will of God. The reason we engage in a deep study of God’s Word is so that we can handle it in a correct way (II Timothy 2:15). One cannot enjoy spiritual life apart from what God has revealed. The foolish notion that one can have a walk with God without having to search the Scriptures, is just that, foolishness. If we desire to have understanding of God’s will then we must avail ourselves of where that wisdom is found. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:17).
The Gentiles because of this blindness of their hearts had no conscience to be touched (Ephesians 4:18,19). The writer of Hebrews showed us why that animal sacrifices had to be removed. Those sacrifices could not make the worshippers perfect or complete (Hebrews 10:1). As long as the animals were killed the worshippers would always have a “conscience” of sins. Once the Gentiles hearts were darkened, there was no wrong for them. There were no rules for them to abide by. They gave themselves over to lasciviousness. It was a world without restraint. Contrast that with what is enjoined upon the Christian. We walk by the same “rule” and our minds are on the same thing (Philippians 3:16).
We are today plagued by those in the church and in the world, who walk after the vanity of their own mind. All the libraries and all the books, we still need to come back to the Book. Give up the vanity of the mind, study the Scriptures and let the mind of Christ be in us (Philippians 2:5).