Everett Henes: Set apart to serve

There are many ways that we divide people up in this world, whether by age, nationality, ethnicity, preferences, or hobbies. Adopting these kinds of identities can create a false unity and it can also create a false disunity. One of the biggest issues with these identities is that they often highlight things that we had no say in, or that are least interesting about us.

For the Apostle Paul, you lose your identity when you came to Christ whether you were a Gentile or a Jew, Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” He himself realized this, Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” There is a radical transformation that takes place in the life of a person who is saved by Christ.

Paul urges believers to no longer walk as the Gentiles do. We read, in Ephesians 4:17-19, “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. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

Paul begins by focusing on how we should no longer walk. His words might strike you as odd. “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.” You might be wondering what he is talking about here. I mean, they are Gentiles. The whole point Paul has been stressing is that Gentiles have been brought into the covenant.

Paul is addressing their old natures as "Gentile." Paul talks about two aspects of a person: the inner and the outer. He begins with their inner walk. Paul uses very strong language to talk about those who are apart from Christ, "darkened understanding," "alienated," "ignorance," and "hardness of heart." For Paul, unbelievers are not simply those who need to have all their doubts answered and then they would believe. The only way that anyone comes to believe what God’s word says is by the power of the Holy Spirit — it is that power that Paul says God worked in us to raise us from the dead. He details this darkened understanding in Romans 1:18-32 where he states that all men know that God exists, but they suppress that truth in unrighteousness.

The inner walk of those who are apart from Christ give rise to their outer walk. For their outer walk Paul says that they have become "callous." This speaks to the deadness of their feelings for things that are wrong. It implies that this callousness can grow in a person the longer they walk apart from Christ. The more one walks according to the ways of the unbelieving world, if they do not know Christ, the more callous they become to sin.

Paul points out some specific areas where these unbelievers had become callous: sensuality, greed and impurity. If we begin with this biblical understanding of those who are apart from Christ it will be helpful to us. First, it will help us to never be surprised at how much an unbeliever can sin. But it should also direct us in how we can minister to them. We need to pray that God would draw them to himself, that he would convert them because apart from his saving work, we will never “convince” anyone.

Next, Paul turns from the question of "how" we should no longer walk to "why" we should no longer walk this way. Why is it that believers are not allowed to become callous to sin, given over to sensuality, greed, and impurity? Because we have learned Christ. We will turn to this, next week, but here we pause to recognize one of the most significant ways Christians show separateness from the world. It is through our worshiping together as God’s people. We have been set apart from the world, to serve the Lord. Our gathering together is one of the primary ways in which we are different from the world. We are set apart to worship the Lord.

— Pastor Everett Henes, the pastor of the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, can be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Everett Henes: Set apart to serve