Ephesians 4:17-19

Ephesians 4:17-19 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Acts 25:22-29 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers. With them they sent the following letter: The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings. We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul — men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

In the above passage, Paul encourages the Christian Gentiles to abandon the hedonistic practices of their culture. Self-indulgence and sexual impurity had permeated the Gentile world to the point of hardening their hearts against God. Paul brought a different perspective of life to these Christian Gentiles based on God's plan for his creation. Of course this gospel was difficult for the Gentiles to appreciate, for they had always viewed life in a carnal way. Their ancestors, people they respected, all lived life in carnality and unrighteousness. To view life any differently represented a challenge for early Christian Gentiles. They literally had to abandon important parts of their culture to fulfill Christ's demands on their lives. The Bible refers to differing lifestyles and choices when Jesus describes the separation of the goats and the sheep. Goats live a certain way and sheep live another way. They have different likes and dislikes, different behaviors, but God has asked everyone regardless of ancestry to become a sheep. As the Gentiles faced the dilemma of how to live and act, Paul gave them godly teaching to convince them of the way of truth in following Christ wholeheartedly.

Early church fathers advised teachers and missionaries in the Gentile world to require the Gentile Christian to to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. Faced with their previous sinful state, if the Gentiles were able to change their lifestyle to accommodate these recommendations, they did well. Obviously, the requirements on the Gentiles may not seem stringent to us, but in view of their past lives, these were definitely demanding changes for them. The Jewish Christians with their long history of knowing God through the law of Moses did not want to put heavy burdens on the Gentile Christians, for they knew they were asking these newly born believers to come out of a long history of darkness. Although immorality covers many interactions, it is interesting to note they initially asked the Gentiles to change only four behaviors in their daily lives.

Sometimes we too quickly ask new Christians to transition from a life of darkness to a total faith walk in the light. We are discouraged with them because they do not do all the things a "good Christian" should. We must remember it is hard to transition from a goat to a sheep. We should be patient because God is patient, and through the power of the Holy Spirit He will perfect his children as they yield to him. Some of us have a long tradition of Christianity in our backgrounds. When we were saved or turned our lives to God, we knew exactly how we should act, for we had been immersed in Christianity from birth. Others, who come from a world where no one in their background is a Christian, need a lot of help to understand what it means to live totally committed to Christ. Sometimes, these fledging Christians retain aspects of their former lifestyles that are not Christlike. We should help them come out of darkness by loving them and diligently instructing them in the Word. We should pray with them and challenge them to hold onto Christ, to be his servants and not servants of the world. We must encourage them to no longer live as the Gentiles do. Our best instructional tool is to shine for the Lord in our own lives, showing the transforming power of the cross at work in us. May you shine for God today!