I don’t know if teenagers still do this, but I remember back in high school (late 80’s) when guys would use “bondo” to fix up their cars. I didn’t know what it meant, but I would shake my head like I knew what they were talking about. I finally learned that it was how they were fixing the rust holes in the body of the car.
I have been on this kick lately of trying to quit being such an idiot when it comes to “doing stuff” – trying to become more of a man’s man if you will. So, yesterday I decided to paint the ramp with rhino liner and attempt to “bondo” the rust holes in my trailer (very poorly I might add).
As I studied this morning – it reminded me of “bondo”.
Yesterday we started digging into 7 verses, today is the second:
Ephesians 4:18a They are darkened in their understanding,
Who are “they”?
Gentiles: the ungodly, pagans, those who do not trust in Christ alone to save them
Ephesians 4:18a They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God
Alienated: separated, not belonging, excluded
What is “the life of God? What are some identifiers of a person living for Christ?
Forgiveness of sin
Eternal Life
Understanding His Word
Access to God in prayer
Peace with God
New creature
This is not an exhausted list, but, in looking at these six identifiers, consider the opposite. Non-believers are separated from this life – they will be condemned to eternal death because of their sin, they cannot understand God’s Word because His Word is spiritually discerned and they do not have the Holy Spirit to give them understanding; they do not have peace with God and do not have access to His throne in prayer; they are not a new creature that is bring changed into the likeness of Christ; instead, they are growing more and more callous to the things of God.
Ephesians 4:18a They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them,
Ignorance: lack of knowledge or information, state of being unaware
Gentiles are separated from the life of God, but they are unaware of the dangerous position they are in – they are like a blind man on the edge of a cliff that doesn’t have the “knowledge” or “information” of his position.
The NKJ uses the term “blindness of their heart” in this verse – the NIV uses the term “the hardening of their hearts”. Like the blind man on the edge of the cliff, if Gentiles are not given eyes to see, and are not given knowledge to understand, they will not change their mind, they will not repent of their godless state of mind.
Like the “bondo” that slowly hardens over a couple hours, like a dimmer switch that slowly gets turned off, when we resist God and His witnesses our hardness and blindness gets greater until there is complete hardness and darkness.
Ephesians 4:18 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.