Living Futile Lives

(Ephesians 4:17-19)

A life without living in the presence of the Lord is a futile life.

Every person in this world who chooses to reject the call of God is living in futility. They do not understand that this life is not the “main game,” it is just a taste of what is possible.

But achieving the fullness of life and all of the possibilities that are to come are accessible only to those who leave the futility of this worldly life and seek God. This is the thrust of these few verses today.

Living as the Gentiles Live

The scripture today gives us a practical insight into the way that the Gentiles were living in the time of Paul.

17 Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; 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; 19 they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. (Ephesians 4:17-19)

Today we do not think in terms of Jews and Gentiles as they did in the early church. We tend to think more in terms of those who are in Christ and those who are not.

The people who are not in the Lord or followers of God can broadly include atheists, agnostics, worshippers of eastern religions and mysticism, new age followers, pagans and basically anyone who is not seeking and following God. This also includes the “average man on the street” who has not made a decision one way or another.

Paul describes the issues he saw that these people were facing in his times, and the situation has not changed much in two thousand years.

The primary issue such people have is one of ignorance. They may think they are wise, but their wisdom is not in the things of God that lead to life but in the things of this world.

There are many quite intelligent people who fall into this class because they are ignorant of the things of God. They seek their own way and the ways of the world that are based upon a philosophy of “what’s in it for me.”

Consider for a moment some of the attitudes Paul mentions in these verses: ignorant, hard-hearted, callous, licentious, greedy and desiring to practise all kinds of uncleanness.

Is this an apt description of many of the people in the world? They seek money, power, self-pleasure and typically at the cost of anyone who gets in their way. They are selfish looking out only for themselves because the way of God’s love is foreign to them.

Because they have no concept of God or the things that are unseen and are eternal, they live for this life only. They “Want it all” because they believe you can’t take it with you. And they want it NOW because they don’t have time to wait or waste on the things of the Spirit that build towards a future that stretches into eternity.

These are the ways of this world and they are the ways of the Gentiles and non-believers.

And these ways are futile. Those who live this way are living futile lives.

Living Futile Lives

The futility of life in this age can be seen all around us.

What is there in this world that lasts forever? Do any of the works of man last forever? Has anything been built or invented that will last forever?

There is nothing permanent and solid forever in this world, and so this world is futile.

And yet this is the work and the will of God because He has promised a better future that lasts into eternity for those who follow Jesus and seek God. As we see in this verse:

19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21)

The whole of the creation, whether people, plants, animals and indeed the universe itself have been subjected to futility by God. Everything will and does decay and pass away. Even mountains are eroded over time and vanish as dust into the plains.

Nothing is permanent. The sun and stars will eventually burn out. The moon will collapse. The earth will burn up when the sun goes supernova in its dying stages.

And everything on the earth dies, rots, decays, rusts or oxidises and disappears into oblivion.

This world and indeed this universe are futile because God has designed them to die. He has said this about the whole universe:

10 And, “Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of thy hands; 11 they will perish, but thou remainest; they will all grow old like a garment, 12 like a mantle thou wilt roll them up, and they will be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years will never end.” (Hebrews 1:10-12)

So when men seek the things of this world believing that they have or will achieve something great, they are fooling only themselves and others like them. Nothing lasts. Nothing is permanent. Nothing is forever.

Except God and the love of God.

Building a Permanent Life

In the last scripture quoted above we see that the world, created by God, will wear out and will be rolled up to be discarded like an old garment. This is a testament to the futility of this world and all that is in it…it will disappear.

But the same scripture tells us that God will recreate and change this world. It will be rebuilt and renewed into a place where nothing wears out and nothing grows old or dies. The rot, decay and rusting of this world will cease to exist in the new heavens and the new earth that God will create for His people at the end of this age.

In this life and this world nothing is forever and so this life is futile.

What God has done for man in this life is to give him a taste of what life could be. And God has given man time to make a choice in this world and in this time.

Every person on this earth has to make one choice. I believe this is the purpose of this life in this age. We are here to make just one decision in this lifetime: Will we follow Christ, or not.

Life boils down to answering this one question. Will you seek God or will you follow the futility of this world?

I have already made the point that the only thing that is permanent is God, and specifically the love of God that leads to life. When we come to Jesus Christ we come with the eventual aim of learning to live in the love of God. Our aim is to be perfected in the love of God so that we are living in the image of Jesus Christ, who bears the stamp of the nature of the Father.

This is our aim because it is only in Christ Jesus by faith and the grace of God that the futility of life in this world can be overcome. In fact it is only by coming to Christ that we can begin to see just how futile this life is apart from Jesus Christ.

The Gentiles and the people of this world seek the things of this world: what they will eat, what they will wear, money, power and the “things” of this life they think will bring them happiness.

But because all of the things of this world are futile, peace and happiness can never be found in “stuff.” Peace can only be found by removing the futility of this life.

All people know that death is around the corner. No matter how old we may live to, death comes knocking on every person’s door eventually. And death is futile because it stops the practise of life and living. It ends whatever a person is doing or may have done in the future.

This is why we seek Christ because in Him there is life and life in abundance. Through Him are the promises of salvation that lead to eternal life with no futility because life does not have to end. We know that life in the flesh will end, but life in the Spirit does not have to end.

In Christ we can find the way to remove the futility of death and know that we will be able to continue on forever, without the fear of sickness, disease or death and without the pressures of sin, condemnation and all forms of evil in this world that lead so many people astray. In God’s eternal kingdom, those things will be gone so that we can live a life that is not futile but is permanent.

So let us no longer live as the Gentiles and people of the world live, which is futile. Let us rather seek the Lord and His ways and the life that comes from Jesus Christ and is freely given to all who come to Him.

You might also like:

Hard For A Rich Man To Enter The Kingdom Of Heaven
Labourers In The Vineyard
Marketing In The Church
Paying Taxes To Caesar
Woe To You Blind Guides
What Does It Profit To Gain The World And Forfeit Your Life
The Christian Value Proposition
Wealth Will Not Make You Secure
Render To Caesar The Things That Are Caesars
Blessed Are The Poor
What Does It Profit A Man To Gain The Whole World And Lose His Life
Why The Buck Doesnt Stop Here
Knowing Gods Will A Good Rule Of Thumb
Whoever Seeks To Gain His Life Will Lose It
A Camel Through The Eye Of A Needle
Render To God The Things That Are Gods
The Love Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil
Its Not About Position
Making The Gospel Free