Ephesians 4:18 Commentary and Bible Study

There is no discernment in us when we are unsaved. There are no values, there are no standards. We cannot see things that are so obvious. Why, it is so obvious that this is a created world, that it is full of order, that it is designed. It is so incredibly complex and so full of interacting systems which could not exist by chance. But the understanding is darkened; it cannot see what is obvious. Even as unconverted people, we have an instinct for God and his being and for eternal life. People give the game away sometimes. Somebody dies and it is, ‘Oh, he or she is up there looking down upon us.’ This instinct is deep in the human constitution, but we are so blind when unconverted, that it does not cause us to seek the Lord.‘Having the understanding darkened,’ Darkened of course concerning spiritual things. ‘Being alienated’ – what a word. The Greek is a compound word, it means separated away from. ‘Alienated’, a perfect translation. Being separated away ‘from the life of God’. What does that mean, the life of God? Well, there are three levels of life. You can have animal life. Or you can be much, much better off and have conscious human life which is vastly superior. Or you can be infinitely better off still and have spiritual life. Animal life, that is for the animals. Conscious human life, that is for the human race. Spiritual life, that is what is meant by the life of God, or the life which comes from God: spiritual life, spiritual understanding.The unconverted person does not have spiritual life, being separated away from the life of God. How? ‘Through the ignorance that is in them.’ Ignorance of man and what he is – made by God, his constitution, the fact that he has a soul; ignorance of God, the infinite, everlasting spiritual being, all powerful, all knowing and holy; ignorance of the great gulf between God and man because of the fall of man into sin; ignorance of the consequences of being separated, alienated from God in that there will be no heaven, no bliss, no blessing from God; ignorance of the way of salvation, how that may be rectified, what God has done. To be ignorant of all those things is to be separated away from any spiritual life.‘Through the ignorance that is in them, because of…’ Now up to this point we may be feeling that man cannot help all this. His understanding is darkened, he is separated away from God because of his ignorance. Well you may think ignorance is not your fault. You cannot help being ignorant. He has not been taught. Ah, but the apostle goes on. Why is he ignorant? ‘Because of the blindness of their heart.’ It is a perfect analysis.The Greek word translated here ‘blindness’ actually means stone-like. Some translations go for hardness instead – because of the hardness of their heart. In a way, I must admit that is better because we can readily see that hardness of heart is something for which we hold people accountable. We say they are responsible for hardness. And that is the reality, that responsibility is brought in here. Our translators in the King James Version chose blindness of heart because the same word is often used for blindness, when the eyes are calloused over and stone-like and therefore blind. But probably it is better to translate it – the hardness of their heart.