11-30-23-ENG.

"This I say ... and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. "

Ephesians 4:17 
WALK DIFFERENTLY

Read It: Ephesians 4:17-32
If you want to know how important it is that we walk like the Christians .we are, look no further than today's verse. The Apostle Paul says, "When you hear from me on this one, you are hearing from God." Now every word in the Bible is inspired by God, so when an author underscores that fact, it's like saying, "Sit up and pay attention." What Paul wants us to do is not to walk the way we used to walk, not to follow the crowd, not to move the way the masses are moving. Now I'm not talking about being different just for the sake of being different. You aren't to go out there looking for ways to clash with your secular friends or co-workers. The believer's difference is to be a biblical one. That is, we step out from the crowd and walk in another direction because that's what God has called His Church to do. One reason you don't want to follow the world's crowd is because of where they're headed-toward "futility," straight into a brick wall. As a result, they are darkened, ignorant, and hardened. Paul says that you, Christian, don't want that. And I say, `Amen, brother." See, when you got saved and became a member of the Church, which is the body of Christ, you entered a different sphere; you acquired a different ferent way of thinking (vv. 20-21).

The truth of Jesus Christ should now be the environment of your learning. To put it another way, everything you do should be subject to divine evaluation. That's why the church is charged with teaching the Scriptures as God's standard. And that standard dard doesn't get any more down-to-earth and practical than the remaining ing verses of Ephesians 4. Let me summarize what it means to walk differently from the world. It means, among other things, to quit lying and stealing if those are a problem lem for you. It means get a job and be honest in it; get control of your tongue and your emotions; quit nursing bitterness and start forgiving. Are any of these unclear to you? Think About It Christians are supposed to be different. Non-Christians may try to make you feel like the oddball, but they're the odd ones, not you.