HOW THE NATIONS WALK

6, 7. (a) At Ephesians 4:17, Christians are urged to cease to do what? (b) How were people of the nations “walking” in the first century?

⁶ At Ephesians 4:17 Paul urged his fellow Christians “no longer [to] go on walking just as the nations also walk in the unprofitableness of their minds.” How were people of the nations then “walking”? A first-century eyewitness confessed:

“Men seek pleasure from every source. No vice remains within its limits; . . . We are overwhelmed with forgetfulness of that which is honourable. Man . . . is now slaughtered for jest and sport . . . it is a satisfying spectacle to see a man made a corpse.”a

Without any genuine goal in life many persons overemphasized amusement, seeking pleasure from any source.

⁷ Ancient Ephesus was well suited to provide for one’s recreational desires. It contained a massive 25,000-seat amphitheater and a stadium or racecourse that could offer spectacles to delight any fancy. These structures were products of the existing world empire, Rome, of which one historian said: “The moral condition of the empire is, indeed, in some respects one of the most appalling pictures on record.”

INSENSIBLE HEARTS

8. (a) Ephesians 4:18 calls attention to persons with what kind of heart, and what did the Greek word originally mean? (b) Did such a condition develop suddenly?

⁸ Paul described the people as being “in darkness mentally, . . . because of the insensibility of their hearts.” (Eph. 4:18) Their hearts were without feeling. The Greek word for “insensibility” can be traced back to the description of a stone that was harder than marble. The word was used in medicine to refer to the chalk stone that can gradually form in some joints of the body till all action is paralyzed. Slowly the hearts of such bedarkened ones had become dulled, insensitive, as hard as a stone. This did not happen overnight, but was a gradual process. Their choice of entertainment directly contributed to the process. How so?

9, 10. What was the most popular form of entertainment during the first century, and what effect did this have on the spectators?

⁹ Do you know what form of entertainment was the most popular at the time? The gladiatorial games, where man was often pitted against man or animal in a fight to the death. Imagine the scene: The stadium is packed with thousands of spectators, some sitting under the shade of a gorgeous silk awning. Delicate music and the aroma of perfumed water flowing through the aisles provides a pleasant background that covers the sounds and smells of death. Suddenly the whole throng rises in a frenzy of shouting: “Kill him! Lash him! Brand him! Why does he meet the sword in so cowardly a way? Why does he strike so feebly?” All this organized butchery was done, as one who attended the games said, for “some fun, wit, and relaxation.”

¹⁰ Persons who could watch such violent encounters, whose eyes could gloat on such gore, found other forms of entertainment dull and insipid. As one historian summarized, it “destroyed the nerve of sympathy for suffering which distinguishes the human from the brute creation.”

GIVEN OVER TO LOOSE CONDUCT

12. (a) Ephesians 4:19 gives what additional description of how people of the nations were walking? (b) What does “loose conduct” mean, and did the entertainment of that time reflect it?

¹² The apostle Paul adds that people of the nations not only had ‘dulled hearts,’ but also “gave themselves over to loose conduct to work uncleanness of every sort with greediness.” (Eph. 4:19) He also spoke of “fornication” and of things too “shameful even to relate.” (Eph. 5:3, 12) In the first century, again it was entertainment, this time the stage or theater, that contributed greatly to these practices. What could be viewed?

“The adventures of deceived husbands, adulteries and amorous intrigues formed the staple of the plots. Virtue was made a mock of, . . . everything sacred and worthy of veneration was dragged in the mire. In obscenity, . . . in impure speeches and exhibitions which outraged the sense of shame, these spectacles exceeded all besides. Ballet dancers threw away their dresses and danced half naked, and even wholly naked, on the stage. Art was left out of account, every thing was designed for mere sensual gratification.”​—The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, by Gerhard Uhlhorn, p. 120.

How shocking! It is the very epitome of “loose conduct,” for the original Greek word conveys a readiness for any pleasure. It is a shameless disregard for decency where one ceases to care what people say or think.