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The Upper Room took me to Ephesians 4:17-18 where I found the heading The New Life. I smiled as I remembered Rule 39.

As usual, I didn’t stop reading at v18. The introduction says that Paul wrote this letter while in prison, probably in Rome, about A.D. 60. His goal was to display the scope of God’s eternal plan for all humanity.

In 4:17-32 , Paul urges believers to abandon former ways of living that have nothing to with Christ. He reminds them of their previous life apart from God and exhorts them to discard the old self, since they have been made new in Christ.

✍️ Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. -Ephesians 4:17

As I pondered verse 17, I considered Gentiles. Gentiles are described as “a pagan, a worshipper of false gods; any person not a Jew or a Christian; a heathen”. Even though I was once a Gentile, I’ve worked hard, and continue to work hard, at not walking in the ways of my former life. I look at myself as a Christian now, having left my Gentile self in the past.

Picking apart v17, my next stop was at “futility”, described as pointless or useless. I’ve learned the hard way, and have the scars to prove it, that sometimes when I try to explain my beliefs my efforts are futile and I’m labeled a “hater”. Unfortunately, my efforts to negate that label are often futile as well.

I’ve come to another fork in the road where I’ve had to pause, look through my luggage, and discard some things that were too heavy to carry any farther.

In closing, I picked up nuggets from my Logos app and the ESV version of the Bible in this ponder. I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, and if you don’t, I still love you.