Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Ephesians 2:2
There are not nearly as many atheists out there as you might think. That may be surprising, considering how quickly an atheist (or one who thinks they are) responds with their hatred when you post something about God or the Lord Jesus on a public forum on the internet. You have seen them, those snide remarks about your supposed ignorance because you believe in ‘some invisible man in the sky you have never seen or heard’ or other such nonsense. But these people are just the loudmouths who feel it is their duty to try to convince others (and themselves) about their folly. Most people aren’t like that. Most people simply don’t care. More than at any time in our history, the population is dominated by apathy. Most people today have been indoctrinated since childhood in the lie of evolution. They have never attended Sunday school, never learned Bible verses or heard Bible stories. They have a complete lack of knowledge of God and His Book, and they consider such knowledge irrelevant. Apathy is the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And our text tells us we used to walk with them.
Our text uses the critical words ‘in time past’. We are no longer children of disobedience; we are children of light. We no longer walk according to the course of this world; we walk by faith. We no longer run with the world to the same excess of riot; we run with patience the race that is set before us in our new life in Christ. We no longer live in selfishness and lies; we live in love and truthfulness. There is so much different about us who are saved, compared to those in the lost world around us that it seems that we might well be from a different planet. What makes the difference? It is the Spirit Who is controlling us. Our text makes it plain that the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience is the prince of the power of the air – the devil. He is the evil spirit of hate that inspires the atheists to speak so vehemently against the Lord and His people. He is the father of lies that convinces so many that the truth is not important or is merely what they want the truth to be. He is the spirit of disobedience that deludes so many into acts and habits that lead to the destruction of both body and soul. But he no longer works in us.
The Spirit Who works with us actually lives in us: ‘What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost Which is in you, Which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?’ – 1 Corinthians 6:19. Unlike the father of lies, the Spirit deals only in the truth, as the Lord Jesus declared: ‘When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth’ – John 16:13. The Spirit has also granted to each and every one of us the spiritual gifts that enable us to acceptably serve our Lord: ‘The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal… But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will’ – 1 Corinthians 12:7,11.
Thank God that the walk of our godless past is gone, and the Spirit Who works in us leads us into obedience. –Jim MacIntosh