This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Ephesians 4:17
The veteran general was retiring, and the battalion was planning a parade and ceremony to mark the occasion. So a drill sergeant spent many hours working with the soldiers who would be taking part in the parade. He wanted them to look as sharp as possible when they marched past the reviewing stand to take the general’s final salute. Suddenly, the sergeant ordered the soldiers to halt, and he ran to the end of the column of men. He had noticed something strange: one of the new recruits was not marching like the others. This recruit had adopted a goose-step instead of the appropriate marching stride. The sergeant demanded to know what the recruit meant by his behaviour. The recruit replied that he believed the goose-step to be a more impressive and imposing type of march, and he hoped that the rest of the battalion would adopt it. With a glare, the sergeant reminded the recruit that the goose-step has no place on a Canadian parade square, and ordered him to peel potatoes for the rest of the month. Just as Canadian soldiers do not goose-step, so there are things that should never mark the walk of a Christian. One of those is in the vanity of our minds.
The term vanity simply refers to empty and meaningless. And there is plenty of that around us today. Just look at the foolishness that people fall for. Most people these days actually believe in the theory of evolution, even though that theory has never been proven and never will be. The whole thing is based on a lie and absolute impossibility. But in the vanity of their minds people believe it. The same people in the vanity of their minds also believe the Bible to be little more than a collection of fairy tales, even though not one word of the Scriptures has ever been proven false or incorrect. And look at the nonsense that is presented by the cults and the false religions such as Islam. In the vanity of their minds, people believe without proof or verification of any kind that a man – who turns out to be deeply evil and morally bankrupt – received visions from an angel that totally contradict the Bible. It is easy to see how these things should never mark the walk of a Christian.
But enough of the negative, there is no need for us to walk in the vanity and error and foolishness of the world. There is a walk that is right for the child of God: ‘That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God’ (Colossians 1:10). Walking in good works will bring favour with God and man. Walking in the knowledge of God will conform us to the image of Christ. How much better is that than uselessly and dangerously walking in the vanity of our mind? -Jim MacIntosh