Be Worried If You Feel Nothing

Ephesians 4:17
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking…
Ephesians 4:19
Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus. At this point in his letter, he tells them to stop living like Gentiles. The question immediately is how do gentiles live that we should stop living like them? He goes ahead to explain many things about gentiles. Their thinking is futile, their understanding is darkened, they are separated from the life of God, they are ignorant, their hearts have been hardened, etc. Out of the long list of things that describe gentiles, what catches our attention today and is worth considering is that they have lost sensitivity. As a result of losing sensitivity, they have given themselves over to evil ways. They have lost sensitivity!

To lose sensitivity means your senses no longer work. Where you should see, you do not see. Where you should listen, you are unable to listen. Where you should tell the taste, you are unable. Where you should pick the smell of something, you pick none. Where you should feel a touch, you are not moved. You have lost sensitivity. The gentiles had lost sensitivity!

The sensitivity required of a person is not limited to the five common senses but is actually about sensitivity to right and wrong. Sensitivity to what is spiritual and what is not, Sensitivity to what is reverent and what is not reverent. Sensitivity to how much you are giving and whether it is sufficient to drive God’s work. Sensitivity to what is humane and what is not. Sensitivity to what is rational and what is not. Sensitivity to what supports the mission and what derails it. Sensitivity to what can be embarrassing and what is not. Sensitivity to what is extreme and would distract. The gentiles had lost sensitivity. They did whatever they wanted. They felt nothing. No guilt, no care. They were at a dangerous place. Paul tells the church, do not be like gentiles who have lost sensitivity.

They felt nothing. They had lost sensitivity. The dress was sexually revealing and they felt nothing. They could flirt in public in the presence of many others, yet they are married, but they felt nothing. The songs they sang and dance moves during singing were borrowed straight from nightclubs where immorality thrives, but the association did not bother them. They felt nothing. They ate food that the church prohibited in its meeting and they served it on high tables to their esteemed religious guests, and they felt nothing. None of them felt anything. They had lost all sensitivity!

In the church as worship goes on, they would chat on phone with their illicit lovers. In the presence of God. As immorality is condemned they promoted it, in the presence of God. They felt nothing. A passionate call is made for them to confess and repent and they do not even care to respond. They feel nothing. They have lost all sensitivity.

They discuss evil that has happened among them without deep pain and regret but instead with a casual approach of its normal. They feel nothing. They have lost sensitivity. They meet and plot evil, based on lies, driven by malice and jealousy, and they pray before and after such a meeting. They feeling nothing. It is normal to be evil in the name of God. Fool people, harm people, do not worry about God. They no longer fear God and punishment He can mete on them. They feel nothing. They have lost all sensitivity. Instead of responding to God’s word with repentance, they get angry against the messenger. They feel nothing. They have lost all sensitivity!

If you feel nothing while engaged in corruption, be worried. You are stealing funds meant to help many people and you feel nothing? Be worried. The organization is struggling because of you, be worried. Members of the public are suffering because of you, and yet you feel nothing, be worried. You employ unfairly and the deserving are suffering and you feel nothing, be worried!

Here is the problem. Sensitivity comes from the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is actively working in you, you are sensitive. When the Holy Spirit ceases to work in someone, the person loses sensitivity. Lack of sensitivity is a sign that you are no longer driven by the Holy Spirit. God has vacated your life which was His temple. You are a godless person. Rejected by God. You are on the path of eternal death. This is the danger that Paul is concerned about and warns the church against being like gentiles who have lost sensitivity. Therefore, be worried if you feel nothing!

Romans 1:24
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

Romans 1:26
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

Romans 1:28
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Lack of sensitivity could be because God has given up on you and let you have your way. When your tribal and racial politics succeed and you feel no shame or embarrassment, it is not because you are clever and strategic, but because God has given you up to have your way until you are destroyed. When you can threaten everyone to submission and you are no longer sensitive that you are hurting someone, it could be that God has given up on you and has left you to experience the impact of your choices.

Do not celebrate when you feel nothing as you engage in evil and seem to thrive. It could be indicative that God has abandoned you to learn the hard way. When you feel nothing in the way you poorly relate with your parents, be careful. When you feel nothing in the way you treat orphans in your house, be careful. When you feel nothing in the way you treat your husband or wife, be careful. When you feel nothing in how you harass people in your business and at work or even the neighborhood, be careful. That feeling of nothing could be the sign that God has decided to give you a hard lesson and your situation may be getting hopeless.

1 Timothy 1:19-20 “holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

Apostle Paul tells Timothy that he has handed some people to satan to be taught a lesson. These are people who had shipwrecked their faith. They had lost sensitivity. What you think is being liberal could be losing sensitivity. Be careful if you are losing sensitivity.

Dear God, save us from losing sensitivity. May your Holy Spirit always abide with us. Make us sensitive to the things of God. Make us sensitive to how we treat one another. May we never lose sensitivity, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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