I remember when our kids were little, they were quite sensitive to the background music playing in stores in a way that I was not. There were multiple times where I noticed my one-year-old child bopping to store music while sitting in the grocery cart when I hadn’t even noticed that any music was playing. Over time, I guess my brain learned to filter out the music. Apparently, the playlist on the overhead speakers at Fred Meyer wasn’t nearly as important as other things like which kind of cheese to get or finding the garbanzo bean aisle. But the brain of the child sitting in the cart right in front of me wasn’t doing that kind of filtering. They were noticing and hearing every note played and word sung, and it was causing their whole body to move to the beat.
Just like my brain now has a deadened sensitivity to store background music, we can have our senses deadened to other more important things. This is the reality that Paul describes in Ephesians chapter four. Paul says,
17-19
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. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 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.
Here, Paul describes a significant problem that he has observed among the Gentiles. He says that they have lost all sensitivity. Sensitivity to what? If you look at the whole chapter, it becomes clear that what Paul is concerned about is a loss of sensitivity to how one’s actions - words, sexual practices, spending habits, work ethic, etc. - can tear down or build up other people. Paul says that this desensitization, over time, has separated them from the life God intended for them - a life of “good works” (2:10) and “works of service” (4:12). Paul goes on to explain that this desensitization has led to all forms of greed (wanting to take more for oneself at the expense of others), unwholesome talk (words that tear people down), and sexual practices that are impure (focused on one’s own pleasure at the expense of another).
Sidenote: the NIV translates a phrase in v.19 “given themselves over to sensuality,” but that may not be the best translation because it can give the impression that one’s bodily senses are bad and lead us astray, which seems to contradict the “loss of sensitivity” Paul describes in the previous verse. The Greek word there is “aselgeia,” which literally means “self-abandonment” or “a complete lack of self-constraint.”* The idea is that the Gentiles have lost sensitivity to how their actions affect other people (the common good) and have given themselves over to an attitude and way of life where certainly bodily urges are leading the way without boundaries or restraint. Paul’s point is that our bodily senses are good and helpful gifts from God, but when they are put solely in the service of what makes me as an individual feel good in a moment, they will destroy the very things that God intends to build up in my life.
Paul contrasts this way of life with the new kind of living toward which God leads us in Christ. One way we could summarize this new life is a renewed sensitivity to how our actions and decisions are connected to and affect the plight and wellbeing of other people. The Holy Spirit reactivates our senses (senses that God has given us all from the beginning but that have been deadened over time) the way Jesus’ senses were activated – re-tuning our ears to the needs and cries of the people around us.
Think about how many times Jesus stopped and paid attention to people that had become background music for other people. Remember the story when Jesus was walking in a sea of people and suddenly, he stopped and asked, “Who touched me?” His disciples were like, “What are you talking about? Everybody is touching you!” But Jesus, whose senses were not so deadened, knew different. He knew something significant was happening to somebody in the moment and he stopped to find out who it was and address it.
This is the kind of re-sensitizing that the Holy Spirit is ready to do in us if we are open to it! The Holy Spirit inside of us wants to awaken our senses to the reality that we are on this earth to build up others, to encourage others, to care for the needs of others, to lift others up, to be agents of healing and hope, and to love one another honestly and deeply. Paul’s urgent plea to the Ephesians, and to us as the church, is that those who are moved by the Spirit in a new direction with these new sensitivities should take on new actions that are consistent with them.
I’m confident this is the way the Holy Spirit slowly and surely builds a community of love in our midst:
Individuals become re-sensitized to God’s love through Christ
They catch a vision of what life could look like if it was governed by Christ’s love
They learn ways of being, acting and decision making that do and do not correspond to that way of love embodied in Christ
They begin to align their way of living to this new way of living – the way of love, the way of Christ
The good news is that the Holy Spirit intends for this re-sensitization to happen within community. We need apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists to teach us and show us, in different ways, how our lives are connected to the lives of others so that we truly are prepared and equipped for works of service (4:11-13). Each, in their own way, help us to do this. The apostles among us, like Paul, help us to catch a vision of what could be in the world if we each take the call of Christ seriously. The prophets among us help to uncover individual and systemic injustices that do not truly embody Christ’s love. The pastors and teachers among us come alongside to elucidate, clarify, and demonstrate this new way of love. And the evangelists among us remind us that the community of Christ’s love is intended to be ever-expanding and growing to include more and more people.
During the past two years, I think the Holy Spirit – through the input of many prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers, and pastors – has been re-sensitizing me to certain needs in our larger community that had become background music. It’s amazing to me that as I’ve become more attuned to certain needs around me God has also helped me to see how I can play a small part in addressing those needs. This is how God works!
*Frederic W. Danker, Ed. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
About the Author
Aaron is a passionate seeker of God and truth, and he enjoys encouraging others in their own pursuits of the same. He especially likes to think about how God is at work in the most ordinary and mundane aspects of our existence. He loves going on adventures to new places with his wife, Heather, and four kids and his perfect day would involve an excellent cup of coffee (or two!), a hike to somewhere beautiful and serene, and some good conversation over a pint at a warm pub. He currently serves as an adjunct instructor at Portland Seminary and a licensed minister in The Foursquare Church.