Saturday, September 08, 2007

Sensitivity

Could it be that an important weapon or armor available to us in our battle against sin is the cultivation of sensitivity?

    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 seperated 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, with a continual lust for more.

~Ephesians 4:17-19


Paul equates a hard heart with loss of sensitivity. There are two results of the hardening of the Gentiles' hearts. First, they have ingnorance in them, which leads to seperation from God and from understanding. Second, they give themselves over to sensuality, which leads to an array of sins, but fails to satisfy.

If the loss of sensitivity leads to ingnorance and indulgence in sensuality, then perhaps its increase can help to empower us or prepare us for understanding, purity, and unity with God.

What do we think of a person who is sensitive? Do we value sensitivity or do we see it as weakness or indulgent?

Does this passage really teach us anything about what not to do?

Sensitive Sensitivity
Sensual Sensuality

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mark,

Great reflection on the passage. Thanks!

Dougald