Harden Not Your Hearts

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, October 6th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."  (Ephesians 4:17ff)

In today's Epistle from the 4th Chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul is writing to the young church at Ephesus.  Now, keep in mind that Ephesus was a major, thriving city in the Roman Empire.  In fact Ephesus was not only the Roman capital of the Province of Asia, it was also a thriving commercial center.  Thus, not only did you find many important people in regards to the Roman empire but also people coming in and out of Ephesus due to business purposes.  

Now, the Epistle written to the Ephesians is somewhat short, it is only five chapters long, but what is contained within those five chapters are very important.  You see, St. Paul is writing to the Ephesians to remind them of who they were now as Christians.  Keep in mind that these were converts to Christianity that St. Paul is writing to and that they were converted from being Gentiles.  In reality, though, Gentiles is a polite term because people found in that region were in essence pagans who were only interested in one thing:  to please themselves and their desires.  

So St. Paul is writing to them to remind them that what they are now is completely different from what they were in their former life as Gentiles.  St. Paul basically saw three things wrong with the culture at large there in Ephesus and this is what he is trying to warn them against:

1) He saw hearts that were petrified to the reality of sin.  In other words, as pagans, they would have been unaware that sin even existed. 

2)  He saw men where shame was lost and where decency was forgotten.

3)  He saw that men there were so much in the chains of their lusts and desires that they could care less what they did or who they did terrible things to as long as they got what they were lusting after.

If you look at verse 18 of the passage we just heard, you will hear:  "Having the understanding darkened, because of the blindness of their hearts."  Now, here the KJV translation uses the word "blindness" and using this word the context or meaning is there, but if you look at the original language you will see that the word that is actually used comes from "Porosis" which comes from the Greek word "Poros" which actually means "stone that is harder than marble."  In other words, St. Paul is telling them that their hearts are like stone harder than marble.  St. Paul is warning them that as Christians their hearts should not be hardened but should be open to the will of God.

"For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed:  lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."  (St. Matthew 13:15)

St. Paul is urging the young church at Ephesus to ever keep in mind that they are now Christians and no longer pagans and to use Christ as their guide.  

"As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the lord, so walk ye in Him: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." (Colossians 2:6)  If you have ever done any sort of yard work at your house, I am sure that there have been times where you came upon a stubborn weed or plant or even tree for that matter and were shocked to discover how deep the roots were embedded in the ground.  St. Paul is stating that we should be well rooted in Christ so that when the "gods of this world" try to sway us, our roots will be so deep that we could not possibly be swayed.

"Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." (Hebrews 4:7)