When you ‘once walked’...according to the course or ways of this world...you were ‘dead in sin’...(Eph. 2:1-2); emphasis placed here on the past tense of ‘once walked’.

This is how you use to walk...meaning you don’t walk this way anymore.

These words were addressed to those who have been ‘made alive’ when they repented and turned from darkness and came to the light which is found only in Jesus. Apart from Him we have no life (spiritual) and we must come to Him in order to receive this God giving ‘life’ (John 5:40; 10:10).

Friends...not only is it imperative that we come to Him, but we must also ‘remain’ ...in Him, or as John 15:1-8 points out...we must continue to ‘abide’ in Him. How else can one sustain this God kind of life apart from Him? How long can an child in its mother’s womb continue to develop, grow, and thrive without remaining attached to the umbilical cord? If for whatever reason that cord became detached, that growing child within the womb would not survive.

Separation from God is what brings spiritual death, and sin is what separates us from God; hence the repeated theme found in scripture that sin brings death (Isa. 59:2; Ezek. 18:20; Rom. 6:23; 8:13). So when Jesus said to ‘go and sin no more’...there was good reason (John 5:14; 8:11).

We are continuing in our study here from Ephesians 2:1-3 and breaking down these three verses so we might better understand why people are in the condition they are today in this world of spiritual darkness, and under the influence or control of the ‘wicked one’ (1 John 5:19; Acts 26:18). Verse 2 makes it plain as day- when we were living apart from God, we were walking not only according to the ways and patterns of this world, but we were also walking according to the ‘prince of the power of the air’ (Satan)...the SPIRIT WHO NOW WORKS IN....the sons of disobedience.

As uncomfortable or unnerving as this might come across sounding to anyone reading here today, the longer you resist, dismiss, or want to refuse to believe and accept what our condition was (or continues to be) apart from God...the longer it will be before you can find true, lasting freedom (John 8:32-36). As the old saying goes...’denial is not a river in Egypt’. When Jesus shared those words with a group of Jews who actually ‘believed in Him’, they were quick to defend themselves saying they had ‘never been in bondage to anyone’ (33).

To be on bondage or enslaved to something or someone means you are not free to act according as you please. But Jesus wanted to change that and one of the reasons God sent Him to us was to ‘set captives free’ (Luke 4:18). Paul explains what this captivity is like before one is set free, in Romans 7, as he talks about ‘wanting to do good’ but aware that this ‘body of death’ works against that desire to do to good (obey God’s law), and he cries out wanting to know who will ‘deliver him from this body of death’ (Rom. 7:24).

Now go read Acts 26:18 once again, and ask yourself – whose power are you/we under prior to having our ‘eyes opened’ and turning to God? That is the same ‘spirit’ that we are reading about in Eph. 2:2...and it continues to work and operate and dwell IN the ‘sons of disobedience’, or as other versions suggest: “those who refuse to obey God”. And could you once again please tell me who are the ones that will inherit ‘eternal salvation’ according to Hebrews 5:9?

As Jesus continued His conversation with other religious folks in John 8, He told them why they were unable to hear and receive His word, hinting strongly that they were ‘not of God’, which did not land well (39-44). Jesus even called out who their ‘father’ was in vs. 44. And friends...the reason they were so offended to hear this was because they were convinced they were the chosen ones because they were descendants of Abraham. And yet...John 1:10-12 really comes alive here. (yes, go read that now)

Do you recall from Acts 10:38 where Peter reminds us how Jesus was anointed by God to go about ‘doing good and healing all who were ‘oppressed’...? Who were all these afflicted people ‘oppressed by’? When do you think this changed?

And in Luke 13, we read where Jesus was teaching in a synagogue and saw a woman there who He referred to as a ‘daughter of Abraham’ (16). She had a physical defect which kept her bent over, unable to straighten up; and she had been in this condition for ’18 long years’ (11,16). What/who does your Bible say she had been ‘bound by’ (11,16)?

When Paul writes and explains who our real ‘conflict and struggle’ is with, in Ephesians 6:12, he could not be more clear when he establishes the fact that our enemy is not ‘flesh and blood’. Peter refers to this ‘enemy’ as the ‘devil...who goes about like a roaring lion seeking to devour’ (1 Pet 5:8), and we would do well to ‘resist him’ (9). Paul admonishes us to ‘give him no place’ in Eph. 4:27. Was there some point in history where this ceased from being the case...and these ‘unclean spirits’ just went away and no longer exists?

So when John writes, assuming that ‘we all know’...that the whole world is ‘under the influence or power of the wicked one’ (1 John 5:19), this really was not a point of contention for people back then, not like it is today for all us ‘educated and enlightened’ folks. And when John mentions in his gospel (3:36) that those who are not believing/abiding in Jesus the Son of God...who or what ‘remains or abides’ on them?

Anyone want to guess what gives this spiritual enemy access or control into our lives? “Sin”, you say? Well...yes, that would be correct, but if we want to be rid of this spiritual entity who comes to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’...we best deal with his ‘food source’; and tomorrow we will look at that third and final verse in our study of Eph. 2:1-3 for more clarity.