In August 2017, electronic music legend
Avicii released what turned out to be his final single. It was called ‘Lonely
Together’. Musically, the song is cheerful and richly layered. But after I’d listened
a few times, I started to pay attention to the lyrics. When I did, I realised that
the song is telling quite a bleak story. Here’s the chorus:

I might hate myself tomorrow but I’m on my way tonightAt the bottom of the bottle, you’re the poison in the wineAnd I know I can’t change you and I, I won’t changeI might hate myself tomorrow but I’m on my way tonightLet’s be lonely togetherA little less lonely together…Avicii, ‘Lonely Together’ (Featuring Rita Ora), released August 2017.

‘Lonely together’, despite its bright rhythm,
is a raw and honest song about aching isolation and self-loathing. It’s about the
futility of trying to use drink and sex to ease the pain, about plunging into
the futility regardless, because at least it’s better than nothing. Of course, Avicii
and his collaborators weren’t doing anything fundamentally new in writing these
words. Avicii (his real name was Tim Bergling) was one of a long series of talented,
tragic poets, using the forms of his art to reflect the world and our lives back
to us. And sadly, from the reports of his death, the much-loved DJ felt the
pain of living in this world all too keenly. Yet still, his final, and perhaps his
darkest, song topped charts in multiple countries. It became a song for the
world to dance to.

That fact itself is tinged with tragedy,
isn’t it? Darkness, futility, and desire: this is the way the world dances. In
fact, in so many ways, this is the way the world walks, day by day. It’s what the
apostle Paul is talking about as he writes these words in his letter to the
Ephesians:

So I say this, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the gentiles walk: in the futility of their minds, having been darkened in their thinking, separated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, through the hardening of their hearts; having become callous, they have given themselves to unrestrained sensuality, greedy for every impure practice.Ephesians 4:17–19

Why is Paul writing these things about
the world? He’s not writing so that we can gloat. Nor is he writing so we can
judge. He’s writing so we can live. Paul knows that those who believe in Christ
have something far greater to live and hope for. If we believe in Christ, we don’t
need to walk the way the world walks. We have hope. We have a great calling. And
so we can—in fact, we must—turn around, and walk the other way.

No longer walk

Paul says here:

So I say this, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the gentiles walkEphesians 4:17a

Up to this point in his letter, Paul has been laying out the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the message about Jesus’ death and resurrection. It proclaims the forgiveness of sins, salvation from God’s judgment, and a wonderful hope for the future. This gospel, says Paul, has