The Christian Walk

Eph 4 :17-19
:17 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.
Meaning "serving no useful purpose : completely ineffective
occupied with trifles something of little value, substance, or importance...all other so called pathways to God....are completely ineffective....It's a waste of time.

Jesus talked about this
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’” 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

It's not what you do to make yourself right before God. It's who you know, or rather who knows and accepts you.

Denial of Jesus Christ has great value. No Jesus no life. No Jesus eternal damnation. An eternity separated from the one true God of creation. Absent from the presence of God and the glory of his power. It's a punishment with everlasting destruction. Psalm 73 says "Surely you set them in slipply places, you cast them down to destruction. Oh how they are brought to desolation as in a moment. They are utterly consumed with terrors." The fate of the undeemed too horrible for our petty little minds comprehend. All other so called pathways to God are empty. Useless. Dung. Jesus is the only the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) No other name by which anyone can be saved. (Acts 12:14)
18 They are darkened in their understanding (4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.)

and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.(The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure ( Jer 17:9 ); it is hard, but not necessarily hardened. Hardening of the heart goes beyond the tragic obtuseness of our inherited condition. So, working upon the fertile ground of our innately hard hearts, sin may harden them further ( Dan 5:20 ; Eph 4:18 ; Heb 3:12 ). People may harden their own hearts, in sinful rebellion, in bitterness over circumstances, or in sheer self-will ( Exod 9:34-35 ; 2 Chron 36:13 ; Zech 7:12 ; Heb 3:15 ). Ultimately the hardness of the human heart can only be repaired by the grace of God. (Walter A. Elwell)

19 Having lost all sensitivity, (having become callous) they have given themselves over to sensuality (consisting in the gratification of the senses or the indulgence of appetite : fleshly ..worldly...15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2) As person thinks...so they are...so they become.....)

so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. (can be succeeding at all costs, no matter who you must destroy or damage..or intense or unbridled sexual desire that is lascivious--dirty, filthy, foul, impure, indecent, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, lewd--evil or wicked)

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. (Titus 2 )
He is the Hope of the world. The ONLY HOPE. Without Him there is no hope. But only "a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation" (Heb. 10:27)

First. you must know Him. (Romans 10:9 )

Second. you must walk in Him (Col.2 6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.)

It won't always be easy. There are sure to be trials, tribulations and even persecution. But trust and obey as Scripture says "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Phil 2)

giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.(2 Peter 1)