A feeling or state of having no purpose or meaning. Futility describes actions that are useless or cannot succeed.
Futility in the Old Testament
The word "futility" appears many times in the book of Ecclesiastes (1:2, 14; 2:1, 11, 15, 17; and so forth).The original Hebrew word (hevel) is hard to translate into English because it has many meanings. Hevel is traditionally translated as “vanity.” This is found in many older translations but has been replaced in newer versions with other words. These versions attempt to more creatively capture the meaning of hevel.
In some translations, the idea is “meaninglessness” (see New International Version and New Living Translation). Other versions translate hevel as “emptiness” (see New English Bible). Still other versions render hevel as “uselessness” (see Today's English Version). One of the best renderings is found in the Revised English Bible: “Futility, utter futility, says the Speaker, everything is futile” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
The writer of Ecclesiastes (called qoheleth in Hebrew, which is translated as "the Speaker" or "the Preacher") teaches that trying to find lasting happiness without God is like trying to catch the wind. It cannot be done. People can only find real meaning and lasting joy in God because God gives life its purpose.
Futility in Paul's Letters
The apostle Paul uses two Greek words that often mean the same thing. These words (kenos and mataiotes) communicate the idea of futility. They are often used together in the Septuagint (for example, Job 20:18; Isaiah 37:7; Hosea 12:1). The words also occur in classical and Hellenistic Greek. Mataiotes is the term used in the Septuagint. When Paul uses kenos, he means something that is empty and hollow (things that have no real purpose). When he uses mataiotes, he means something that is useless and cannot achieve its goal.
When Paul uses the word kenos, he describes things that are empty because they lack spiritual substance. These empty things cannot produce anything good, like a container with nothing in it. Paul used this word to describe the false teachings of people who tried to mislead believers with wrong ideas about God ("empty chatter" in 1 Timothy 6:20; see also Colossians 2:8; compare Ephesians 5:6).
Paul was different. He said his teaching and work were not empty or futile because they had real purpose (1 Corinthians 15:14). He made the same claim about his work among the believers (1 Thessalonians 2:1). Paul made sure that his work was not useless (Galatians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:5). This is because he had not received the grace of God “in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:10). He did not preach and work without purpose. His preaching and work had real purpose because Jesus, who rose from the dead and whom Paul taught about and served, had filled Paul with God's life and power (verse 14).
Paul's use of mataiotes was likely informed by the Septuagint, especially in Ecclesiastes. The adjective mataios was regularly used in Greek literature to describe what is worthless or empty. The noun mataiotes is found mainly in the Bible. In the Septuagint it often describes uselessness, worthlessness, and futility.
Romans 8:20 describes in a unique way the kind of futility that Ecclesiastes characterizes. Paul says, "the creation was subjected to futility." He is focusing on how creation is unable to function as God first designed. When Adam and Eve sinned, God put the earth under a curse because of them. Since then, creation cannot fully show God's glory because it is trapped in this broken state. But this is only until God releases creation from its bondage. Redeemed humanity must lead, then creation will join humanity in the final redemption and also be freed from mataiotes (futility).
Paul also uses the word mataiotes to describe how people think when they are separated from God. He says that even the thoughts of those who seem wise are actually meaningless (1 Corinthians 3:20). He describes the gentiles (non-Jewish people) as those living “in the futility of their thinking” because “they are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:17–18).
When people live without God's wisdom, their thoughts have no real purpose and lead nowhere. But there is hope. People can be freed from this meaningless way of thinking. Now, salvation from mataiotes comes from the Spirit of Christ who dwells in the Christian (see Romans 8:10–11, 26–27). In the future, salvation will come when Christ returns and the believers (along with all creation) receive their full redemption (see Romans 8:22–25).