Be Careful

I am not sure if Paul meant “Praising and Thanksgiving” to be the result or the way of the spirit-filled life. I could be for both. One thing clear though is that both praising God one another and giving thanks to God show how to “walk as children of light”. Both praising and giving thanks have to do with the way we speak.

In other words, we have to be careful in our talking. Thus we have to examine ourselves if we praise God and if our talking reflects our gratefulness to God. Walking as children of light very much involves what we are talking about. Be careful in what we are talking about.

The last caution is “be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

This answer is very interesting. Paul says here that without submitting ourselves to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can’t walk in light. It is not how much we love strangers, though important as they are, but our brothers and sisters in the church. This of course doesn’t mean we don’t have to care people outside church. Of course we should. But, we have to remember that we as Christians were called to belong to the body of Christ before we are called to minister the world.

Jesus prayed for the unity among His followers before He would ever concern about how they minister the world. Same is true today. He called us to His body so that we as His body may reflect who Christ is to the world. In a sense, we are the only Christ the world may witness about Jesus. So then, if we don’t learn to love and accept one another as Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have an opportunity to witness the love of Christ.

Self-pride and self-glorification has been always one of the most hindering factor from church being and functioning as it should be. Ever since Adam fell, human beings are characterized self-centered creature. Self-centeredness always break the relationship, which God considers most important, rather than edify the relationship. After all those year of instruction and training from Jesus, this is what happened to the disciples even in the Last Supper when Jesus was about to die: An argument broke out among the disciples as to which one of them should be thought of as the greatest. (Lk 22:24)

How about you and me? Do you have someone that you are jealousy of because his or her reputation, looking, accomplishment or whatever? But, the word of God says, “Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves.” (Phi 2:3) We need to be saved from this self-centeredness day by day denying ourselves. We should love each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than we do ourselves. (Rom 12:10)

*I would also add the following somewhere in the sermon.

Again you have to remember I am not suggesting Paul suggested only three things in order to walk as children of light. In fact, all the rest of the chapter and even the next chapter should be considered as his suggestion on how to walk as children of light. I am simply dealing with 3 ways that immediately follow after Paul cautioned them to be careful.