Leave The Light On Series

Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. Ephesians 5:8b-12

Paul is vague in describing what it means to live as children of light. The reason for this is that he gives details throughout the rest of the letter to the Ephesians. Any place you find a practical command he’s telling you how to live as a child of light.

The first step in living as a child of light is to live with Christ. You can see this one coming a mile away because I say it regularly: consistent commitment to studying God’s word is one of the ways to live with Christ. It’s the primary way we are enabled to know the mind of the Lord. It spells out what goodness, righteousness, and truth look like. Read it daily. Study it with commentaries and in classes with other Christians as much as possible. Read topical books related to Bible themes. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Live it.

Living with Christ also means fellowship with Him. You must spend time seeking His face in prayer and in worship. Go beyond Sunday morning. How well would you know another person if you only met with them an hour once a week? Another path to fellowship with Christ is fellowship with other Christians. If He’s in our midst when two or three are gathered together in His name, we can expect to hear from him in community.

A couple of weeks ago I had coffee with two of my buddies who are both Christians. From our conversation (which contained no Bible study or sermon) God enlightened me about the role of nature in salvation. We were talking about gardening and spirituality. I discovered that our detachment from the land is keeping people from the general revelation of God. I was also convicted that from here on out I need to offer my Bible teaching and preaching for free.

When we live with Christ we become like Christ. His light shines in us ever more brightly. One of my favorite verses to this effect is Acts 4:13. Peter and John were nobodies in Jerusalem. They were plain old fishermen. But spending time with Jesus made a tangible difference to onlookers:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

While you live with Christ, study the world. This is not a call to a monastery where you pretend the world does not exist. If you’re going to bring light to the world you’ve got to understand it. You must become a student of the culture. At the very least, read the newspaper. Understand what is going on in the world and constantly ask yourself, “What does the Bible say about this subject?” Does it have anything to say about nationwide issues such as national debt, illegal immigration, global warming, government healthcare and welfare programs? Does God’s word speak to local issues like annexation, homelessness, poverty, smoking bans in restaurants? I submit to you that at a minimum you can find a biblical principle to inform any issue. Sometimes you have to do your homework and examine how other grapple with the subjects, but there’s no excuse for ignorance.