Walk as a Child of the Light
Ephesians 5:8–14 NKJV
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
We now come to the 4th Sunday in Lent, a season of reflection and repentance which prepares us for Holy Week and Easter. If we look at the Gospel text for this Sunday from John 9, it talks about a man who was born blind whom Jesus healed. This man showed that he possessed a spiritual insight of which the Pharisees were blind even though they could physically see. It is this spiritual illumination we see this morning. May the Lord open our minds to His truth this morning and help us to apply it. Amen.
bb
We will be looking in particular at the epistolary text this morning which comes from Ephesians 5:8-14. Ephesians was one of the later epistles of Paul and was written after his epistle to the Romans. He was in prison at this time, which was often dark as far as light is concerned. Paul may also have suffered from poor eyesight. Despite his earthly status, he shows himself by the Lord’s grace to be most insightful. His mature thinking through many years of ministry and reflection on the Word displays itself brilliantly in this epistle. God saw fit that this epistle be included in the canon of the New Testament.
Ephesians is generally divided into two halves. The first is primarily doctrinal and covers the first three chapters. the second half (4-6) is the primarily practical application of Christian doctrine. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted, one must not start with chapter 4. We must first learn the doctrinal truths of Christianity before we can properly apply them. Herman Ridderbos refers to this as the indicative and the imperative.
This morning’s text comes from the second half which means it teaches us how to apply Christian truth, We read and learn Christian truth, and now we must apply it. This morning’s text begins with a reminder that we had once been in the dark and lived that way. This is an indicative statement of fact. Paul reminds us of another indicative fact that we who have believed in Jesus are now light in the Lord. This new reality stated here must now be lived out. We must conduct our lives in the light as children of the light.
Paul further explains walking in the light as showing the fruits of a Spirit-filled life which is in all goodness, righteousness and truth. Paul refers to the individual fruits and spiritual gifts throughout his epistles. Here, these gifts are not listed, but rather the proper motivations of how to use these gifts. Many have boasted of their spiritual gift(s) which would construe a misapplication of the gifts which are meant to give glory to God, the God we know who is good, righteous, and true. We apply these facts and truths to our lives.
We saw the fist imperative in Paul’s admonition for us to walk in the light. Now we come to a second and third imperatives. The first is to have no fellowship with the works of darkness which is unfruitful to the Christian life. The second imperative is to reprove these evil works. The question is how are we to reprove them? Should we like the prophets of old publicly proclaim judgment? The New Testament does not seem to take this approach often. There are lists of vices for the Christian to avoid. We don’t have en exposure of people by name, such as Nero. There is a general accusation for the sins of society we are to avoid. I think that the real exposure is the way we live. We have admonitions to pray for those who despitefully use and to not take vengeance. We suffer for Christ and do not repay evil for evil. The world sees the way we live as a rebuke of the way they live. This will cause them to ask us who once lived in excess and riot why we live by the new way, even to the point of enduring suffering, As Peter reminds us, they will then ask about the hope that is in us, to which we respond with fear and trembling. This isn’t a formal answer such as trained Christian apologists might give. Few of us can answer at this level. Yet, we can testify of our faith in Christ, a faith that endures humiliation and even violence against ourselves. We should do everything we can to learn the faith of Jesus Christ, but we must start where we are.
So, whereas there are times in which personal rebuke is necessary such as John the Baptist’s public rebuke of Herod Phillip, we should instead live in such a way that others seek to know about the One who is in us and we in Him.
We should also be careful not to spend our energy trying to find out the sins of others. One reason is that we might be tempted by all these lurid details we discover. Secondly, some of these accusations may be false. whereas, in general, society is deceitful and commit sins which are so awful that they should not even be named, it does not necessarily mean that a particular person is guilty of that specific sin. Of course, we know that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But not every sinner commits the same sins or to the same degree that others. We don’t need to sin-pick. We might bear false witness. But it is true that everyone has sinned. We should not be captured by lurid details released in some new revelation of files. Much might be true. Some may not. These types of sins have been a plague to mankind from the beginning. There is nothing new about the lives of the rich and famous. Thirdly, by showing the depravity of others, we might start comparing ourselves to them and forget we are forgiven sinners. We have nothing to be proud of except we boast in the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ.
The sins of others will be brought to light. There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. If at no other time, sins will be manifested at the last judgment. The Scripture admonishes us that our sins shall surely be found out. It would be better for a person that it might happen in this life and become the means of repentance and eternal life. Jesus’ conduct with the Samaritan woman is an example. From the perfect knowledge of all people, she exposed her sin in order to show her nakedness before Him. She repented and with conviction returned to the village where the men and the woman also knew much about her. So we do need to rebuke the world. We don’t have perfect knowledge, but we are filled with the Spirit who guides us in our evangelistic effort.
Seeing that it is the conduct of our lives which is usually the means by which outsiders are intrigued to ask that question of our living hope, we must endeavor to make sure our light, or more properly speaking, His light in us, shines brightly. Paul uses the metaphors of death and resurrection in this text. Can dead people tell tales? I guess a forensic pathologists can learn how one’s cause of death and to some degree the food and condition of which one lived his life. What is on one's tombstone can say something as well. The writers of biographies might tell tales of the dead, but are subject to the bias of the author, But in general, the dead do not speak for themselves, Paul admonishes us to wake up and rise from the dead. Paul tells us that when we became Christians and were baptized that the old man died and the new man was raised from the dead. We should no longer testify to our former lie of which we were ashamed. Rather, we must live as children of the light and of the resurrection. Let us live that we might demonstrate what the life of the resurrection will be when it is fully realized when Christ returns. Charles Wesley in one of the verses of “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing says these words:
“Anticipate your heaven below, and know that love is heaven.”
Anticipate. What a powerful word. Alan Verhey notes that our entire Christian life is lived in the anticipation of the resurrection. This is our witness. This is what draws others to the word of life. The resurrection is not a future event which will happen literally at the end of history. It is to be lived new as best as we are able, now. The fullness of the Kingdom of God will be manifested in the near future. But Jesus also tells us that the Kingdom of God is now in us. In His day on earth, the kingdom is there the King is. He was standing before them then, But He is in us by the Holy Spirit. So let us then live by the Spirit. We are in the Kingdom now. It is not yet the Kingdom of Glory. We live in the Kingdom of the Cross now. We suffer and carry our crosses as Christ did. We must look beyond the cross of suffering to the glory which shall be revealed. Remember that in the Beatitudes: “For theirs IS the Kingdom of Heaven. “Is” is a present tense verb and not a future. The same Beatitudes also pronounce a blessing on those who suffer persecution now. Notice there that Jesus switches from the third person to the second. This is not a blessing to “them” but to you are well. Let us keep this in mind in the Lenten season, and always/ Amen.
