Walk in the Light
Ephesians 5: 1-5
God has given us a guide for how we are to live or as the scripture calls it how we are to walk. We should be identified by the way we walk.
I. Mimics of God
A. In verse one it says to follow God
1. It means to go after God with all you have.
B. then it says to be as a child
1. Have you ever had a brother, sister or cousin that would play the shadow or repeat game?
2. This is what Paul is talking about how a child wants to be like someone, so they will mimic them.
C. This is what God is calling us to he wants for us to mimic to follow him like a little child follows the person that they want to be like, how they follow and repeat ever word that person says.
II. Our walk should imitate our heavenly father. His characteristics, his ways, his will should be the direction for our walk.
A. Love others as Christ loves us.
1. Christ gave his life for us.
2. He died as a sacrifice for our sins
3. This pleased God and smelled as a sweet aroma
4. This is how we are to live.
III. But God makes it clear what is not walking in his ways.
A. First he says filthiness or immorality
1. This has to do with sexual sins
2. It is any thing that is contrary or opposite of purity
3. It is sexual promiscuity or any sex outside of marriage.
4. The word here actually comes from the word were we get our word pornography
5. What this is all saying is that any sexual desire outside of a marriage bond is a sin.
B. next he says uncleanness
1. This is impure or indecent thoughts.
2. A general term for this deals with anything that would put us in a position were we could not be in God’s presence.
3. Of the 12 times this word is used in the new testament it is only used differently once, in Matt. 23:27 Jesus uses this word to describe bodies that had rotted in their tombs
4. God doesn’t want people to come into his presence with divided minds, were they are think about their impure and indecent thoughts, and with what was said in Matt. 23, God sees those people as rotting, dieing sinners that he would not want in his presence.
C. Third is Covetousness or greed
1. This is a basic appetite for more and more
2. It is to lust after what you don’t already have or need.
3. It also goes on later to say that Greed is Idolatry, this means that if someone is greedy they are putting things before God.
D. Do not let these things be named among you.
1. This means that when someone looks at you that they should never see any of these things in you.
2. We are to not even give people grounds on which they can accuse us of the things mentioned above.
3. These sins are so bad that our minds should not dwell on them.
4. Living under the lordship of Jesus Christ must make a difference in the everyday decisions of life. We must be willing to pay the price to follow after God.
5. A few years ago Jack Eckerd, founder of Eckerd’s drugstore chain, committed his life to Christ. Shortly afterward as he walked through one of his stores, he noticed the magazine racks had copies of Playboy and Penthouse. Although Eckerd was retired from active management, he called the president of the company and urged him to remove the pornographic magazines. The president protested because a lot of money was made from there sale, and that Eckerd as the largest stockholder could lose a lot of money if they stopped selling them, Eckerd remained firm and prevailed, the magazines were removed from all the stores. When asked what motivated him to take this action he said, “God wouldn’t let him off the hook”.
E. It says that we are to saint or meaning Christ like.
1. It has been said that there are two indications of a persons character that is what makes him laugh and what him cry.
IV. There are then three more things he gives us in verse four that should not be associated with someone that calls themselves a Christian.
A. First is filthiness
1. This has to with obscenity as in dirty speech.
2. The things we say and the things we wear should represent an attitude of Christ.
3. The word filthiness means anything shameful,
4. Our choice of words and clothes should represent our walk with God. They should not be obscene or shameful.
5. If it is, it not only brings shame to us but it brings shame to God.
B. Next is foolish talking or silly talking.
1. The word for foolish here actually come from the word were we get our word MORON, so really this is Moron speech.
2. It means to talk in a dull or stupid manner except to express worldly ideas.
3. This also has to do with Idle Time.
C. Lastly in this verse is coarse jesting
1. This is something that many comedians use now when talking about sensitive subjects.
2. It is when we twist words so as to say one thing and mean another.
3. Or we do a hand gesture to express our thoughts without saying them.
D. Then it says that these things are not fitting
1. That they are out of place in God’s plan.
2. This means that it is not fitting of a person who says they walk after or mimic Christ. (Christians)
E. It says instead of these thing give thanks.
1. Or remind each other of God’s goodness
2. instead of sinning we should worship God
3. If we see a brother or sister doing these things we should remind them of what God has done for us, that we should not be doing those things.
V. Goes on to say, so know this anyone that anyone that does these things, will not have an inheritance in heaven.
A. Paul gives us this warning, that the world we live in may embrace these behaviors and attitudes, but rejection of God’s will in our lives mean’s rejection of what God has for us, eternal life.
B. He says “Be sure of this” the kingdom of God will not tolerate these things.
VI. Go over to verse 8 were we see that we were in darkness, but that has passed.
A. We may have done these things, the scripture said, these things God calls sin.
B. But God calls us to come out of the dark out of the sin and to live in the light.
C. He then says to walk in the light.
D. There is no suggestion in what he is saying here, he says to walk in the light.
E. This means to do what Mark 12: 30 says; to love the Lord with All your heart, All your mind, All your soul, and All your strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Conclusion
If you still have these things in your life, the immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, the foolish talking, or course joking then you haven’t given your whole heart and mind your holding back some for you, your only giving God 90%, 95%. But, if it’s not 100% God will not accept it, it is not pleasant to God, unless it’s all given up for him.
Perhaps you are still doing things in the darkness, you need to come out of the dark and come into the light. Or perhaps you have never come out of the darkness. God is calling us to all be children, to be mimics, to walk in the light.
for the part about foolish talking i talked about how Jerry Seinfeld was asked what was the point of his show, his response was that it had no point. And with the Coarse jesting i refered to the statment if you say someone is a few fries short of a happy meal, and the hand jesture were you spin your index finger around your ear, so as to impliy that someone is crazy. These are about the only ones clean enufe to use in church. And I often refered back to the eckerd story, about haveing sin asossiated with their name.
