Walking in the Light (Ephesians 5:8-14)
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles with you this morning, will you please turn with me to Ephesians 5:8-14. Our passage today, continues to expound on the command given in verse 1 of chapter 5. It builds on the divine call to be imitators of God. And as we saw last week, the primary way we are to imitate God is by walking in love, by loving God and others in a holy and sacrificial manner. That was the focus of verses 1-7. But today we turn our gaze to verses 8-14, where we learn that we also imitate God by walking in light.
The Bible frequently speaks of God as light. In Psalm 27:1, God the Father is defined as “our light and salvation”. In Isaiah 60 verse 19, He is described as an everlasting light. Likewise, His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is called “the light of the nations” (Isa. 49:6), in the New, John 8 verse 12, calls Him “the light of the world.” Therefore, if believers are going to imitate God and be like Christ then we must shine forth His divine light.
Now, as we begin this time of study, it is important for us to understand that in the Bible the concept of light speaks of both God’s truthfulness and His holiness. Thus, to walk in the light means to walk in God’s truth and His holiness. The word “truth” pertains specifically to what you know and believe, where the word “holiness” on the other hand speaks to the way we live, think, and communicate with one another. You see the concept of walking in light speaks to both what we believe to be true and also how truth is reflected in the way we live moment by moment and day by day.
As believers we are commanded to walk in Light, yet sadly so many professing Christians continue to plod around in the darkness. By the way, the concept of darkness in Scripture is obviously the direct opposite of light. Instead of truth, one who walks in the dark holds tightly to falsehoods, half-truths and lies, and instead of holiness, those who live in the dark naturally live their lives in a foolish and sinful manner.
Church, if we are going to walk in the light, then we must cling to the truth of His Word and seek to obey all His commands. We must understand that walking in truth and holiness is not a condition into which we merely drift into after salvation, but much rather it is an active working out of what has already been worked into us. It is living a life of faith that is marked by steadfast obedience. In 1 John 1:5-7, the beloved disciple explained this concept well and wrote… “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” What a wonderful and powerful truth from God’s Word. God is Light and if we walk in both His love and Light, then we indeed enjoy the rich fellowship of the saints and the forgiveness of our sin. Well. with such a warm thought lingering in our hearts… let us now read our text… Eph. 5:8-14…
This morning I want you to notice four points concerning how we are to walk in the Light, four thoughts that seem to just rise right off the page of this text of Scripture…
1) Walking in the light requires a continuous identity check (v. 8).
The apostle Paul begins by reminding believers that their identity has been radically changed by the power of the gospel. Notice specifically what he says in verse 8… “for you were formally darkness”. The emphasis on this phrase is past tense. The two words “were formerly,” stress that a true transformation has occurred.
Earlier in this epistle, turn back with me for just a second to chapter 2:1-3, look again to what Paul wrote, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” For the believer, that sinful pattern of life, that was lived out in the utter darkness of this world, was and is left behind. Now, that doesn’t mean that we no longer stumble and fall into sin, but rather, that unbroken pattern of hopeless living, that, that is behind us forever.
Oh, how bluntly Paul writes here in verse 8 of chapter 5, look specifically at his choice of words, “you were formerly darkness.” The apostle goes far beyond saying, that you used to walk according to the principles of a dark world, or saying, man you use to do some dark things, you used to live in the dark… No, notice that Paul literally says, “you were darkness.” Before you came to Christ for salvation, our being as well as our behavior, in fact, our total existence was defined by darkness. Listen, we must confess that we were more than mere victims of Satan’s dark domain, instead, we were active contributors to it, as verse 6 says we were “children or sons of disobedience.” Before you were born again, you had no ability to live outside of sin and darkness. You had no power to live any other way, therefore, your life could surely be defined as nothing but darkness.
There is no doubt that our world is very dark and getting darker by the day. Our dark world is confused, unjust, wicked, corrupt, and completely without hope. In the dark there is a constant pressure to deceive, lie, steal, a compulsion to act immorally, kill, take, belittle, and excuse the worst kinds of evil. Foolishness abounds in a dark world. Again, Paul says, you were once darkness. That was your life… but praise God, no longer is that so!!!
He continues in verse 8… “but now (with the past behind you) now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.” Let me remind you of the the glorious symphony of theology that is found in the first three chapters of Ephesians, where Paul explained all the wonders of our salvation, and expounded on the fact that believers are now “in Christ.” That glorious two word phrase, “in Christ,” implies that we now share the Lord’s own nature, as we are wrapped in His righteousness are adopted into God’s family. Therefore, if the Lord Jesus is light, then in Christ, we too are the light of the world. That’s why Paul here in verse 8 calls us “children of light” and commands us to walk in both His truth and holiness. Listen, if you are in Christ, born again, then you are adopted into God’s family. And just like any adopted child that joins a new family, over time their lives are shaped by their new family. Most of you know that Joy and I have two adopted boys, and its amazing how much they are like us. Why, because they live in close fellowship with us. The apostle, here in this passage, is essentially reminding his audience and calling on them to live out of their new identity. He’s giving us a much-needed identity check.
I’m not sure if anyone has shaped my theology and ministry more than Paul David Tripp. And in his writings, he frequently writes about something he calls “gospel amnesia.” He rightly argues that all Christians will frequently forget their newfound identity of being in Christ. And when that occurs, when we forget of all the treasures and blessings that have been secured for us vertically in our saving relationship with Christ, then here is what happens: we will inevitably begin to search for poor substitutes to those amazing treasures horizontally.
You see, when we forget that we are loved perfectly and fully by the Lord, then we will look to others to love us in a way that is impossible for them to love. Or when we forget that are fully forgiven in Christ, then sadly we will experience the weight of phantom chains that are not there. We will find ourselves moving toward sin, because we are convinced that we are chained to things that are just part of who we are. And in that moment of temptation we will forget that everything we need to escape has already been lavishly and graciously provided by Christ. We will forget that on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ defeated sin and death once and for all, and our sin (no matter how big and powerful it may seem in your life), no longer has any power over you.
You have been set free, you are no longer chained to sin, and Christ has given us everything so that we may live for His glory. We simply must remind ourselves often, over and over again, of who we are “in Christ.” That every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies is ours and readily at our disposal. This why reading the Bible, scripture memory, church attendance, Sunday school, and bible studies are essential to our walk with Christ. We must omce again remind ourselves of the gospel, because we keep forgetting it.
The old hymn says so well, our hearts are… “Prone to wonder, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love!” Oh how we must go to battle with our sin, keep our eyes fixed firmly on Christ, and learn to rest in His power and not our own.
One of my favorite verses is 1 Cor. 10:13, there Paul wrote these familiar words... “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” What a powerful verse that each one of you should have hidden in their heart. Notice what the apostle says, he begins by saying you are not alone. Our sin has a way to making us feel that no one understands and that we are all alone in our spiritual battles, but Paul reminds us that our battles are not unique at all, some people do understand, other people struggle just as you do, and many have overcome by the grace of Go, they can help you in your time of need. Secondly, notice that God is faithful to His children and He will provide a way out. Therefore, you must prayerfully and passionately look for that way of escape when trouble comes your way.
Christian, you are a child of light, live as such, walk in the light of the truth, seek to be holy, remind yourself often of your true identity!
2) Walking in the light produces a harvest of spiritual fruit (vs. 9-10).
Look with me to verse 9, in what appears as a parenthetical statement, the apostle wrote, “for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” This phrase, “fruit of Light,” describes the results of living in the Light. You see, as imitators of God we are to do what is good, right, and true. This amazing trio of godly virtues are simply an inspired summary of the various fruit believers bear by walking in the truth and living to please God. These three spiritual characteristics can never be counterfeited and are simply a direct result of God’s gracious work in our lives. No matter how hard you try, you can’t fake them or forge them in anyway. You cannot be good, or righteous, or delight in the truth apart from His grace.
Notice Paul begins the list of fruit with the phrase “all goodness.” This divine characteristic speaks of being good-hearted, and it finds its fullest expression in that which is done both willingly and sacrificially for others. It’s a relational term and flows out of a loving heart. Paul called on the Thessalonians to “Always seek after that which is good for one another and for all men” (1 Thess. 5:15). Earlier in our study of Ephesians, in chapter 2 verse 10, let me remind you, that the apostle wrote, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Are you walking in goodness? Are you a blessing to others because you seek to live sacrificially for their good and spiritual wellbeing? When we walk in the light, we will model such goodness.
The second fruit of walking in the Light is “righteousness.” This characteristic has to do with both who are in Christ, and how we are called to live by faith. As believers, we have been accredited Christ’s righteousness. This is known as the doctrine of imputation, whereby through faith and repentance, God imputes or accredits Christ’s spotless righteousness to our lives. You see no matter how much you grow up in your faith, no matter how you mature in sanctification, you will never be able to be good enough to be accepted by God. The prophet Isaiah, said that our righteousness, the very best can we muster on our own, is nothing but filthy rags before His holiness.
Therefore, in grace when we place our faith in Christ, God wraps us up in Christ’s perfect righteousness, so that we can be fully accepted by God, and dwell with Him forever. And those who are made righteous by faith are commanded to live righteously. Romans 6:13 reads… “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” That’s our calling, to model Christ’s righteousness. Do you do that? Are you an instrument of righteousness? The great Reformer, Martin Luther explains it this way, “We are not made righteous by doing righteous deeds; but when we have been made righteous we do righteous deeds.” That’s what we are to do. Church family, we are to pursue righteousness and live in a right and holy manner towards God and our fellow man. That’s the second fruit mentioned here in verse 9.
The third and final fruit that Paul mentions is “truth.” Truth has to do with honesty, reliability, trustworthiness, and our integrity. Its stands in clear contrast to hypocrisy, deception, lying, half-truths, and every form of falsehoods. We know that God’s word is true, and Jesus defined Himself, as the way, the truth, and the life. Therefore the fruit of truth always magnifies both Christ and the Scriptures. The fruit of truth, it speaks to both of what we say, and how we live our lives, as a reflection of knowing the truth of God’s Word.
Now, notice, these three spiritual fruit that are a result of walking in Light cover every aspect of our lives. Goodness speaks primarily to our relationship with others. How we live with other people and treat them. Righteousness speaks of our relationship with God and how we are to live for Him, while truth primarily speaks of our personal integrity. It speaks of the heart, and there from the heart, the apostle transitions to verse 10.
Look there with me again, he writes, that walking in the Light, we are “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” You see, not only are we to do what God commands by living good, right, and truthful lives, we are also to do so out of a desire or burden to please the Lord. That must be our greatest desire with our lives, we must aim to please Him in all things.
I’ll be honest with you, by nature I am a people pleaser. I worry way too much about what each of you think about me, and if Im not careful that worry and fear of man will overshadow my fear and love for the Lord. And because of that, there are times I am tempted to please people instead of pleasing God. And so when occasions arise when I need to confront someone’s living in sin, I can easily pause because I fear how that conversation might affect our relationship. Now, by God’s grace, I have grown in this over the years, because I realize that pleasing God, sometimes means that I must have uncomfortable conversations with people. And so in love for my brothers and sisters in Christ, I will often step out in faith and have those difficult conversations. Conversations that may very well impact my relationship with them. But, like you, I must keep coming back to time and again the important fundamental question: “What will please the Lord?”
Brothers and sisters, too often we are too focused on pleasing ourselves or pleasing others, when the Bible calls us to simply please God. And sadly, we rarely learn from our own experience… But let me tell what I’ve learned in my life and have to remind myself often… The only path to true pleasure in this world is living your life to please God. Only in living to please God will we discover lasting and wonderful pleasure, joy, peace, and love.
Walking in the light will produce a harvest of spiritual fruit. Does your life right now reflect God’s goodness, righteousness, and truth? If not, can I just invite you to pause right now and pray to God, and ask Him for grace to help you to walk in the Light!
3) Walking in the light necessitates the exposure of darkness (vs. 11-13).
As children of Light we are to expose the darkness. In verse 11, the apostle Paul wrote, “Do not participate in the unlawful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.” Notice if you will the stark contrast of walking in Light that we see in verses 9 and 10, to the deeds of darkness noted here in verse 11. It’s as if Paul is offering us a botanical lesson. You see, light causes growth that bears fruit, but the darkness naturally hinders all spiritual growth. If I had a garden, and placed a black thick tarp over half of it, would good anything grow there? No! it wont. Similarly, the fruit of the Spirit and fruit of the Light fail cannot grow or mature in the darkness. Oh, how our sin may be pleasant in a season, it may bring moments of gratification, but it will surely fail to produce a lasting harvest of joy, peace, and the fulfillment that it promises.
Thus, Paul urges his audience to not even participate in the life of darkness. In the original Greek, the phrase “participate in”, is interesting. It implies being a partaker of darkness with others. Here the apostle is warning us of the great dangers that are related with our associations. As Christians we must be very careful not to identify with wickedness or give it any the opportunity to take hold of our heart. Young people, listen up for a moment, the people you chose to be closest to you have a irresistible influence on your life. Be sure to chose your closest friends wisely. Make sure they are like minded in faith, and love the Lord.
Now obviously this doesn’t mean that we are to shelter in place and avoid contact with those who do not know or follow Christ. No, we are to be light in our world, we are we are go to the lost and share the gospel, and shine as light. Yet, at the same time we must do so very wisely and carefully. At all costs, we must avoid being sucked into the very powerful dark ways of this world.
Instead, the Bible says, we are to expose the darkness. This obviously is much more than just avoidance or participation in the dark ways of sin. As Christians, we are called by God to bring His light to sinful activity. The Greek verb that is translated as expose in this verse, means to reprove, correct, and discipline. Listen church, if you simply ignore evil, or turn a blind eye to the sinful choices of those you proclaim to love, are you not guilty of both encouraging and promoting evil? Are you not denying them and depriving them of your love. Oh, how unloving it is to ignore sin and allow a brother or sister to continue to destroy their lives in their selfish persuits. As followers of Christ, we are to lovingly confront sin and gently restore those caught in sin.
Yet, sadly, we easily talk ourselves out of such confrontation, and we do so because we don’t comprehend the destructive nature of just a little sin. Prior to moving to New England, I used to minister in a proud Navy community. We lived right next to Kingsbay Naval Submarine Base, and most of the people in my previous church worked on that base, and they would often talk about the warheads and the missile that Trident submarines carried in and out of our little town. One missile fired out of one of those submarines could make the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima look like firecracker. Im not going to lie, it was scary to think of the power that existed on each of those subs, but folks even the power of those nuclear warheads is nothing compared to the destructive power of sin.
Just think of Adam and Eve, who simply took a bite out of a forbidden fruit, and in that one sinful decision, the entire world was drastically changed forever and all things quickly began to spin out of control. Oh my church family, a little sin can take you much further away from God than you can ever imagine. One Christian apologists said it like this…. “sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” Oh, how important it is for us to understand the destructive nature of evil. All sin, no matter how small it may seem has devastating power within.
That’s why Paul writes in verse 12, “for it disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.” Now, if it is disgraceful to merely talk about sin in a light manner or celebrate evil activity then how much more offensive to God is us actually doing them? Think about that!
In verse 13, the apostle sums up his thoughts here on exposure… he wrote, “But all things become visible when they are exposed by light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” Friends, our source of light for exposing evil is the Word of God, and we are commissioned to hold everything up to the light of Scripture, so that we can see things clearly and view them as they truly are, so that we can live in the light of truth. You see, when sin is revealed, it losses its hidden power and nature, and its ugliness and nature are revealed. Oh blind and hopeless we are in our sin, until someone lovingly illuminates and exposes our sin with the Word.
Now, we naturally hate it when our sin is revealed, don’t we? Its humbling and even painful… but be assured of this… when our sin is brought to the light, it is a means of God’s grace! In love He has pursued you and allowed you to get caught so that you will change the direction of your life. I once heard a pastor refer to such pain as the awful grace of God. And sometimes, we must taste the awful grace of God before we can ever experience the Amazing Grace of God.
Church family, if we are to walk in the Light, we must gently confront each other in our sin, and bring it to light in love.
4) Walking in the light demands the Church to wake up and stay alert (v. 14).
Verse 14 reads, “For this reason it says, ‘Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” Many commentators believe this verse is taken from an early and ancient hymn that was sung during baptismal services, some believe that it was even written by Paul himself. Notice if you will the two different directions in which the cry of this hymn moves. First, to the sleeper, that is the wayward Christian, the disobedient, the Christ follower who is caught in sinful living and compromising with the darkness.
To them Paul shouts wake up! Oh, do you not understand the power of the sin in which you entertain? The things you are doing are literally destroying not only your life but the ones closest to you. Oh, how Satan loves to convince us that sin is normal, that it’s not a big deal, that we can get away with it, and it won’t really affect any one around us. Therefore, we compromise, and decide to do things just one more time, just a little more sin, it will be ok, no one will really get hurt. So you have one more drink, one more view of porn, one more night of getting high, you send one more flirty text message to someone who is not your spouse, one more trip to the place you know you do not belong, or place one more bet on a sure thing…
Oh, would you wake up from the madness that you have created where you convinced yourself that there is nothing wrong with just a little more. Someone, in this room right now are soon going to greatly regret doing something just one more time. Your world is about to change forever, and not in a good way. Will that be you?
Oh, you need to wake up and stop hitting the snooze button! Wake up!!!! Wake up!!! The life that Christ offers the Christian who walks in the Light is infinitely better than the momentary pleasures you keep pursuing. That’s the first direction of this wake up call.
Secondly, Paul cries out to the spiritually dead, “arise!” In Colossians 2:13-14, a parallel to Eph. 2 which we read earlier, Paul wrote this sacred words, “When you were dead in your transgression… He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all of our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taking it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Oh what good news is the glory of the cross! The Bible repeatedly reminds us that we are sinners. That we have an enormous debt to which owe the One who created us to live for His glory. You see sin is merely failing to live every moment, every second of your life, for His glory. Romans 3:23 explains… “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Please understand that your sin debt is far more than those big sins that you have committed. For some reason that is where our minds tend to go, and when we do so, we naturally begin to compare ourselves with others, and so we convince ourselves that our lives are not really that bad comparatively. Now that’s really dangerous ground my friend, because it is then that your need for a Savior is greatly belittled. John Calvin argues, “No one knows the one-hundredth part of the sin that clings to his soul.”
Listen, everyone of us have a certificate of debt, one we could never repay, one that is hostile towards us. It’s hostile in nature because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Every sinful thought, every sinful word, every sinful action carries a just death penalty. Our sinful thoughts, actions, and words stirs the holy wrath of God. And if we die in our sin we will certainly taste His wrath for eternity in hell. But God in His grace, sent His Son to live a perfect sinless life on our behalf and to die on a Roman cross so that His wrath towards our sin could be satisfied. You see on Calvary Jesus endured the wrath of God in our place, and through faith and repentance, God cancels out the debt we owe Him, because Christ paid it for us in full.
Oh sinner have been forgiven by the blood? Have you placed your trust in Christ, have you committed your life to live for Him as your Lord? Have you began to live a life that is marked by repentance? You see you will continue to sin and mess up, but will you get up and walk once again with the Lord. Proverbs 24:16 reads… “For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again.” I tell my boys all the time, you are going to make some foolish decisions and fall into sin, but do you get back up? That’s the question. That’s the evidence of saving faith, that when we fall we rise up stronger and learn from our mistakes! That’s how we live for His glory! If you have never placed your faith in Christ, and you are tired of living in sin… after the service, will you come find me, I would love to talk to you and share with you the hope and grace of our Savior. You can be forgiven of every sin, no matter how big your sin debt may be, no matter what evil thing you have done… God’s grace is greater!!! Will you arise today and begin to walk in the Light?
Lastly, Paul writes in verse 14, “And Christ will shine upon you.” If you have your Bibles still open, will you turn with me to Isaiah 60. That is where we will end today… Many commentators believe the opening of this chapter in Isaiah was the inspiration to the Christian hymn that we have recorded in verse 14 of Ephesians 5…. Look at verse 1 with me… “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
The prophet Isaiah looks forward to the time which Paul has seen among the Ephesian Christians as they have turned from darkness and await the coming of the Lord Jesus. Paul anticipates that God will use them powerfully in their city to expose the darkness as Christ shines upon them and through them.
Church family, we live in a very very dark time, but we are to be the Light of the World! As God’s redeemed and adopted children, His glory has shined upon us and we reflect that glory to the world around us. We do that by avoiding ungodly behavior and walking in the Light. This last verse calls us to wake up, arise, stay alert and Christ will shine upon you, and friends, there is no greater joy, no greater comfort, no greater peace, no greater hope than the warmth we experience in His light. Brother and Sisters may we go into the world today and be a source of a warm and loving light to a world of darkness.
Pray with me….
KSW1