Ephesians 5:1-21--Walk In Love

Walk in Love​
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

​“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
​
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

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So, now that we know that Christ has made us one and that we have been made new, receiving a new identity and should no longer look like the "old man," what now?  Paul next tells believers that they are to "walk in love" by being imitators of God--remember we were made in His image to reflect His character, nature, and authority to creation.  We are not just to walk in any kind of love, but the agape love that is a sacrificial love--the love that motivated Jesus to go to the cross to die in our place.  Now we too should live our lives as living sacrifices until the Lord (see Romans 12) and should flee sexual immorality and all impurity and covetousness and the like (see I Corinthians 6).

There should be no hint of these things which are trademarks of the world within the Church and its members--not even filthy or foolish talk or crude jokes.  We should be above reproach as we are called to be holy (set apart and different) because God is holy (see 1 Peter 1:13-16 and Ephesians 1:4).  Instead we should be full of thanksgiving and praise for our God and Savior.

In case we missed it earlier or in any of the other epistles where Paul addresses this issue or in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches this, you cannot have the identity of the world and have the destiny of a saint.  Those who are sexually immoral, impure, covetous and idolaters (those who worship a false god, even a false version of God that is pleasing and acceptable to their sensibilities) will have no part in eternal life or heaven because this is reserved only for the sons of God as their inheritance and the inheritance does not belong to anyone outside of the family.  The inheritance for these children of the devil is the wrath of God because they have chosen to be "sons of disobedience."

Because of this we should not partner with these kind of men in our ministry.  They do not have the same mission or vision and they do not have the same end and we may get caught up in the wrath that will be poured out on them.  This is not to say that you lock yourself in an ivory tower and have no contact with the world or that you find a way to only work with believers, but do not bind or "yoke" yourself to a relationship with an unbeliever where the two of you are pulling in different directions--things like marriages, business partnerships and the like.  The world will always force you to compromise to move away from Jesus and the Word of God; they will never compromise to move closer to the gospel for you.  That is not in their nature because they hate God and the things of God and the Word of God (whether or not they realize it).  Paul uses the analogy of light and darkness (one used a lot in Scripture since the very beginning) because light and darkness can not comingle or coexist.  Light always drives out the darkness.  So it is that we are citizens of the "kingdom of light" and the world's citizens are citizens of the "kingdom of darkness."

Since we have now received the Light of the World (that is Jesus) we should walk in the Light so that we can see clearly--therefore we should walk in obedience to the Word and will of God.  We should not bear the "fruit" of the flesh but the fruit of the Spirit (we studied this in the book of Galatians), which is everything that is good, and right, and true.  We should try to discern what pleases the Lord (and what displeases Him) and as His children aim to do what pleases Him and not what displeases and hurts Him (while we can't injure God per se, God is grieved by our sin....we see this in Genesis 6 where God is so grieved by the sin of the world that He is sorry that He ever made man.).  We are to be good image-bearers of God and take no part in the deeds of darkness, but instead we should let the Light that lives in and through us expose the darkness.


John 3:19-21
English Standard Version19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

1 John 1:5-10
English Standard Version
Walking in the Light
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

​Therefore we are to cry out to the world 

“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
​
So that the light of Christ may reveal everything to them so that they might be called to repentance and be saved.  For we should not be happy to allow people to continue to walk in darkness, but as ambassadors of the kingdom of Light, we should also reflect the light of the world into all corners of the earth which, might expose some pretty ugly stuff by the way, with the intent of calling people to be saved from judgment and to be called to let their old man be put to death with Christ on the cross so that they may receive the new life of Christ's glorious resurrection.

Therefore we must be wise concerning the days and times that we live in for the days are evil and the time is near.  There is much work for us to do as the Church and we cannot afford to be lazy, apathetic, or ignorant.  Nor can we afford to adopt the "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" philosophy of the world.  We must be sober-minded like a soldier that must always be ready for battle and to be vigilant that the enemy may attack at any time.  In this case we need to be ready because the end is near.

I do like how Paul tells us to not be drunk with spirits (wine) but to be filled with the Spirit of God (this was an intentional play on words on Paul's part).  There is only one Spirit who should control us now and that is the Spirit of God.  One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control, though we know that we do not want to be controlled by our self (our flesh)--we've just spent a lot of time talking about that.  Instead we are to be Spirit-controlled so that our "self" is controlled.

So instead of these actions which we are not to adopt, what should we be doing instead?  Paul lays out things we should be filling our lives with instead.  We are to be "...addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."  If you are filling yourself with the Word of God and with the hymns that are full of the Word of God then God's Word will be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path, will show you the way in which you should go and will help keep you from error (see Psalm 119--I know it's long, but it's worth the read every once in a while to remind us to love the Word, especially God's commandments, precents and statutes).