Note from Celeste:
Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.
Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.
The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:
- Scripture passage (World English Bible)
- Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
- Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.
Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around. Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.
Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.
Order Go and Find a Donkey today to prepare your family for this year’s Easter season!
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Kindle book of Go and Find a Donkey.
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Paperback of Go and Find a Donkey.
AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Ephesians 5:8-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM
OBSERVE:
The Apostle Paul’s words in Ephesians are a reminder to those who have received a “wake up call” from God. They had been in the dark sleep of sin. Now they are to:
Walk as children of light.
This is an apt metaphor, contrasting the darkness of sin with the light of God’s goodness and righteousness.
Earlier in this passage, Paul has defined some of the darkness to which his readers had been susceptible:
sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness… filthiness… foolish talking… jesting, which are not appropriate… (Ephesians 5:3,4).
And he makes a clear statement of warning:
Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God (Ephesians 5:5).
But now, in this passage, we get a picture of the fruit of the Spirit, not unlike the more detailed fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Here in Ephesians, Paul says:
for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
These three qualities (goodness, righteousness, truth) are near the pinnacle of the highest good (summum bonum) of the ethical life of the Christian. The use of the word proving used by Paul may carry metaphorical weight. The Greek word dokimazo is a term used to describe the testing of metals to determine their purity. The goodness, righteousness and truth produced by the Spirit certainly pass that test!
Paul returns to the metaphorical contrast of darkness and light. He urges his readers to:
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.
Not only are they to avoid the deeds of darkness, they are to reprove them and not even speak of those things. There is a distinction between those who do these things and the deeds that are done. Paul is not advising the Ephesians to reprove the doers, but reprove their deeds. That may seem like a fine distinction until we remember that even his readers were once guilty of these deeds of darkness.
We are reminded of his words to the Corinthian church:
Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom. Such were [emphasis mine] some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
Note the “before and after” effect. That was then; this is now, because they are now children of light.
This may be a classic case of “hate the sin, love the sinner.” And we might add a phrase: “hate the sin because of what it does to the sinner.”
Paul asserts that when these things are reproved, they are brought to the surface:
But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
Finally, Paul exhorts his readers:
Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Based on the grammar of this passage, Paul is quoting God himself as the speaker. God himself is exhorting the people. Although there is no exact quote with these words from the Old Testament, there is some opinion that these words convey the same sense as the words of Isaiah 26:19 or Isaiah 60:1-3. Still others suggest that this was a verse from a Christian hymn that may have been sung in the early church. Or it may have been that Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was speaking these words on behalf of God.
The point is clear — those who were dead in the darkness of sin are urged to awaken to new life and bask in the light of Christ. This is nothing less than a spiritual resurrection.
APPLY:
There is clearly a “before and after” in the Christian life. Back in the days of the Jesus Movement and the Jesus Freaks in the early 1970’s, a Christian might describe their lives as “B.C.” and “A.C.” — Before Christ and After Christ.
Paul skillfully uses the metaphor of darkness/death contrasted to light/life. The person who once lived in darkness has “awakened” to the light of Christ. The deeds of darkness are overcome by the light.
The light is a powerful symbol for us of the spiritual life. Jesus, the incarnate Word, has come into the world to bring the light:
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it (John 1:5).
Like Paul, the Apostle John urges Christians to walk in the light:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
To walk with Christ is to walk in his light, and to walk in the paths of his truth, love and holiness.
RESPOND:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said:
Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.
This is consistent with Paul’s contention:
But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
I can remember visiting the parsonage of an unmarried pastor with my wife many years ago. He walked ahead of us into the kitchen, and turned on the light. He said, “Wait just a minute before you come in.” We stood with him in the doorway, and we immediately saw why he was warning us.
The counters, the kitchen table, and the floor, were covered with thousands of tiny cockroaches that scurried away from the light, back into the dark nooks and crannies of the kitchen! My wife found it very difficult to enter the parsonage at all, let alone sit on the furniture!
I think of that incident when I think of the effect that the light of Christ has on sin. Sin is sent scurrying away when the light of Christ comes near.
Perhaps another word about reproof is called for. Paul tells us to reprove the deeds of darkness. In our era of tolerance and pluralism, we may find it very difficult to follow these instructions. We are taught to “mind our own business;” to “live and let live.” Sometimes the only Scripture that people quote is when they are justifying their own sinful behavior — “Judge not, lest ye be judged!”
What a difficult dilemma. Is a Christian to reprove those who are doing wrong? Obviously, we are not in a position to judge anyone. That is God’s prerogative alone.
However, we are able to assess the damage that sin does to people whom we love. That becomes the fundamental question — do we love someone enough to warn them that the behavior in which they are engaged is spiritually, morally, and even existentially lethal?
We may all know the familiar cliche, Love the sinner, but hate the sin. I have learned to add a phrase — because of what the sin does to the sinner.
Lord, I know the darkness in which I once walked, and I thank you for the light into which you have awakened me. Empower me to walk in the light, and also to show others that same light. Amen.
PHOTOS:
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