“Illumined in Christ”

Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-20

There isn’t much in creation that can flourish in the darkness, other than mushrooms and snakes, and even they need a little light from time to time. The dark can be a foreboding place.

Pastor Howard Chapman has vivid memories of the time he lived in West Africa with his missionary parents. Whenever you went out at night, you needed a flashlight to not only keep from tripping and falling, but to help watch for deadly venomous snakes that were nocturnal in nature. He wrote:

I can remember one night walking with my mother along a path. It was very dark. I was only about 5 or 6, and I kept bugging my mother to let me carry the flashlight. She finally agreed, but told me that it was not a toy and that we needed to be careful because of snakes. Well, I think that kind of freaked me out a little and made me nervous. I started shining the light off into the underbrush and long grass at the side of the path. My mother did not put up with that for very long. She snatched the light away from me and asked me what I thought I was doing. "Looking for snakes," I told her.

"No," she said, "we are not looking for snakes. We are looking at the path ahead. As long as there is nothing ahead of us we keep walking. If we see something, we stop. It will be afraid of the light and will go off into the dark. When it is safe, we go on. But the light must always shine on the path ahead."

--Rev. Dr. Howard Chapman of First Presbyterian Church in Marion, Iowa

Because of his fear, the boy was more focused on what might come at him from out of the darkness, instead of paying attention to the lighted path ahead of him. That can also be a problem for Christians – sometimes we get so focused on the sin that hides in the world’s dark recesses that we forget to set our eyes on the path that the Light of Christ reveals. If sin encroaches on our way, and if we remain focused on the lighted way of Christ, His Light will reveal any intruder for what it is, and it will flee from that Light.

Read Ephesians 5:1-7

Paul is describing how “people of the darkness” live. He lists these nine issues in three groups of three, so let’s take a quick look at each of the groupings. But before we do, an observation. It’s interesting that he doesn’t give this warning against those who are outside the Church – it is for those within the church. These are actions and attitudes that the worldly people follow, and there is no place for these ways in the life of the church. He tells the Ephesians, and us, that they are to be imitators of God, not of the world.

So, the first of the three groups seems to center on sin that comes from our sensual pleasures – immoral sexuality, impure attitudes, and greed (presumably that which is exhibited in unrestrained sexual desires). He writes that these are improper for God’s “holy people”, that the acts, as well as the attitudes, must be eliminated from our lives.

The second group focuses on our tongue. Obscene language, foolish talk (which can include many things, such as gossip, bragging, lies, and so on), and crude jokes. The book of James says that the tongue “… is a fire … it stains the whole body … and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:5-12) No other part of the body is cautioned to the extent that the tongue is.

The third group is about idolatry. This is about our love and worship of other gods. This reference to immorality, impurity and greed is much more general in nature that that which is described in the first group. These are those things in life that we allow to become our god – it includes dishonesty, corrupt acts, our sinful acts against others, the filth that makes us unclean in the eyes of God (Matthew 15:16-20), and our desires to have more, to do more, to control more, to get more than our “neighbor” can.

Paul tells us that those who tell us that these things are good for our lives are “deceiving” us, and we should have nothing to do with them. These are the “snakes” that the boy Howard Chapman feared (remember him from our opening story?), and they are the sins that the light of Christ will reveal in our own lives.

Read Ephesians 5:8-14

In chapter 1 (Ephesians 1:18), Paul prays that the “eyes of your heart” – the vision of the church – will be enlightened. In this passage, he goes further by saying that while we were once darkness (sinful), that now the people, by faith in Christ, have become “a light in the Lord”. This light allows us to lead others in truth, and not in deception as the people of earth do. The light gives us a Godly perspective in life – we are created anew in this Light, we receive and share the good and righteous “fruit” of the Light, and it shows us what is pleasing to God. Bringing joy to God, though, is not such an easy thing to understand. It isn’t as simple as obeying the law and the commandments, it isn’t just about the things that we do – it is about the heart that guides all that we do. We can put a double tithe in the offering plate every week, but if we do it grudgingly, the offering means nothing to the Lord! We are called to love what we do in His name.
1 Corinthians 13:3 – “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”!!! Without a right heart, nothing will come from what we do, no matter how good it may seem.

If we focus our lives on that which the Light of the Lord lead us to, it will perfectly reveal what is of God and what is of the world. And the “snakes” of earth hate the Light, because it shows them for what they are – contrary and opposed to the way of Christ.

Paul writes about the “fruit of the light” versus the “fruitless deeds of the darkness”. Whenever we stop depending on the Light to lead us in the right path, we will quickly wind up in the dark and oppressive undergrowth of the world. He says that only the Light will show us where we are, and only the Light can show us how to get back on the path with Christ.

So wake up! Don’t try to avoid the snakes on your own - trust the Light to expose the snakes, and then to send them running.

Read Ephesians 5:15-20

The apostle concludes this thought by comparing true wisdom, as opposed to the thoughts and life of the unwise. He makes a couple of important points in these verses.

First, we are to use every opportunity for service that the Lord gives us, because “the days are evil”. We might say “the times are evil” – that it is more than just a temptation or two, that it is more than a momentary lapse into sin, that it is not a short period of time. It means that evil abounds for years upon years – that the sin that is so prevalent around us will continue to plague us until the day that Christ returns to claim his Church. But just because there are “snakes” in the darkness around us, that doesn’t mean that we stop walking down the Lord’s path! We must continue to follow the will and Light of God as long as we draw breath!

The second point is this – that we are not to surrender to the “foolish” ways of earth, that we are to constantly seek the will and way of our Almighty God. We fight that foolishness by allowing the Spirit to fill us and work within us. We are to praise the Lord with that same tongue that has the tendency to speak evil – for if we keep our tongue busy proclaiming Jesus Christ, it won’t have the time or inclination to speak the world’s “foolishness”.

We are called to be “the light of the world – a city on a hill” (Matthew 5:13-16), even while we walk through the darkness of earth. And as we carry that light, as it dispels the blindness that flourishes in our life and in the lives of others, we will use that light to illuminate, not only our way, but their way, too. Praise and thanksgiving must be our life’s work, not fear and hesitation and trepidation. We are to be Light bearers – Christ bearers - not light shields. We are to rejoice in the Light and the truths that it reveals, not ones who denounce that truth.

We are called to not only be illuminated by the Light of Christ, but to carry that Light into the darkness, that others might come to know its radiance and blessing for themselves. And that is what will bring pleasure and joy and rejoicing to the heart of our God.