"Jesus Changes Our Walk, pt.2 (Eph 5:1-21)", Will DuVal | 11/3/24
Ephesians 5:1-21 | 11/3/24 | Will DuVal
Every morning when our 23-month old son Bo wakes up, I get him out of his pack-n-play and I set him on our bathroom counter while I get ready for the day. I brush my teeth; Bo wants to brush his. I put in my contacts; Bo practices putting in his. I use the potty; Bo insists on sitting there and trying his hardest.
As children, we instinctively take our cues for how to live from our PARENTS. And that is exactly what the apostle PAUL, in Ephesians ch5, vv1-21 for this morning, is going to exhort us to do SPIRITUALLY as well; all who have been SAVED and ADOPTED into the family of GOD, Paul compels us to “be imitators of God, [therefore] as [His] beloved children.”
God brushes; YOU brush. Like Father, like child.
Remember, Paul urged us back in ch4 to “walk in a manner WORTHY of your calling” to HOLINESS. And Paul BEGAN to describe a holy walk for us as one characterized by “humility and gentleness, patience [and] love”, “peaceful unity”, “honesty”, “righteous anger”, hard work and generosity, gracious and edifying speech, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Already a pretty long list, but Paul continues it now in ch5.
This sermon, once again, is gonna be HEAVY on the “DOs and DON’Ts” - DO this, DON’T do that. But we can’t forget why and how God calls us to ANY of this: as a RESPONSE, empowered by what he has ALREADY done for us IN CHRIST. We have been SAVED by GRACE through FAITH; not by OUR obedience to God, but because of HIS great love and mercy toward US, chs 1-3 of Ephesians celebrated. THEREFORE, now… BECAUSE of what Christ has done for us, let us now LIVE like the redeemed, purified, transformed people that we ARE, chs 4-6 exhort us.
Let us “put ON that new self, re-“created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”.
Now let’s find out how to DO that…
I invite you to STAND… Ephesians 5:1-21. Hear the word…
“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.”
[This is the word of the Lord… Seated…]
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Paul begins by quickly but importantly reminding us WHY we walk in holiness in the first place: he offers us two reasons:
First, because… 1) We are CHILDREN OF GOD, (v1) who want to imitate our holy Father.
And not just children, but BELOVED children! Lately Ellery asks me every day after work if we can go outside and pepper the volleyball in the yard. She might ask if she was just a child; just to spend time with me, perhaps try and EARN my love. But how much more motivated is she, knowing she’s already GOT my love, as a BELOVED child. Beloved children LOVE spending time with their parents, cuz they love being LOVED! And enjoying a game together, a game that I love, is an opportunity for Ellery to EXPERIENCE my love for her.
Church: HOLINESS is the game that our heavenly Father loves to play. He is “Holy, Holy, HOLY”! And he invites us to come play it WITH him, and experience His love for us.
And speaking of love, that’s Paul’s SECOND reason for walking in holiness now: because 2) We are LOVED BY CHRIST. (v2)
We “walk in love”, v2, “as Christ loved US”. “We love because he first loved us.” (1 Jn 4:19). Not only does my love for Ellery make her wanna play volleyball; it makes her wanna love ME in response as well.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). And yet JESUS laid down HIS life for us… while we were still his ENEMIES! (Rom 5:8). He “gave himself up for us”; Jesus said, “No one takes [my life] from me; I lay it down of my own accord.” (Jn 10:18)
That’s how much he LOVED us! Enough to WILLINGLY go to the cross, and suffer the most agonizing death imaginable, to “give himself up for [you, as] a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Hebrews 9:26 - “[Christ] appeared once for all… to put away sin [to REMOVE our sin] by the sacrifice of himself.”
So, Paul reasons, if Jesus was willing to literally DIE so that you and I might spiritually LIVE, the LEAST that WE can now do in RESPONSE is spiritually DIE to our sin, so that HE might now live and love through us, by the power of His SPIRIT. May we “walk in LOVE”. You want to walk in a manner WORTHY of your calling to Christ? Walk in LOVE.
But what does it LOOK like to “walk in love”, in practice? Paul defines it for us now in vv3 & 4; FIVE characteristics of walking in love & holiness:
For starters: 1) We walk In PURITY (in our deeds, our actions; v3a)
The Christian walk, as imitators of God, necessarily EXCLUDES “sexual immorality and ALL impurity”.
The first Greek word there is “porneia”, the root of our word “pornography”. But in the Greek it was much broader, referring to ANY form of sexual “out-of-boundedness” and SIN: fornication, adultery, LUST, homosexuality, polyamory… ALL of it and MORE is PROHIBITED here.
But then Paul broadens the scope even MORE to rule out not just SEXUAL immorality, but “ALL impurity”.
An impure love of SELF - pride…
An impure love of STUFF - greed…
An impure love of SIN - licentiousness…
An impure love of ANYTHING above Christ - idolatry.
The list goes on. But it MUSTN’T for the imitator of God, for the lover of Christ. Such worldliness “must not even be named among [us]”. Paul is NOT of course saying, “Don’t even mention such sins,” cuz then HE couldn’t mention it and I couldn’t PREACH it. No, what he literally says is: “they must not be named IN you”. You often see people on social media list various TITLES, LABELS that DEFINE them, right BESIDE their name, in their profile:
“Will DuVal. Disciple. Husband. Father. Pastor.”Here, Paul’s saying: “If you got REAL honest and started listing (“naming”) not just those roles that you HIDE behind, but the traits that REALLY define you, deep down, at the CORE of who you ARE, that list CANNOT - it MUST not - read like this:
“Will DuVal: philanderer. LUSTER. Narcissist. Hedonist. Glutton. Drunkard. Slanderer. Grudge-holder. Lover of IMPURITY.That kind of behavior CANNOT “name”, mark, characterize the life of the believer. Rather, we walk in PURITY.
““Blessed are the pure in heart”, Jesus said, “for they shall see God.” (Mt 5:8).
#2- We ALSO walk in CONTENTMENT (v3b)
After BROADENING the scope of sin from sexual immorality to “ALL impurity”, Paul now adds a surprising vice in v3: “covetousness”. Why?
Well Paul pens a LOT of these lists of sins throughout his letters, and he almost ALWAYS starts them porneia, perhaps because it’s one of the most OBVIOUS, VISIBLE sins. It’s also uniquely intimate and defiling, according to 1 Corinthians 6:18 - “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
So Paul BEGINS there, but then quickly broadens to include ALL impurity; ALL sins. But NOW he’s answering the question: “But where do all those sins come from ANYWAY? Is there like a SOURCE sin, behind them all?”
And I think Paul’s answer is: COVETING. A discontented and unholy desire for MORE. We covered this back when we exposited the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20;
why do STEAL? Because we covet a particular object in our hearts.
Why do we LIE? Because we covet someone’s approval, or we covet CONTROL over a particular outcome that we’re trying to manipulate into happening.
Why DO we engage in sexual immorality? Because we covet (illicit) SEX.
And you can go right down the LIST of sins and argue that just about every ONE of them can ultimately be traced back to COVETOUSNESS - a lack of CONTENTMENT.
Contentment is the CURE for coveting. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim 6:6), Paul says; “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Ph 4:11). Jesus said, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of [MORE].”” (Lk 12:15)
Covetousness is the insatiable hunger “MORE”:
More STUFF (greed)
More SEX (porneia)
More SELF (pride)
Covetousness says, “MORE!”, but Contentment says, “ENOUGH”. “Be content with what you have”, Hebrews 13:5 exhorts us, “because GOD has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”” And “Aren’t I ENOUGH for you?!” God wants to know. Friends: he is MORE than enough! May we be content in CHRIST.
Third, we walk 3) In PROPRIETY (3c)
Paul COULD have said, “No porneia, no impurity, no coveting… because God is ENOUGH.” Or “...because GOD is HOLY.” But the reason he offers us HERE is: because it’s not “proper among saints.” It’s not “FITTING”, or suitable, your translation may say.
We should never be surprised when a SINNER sins; it’s in their NATURE, Paul told us back in ch2. But we should ALWAYS be a bit flustered and MORE than a bit troubled when a SAINT sins, because it is NO LONGER in our NEW, re-created, Spirit-filled nature, in Christ. We EXPECT sin from the sinner, but NOT from the SAINT. We expect HOLINESS from saints; it FITS.
How do you know what kind of behavior is “fitting, PROPER” in the household of God? Every family’s RULES are a little different; my wife grew up at the country club, so “elbows off the table, and knowing which fork goes with which dish” were like really important; I grew up in the SOUTH, so saying “Please & Thank You”; “Yes Sir” & “No Ma’am” were more important. How about in GOD’S family?
“How can a young man keep his way pure?”, Psalm 119 asks. “By guarding it according to [God’s] word” (v9). God has not left us in the DARK, friends; he’s given us GUIDELINES for living, a RULEBOOK as it were. Christians are often quick to point out that the Bible is so much more than a list of “Dos and Don’ts”; it’s a STORY, of God’s persistent LOVE for us. And that’s true; praise God - the Bible IS more than a rulebook… but it’s not LESS than one. In other words, it IS a story… and it’s ALSO a STANDARD, a GUIDE, a family rulebook that directs and shapes our life and conduct in the kingdom of God. God’s word is how we KNOW what kind of behavior is “PROPER among saints”. We need to STUDY God’s word, and we need to KEEP it.
Fourth: we walk In PURITY not ONLY of deeds, but of WORDS as well (v4a). Paul raises the bar even higher:
“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place”.
Words MATTER, to God. Christians don’t LAUGH at the same jokes that non-Christians do; we CERTAINLY don’t TELL the same jokes. We shouldn’t USE the same “filthy” language either; the Greek word means “obscenity”. I mentioned last week in v29 of ch4 that when Paul said, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths”, he wasn’t really talking about stubbing your toe and letting a 4-letter word slip out; he was talking about DENIGRATING others, as opposed to EDIFYING them. But NOW, in chapter FIVE, Paul DOES seem to be prohibiting ALL obscenities.
You say, “Well, it’s just a WORD.” One way to THINK about this, though, is that our words are just yet another opportunity for HOLINESS, literally, “set apartness”. To be DIFFERENT than those around us. Not so we can look or feel morally superior to others, but simply so we can STAND OUT in a way that might open up an opportunity to WITNESS to others (or at least not RUIN it.)
I LOVE Nate Bargatze. I’ve quoted some his jokes in sermons; funniest guy on the planet. He’s the only guest in YEARS who’s been asked to host SNL TWICE in a calendar YEAR. And yet he’s ALSO the only one who doesn’t SWEAR or joke about SEX. You know how RARE that is; how HARD it is, to be funny… please don’t send me links to your favorite Christian comedian; John Crist, Tim Hawkins - if they’re cracking jokes ABOUT the Church, they’re not funny. (Actually, I think that might constitute the kind of “foolish talk” Paul warns against in v4; we don’t MAKE LIGHT of the faith.) But to be FUNNY without having to resort to profanity or SMUT - and just look at the PLATFORM God has blessed a guy like Nate Bargatze with because of it. He STANDS OUT.
We Christians oughta be like that. Not necessarily with humor; we don’t all have that gift. But we can all use our words in a way that honors the Lord, and attracts others. If filthiness and crude joking OFFENDS, our words ought to ATTRACT.
FIFTH: 5) we must walk in THANKSGIVING (v4b)
This is another admonition that seems to come a bit out of the blue; we don’t expect Paul to CONTRAST it with “obscenities, foolish talk, and crude joking”. But that’s what he does; he says, “Don’t use your words in THAT way, RATHER… use them to express GRATITUDE.” Don’t give OFFENSE; give THANKS.
It’s an odd juxtaposition, but here’s what I think Paul is highlighting: filthiness, foolishness, and foulness exploit the FALLENNESS of this world; they hold up what is UGLY and BROKEN in the world and say, “Hey, look at THIS… listen to THIS…”. Whereas thankfulness highlights what is BEST about the world that God created and still superintends and LOVES, and says, “Praise GOD for THIS… thank you, God, for THAT…”
“Let there be thanksgiving” - I know it’s just around the corner, but EVERY day should be Thanksgiving for the believer!
Paul says later in v20: “Giv[e] thanks always and for everything to God the Father”
Colossians 3:17 “whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Now in v5 Paul SHIFTS a bit, from commending HOW we ought to walk, to cautioning us about why it’s so important that we ARE in fact walking in that way.
Paul’s been reviewing the RULES; now we consider the RATIONALE behind the rules, and some reminders for KEEPING them.
First of all, we need to 1) Be WARNED. (v5)
“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 [God’s] kingdom”. Three points I wanna make here:
First, notice Paul lists “idolaters” here. He warned us against porneia, impurity and covetousness in v3, but now he adds this parenthetical clarification that he’s talking about IDOLATERS; why?
I think it’s SHORT-hand, for ALL SINNERS. Elsewhere, Paul includes these LONG LISTS, like 1 Corinthians 6: “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God… neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor practitioners of homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers…” (vv9-11) but HERE, he stops with “idolaters”, because once again, you can argue that this sin really encapsulates ALL of them. What IS idolatry? It’s when something - ANYTHING - becomes more important to you than THE LORD. Your spouse, your kids, your job… we’ve just got different NAMES for it with certain idols.
When you make an idol of STUFF, we call it greed.
When you make an idol of SEX, we call it lust.
The idol of SELF is PRIDE. Etc.
So Paul includes “idolater” here to make it clear that ALL sinners are excluded from God’s kingdom.Second thing to note: Paul actually refers to “the kingdom of Christ and God.” That phrasing sounds weird, doesn’t it - “Christ and God” - this is the only time it’s found that way in the Bible, and there are only a COUPLE other places that discuss the kingdom as belonging to JESUS; it’s usually just “the kingdom of GOD”. Why does Paul mention “CHRIST” here?
It’s often said, “To ERR is human”. It’s NORMAL to MESS UP; it’s just human NATURE.
Paul says, “HERESY!” Cuz then you’ve either got to say that Jesus wasn’t fully human, OR you’ve got to say that he ERRED; he SINNED.
I think Paul mentions our “inheritance in the kingdom of CHRIST” here to subtly remind us that sin should NOT be treated as an inevitability in life; it MUST not be treated that way in the life of a believer, a “SAINT”. Sin is no LONGER “just our nature”; we’ve been given a NEW nature, “created after the likeness of [Christ] in true righteousness and holiness” (4:24).
If “idolater” was Paul’s short-hand for “SINNER” - one who is EXCLUDED from God’s kingdom - “Christ” is his short-hand for INCLUSION - the kingdom is reserved for CHRIST and for those who are IN Christ; “others need not apply.” Heaven is the perfect home of a perfect GOD; if he let IMPERFECTION in - SIN - he’d RUIN it. We must “put OFF the old self”, and “put ON the NEW man”, in Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
Jesus SHOWS us how to live; this whole, long, two-part sermon on “the walk of holiness” - could really be summed it up in a single word: “How then shall we LIVE?” – CHRIST-LIKE.
Yes, we “keep our way PURE by guarding it according to God’s word”, but Jesus IS God’s word, made FLESH. You wanna know how to WALK? Walk like HIM. As disciples, “FOLLOWERS” of Christ.
But the third and PRIMARY point to note here in v5 is Paul’s WARNING; why warn Christians? Remember: Paul is writing to the “SAINTS” in Ephesus, to the SAVED. Haven’t they been “sealed with the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of [their] inheritance until [they] acquire possession of it” (Eph 1:14); can they really be UN-sealed and LOSE that inheritance? Haven’t they been “saved by grace”, “made ALIVE together with Christ”; can they really be UN-saved, and made DEAD all over again, APART from Christ?
The short answer, biblically, is NO; God keeps those He calls. But the slightly longer answer is to recognize that “God keeps those He calls… BY WARNING us!” His warning is one of the MEANS of his keeping. Warn an unbeliever about HELL and he’ll scoff; warn a believer about Hell and she’ll SHUDDER. Nothing will get you back on the “straight ‘n narrow” quite as quickly as a glimpse on down the road at where the path you’re CURRENTLY on - the SINFUL path - eventually LEADS: straight off a CLIFF!
Some people will argue, “It’s BETTER to obey God out of LOVE, not out of FEAR”. But God HIMSELF says, “I want you to obey me for any and EVERY possible reason!” He says, “I’ve got a carrot AND a stick, and I’ll use BOTH of them to motivate your obedience.”
Jesus warned us not to “fear those who can kill your body but not your soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” - that’s GOD! (Mt 10:28).
God’s word says the “fear of the Lord” is the very BEGINNING of all wisdom (Pr 1:7), it is “the whole duty of man” - “Fear[ing] God and keep[ing] his commandments” (Ecc 12:13).
Paul’s SECOND reminder, in v6 now, is: 2) Be DISCERNING. (v6)
“Let no one deceive you with empty words”. It harkens back to his exhortation in ch4 to “GROW UP”! “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (4:14). Don’t be easy prey for false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, “for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience”. And you don’t wanna be standing nearby when the lightning strikes.
How do we develop discernment? You’ve probably heard it before, but they say the BEST way to spot a counterfeit is by being so DEEPLY familiar with the REAL DEAL. I don’t know if it’s TRUE or not, but it’s been repeated in so many SERMONS (and not just mine) that it’s almost GOTTA be: the idea that “Federal agents don’t learn to spot counterfeit money by studying the counterfeits. They study genuine bills until they master the look of the real thing. Then when they see the bogus money they recognize it.” John MacArthur said so; that was a quote from HIS book (Reckless Faith), so if it’s NOT true when it comes to money, you can blame him. But it’s most CERTAINLY true when it comes to TRUTH. Christian Doctrine. The best way to spot a HERESY is by knowing the TRUTH, God’s word. “Let no one DECEIVE you.”
NEXT, Paul says we need to 3) Be REMINDED. (vv7-10)
Reminded of who we are… and WHOSE we are:
“at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk [then] as children of light”. “you are a chosen race, a holy nation, a people for [GOD’S] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Pet 2:9)You weren’t just “IN” the darkness; Paul says, “you WERE darkness”! DEAD in sin, “sons of disobedience”, “by NATURE children of WRATH”, doomed for damnation. You were DARKNESS.
But NOW, you are LIGHT in the Lord.
THEREFORE… WALK like it! “Be who you ARE!”
“Remember whose team you’re on here”. See, there is a cosmic spiritual BATTLE raging, all around us; Paul says: “Don’t forget which SIDE you’re fighting on now”. I know you were FORMERLY at war against God, but then by grace you were saved through FAITH! You HEARD and RECEIVED his gospel invitation to LEAVE your futile rebellion and come join the winning side, the “GOOD guys”! To “put OFF your OLD self,” and put ON a NEW uniform; to put on CHRIST. And now, Paul’s just saying, “REMEMBER it! FIGHT like it!” Walk like the beloved children of God that you ARE, NOT like the “children of WRATH” that you WERE.
And then he reminds us HOW we walk like it: “the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true”; “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ” (Phil 4:8)
And if you’re STILL not sure… just do your BEST. “Try [your BEST, Paul says, in v10,] to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” It’s NOT always as clear-cut as “light” vs “darkness”. Does God want me to take this new job? Move neighborhoods? Vote or abstain? (Amendment 3 is CLEAR-CUT; vote “NO” on Tuesday!) But with a lot of the OTHER decisions we have to make in life, just do your best to try and please the Lord. We wanna be discerning; KNOW your Bible, TEST the spirits… “the mature… have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:14); that’s important, for those black and white decisions. But in the GRAY, just do your best to please the Lord.
Fourth, we ensure we stay on the right path by 4) Being ABOVEBOARD. (vv11-14a)
Open… transparent… NOT hidden in the dark.
Sin LOVES the dark. “it’s shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret.” Jesus declared, “the light [ME… I…] have come into the world, but 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” (Jn 3:19-20).
Paul urges just the OPPOSITE here: “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (v11). The LIGHT is the best disinfectant for sin. Sin THRIVES in the dark, it FEEDS and GROWS… but it shrivels and DIES in the light. John Owen said: “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.” Here, Paul tells us the most effective WAY to kill sin: you’ve got to BRING it to the LIGHT! “when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible”, KILLABLE. You can’t KILL what you can’t SEE.
David mourned, “when I kept silent [about my sin], my bones wasted away”... But when “I acknowledged my sin to you, [O Lord] and I did not cover over [CONCEAL, HIDE] my iniquity… you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Ps 32:3-5).
1 John 1: “If we say we have no sin, [when we stuff it way down and put on a shiny, happy exterior] we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [But] If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9). But you’ve gotta bring the DIRT out from under the RUG if you want God to sweep it away.
I should also quickly add that part of - a BIG part of - keeping things “aboveboard”, is confessing our sins not just to GOD, but to OTHERS. It’s a COMMAND in Scripture; James 5:16 “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” The most sinful Christians are ALWAYS the most ISOLATED. Cuz you can only show up to life group… to discipleship group… confessing the SAME SIN for so many weeks - by the way: if you’re NOT confessing your sins in those small groups, then what are you even DOING? Requesting prayer for your neighbor’s DOG? Quit wasting your time, and everybody ELSE’s. I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t have TIME for that, in MY week. I’m BUSY. If I’m gonna MAKE time for Christian community, it better HELP me in the fight - the WAR - against SIN.
“Confess your sins to one another” - bring it to the light.
But Paul’s fifth and most IMPORTANT reminder for us is that if you and I are EVER going to walk in holiness, we need MORE than warnings, MORE than discernment, more than real Christian community and sin-exposing accountability; we need RESURRECTION!! We must be RESURRECTED! (v14b)
Jesus said, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3).
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable”; we must be CHANGED! Made NEW! Raised to a NEW kind of life.
And that’s exactly what Paul declared that Jesus has done for us, back in ch2: “even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (vv5-6).Church: we’ve been RESURRECTED! “Therefore”, Paul says, “BE resurrected”. We have BEEN raised to new life; now WALK in it!
““Awake, O sleeper,
arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
I warned you already, friends: if you try and walk any of this out - God’s calling to holiness - APART from Christ, APART from the new life that he and he alone can actually RAISE us to - it’ll be nothing but self-righteous LEGALISM. It is only in CHRIST, when HE shines ON us and THROUGH us, that we can walk in a manner WORTHY of our calling.
People who are DEAD in sin don’t need a little help, just a little guidance, a good moral example; they need RESURRECTION! Have you been raised from spiritual death to eternal life, in Christ?
For those who HAVE, Paul offers us five final words of advice now in closing. And we’ll go QUICK; we could spend a whole SUNDAY on any ONE of these verses, exhortations, but that’s true for ALL of Ephesians.
First, Paul says: 1) Walk CAREFULLY. (v15)
“Watch carefully how you walk”. The landmines are EVERYWHERE. Sin is crouching at the door… Satan is prowling like a lion… WATCH OUT! Be VIGILANT! Keep your guard up, and your wits about you. There is NO room in the Christian life, the Christian walk, for COASTING. If you are drifting, it will ALWAYS be into SIN. Call it “spiritual entropy”; all things in THIS fallen world trend toward CHAOS and DIS-order, unless actively acted upon by CHRIST. So don’t COAST. We can’t live our lives on “AUTOPILOT”, just blindly going through the motions; we must walk CAREFULLY.
Second: 2) Walk EFFICIENTLY. (v16)
“mak[e] the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”
Life is SHORT and this world is DARK, so walk QUICKLY. Because remember: we are now “light in the Lord”. We “WALK as children of LIGHT” (v8). So, Jesus charged us, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt 5:16). If WE’RE the light of the world, and the world is really DARK, then the faster we WALK, the more of it we get to BRIGHTEN. And as an added BONUS: it’s ALSO good for keeping you out of trouble, isn’t it? “An idle mind…? [is the devil’s workshop”]. But it’s a lot harder to fall back into sin and darkness when you’re staying busy FIGHTING it. The best defense is a strong offense.
“REDEEM the time”. And how about the good timing on this exhortation. We ALL got an extra HOUR last night - how are you gonna USE it? SLEEP? “Awake! O sleeper…” 🙂 (See how it all ties together?)
But in all seriousness, what if we treated EVERY hour of EVERY day like that: as what it IS - a GIFT from GOD, to be used, redeemed, stewarded for HIS glory.
May we make the BEST use of the (relatively) FEW years that God GIVES us here, to make as BIG a kingdom impact as possible.
Third: 3) Walk WISELY. (v17)
“not as unwise but as wise… do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
We covered this quite a bit already: the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Be discerning. “Grow UP” to spiritual MATURITY.
Fourth: 4) Walk SOBERLY. (v18a)
“don’t get drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit”.
I was FLOORED this week by what Tim Keller points out about this injunction; he says (“Children of Light”, 2012): “Being filled with the Spirit is to get the thing that people get drunk to try and get. You don’t HAVE to get drunk to get the joy the Spirit gives… Alcohol makes you happy because it’s a depressant… Your brain becomes less aware of your problems. The Spirit operates on the exact OPPOSITE principle. The Spirit doesn’t make you less aware of your problems; it makes you MORE aware of [CHRIST!]. The Spirit takes the person and work of Christ and makes him so real to your heart that you begin to say, “Wait, what were my problems?!” The reason we fail to be obedient and make foolish choices in life is because we’re not HAPPY enough in Christ.”
Let’s all go home and chew on that… SIP on THAT one… for a good long while.
But lastly: what does it MEAN to walk SPIRIT-FULLY? (vv18b-21) To BE “filled with the Spirit”?Paul finishes with a flurry or FOUR “full”s.
We walk CHEER-fully, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”.
We walk WORSHIP-fully, “singing and making melody to the Lord with [all] your heart”
We walk THANK-fully, “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”
And we walk RESPECT-fully, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ”. “Do[ing] nothing from selfish ambition… but in humility count[ing] others more significant than yourselves.”
Like JESUS, who “though he was God, he didn’t CLING to his God-ness, but instead he emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant… and humbl[ing] himself [even] to the point of death on a cross.” And he gave his life up for us, as a RANSOM for many (Mk 10:45).
Conclusion: That’s why we DO it, Church. Why we walk in purity, contentment, and thanksgiving. Why we HEED God’s warnings, and COME to the light, REMEMBERING our new identity in Christ. Why we walk carefully, efficiently, wisely, soberly and spirit-fully - we do it ALL because Christ FIRST loved US. So much that he laid down his LIFE to MAKE us holy. May we WALK in it.