Live as Children of the Light
As we continue to journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Pastor Doug will be sharing from Ephesians 5 focusing on verses 8 and 9, where Paul says, “Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” Pastor Doug will be looking at what it means to “Live as Children of the Light” with wisdom and a Spirit-filled life.
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Live as Children of the Light
On Friday, Jill and I drove to South Hamilton, to celebrate our son Greg’s birthday with him and his wife Marci and their baby Victor. Holding baby Victor while he slept in my arms on our son’s birthday, Jill and I were remembering 28 years before when we were at Cape Cod Hospital and Greg was born. Where had the years gone?
Then I thought of a line from the movie My Dog Skip, a wonderful film about a boy and his dog growing up together in Mississippi in the 1940’s. In it the narrator asks, “Why in childhood and youth do we wish time to pass so quickly yet as adults we wish just the opposite?”
Today’s passage from Ephesians 5:6-10, 15-21 describeshow we’re to make the most of the time we’re given as we live as children of the light.
“6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be associated with them. 8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
“Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”
Why should we want to live as children of the light? Because the fruit of the light is found in all that is good, right, and true. If we want our life to be marked by what is good, right, and true, if in the arena of life, we want to be found on the side of the good, right, and true, then we want to strive to live as children of the light.
Living as children of the light means not walking in darkness.
Jesus said (John 8:12), “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
The Bible encourages to live in the light, to be children of the light, to let our light shine (Matthew 5:16).
The contrast between living as children of the light or living in darkness is the difference between living as God desires us to live as God’s children, and living in ways that are unhealthy, hurtful, harmful, and even evil.
Earlier in Ephesians 5 some examples of living in the darkness include impurity of any kind, greed, and obscene, vulgar talk. Ephesians 5:5 warns very strongly that no one who lives or acts this way “has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God,” and says followers of Christ are not to associate with people like that.
1 John 1:5-7 says,
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 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.”
Living as children of the light means not walking in darkness. Next it means finding out what is pleasing to the Lord and doing it.
We know a lot about what is pleasing to the Lord – loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, loving our neighbors as Christ loved us, doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God as the prophet Micah proclaimed. It’s growing in and living the fruit of the Spirit.
We know the major things that are pleasing to God and we’re to seek to discern in each relationship and situation, what is pleasing to the Lord, and we’re to do it.
Living as children of the light means being careful and wise about how we live our life and making the most of time.
Ephesians 5:15-16 “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time…”
Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”
Tragically the world is filled with sad and terrible stories of people who wasted their lives. More than once I’ve read or seen a story and said to myself, “What a waste of a life.” Sometimes the end of a person ruining or squandering his or her own life includes taking the lives of other people as well.
Life can also be wasted in ways that are unseen and incremental, just as termites can eat away at a house undetected for months or years until the destruction and damage is devastating and irreversible.
More frequently, life is wasted an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year at a time.
The cumulative impact of our choices over time significantly shapes the life we experience.
“Be careful how you live.” The opposite of careful is careless.
The Greek means – “don’t stumble through life, don’t just drift through life.”
The word translated “live” can also be “walk” so be careful how you live or walk. Don’t trip and fall.
Live as wise people, don’t be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is for your life.
Making the most of your life begins with understanding that your life doesn’t truly belong to you, it belongs to God and God wants your whole life.
Nowhere does the Bible teach that we can be a Christian and live our life any way we want. God doesn’t want 10% of our life or 50% or even 99% – God wants all of you and all of me.
Romans 6:13 (NLT) says, “Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.”
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.”
If Christianity is true, it deserves absolutely everything you’ve got.
If it’s not true, we should all be home in bed or doing something else.
The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important. It’s either all or nothing. It’s either true and shapes all our life, or we should forget it and do whatever we want.
Some people may say, “I don’t know what God wants me to do.”
Deuteronomy 10:12 (NCV) makes it clear, “This is what the Lord wants you to do: Respect the Lord and do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord with your whole being.”
God wants our whole being and our whole life.
Sometimes folks look at their life like a pie – I have my family slice, my work slice, my social slice, my golf slice, my finances, my recreation, my retirement, and my spiritual life, as if our spiritual life is one slice of the pie. However, our spiritual life is more like the pie crust – it touches every other part of our life.
What does it take to give ourselves completely to God and not to waste our life?
What does it take to develop yourself to your fullest potential?
It’s a word that causes some people to groan – discipline.
Proverbs 10:17 says, “Whoever practices discipline, is on the way to life.”
You can’t be a disciple of Jesus without discipline. The two words go together – disciple and discipline.
Paul wrote to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:7 NASB), “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”
Discipline involves delayed gratification. It’s doing first things first, doing the difficult now to enjoy the benefits later.
Some of us are disciplined in our work. We plan our day, are on time, and conscientious in our work habits.
Some of us are disciplined when it comes to our physical workouts.
Others never miss a favorite TV show.
All of us are disciplined in areas where we want to be.
The things that we get done are the things that are most important to us.
The average person lives 25,550 days. So, it’s wise to take a little time to think about and reflect on how we will use whatever time we may have left.
People aren’t equally talented or gifted.
Some people are smarter, stronger, more artistic, scientific, musically inclined, more persistent, determined or emotionally resilient than others, but we all have the same amount of time. 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day.
What makes a difference is what we do with time.
One person observed,
“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as we make use of. One person gets a week’s value out of a year while another person gets a full year’s value out of a week”
Charles Richards
As we take care of each day, the calendar will take care of the years. Today’s choices and actions will determine tomorrow’s achievements.
Living as children of the light means not walking in darkness, finding out what is pleasing to the Lord and doing it, being careful and wise about how we live our life and making the most of time.
Finally, children of the light are not to get drunk but are to “be filled with the Spirit.”
Ephesians follows that statement with four signs of children of the light being filled with the Spirit.
The first two have to do with singing.
Singing together and singing alone are two signs of being filled with the Spirit.
That’s why singing together is such an important and meaningful part of worship and why we often sense the Spirit or feel inspired or touched when we’re singing together with other people.
Note that verse 19 says, “as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves.”
Psalms would have been the traditional songs for first century believers. They were singing or chanting the psalms from the Hebrew Bible that were already hundreds of years old.
Hymns and spiritual songs would have been the newer songs that the Christian community produced in the first decades following Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Philippians 2:5-11 is believed to be one such hymn. The Ephesians were singing all three types of songs.
The second sign of being filled with the Spirit is Singing Alone (Eph 5:19b), “singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts.”
This is an encouragement and a reminder that the singing and worship we do together both flows out of and leads us to sing, praise, and worship God when we’re alone, when we’re apart from one another.
The worship we share in together is made more powerful when individuals have been worshiping God during the week – listening to Christian music, taking time in prayer, reading, or listening to the Bible. All these things we do on our own while we’re walking, driving, or sitting in a chair, enable us to sing to and worship God when we’re alone.
The third sign of being filled with the Spirit is Giving Thanks to God.
Ephesians 5:20 encourages us to be “giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
If we reflect on this statement for a moment, it probably sounds much harder that singing songs. Giving thanks to God, like saying a grace before we eat a good meal, that’s simple and easy. But giving thanks to God at all times and for everything? That sounds difficult.
I’m supposed to give thanks not just in good times but in bad, not just in times of joy but in seasons of grief, not just when I feel great, but when I’m physically suffering, not just when my financial situation is abundant, but when I don’t have enough money to make ends meet? The answer to that question is, yes.
We don’t thank God necessarily for the difficulty or hardship, but we do look for the blessings we still have, we give thanks for the positive and hopeful and grace-filled moments that remain.
As someone said to me once, “No test, no testimony.”
Ephesians says we give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember those last four words in times of testing and trial. Our – we belong to Jesus. Lord – he is the leader and guide of our life. Jesus – he saves us from our sins. Christ – God’s anointed one, the Messiah. Because Jesus is all these things, we can always give thanks in his name.
The fourth sign of being filled with the Spirit is Elevating Others.
Ephesians 5:21 tells us, “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This is true in our families and at church.
We’re called to elevate, encourage, and serve other people. A family in which each person is seeking to elevate, encourage, and serve everyone else is a family that will be united and spiritually blessed.
A church in in which each person is seeking to elevate, encourage, and serve everyone else is a church that will be united and spiritually blessed.
Any gathering of people in which we outdo one another in showing honor, as Paul writes in Romans 12, is a place where people will be elevated, built up, and strengthened.
If you or someone you know has had back surgery, then you know that part of the healing and physical therapy afterwards is doing all kinds of exercises to strengthen your core to support your back. A strong core helps us to do anything physical in a better way whether that’s lifting a bag of groceries or a grandchild, or doing work in a garden or yard, or playing a sport.
If you’re going to strengthen your spiritual core, you need a clear belief that life with God as children of the light—every moment of life—is better than life without God.
Pause and compare the days you’ve forgotten God and the days you’ve started and stayed with God; compare the days when you think it’s all up to you, and the days you remember that as followers of Christ we’re members of one another and called to submit to one another and help one another and that the Spirit is with us. The latter is the life we want.
May God help us to walk wisely in the light because as John 1:5 tells us, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” The light ultimately is going to win.
Why should we give ourselves completely to God and make the effort to grow spiritually and live as children of the light?
Because Jesus was willing to give up heaven and equality with God to come to earth as a human being, to live among us, to spend several years teaching us how to live as children of the light, and to die a terrible death on the cross so that our sins may be forgiven.
He was resurrected so that we’d know the power of God, the amazing love God has for us, and have eternal life that begins when we ask Jesus to be the Leader and Savior of our life.
2 Corinthians 5:15 says,
“He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
If you want to make the most of your life and not to waste it, live for Jesus who lived, taught, died, and was raised for you.
Prayer: Almighty God we don’t want to be casual Christians, part-time believers, or luke-warm servants. Lord Jesus, help me to give myself to you completely, totally, and without reservation. Holy Spirit help me to discipline myself and train myself in developing the habits I need to grow spiritually. Help us to let go of things that don’t really matter and put you first in our life. We thank you that Jesus died for us, help us always to live for him. Amen.
Blessing:
“Look to this day
For yesterday is only a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well-lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.”
Ancient Sanskrit poem
Questions for Discussion or Reflection
- How would you describe what it means to “Live as children of the light” (Ephesians 5:8)?
- What implications can you think of from the statement in Ephesians 5:9, “for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”
- Ephesians 5:15 advises us to live or “walk” wisely. What are some characteristics of wise living that we’ve heard in Ephesians?
- How good are you at managing your time? How are you “making the most of the time” (Ephesians 516) God is giving you?
- In Ephesians 5:18-21, what are the signs of the Spirit in the church and in the lives of individual believers?
- In your daily living, what are some ways you are practicing giving thanks and elevating others?