Ephesians 5:6-14

May 21, 2006

Live in the Light

5:6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience.95:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them, 5:8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light– 5:9 for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth– 5:10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 5:11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 5:12 For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. 5:13 But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. 5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says:

“Awake, O sleeper!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!”

I find it very hard to keep from compartmentalizing my life, with my faith in God relegated to a spiritual realm, leaving everyday life for the realm of practical things. That doesn’t feel right, and Paul here gives some godly advice. Living in the light of the gospel means a seamless existence with no lines drawn between life in the spirit and life on the ground.

I am to live in the light of Truth, as revealed in the Bible and confirmed in my inner being by the Holy Spirit. This leads to the life of integrity that I crave. The natural result of living in this light, the fruit of the life, is pretty obvious, when I think about it. “… all goodness, righteousness, and truth.”

Paul’s theme is delightfully capsulized in the closing composite quotation from the book of Isaiah, a good one to paste on my shaving mirror. -sdg-

Posted by Dave | Filed Under Bible