Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-14
Structure:
- Introduction
- Live in love
- Live as light
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Today we continue our series in Ephesians
- In some ways the letter to the Ephesians is like a river – it flows from a single source (God’s grace for us in Christ) and then, down-stream, the letter issues into a variety of moral & ethical applications for daily life
- Like a river, Ephesians forms a continuous whole
- Because of limits of time and concentration we aren’t able to adequately preach on the whole of Ephesians at once
- We have to break it into smaller more manageable pieces
- The problem with this though is that we can miss the bigger picture; we can lose the thread of the whole
- We are now looking at the moral & ethical implications of life in Christ – but in doing this we need to remember that Paul started his letter with God’s grace – grace comes first
- Although we have covered chapter 4 already, I’d like to start from the end of Ephesians 4 to give a sense of connection with what has gone before.
- From Ephesians 4, verse 32 we read…
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s Word for us
The headline of today’s Scripture reading is ‘Imitate God’
- We can’t imitate God in every respect but we can show kindness, compassion and forgiveness toward others, as God shows us
- God is love and God is light
- When we live our lives in such a way as to reveal His love and the light of His truth, then we are imitating Him
- What then does it mean to ‘live a life of love’?
Live in love:
Well, the kind of love that is in view here is self-giving love – let me tell you a story to illustrate what I mean
Years ago now, I watched an old short film in black and white. I don’t remember what it was called but the story was about a husband and wife who were about to celebrate their first wedding anniversary
- They loved each other very much and wanted to give one another something special as an anniversary present
- Being young and newlywed though, they didn’t have much money
- The wife had beautiful long hair, it was smooth and silky to touch and smelled divine
- The husband thought to himself, ‘I know just the thing’
- The husband had an old pocket watch handed down from his grandfather
- He really loved that watch, because it reminded him of his grandad
- His wife knew exactly what she would buy him
The day of their anniversary came and the husband & wife exchanged presents
- The wife opened hers first and there it was, a beautiful silver comb for placing in her long hair. At once she burst into tears
- When the husband asked, “What’s wrong my love”, the wife took off her head scarf to reveal a crew cut – all her hair had been cut off
- The husband gently kissed his wife on the forehead and said, ‘I love you’
- ‘Even with my bald head?’ she gasped between sobs
- ‘Yes, even with your bald head. But why did you cut it? You loved your hair’
The wife silently handed her husband his present, as if to say, ‘Here’s your answer’
- As the husband unwrapped the parcel he realised all at once how much they loved each other
- Inside was a silver chain for his grandfather’s pocket watch
- ‘Do you like it my love?’ the wife asked
- ‘Yes, it is very fine indeed’
- ‘Then why the long face?’
- ‘I sold my grandfather’s watch to buy the comb for your hair’
- The wife reflected for a moment and then said, ‘And I cut my hair to buy a chain for your watch’
- At that moment they smiled at each other and started laughing
- ‘You loved me enough to sell your grandfather’s watch’
- ‘And you loved me enough to sell your hair’
- Self-giving love you see
The Bible gives us plenty of examples of self-giving love
Joseph, the dreamer, showed self-giving love by forgiving his brothers who had sold him into slavery. He had them in his power to do with as he wished. But he didn’t take revenge. He treated them with generosity and grace
Moses showed self-giving love in leading the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. He didn’t really want the job at first. He would have preferred the quiet life of a shepherd. But instead, he put aside what he wanted and took on the responsibility of leading God’s people
Ruth showed self-giving love to Naomi. After Naomi’s husband and sons had died Ruth made a solemn commitment to stay with Naomi and take care of her, even though Naomi’s prospects didn’t look good
Joseph, the carpenter, showed self-giving love in his treatment of Mary, the mother of Jesus. It must have been hard for Joseph to learn that his fiancé was pregnant with someone else’s baby. But he didn’t want to subject Mary to public disgrace. When Joseph learned the truth he went ahead and married Mary, in obedience to God and love for Mary
Jesus showed self-giving love by leaving his glory in heaven, becoming a human being, going to the cross and giving up his life for our salvation. He wrestled with it you know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood. The prospect of facing separation from God wasn’t easy. But Jesus went through with it so we could share in the life of God. Self-giving love pleases God.
Now, when I give you all these examples of people showing self-giving love it sounds romantic and heroic, but I can tell you from experience that the reality of self-giving love is hard yacker. Day in, day out, it’s not easy or glorious.
- Self-giving love is changing nappies in the middle of the night, doing housework, transporting children, coaching sports teams, working double shifts, leading Sunday school or youth group, caring for aging parents, being patient on the road and a million other mundane little things, all of which we do to imitate God, because God is worth it
Self-giving love stands in contrast to self-indulgence and self-gratification
- From verse 3, of Ephesians 5, Paul describes the sort of lifestyle the followers of Jesus need to avoid…
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
Sex is not a bad thing – sex is a good gift from God, which the Lord intended for husband and wife to enjoy exclusively in the context of a loving marriage
- Sexual immorality and impurity cover every kind of sexual sin; basically all sexual intercourse outside of a God ordained marriage [1]
- Greed is wanting more and more – it’s an unhealthy desire
- It could be greed for sexual encounters, or greed for money, or greed for something else. Greed is the opposite of generosity
- Sexual immorality is a behaviour. Greed is the attitude, or motivation of the heart, which leads to immorality
As well as not practicing sexual immorality, Paul is saying there shouldn’t even be any hint of it among God’s holy people.
- That means no crude jokes and no sexual innuendo in our talk
- It’s not that humour is bad. Nothing wrong with a good clean joke
- The problem is, when we make light of something we make that thing more acceptable
- Joking about sexual immorality makes it easier to go down that path
- Thanksgiving, on the other hand, puts us on a path to enjoying God and being content with our life
In verses 5-7 Paul goes on to explain the spiritual danger of immorality and greed…
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them.
I’m not sure about you but I find these verses a bit disturbing. Paul’s words here are prone to misunderstanding; they need some explanation.
An idolater is someone who worships something other than God
- Whether that is a statue of wood or stone or money or their career or their reputation or sex or whatever.
- Idolatry is the opposite of imitating God
- Idolatry goes hand in hand with immorality and greed
- Idolatry begins with us thinking we are in charge – but then we find out (often too late) that we have become slaves to what we worship
The kingdom of God is a place where God alone is worshipped
- In God’s kingdom, God is in charge – he’s the boss (not us)
- Therefore, God’s kingdom is a place where God’s will is done (His subjects obey Him willingly)
- There is no immorality or greed in God’s kingdom because obedience to God rules out those things
- By definition God’s kingdom is a place of self-giving love & generosity
- God doesn’t want to exclude anyone from His kingdom
- Anyone who is willing to submit to Christ is allowed into God’s kingdom
- But if we refuse to submit to Christ, if we carry on living a greedy or immoral lifestyle, then we exclude ourselves
God’s wrath refers to God’s righteous judgement or anger against sin
- Sin is that which separates us from God and ultimately destroys us
- God is slow to anger but, because God loves His creation, he won’t tolerate sin indefinitely
- Paul doesn’t specify exactly what he means by God’s wrath, in these verses, but the wider Biblical text indicates that God’s wrath can find expression in a number of different ways
- If we think of sin as a forest fire, destroying trees, then God’s wrath is like a drenching rain putting the fire out
- Or if sin is a time bomb, then God’s wrath is the bomb disposal unit
- Other times God’s wrath is more of a hands off thing; where He stands back and lets people pursue their desires and learn by the consequences of their own actions
- In any case, God’s wrath is fair – it is just & right, controlled & measured
Another point of clarification is needed in regard to verse 7, where Paul says, do not be partners with them
- This does not mean we have to cut all ties with those who live an immoral lifestyle or who are greedy
- The point is, as Christians we are not to participate in an immoral lifestyle
- So long as an immoral person is not going to lead us astray we can still have a normal social relationship with them [2]
- We separate from sin, not from people or society
- And we remember that we ourselves are not perfect. There is good and bad in everyone. We are all sinners and we are all sinned against.
To the parents out there who feel uncomfortable with the lifestyle of their adult children, I want to say, you are not responsible for the choices your kids make. There are many influences on our children
- Where possible we need to stay in right relationship with our kids and do our best to imitate God’s self-giving love for them
And if you are worried about someone you love who might be living an immoral lifestyle, then remember that God is good. His wrath is fair and just
- This means, the worst we can expect from God is justice (getting what we deserve)
- But, when we are in Christ we can expect mercy and grace (being treated better than we deserve)
Now there may be some here who have had sex outside of marriage and are wondering, does that mean I’ve blown it, that I’ve excluded myself forever?
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- No – not necessarily
- Fornication, greed, adultery, sexually abusing others, all of those sins can be forgiven and the slate wiped clean, so long as we repent
- Repentance means being sorry for what we have done and stopping the immoral behaviour
- Once we’ve repented and been forgiven we don’t have to revisit it – we don’t need to feel bad anymore.
- If God has forgiven you, you can forgive yourself
- As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far He has removed our transgressions from us
We are to imitate God – that means living a life of love and living as light
Live as light:
Yesterday, as I was reflecting on verses 8-14 of Ephesians 5, I came up against a block – I couldn’t quite get a handle on what Paul was trying to say with his image of light and darkness.
- Sometimes the Scripture doesn’t yield its meaning easily
- When that happens I need to get out of my office for a bit and find some creative inspiration
- So I went to Caroline Hollow’s art exhibition at Redwood Kitchens, on the Main Rd here in Tawa – it’s still on this afternoon until about 4pm
- Most of you will know Caroline because she has worshipped here at Tawa Baptist for many years
- Caroline’s exhibition is called A Transformed Landscape.
- There’s one painting there called Ideal Wellington.
- It’s a landscape of the Wellington harbour without the impact of man, without a city scape intruding on the environment
- Among other things, Caroline’s work shines a light on the effect human beings have had on the land
As part of her exhibition Caroline produced this little booklet which contains a number of quotes. One quote, by Michael Bonnet, leapt off the page to me. Michael writes…
“The anthropologist Gregory Bateson notes how when faced with a changing variable we tend to focus on modifying our environment rather than ourselves.”
It’s true. We human beings have put so much energy into changing the environment to suit ourselves, and in the process (of trying to make everything revolve around us) we’ve done a lot of damage to the planet
- If we spent more time letting God’s Spirit change us and less time trying to modify the environment, the rain forests in South America (the lungs of the world) might not be burning now
- Jesus came to earth to save all of creation but his strategy was to begin by changing the human heart, from the inside out
- The problem isn’t with the environment. The problem is with us. We have a tendency toward idolatry; we are inclined to worship ourselves.
- If we let the Spirit of God change our heart, the land will heal
As I was walking back from Caroline’s exhibition it occurred to me what Paul was trying to say in Ephesians 5
- Verses 8-14 are about the transformation that God’s light brings
- Light has the power to effect change
- What we notice though is that the change Paul is talking about is not so much a change to the environment but a change to ourselves
- A change to our minds and our behaviour
In verse 8 Paul says, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
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- Jesus is the light of the world so when we are ‘in Christ’ we too become light. That’s not a change to our environment. That’s a change to us
- Likewise, in verse 14 Paul says, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- This is some kind of quote used in the early church
- Our former condition is described in terms of sleep, death and darkness
- Christian conversion is nothing less than waking out of sleep, rising from death and being brought out of darkness into the light [3]
- Once again, that’s not a change to our environment. That’s a change to us
Verse 9 talks about what the change within us looks like
- (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
- The image here is of a tree bearing fruit
- Without light a tree can’t bear any fruit. Left in the dark a tree will die
- But with the right amount of sunshine the tree bears good fruit in season
- The light of Christ produces the fruit of changed attitudes and behaviour
- Instead of the lie of idolatry, we are set free by the truth about God (and the truth about ourselves)
- Instead of being motivated by greed, we are motivated by goodness
- And instead of living an immoral lifestyle we live in righteousness (or right relationship) with others
The power of God’s light, to change the human heart, is developed further in verses 11-13 where Paul says…
- Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.
This is a green crayon. I have here a dark piece of paper and a light piece of paper
- If I make a mark with this crayon on both pieces of paper, which one do you think will be more visible? [Wait] Ok, let’s try it and see
- [Make a mark on both pieces of paper, then hold them up]
- Which mark is easier to see? That’s right. The one on the light paper
- Light exposes things. Light makes things more visible
- When we live as children of light we can’t help but expose the truth
What does Paul mean by exposing the deeds of darkness?
- Wrong doing is like a mushroom – it thrives in the dark but shrivels in direct sunlight
- Exposing the deeds of darkness means shining a light on them
- We shine a light by our example of a good lifestyle and by speaking up
- Sometimes the presence of someone who lives a good life is enough to make a wrong doer feel guilty for their secret sins and change
- Other times though exposing the deeds of darkness may require us to speak up, like reporting child abuse to the police so they can investigate
- Light is truth and the truth brings change by setting people free
Conclude:
This morning we’ve heard how we are to imitate God by living a life of self-giving love and living as light
- Let me conclude with one more illustration to sum things up…
[Hold up a large candle]
- This is a candle – actually it’s the Christ candle that we light on Christmas Eve. [Place the candle on the table and light it]
- This is just a little tea light candle
- Imagine the larger candle represents Christ and the little tea light candle represents you
- Christ shines a light on what God is like
- The goal is for us to imitate God and, because Jesus shows us what God is like, that means imitating Christ
- Repentance is the journey of moving closer to Christ – becoming more Christ-like
- This is what it means to be ‘in Christ’
- [Move to the table and light the smaller candle off the larger one]
- ‘Everything that is illuminated becomes a light’
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- In what way(s) can we imitate God? In what sense can’t we imitate God?
- What does it mean to ‘live a life of love’?
- Do you have a story of self-giving love? Who would benefit from hearing your story?
4. What does Paul mean by ‘sexual immorality, impurity and greed’?
- How are the sexual ethics of the New Testament different from the sexual ethics of western society today? How are they similar?
5. How are we to relate with those who don’t share our values or moral beliefs?
6. Discuss / reflect on Gregory Bateson’s comment that human beings tend to focus on modifying their environment rather than themselves.
7. What does it mean to live as children of light?
- How might we expose the deeds of darkness?
8. Light a large-ish candle and put it in the centre of the room. Take a smaller, tea-light candle for yourself. Spend a few minutes in stillness as you contemplate what you want to say to God. Maybe something you are sorry for. Maybe something you need help with. Maybe someone you are concerned for. Maybe something you are thankful for. Say a quiet simple prayer to express your feeling and intent. After you have prayed, light your tea light candle from the larger candle in the centre of the room. Take a moment to be still again. Is God saying anything to you?
[1] Refer John Stott, Ephesians, page 191.
[2] NIV Study Bible, footnote to verse 7.
[3] Refer John Stott, Ephesians, page 201.
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