Reverence and Awe

» Today's reading at Blue Letter Bible

What a beautiful glimpse of Christ our Light! The beginning of Ephesians chapter 5 uses the same motifs of light and darkness to embody the lives of the children of God and the children of wrath. Darkness leaves a trail of “sexual immorality, impurity [and] covetousness” (vv. 3, 5), along with “filthiness… foolish talk [and] crude joking” (v. 4), but “the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true” (v. 9). Now the Children of Light are exhorted to “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead [to] expose them” Eph 5:11. But it is not the light of the Children that exposes darkness, explains Paul when he says:

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Christ’s Light, as the emblem of joy, beauty, knowledge, and manifestation, is the power to expose deceitful sin in the Children of Wrath. But though it is the power, it does not work alone: “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” Believers carry torches into the world and Christ provides the flame; salvation cannot happen any other way (cf. Romans 10:13-15). Notice that the Light is commanded to go and expose the darkness, not the other way around. We cannot expect dark people with no appetite for Christ to wander aimless into our church meetings and be exposed when Christ beckons us into darkness to go find them! Take no part in the works of darkness, not avoid all dark people.

I can think of older men and women who carried the light of Christ into my dark life, and remember how God used them to awaken my stone-cold soul. An exhortation: are you striving to carry light into dark lives? Can you count but one or two unsaved souls you are trying to disciple? Or are you only halfway keeping this command: fleeing from dark works but ultimately avoiding dark people? Bearing light in a dark world is a dangerous task, so let us be wise and go together, in prayer, and with haste. Think of two or three who you know are “children of wrath,” and spend time today praying, pleading for God to send you along with other laborers and the Light of Christ to expose their unfruitful ways.

“Go therefore and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19)