Ephesians Part 10

Ephesians 5 continues the practical exhortation that began in chapter 4. Paul has called the faithful to “walk worthy” of their calling (4:1), to put off the old humanity and put on the new (4:22-24), and to live as people whose lives have been transformed by Messiah. He now develops that calling through three related themes: walking in love, walking in light, and walking in wisdom. Give a listen!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Awesome. Alright, Ephesians chapter five, beginning in verse one, we'll read through verse twenty one. Therefore Actually let me read up uh begin in verse uh chapter four, verse thirty two. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love. That's kind of the first section that he'll be unpacking here. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Here he is, looking at the sacrificial aspect of the life of faith, of course, modeled on the Messiah. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or is covetousness, this is that is an idolatry, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partakers with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern, I would underline discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a sh for it is shameful even to speak, it's kind of amazing statement here, to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Look therefore, or excuse me, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of art of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of God is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is God's word. Ephesians five again is a continuation of what does it look like to be a believer? What does it look like to be in the household of faith? This exhortation continues really what Paul began to unpack in chapter four. I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of spirit and the bond of peace. This is a continuation of that framework. So the first three chapters are what has the Lord accomplished? What has he done? And how are we partakers in that? Of course, the work was done. We don't have to work in order to be included in it, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And now, what does that look like? What does this transformation look like? And it is a radical transformation. That is what Paul is indicating, that this is a radical change of life, lifestyle, manner of walking, all of the ways that we can kind of unpack that. Of course, Paul urges us to take off and put on, to uh put off the old nature, the old humanity, the way we would do things prior, the way that we feel perhaps is um most expedient for us, and to put on, as he said, to put on the Lord, to put on this new man, this renewed uh person. So the again, the this is imagery of putting on and taking off clothing, because scripture often talks in language that is relatable, language that everyone can in some way, shape, or form um picture or have experienced, uh, relate to, and so on. So put off your old self, take off the old garment of the self, and then what in verse 24, chapter 4, verse 24, put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Righteousness, of course, uh is trusting in the Lord, his right righteousness, um, his word, his character, who he is, and the standing that we have before him and in holiness. In other words, the manner of our living is transformed because of what he has done. And we walk that out again, walking worthy of the calling to which we have been called with all humility, gentleness, with patience, bearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. So we walk in love. This is the beginning of what we see in chapter 5 and verse 2, walking love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. So this puts that within the frame of self of self-sacrificial love, modeling Messiah. He'll return to that theme uh in the second half of the chapter of how we are to, when we get to the household code codes, as we say, the household codes, we're to model. Specifically, the men are to model, the husbands are to model the love of Christ for his bride. But this all begins with be imitators of God. Imitate me as I imitate Christ, follow me as I follow Christ. As I've said so many times before, we're to be imitators, not originators in faith. So we're not trying to originate some new manner of walking. We're not originate originators in the way that has been prepared. The Lord prepares the way, and we are to follow that way. We're not to originate it, we're not to make our betrayblazers and go out and find our own way to heaven. That would be contrary to what the Lord has instructed us. So the exhortation must be heard again. This entire epistle, as the scripture itself, must be heard within the context that it was given. That helps us to unpack it in a manner that is as properly exegeting the text and leading us to a proper conclusion. The first century context that we find for Ephesians, of course, is within the believers in Ephesus, obviously, who are saturated, we might say, are surrounded by uh pagan culture, pagan influence within the society. The Temple of Artemis is uh uh obviously very much the center of the social and economic engine that is Ephesus. So we have to be mindful of that. What does that look like in a practical sense? How does that inform the people who are living there who are come to faith? Do we bring that, just baptize that into the household of faith and bring it in the name of Christ? No, we don't do that. So there must be a transformation, there must be a change in who we are, what we're doing, and how we're living. And when we think of all that he has mentioned here, uh this culture that is shaped by pagan worship, sexual immoral immorality, the household codes, I keep saying colds, I'm dealing with uh with uh allergies today, so maybe that's maybe I'm hoping I don't have a cold and it's just allergies. The household codes that uh uh relied on the strict patriarchal structure. We had social hierarchy that Paul was mentioning, religious political expectations of the Roman world that influence the society, that influence the individual. But Jewish believers who are coming in um or who are part of this uh bring with them uh what was part of the uh biblical landscape. So true faith, uh covenant, relationship, and so on, that is brought in from the Torah, that is brought in from the Hebrew scriptures, the word of God. So Paul isn't just asking Gentile believers to um exchange one set of rules for another. He is calling the community, Jew and Gentile alike, really, to live according to the character of the Lord as revealed in Messiah. The fullness, the fullness of the revealed faith, going all the way back uh to the beginning, we might say. What does that look like? Well, we turn to scripture, we turn to see the Messiah in revealed in the scripture, and we live according to that character again in chapter 4 and verse 2 with all humility, gentleness, patience, bearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. In other words, modeling the character of Yeshua, of Jesus. So this remains um this pattern that that Paul has been unpacking, remains the same throughout the epistle. So who we are in Messiah, our identity in Messiah determines how we walk in the world. What does that walk look like? It's not perfect, we because we are not perfect. We're we will make mistakes, that's where grace comes in. But we are, by the grace of God and through his forgiveness and by his mercy, we're following after him, we're pursuing him. Again, not because we're trying to be perfect, but we are trusting in the one who is perfect. That does not, of course, as Roman tells us, Romans tells us, give us license to sin or pursue sin, uh, that grace would abound. But rather, when we mess up, when we have hiccups, when we put the wrong foot forward, we might say, we can be reconciled immediately, instantly, and we see that in fact the Lord had not rejected us, but rather we are being uh brought close to him again because the shame is being lifted off of us, the guilt is being lifted off of us that we might be walking in. So who we are in Messiah certainly does dictate how we walk in the world. So let's look at the beginning of this uh chapter, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Now, there is a deep connection and a consistency here with biblical holiness. Israel, of course, was repeatedly commanded to reflect the character of God who had called her, right? And that is through lifestyle, through living, being distinct, being separate from the world while yet being active in the world. So we we don't automatically disappear onto some spiritual plane where we're separated from sin. No, we're still living in societies and cultures that are saturated in sin, influenced by sin. But we are here to, we're called here to live distinctly and differently in order to model the character of the Lord for those who do not know him and who do not uh yet know him. So Paul begins with this remarkable statement be imitators of God, imitate him, imitate him. And this leads us into this call, excuse me, I'm I'm feeling itchy from the allergies. Um this call to holiness. Holiness is how we live out the condition of being holy. Okay, it's how we walk this um position out. So the Lord calls Israel to be holy, you are holy. Uh Vayarmata Ela uh excuse me, Vyarmata Elachem, Kidoshim, Tihuthikadosh, for you are holy, as I, Ani Arona Yelochekem am holy, as I the Lord your God am holy. You are holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. This is what the Lord has said to the children of Israel, Leviticus 19 and verse 2. So Paul now applies this to the Messianic community. Peter applies this to the Messianic community as well, that believers imitate the Lord as beloved children, because we are his beloved children. But let's be cautious here. This is where we need to pay close attention. We do not imitate the Lord in order to become children, we imitate him because we are children. We have already been transferred, let's say, into the household of God through the Messiah. So we're not imitating in order to be accepted, we're imitating because we are now children of the Lord through Messiah. And then Paul continues obviously with how we are to walk, how we are to be, how we're going to behave. And look at the dichotomy between verse 2 and verse 3. To walk in love is Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality, all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. So he immediately begins to talk about how we're walking. What, you know, he's identifying sin for us, what is inconsistent with the lifestyle of faith and messiah, what Paul has just listed here. And this is something that is very common within Ephesus. Sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, these are things that greatly influenced the landscape that these saints were living in. And it still influences tremendously our own uh landscape and lifestyle uh within our culture today. So a walk in love, the language of walking again is Paul's continuation of drawing on the idea of halacha, of the manner in which we walk. The manner of which we walk is obviously informed by the word of God and the commands that are given. And as I I think I talked about on Shabbat um this past week, commandment mitzvah has this transforming power into in our heart. So as we imitate, as we do, as we obey the commands that the Lord has given, we see a transformation that happens internally of who we are. Again, not always perfectly, but obeying and doing what he has commanded transforms behavior, transforms thoughts, transforms what our heart becomes focused on. And that's the importance of following the way that the Lord has made and following the way that he has prepared for us. So it's how we can conduct our life, how we conduct our living, our lifestyle. Um, but the standard is not just the written command itself, it's not just a call to know the written command. It is a it is a call to walk in Messiah, it's a call to Messiah himself. So Messiah's love is demonstrated again in self-sacrificial giving. He gave himself for us. And this again will be a theme that Paul picks up on uh beginning in verse what 23 that we'll start to address um next week. Actually, 25, excuse me. Husbands love your wives as Messiah loved the church and gave himself up for her. That's why the very beginning of this chapter helps to inform what Paul lays out in the rest of the remainder of the chapter. So he moves the ethical life beyond religious obligation. It moves beyond the do's and the don'ts for the strict purpose of checking a box in order to make sure we've done what is appeasing to the God, right? No, that's not how we live. It's an integration, it's a holistic approach to living the word of God and walking out the word of God in faith by Messiah to imitate again the character of Yeshua and who he is, that we would give him honor and glory and praise. Um again, if you're watching this for the beautiful uh backdrop and the well uh the well-designed set, you'll be sorry. Uh you're you're gonna be really let down. That's the office here. Um so the cross itself, again, when we look how Paul is laying out his argument, the cross becomes the pattern that we follow. The cross becomes the pattern of living of lifestyle. So love is not just affection. He's not just talking about us having an affection for our brothers and their sisters, it is a willingness to give oneself up for the good of it of the other, for the good of the human other. Now, that extends, and what is fascinating, and we'll get into this more next week, is that Paul turns an entirely an entire cultural framework on its head by the demands he makes of the husband and the family and the response that the the family is to have. Again, this is not something if Paul if Paul wanted the approval of the society uh of the Ephesians as they naturally were, as they were, would be uh, let's say, unregenerate, he would not write chapter five of Ephesians, because this is as culturally, socially rebellious as you can possibly be, but this type of social and cultural rebellion is the call that Messiah has given us and the way that we are to walk it out. So, what does holiness in a pagan society look like? Well, as you can see in chapter five, it is not adhering to what the convention would be given to, would be giving to us. So Paul addresses behaviors that were common to the pagan environment uh sexual immorality, impurity, greed, shameful speech, foolish talking, crude joking. This is what surrounded the saints in Ephesus. And it's not all that uh different, it's just uh different types of idolatrous practices in the day and age that we live in. But this is still what surrounds us sexuality, idolatry, commerce, social life. All of this was deeply intertwined and it was influenced tremendously by the temple of Artemis. And we see that name obviously today coming up. Artemis is again in the headlines. We, you know, we never really see our society moving away from these ancient influences. They're just repackaged and put before us once again, but it doesn't remove the spiritual impact, the spiritual meaning of the words that are associated with this. So Artemis, the Temple of Artemis was not just seen as some religious symbol that was benign. It was uh Temple of Artemis influenced and impacted every aspect of the Ephesian lifestyle. And it was also part of the cultural and the uh the social and the economic fabric of the city. It was one of the key features of the city, so of course it would have an impact on that. What Paul is leading us to understand is that our ethical and our moral um calling and messiah is not to some private morality. If you recall not too long ago, one of our former presidents, or while he was in office, told us that you're free to live your religious life behind closed doors, but we're not to bring it out into the society. And we're actually seeing that around the world becoming a reality where an exercise of faith in the public square becomes an arrestable offense. But that's not what the call of biblical faith is. It's not just now you live peacefully, quietly, tranquil in tranquility behind the closed doors because you have Messiah. He's calling us to become a distinct people within the culture that we find ourselves living in, with values that quite often um contradict the holiness of God, right? If we look out our door, uh and uh here I am in New York State, if we look at what is being prescribed by the uh from the Capitol, we would see that what is being put out as the norm. Of our society runs contrary to the holiness of God and the will of the Lord. So we have to be mindful that we're called to this time, to this place, as we like to say, for such a time as this, not to live in isolation behind closed doors, cut off from the society, but to be salt, to be light, to be influence in the broader society around us. So Paul's teaching cannot, cannot be uh interpreted as some generic private uh morality. He's calling us to a greater calling. And that's not just me, it's you, it's every uh born-again member of the body of Christ. So sexual immorality obviously has a tremendous excuse me, uh, impact on what Paul is um teaching us here. The Torah itself, of course, Leviticus 18 is is one of the major um instructions regarding sexual uh boundaries um that we have in Scripture, where essentially what is being defined is what is holy right and good as concern the union between man and woman, husband and wife. This isn't because sexuality is wrong or inherently wrong, but how humanity, once again, how humanity would interpret, accept, exercise is can run contrary to what the Lord's design is for humanity within that context. So Paul carries this ethical framework again that we find in Leviticus 18, that's kind of irrefutable, into the messianic community. The body belongs to the Lord. We have been redeemed, we have been bought with a price, we are not our own. That includes this flesh suit that we are in. So sexuality cannot be separated from discipleship. Discipleship, of course, is based on the word of God exercised and experienced within community. Um, there needs to be holiness concerning the subject. So, in other words, how we walk and how we exercise the commands of God concerning the marital union is very important. And also to know that what happens outside of the marital union is, as Paul said, it would be impure, um, it would be immoral, and it can be covetous, of course. So, all of this is part of the dynamic of what does it look like to live out what Messiah has done and how he has brought Jew and Gentile together in one new humanity. What does this look like? What does this actually achieve in the covenant community of God today? So Paul places greed if we look at verse five. Um, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Powerful statement. Uh, we might interpret it today and say, well, this is awfully judgmental of Paul. He doesn't understand, he hasn't taken uh all of the the latest scientific classes on on these subjects, and of course that would be nonsense. But he declares right alongside sexuality, the sexual impurity, that a greedy person is an idolater. Someone who is covetous. Remember, this is particularly, it deals with the heart issue. If we go back to the Ten Commandments, the tenth commandment, that you are to covet nothing that belongs to your neighbor, his house, his wife, any of that. And that is speaking to the heart. So that's not just the intellectual assent to a covetous disposition that I see, I behold, I desire, I want, I take. Rather, it is a disposition of the heart that we are inclined to attempt to take for our own, that which does not belong to us. And of course, this was uh historical, there was a historical purpose behind the command as well. So this is an important Jewish, uh, we might say Jewish insight that Paul is giving. Idolatry is not just bowing before an image. That's not, it's not limited just to that. Whatever claims, I'm gonna say this very deliberately, whatever claims the devotion, the trust, the allegiance that belongs to the Lord becomes an idol. And that can be so much of what we again, and we put me put it very simply, we must keep things in their proper place. We must be mindful of the proper placement of jobs, of employment, of money, of uh entertainment. You know, all of those, all of the things that are involved in our life, we keep them in the proper place. They are secondary to the Lord, right? So greed is therefore a form of worship, but it's directed at the wrong object. So it creates in us a desire for more, a hunger for more that is uh to our own destruction. And that's why Paul is saying that there is they have no inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ. So the same applies to this generation. We can find direct parallels in this generation. You know, we have you know uh social media today, as I'm using social media, of course, uh the temptation to um create ourselves as an idol, to create ourselves as a thing of desire, to create in ourselves um an appearance of perfection. You know, uh social uh media influencers um don't show you the bad days, they don't show you the the bad stuff unless they're making a specific statement with that. They're gonna make a specific uh you know um video to to present that aspect of it. But by and large, they don't show you the boring things, right? Um, you know, uh from time to time I still make videos of hiking and of walks in the mountains and what have you. What I don't show is every step, because that would be a very long. Uh nobody's gonna sit and watch a uh 10, 12 hour video. And uh, the purpose is to you know show the highlights of it, not to, and one of the comments that I get quite often is why aren't you talking? Why don't you talk in your videos? Because it's not about me, it's about the environment, it's about the adventure, it's about the trek. And so in this day and age, we can make ourselves an idol by misdirecting people's attention to us rather than to the message we may be uh giving to them, or intending to give to them, I should say. So uh verse four, if we look at verse four, therefore let no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, um, but instead let there be thanksgiving. So Paul's talking about the nature of our talk, the nature of our speech, and what he does is he corrupts he he contrasts, I should say, corrupt speech with give uh thanksgiving or giving the thanks. So this is much more significant than it might appear. Um Jewish spirituality then and now is saturated with thanksgiving and blessing. So we have uh the brachas that are said before taking food, taking water, um standing up, lying down, so on. There's you know a blessing for just about everything. And the purpose of that is to bring godliness into what would ordinarily seem ordinary. So the bracha reaches um or teaches that the Lord's people uh to recognize the life that is received from him and how we are to live it. We live it in a posture of thanksgiving toward him. That this is the life he's given to us, this is the breath in our lungs, he's given us the food, he's given us the water, and we're always mindful. And we give him blessing, honor, and glory, and thanksgiving for that. So Paul doesn't say stop, stop talking badly, just if it's bad, don't say it. That's he actually redirects our speech. He says, replace it, let your speech become thanksgiving. Let your speech be edifying, let your speech glorify the Lord. So rather than quite often I think we we delve into inappropriate speech because uh we feel like we have to say something. We feel as if uh, you know, well I've I've got to fill this empty space. And I don't think that's the that's the case. If we do, let it be with thanksgiving. So the transformed tongue, of course, you know, the tongue is also transformed in this new life, right? Let it become a testimony, let the tongue become a testimony that the believer, um, the believer's desires, our desires, have been transformed, they've been reordered, they've been redirected to the Lord in faith. But then he gets into a rather um complex, uh, seemingly complex, I should say, uh, discussion. Uh let's uh pick up in verse seven, therefore, do not become partakers with them, right? Do you see the distinction? Therefore, okay, in verse one, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. This is the relationship that you have with the Father in heaven. And then verse seven, therefore do not become partakers with them. Well, who's the them? Those are the children or the sons of disobedience, those who are walking contrary to the Lord that we read of in verse six. Let no one deceive you with empty words, but because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, therefore do not become partakers with them. Don't partake with the sons of disobedience. Don't walk contrary to the Lord. Now, again, we don't a we don't we don't assume some type of perfectionism that every action must be absolutely perfect in our sight. No, it's walking in faith, and it's it's not assuming a rigidity that that separates us not only from the world around us and the ministry field, the harvest field, but also from the life around us that uh the Lord has blessed and sanctified and set apart to himself that we are now living and experiencing. But don't become partakers with the sons of disobedience, don't pursue what they are pursuing, don't take hold of what the world has said is holy, right, and good. Because if the world says it's holy, right, and good, obviously that's contrary to the will of the Lord. Uh, picking up in verse 8, for at one time you were darkness. He doesn't say you were in darkness, you were darkness, but now you are light, but not in yourself, in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So we're children of the Father, imitators of God, we're children of light. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern, right? Discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Again, this is referencing us to uh Romans 12, 2. Uh take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. In other words, uh in our men's meeting this morning we were studying John 15, abide in the abiding in Christ. I am the vine, you are the branches, and he will bring forth fruit, and in the course of our life he will trim that vine so that, or trim the branch so that we bring forth more fruit, but take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. Don't be connected to the works of darkness, do not be connected to the sons of disobedience. Don't have a relationship that would compromise your abiding in Messiah. And that is part of the fellowship. It's uh part of fellowshipping with brothers and sisters so that we uh we are abiding in the proper place or standing in the proper place, we might even say. But instead expose them. Well, how do you expose them? You shine. Okay, you shine, you expose the works of darkness. Sorry, I've got something in my eye. You expose the works of darkness, you expose the that which is hidden in darkness by shining as a light. For it is shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, and this is uh a beautiful little um little section here, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. It's believed that this was an early hymn, probably a first century hymn that Pete predates Paul. Um, and it was also, there's some scholars that speculate this was actually uh recited before baptism, not as um not as a means to make it more uh efficacious, but rather that you're making this uh proclamation that you are the one who is sleeper, the sleeper, you are the one who is dead in your trespasses and sins. So awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, the coming up out of the water, and Christ will shine upon you, and he will bring you into light, as Peter tells us. We've been brought from darkness into his glorious light. So just beautiful connections here that Paul is helping us to make to see the importance of living our faith, spirituality, in uh the entirety of our life, not compartmentalizing it to something we do on this day and that day, but rather making it part of our everyday life. So you were in darkness. Excuse me, you were darkness. You were once darkness. I I just uh had to correct myself. You were darkness, but now you are in the light. So we were not in darkness, we were darkness. So Paul does not only say that we were in darkness, that we were darkness, but now we have been, we are in the light. So this is covenant language, and it is prophetic language. Two very important elements of the the biblical language that we find. Covenant being brought, remember in chapter two, he unpacks this beautifully. Whether you were Jew or Gentile, you were far off from God. Now, um, of course, he says that um that the Jewish people have the oracles of God. They were closer because they had the revelation, but they still needed to be brought near. The Gentiles who were far off still needed to be brought near. Um, and so this is part of that the beautiful covenant language that Paul is using, the prophetic language in the renewal of humanity, the redemption of humanity, the um gathering of the eschatological people of God, the ultimate bride being brought together, as we see in Revelation 7:9. All of this is such incredible language for us to take hold of. If we think of Israel, Israel was called to be light to the nations, Isaiah 42 and verse 6. But what happens when Israel is light to the nations? Those who receive it then themselves are in the light as well. That's the light of God, the light of his character, the light of his holiness, everything that is holy, right, and true. And of course, that's defined by Scripture itself. So Yeshua declared that his followers, his disciples, are the light of the world. And that means we're shining. And how what are we shining? Again, Paul has given this to us that um in our walk that with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing one another in love, speaking the truth in love and so forth, all that he's given us in this marvelous epistle so far helps us understand what it is to be like. Paul is defining it for us in such a powerful way that we don't have to guess. We don't have to make it up again. We don't have to be originators. We're not called to be that. We're called to be imitators. So we are imitating our apostle here, um, the apostle Paul. And of course, our faith is built on the um the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah himself being the chief cornerstone. So now Paul describes um the messianic community as a living, we might say, um, living in that same vocation, that same calling. So the messianic community, as Messiah has said, is now light to the nations, light to the world. Because why? Well, the Great Commission. Um go out, right? Make disciples of only this, you know, this limited. No, go out and make disciples of the nations. Go out and be light among the nations, because I am in you, you will shine. How do we overcome the darkness? We just shine, we just shine him uh out into the environment that we're in, into the life circumstance that we're in. So Jew and Gentile are called to embody the light of God, uh the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel before the nations. Again, we don't have to make this up. We simply have to turn to the word of God and to see how he has prescribed it to be. So the fruit of light, Paul identifies the fruit of light, what comes from living in this manner, goodness, righteousness, and truth. Goodness, righteousness, as he says in verse 9, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good, right, and true, good, righteous, and true. And of course, these are all uh how we understand the Lord. Um, good, righteous, and true or truth. So these are not, again, private virtues. I'm the most virtuous person when I'm by myself, not even close. Uh, I don't think any of us can lay claim to that. If we could, we would be able to save ourselves, and since we cannot save ourselves, we cannot make a type of a claim. So it's not about being privately virtuous. Our virtue is brought out in the midst of the um personality conflicts, the trials of life, the um just the struggle of living within community. So you can you can attempt to be virtuous if there's nothing that will negatively impact you coming in from those who are potentially around you, or not if you're by yourself. But the the reality is is that these uh memories in here, the memories in our head, the memories in our heart will begin to contest. And then what happens with our private virtues? We we find that we begin to walk with a greater uh an enhanced sense of shame, of guilt, and so on, because we can't even overcome what's in our mind. And again, that's uh because of separation. We cannot separate ourselves from the people of God, and we cannot separate ourselves from Him. So we need to live in a manner that is consistent and corresponds to the character of the Lord Himself. Because our conduct, our life, our manner of living needs to become a testimony to the broader community, and also to those who are in the faith, as people see us endure trial and tribulation, um, walk in forgiveness, walk in the hope that we have in Messiah, all of that that comes forward in our life becomes a testimony to those who are in faith that may be struggling. Uh and it helps them to see that yes, if you hold on to Him, even though you can still be buffeted, you can still Have a great deal of stress come into your life, you will be able to overcome by faith because of what he has done. And that's what the first three chapters were about. What has he done? What does that look like? So exposing the works of darkness as we continue into the next uh section, verse 15. Um look carefully, and I'm gonna pause there. Look carefully. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. So once again, with this in mind, think back to what Paul has just said, have nothing to do with unfruitful works of darkness. It's tempting to have some type of connection that's um, you know, uh a toe in the water, you know what I mean? It may feel like, well, I can't completely cut myself off from uh going to the bars, going to this party, that party, or whatever it might have been. No, Paul is uh is uh saying, do not have anything to do with unfruitful works of darkness. Again, do not attempt to have fellowship with darkness while attempting to abide in the vine or claiming to abide in the vine. Let me clarify that. So this doesn't mean that believers are called to become perpetual critics either of the surrounding culture and everything else, rather than being critics, because by and large, critics don't do much. Critics will critique, critics will um use a lot of language, but we're to we're called to use our entire renewed being for his glory. So we need to obviously point out the error, but let's not make that our vocation. Um again, we need to shine forth for him, and that's enough of that. If we're shining forth the character of the Messiah, that in itself is a comment on the culture around us. That's a comment on the society around us, and that should be strong enough, I would think. So again, the light exposes the darkness just by shining. The light exposes the darkness by virtue of who and what it is. Remember that. Hold on to that. We don't have to assume some superhuman identity in order to overcome the darkness. Remember, what does Paul say as this chapter opens? Therefore be imitators of God as what? Beloved children. Imitate him as beloved children. By virtue of who you are, you will imitate him. By virtue of who you are in him, you will shine forth. That's what we're called to do, shine. A holy community. A holy community demonstrates another way of living, another way of interacting, another way of facing some of the deepest hurts, deepest challenges that we could face in life. We shine forth a different way of interacting and engaging with each other. That's what the ecclesia does by virtue of who it is and who it is in him. So the ecclesia does not imitate the light in order to conitate the darkness in order to confront it. We don't conform to the darkness in order to confront it. We shine by virtue of who he is. We shine because of who we are in him. We live faithfully, and that's exactly what we do to shine forth his light. Live faithfully unto him. Why? Because we are holy, we are set apart in him. So from our position of being set apart to him, we now begin to live in holiness. Our character changes, our manner changes, we apply the word of God to life and living. We don't sit as a social critic on every person around us and throw stones at them and begin to say, Ah, see, I've caught you. You know, the life of faith is not a gotcha game. I wish people would take, you know, I wish people would take that to heart. It's not about you catching someone's sin. It's not about you pointing it out. It's not about you becoming the the local chapter of the Holy Spirit. It is living faithfully in him. And you know what? The Holy Spirit is powerful enough to deal with each of us individually and all of us collectively. He certainly doesn't need our assistance. But it's not a gotcha game. And we need to be mindful of that because we have we never know completely what someone else is going through. We don't know what that laugh at that moment may have meant. We don't know what that um hug might have meant. It might have been the point of encouragement in the day that was needed. But if we we make ourselves the arbiters of what is holy, right, and good, if we make ourselves the evaluator of someone else's walk, we don't know what it took for them to get out of bed that day. So we need to be mindful, we need to be prayerful, we need to be faithful, we need to recognize that the Lord is working in us and around us and through us in ways that will glorify himself and bring us all to our eternal position in him. I'm gonna have to uh pick this up a little bit because I've I've really kind of gone off script today, which is okay, I guess. Uh I'm gonna peek in. Uh well, I've already covered that. Um the resurrection reference here in verse 14. Again, that was uh either a hymn or a prayer that was spoken. Let's read 15 to 21, and I'll try to bring this to a close. Look carefully then at how you walk, not as unwise, but wise. Be discerning, making the best use of the time. Don't occupy yourself with what is unfruitful, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Again, thinking back to Romans 12, verse 2. And do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God, the Father in the name, God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. I'll talk about that in just a moment. Walk carefully, walk with wisdom, look carefully, be mindful, discern. Wisdom isn't just knowing the right answer. Oh, I I know what the right answer is, teacher. No, it's it's applying, it's living, it's living faithfully before the Lord because you know what his will is. Wisdom isn't just knowing the right answer. So the Ephesian believers were living in a very, as we, as I indicated earlier, a complicated environment. And they needed to know how to navigate that, and that's part of how and why Paul is explaining or writing this epistle the way he is, is that they needed to know how to navigate the culture without being conformed to it and negatively influenced by it. Think of how quickly the wider society, the the social constructs has influenced the body of Christ in the United States. I'm just using that as an example. Rather than the influence going from the body of Christ into the surrounding world. Um, redeeming the time. You know, this phrase reflects an awareness of living with an attention. We live with an attention of the present age and the age to come. We're in this period of what we say in this academic world of a now but not yet in the theological world. So we are we are experiencing a portion of now but not yet the fullness that we will not until um he returns. So Messiah has inaugurated the Lord's redemptive plan, obviously. But the fullness of that reign hasn't yet been manifested. So the faithful live faithfully in the present age while anticipating the age to come. Again, the Holy Spirit is a pledge that that when the Lord returns, he will be uh taking us with him. So this is why wisdom matters, so that we when we look out at the broader society, rather than being conformed to it, we see the influence of it and what it is doing to the people who live within that culture, within that social society. And how do we speak to it, beloved friends? That's what we need to learn to do is speak to the culture, speak to the not in any way diluting the message of the gospel, heaven forbid, but rather how do we communicate the the words of the gospel to people who have they don't know the Christian ease, they don't know the biblical ease, they don't know the the shorthand. They need to know what does that gospel have to do with me? So how do we live faithfully? How do we reflect his truth to the world around us? How do we communicate it? Well, first we don't get drunk with wine. Oh, there's been so much argument over this verse, and it's just it's simply sad. This isn't a prohibition of of uh of alcohol, but uh, and I would say this, let me put this as a as a statement. If you have had a problem with alcohol, certainly abstain from it. Let it be part of your practice to abstain. Um, but it is it is not forbidden to take some wine, provided you do not enter into drunkenness and do not imitate the behavior of the world as it relates to wine. Do not go there. That's debauchery, as Paul says. Um, but be filled with the spirit. Why does he make this connection? Why, why this? Well, the contrast is very appropriate within the setting. The setting in a of a pagan city where religious festivals, obviously, banquets and altered states of consciousness were could intersect or would intersect quite regularly with what was called worship. So Paul does not call believers to escape the world through intoxication. See, people drink to escape. People drink to let their guard down, to relax, right? We have many excuses for why people drink. They want to escape their trials, they want to forget for a little while. Um because the chemicals depress the part of the brain that focuses on that, that keeps that uh prominent. And because of that, we let our guard down, and when we let our guard down, we enter into sin. Again, Paul has already defined sin. He's told us to be mindful of sin. But see, the Holy Spirit does something that alcohol can only attempt to imitate. Again, it's I would say that it's it's a counterfeit. Drunkenness is a counterfeit. Abuse of drugs and alcohol, that's a counterfeit. It's an escape, it's an attempt to escape. So he calls us to be filled with the Spirit of God. See, the Spirit does not diminish human consciousness, our awareness. Rather, the Spirit brings the believer into a deeper understanding of the Lord's purposes even in the midst of trial, even in the midst of great joy. We don't have to enter into escapism in order to fully engage in life, because he who is life has fully engaged in us and through us. And that leads us into this spirit-filled worship, we might say. But be filled with the spirit, comma, addressing one another. Think about how people quite often address each other when they're in a drunken condition. That's not what we've learned from Messiah. That's not what we're learning from Paul. But what does Paul say? Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything. Doesn't say for some things. So that hurt, give thanks for it. Whatever it is, give thanks for it. For everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing, making melody, thanksgiving, these are all very compatible. This was actually quite compatible with uh the synagogue worship, Jewish worship at the time, and even many cases today as well. So the Psalms, of course, if we think back to the Psalms, they formed a large part of the Siddur, the Jewish prayer book. And from that, uh, I don't know how many hymns, or excuse me, how many psalms we sing at Messiah Congregation in that tradition, um singing them in Hebrew and English and so on. Um and there's I don't know how to quite articulate it, but there is a distinction that comes from it. There's something different about singing with a congregation of people the hymns or the psalms of God, the psalms of the word. So spirit-filled worship, when we look at this and think about just what Paul is saying, how we're how we are to dress uh address each other in that congregational setting with all of these. Don't bring in, don't bring in what you used to do when you went to the temple of Artemis. Do not bring that in here. Don't bring that in here. Rather, bring in the psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing to the Lord, making melody with your heart. And it's also not disconnected from the worship traditions of Israel. So the community sings because it has encountered the faithfulness of God. Remember, the scripture tells us that the Lord inhabits the praises of his people. We sing because we've encountered the Lord, we sing because he was raised from the dead. We sing to celebrate him, we sing to worship him, we sing to exhort him, we sing to glorify him. We sing because our heart compels us, the spirit compels us to erupt in this joy. But it's not a joy because we were in an altered state of consciousness, but rather that we're filled with the Spirit of God. So the joy that people want to experience when they're intoxicated is the joy that flows out of us because we are filled with the Spirit of God. Now, the language here isn't that you know he's writing to people who are half full. That's not what he that's not what he's saying. He's reminding us of our condition, that we are filled with the Spirit of God. Let's read verse 20 uh 21. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is the uh transitional verse of the chapter, and it's imperative that you understand this verse to understand 22 through 33. So Paul doesn't begin, and this really is the beginning. If I was going to adjust the subheadings that are in this chapter that the publisher put in, I would have put mine says wives and husbands just before verse 22. This is the ESV. I would have put this uh just before 21. And I say that because first it speaks, and I would say wives, husbands, and community, because it sets the stage for all of uh what Paul's going to uh unpack from the rest of the rest of this chapter, the beginning of chapter, actually, yeah, uh half of chapter six. So he doesn't begin the household codes, finally said it correctly, wives submit. That's not where he begins, that's where 22 begins, but that's not where Paul begins. He says submit to one another. And what is he saying? Place yourself as concerned the other in a lesser position, in a secondary position. Now, that is not about position before the Lord, but it is about how we serve and how we receive. How we serve and how we receive. But this was also contrary to not just the culture in Ephesus, it was contrary to the culture of the Roman Empire, you know, the honor culture, the um the positional culture, the hierarchical type of culture. The idea of, and this is why Paul is turning every cultural uh understanding completely, completely backward. I mean, he's just flipping it on them, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. So we're imitating the Lord. Christ came not to be served, but to serve those who desire to be great among you, let them be the least, let them serve. So the entire household section has to be read within that larger framework, broader framework of mutual submission shaped by reverence for Messiah. I can't receive from you unless I am repositioning myself in relation to you. I will not receive from you if I feel greater than you. You would not be worthy for uh me to receive from you, right? So we need to intentionally position ourselves in a way, as Paul is saying, submitting to, making ourselves a little lower than them. We're being mindful that we are not the be all end-all, being mindful that we are not greater than. So this radically changes how we understand these verses and why Paul wrote it in the first place. Paul is not simply baptizing the Roman household hierarchy. Actually, um, this would have been mocked, scorned by Greek philosophers, Roman philosophers. Uh, this whole section was would be an abomination to that cultural uh understanding. This idea of of um husbands, love your wives, verse 25, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for, that was not the norm, not even close. That was absolutely it was this is an absolutely ridiculous statement to even make. But Paul is retraining a society that has lived within falsehood. So he is reshaping uh relationships within the household according to the self-giving love of Messiah. Let's go back to the beginning of the chapter. I'm sorry, this has gone so long. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. I've returned to that time and again, and and walk in love as Messiah loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God for us. He loved us, he gave himself up for us. Again, we're imitating wives, are imitating, husbands are imitating, children are imitating, friends are imitating, and so on. So it's not just a baptized Roman hierarchy, that's not at all the case. He reshapes, he's reshaping relationships within the household according to the self-sacrificial love of Messiah. But also, I would add this the assembly where the one new man lives, he is causing us to completely relate to each other in an entirely new way, that is radical, that it goes against and runs uh contrary to the grain of everything we have ever known. How do we do this? Well, this is how we do this, where the assembly of where the uh the one new man lives and congregates together. This self-giving love of Messiah, this imitation of God. And that's how we begin to understand Paul's addressing wives, husbands, children, slaves, and so on. This was the cultural setting, this was the dynamic. These were the people involved with this, so Paul speaks directly to them, and he changes how the Ephesians understand the dynamics of the human relationship. I, you know, I am not leading because I'm the strongest, I'm not leading because I'm the best, I'm not leading because I'm the boldest, I'm not leading because I'm the oldest, I'm not leading because I'm the firstborn, I'm not leading because of any of any uh man-made um qualification. And we need to all see how each of us, as we've talked about so often, how each of us in our calling, in our unique calling, some are called to minister to the ministers of God who go out. My particular calling is to prepare you for your broader calling. I'm not the be all and all, and no pastor, no bishop, no overseer, no one in that position is the pinnacle of this. It is the outworking. It comes from Christ into the gift ministries, from the gift ministries, as Paul talked about in Ephesians 4, out to the people, from the people into the broader community, into the harvest field. We're all being faithful, Lord willing, to this acre that He has entrusted to us. But that means we also have to live a life differently within the framework of our homes that that exemplify the realization that the restoration has begun. Again, we're in the now but not yet. We're not perfect, we're working and walking faithfully unto him, but we are now tasting of the restoration that the Messiah had begun at his ascension. So, for the sake of the podcast, I will be uh we'll be concluding now and we'll pick up next week. For those of you who are watching online, as this is live, we'll take a couple questions. Amen.