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EPHESIANS - Be Filled With The Spirit
Meditations, Reflections, Prayer and Questions over the Epistel to the Ephesians

Part 3 - An Introduction into the ethics of the apostle (Ephesians 4:1 – 6:20)

Live as children of the light! (Ephesians 5:8-9) Prove what is acceptable to the Lord! (Ephesians 5:10-14)


Ephesians 5:08-14
5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, rightwousness, and truth)”
(Eph. 5:8-9).

Paul had not recognized the difference between spiritual light and demonic light until Jesus came to him in radiant glory and blocked the way for him to Damascus. At this encounter he became spiritually illuminated. His entire life was uncovered, so that even his pious zeal and persecution of Christians appeared to him as antichristian darkness.

The Jewish Christians in Ephesus, as well as the Hellenists, also believed themselves to be decent and upright people. As far as their society went, they probably were not murderers, thieves or whoremongers, but still they knew not the light of the Holy Spirit. In their soul it was still dark and obscure. Only when Jesus came into their lives, when they heard, accepted and put faith in the gospel, did it become light in them. When they confessed their uncovered sins to the Lord of glory and accepted the cleansing of their consciences through His blood, life transformation came within and without. They became children of the light. Their eyes became radiant and were no longer dull from depression and guilt.

Their neighbours and school colleagues began to notice a change in their lives. Where previously hardness, strictness and ice-cold calculations had determined the atmosphere in their work and in their families, now goodness, mercy and love came to dominate. While at one time tricks, fraudulent connections and manipulations were also conceivable for them, now there reigned righteousness, reliability and uprightness with patience and friendliness. Earlier they had let it be said they were not home – even though they were there standing in the room. On their tax statements they had sometimes changed certain amounts to reflect advantage for them, and distressing questions were answered with indirect answers. All that changed following their transformation into children of light. Since then they told the truth without wavering.

John wrote: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). Since God is light without spot, (unlike the light of our sun with its ever-recurring spots), He also wants followers of His Son to be radiated and transformed into His light.

Jesus had openly confessed: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). What is unique to this testimony of Christ is the indication that it is not His light that brings about eternal life, but vice versa; it is the life of God and the life of His Son, full of energy, that radiates the true, eternal light!

In this sense Jesus set before his disciples the fundamental confession: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16). In his own way the Apostle Paul placed the same calling onto the church leaders in and around Ephesus.

Prove what is acceptable to the Lord! (Eph. 5:10-14)

5:10 “proving what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: `Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light`” (Eph. 5:10-14).

The Lord Jesus warned His disciples about judging and condemning other people. Since Paul writes, “Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thes. 5:21), it may be that there is a danger that we will judge the ones that we should be testing. Therefore Jesus first summoned His followers to test and judge themselves, before they were to cast judgment over someone else: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother´s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me remove the speck out of your eye´; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother´s eye” (Matt. 7:1-5). Whoever bears responsibility as a church leader and has to test church members or newcomers, needs to first test and judge himself, just as Jesus said to His disciples: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” Matt. 16:24). Whoever denies himself no longer recognizes himself and no longer reigns by his own desires and imaginations. He denies himself and places no more reliance on his own intelligence and experience. He comes to rely on, first and foremost, the leading of the Holy Spirit. The one who takes up his own cross, however, has already passed judgment on himself, and confessed that he himself deserved to be crucified! Only after having passed such critical judgment over himself does Jesus summon him to become His follower! Then, as someone who continually bears his cross, can he come to experience the blessed leading, words and deeds of His Lord.

Paul gave answer to this ordinance of the Lord in his own way when he wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20a). Whoever thinks he has to prove or test others should, however, not exercise this delicate task independently, but rely upon the leading of Jesus and give heed to His voice. Furthermore, the summons to prove everything and everyone is written in the plural, what can mean that no single person in responsibility should or could penetrate this testing ground alone. Much more, several saints together should pray and prove, just as Jesus had previously said: “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a tax collector. Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that you ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:15-20). This good rule can be drawn upon to help solve existing tension between two church members, or when difficult problems within or without the fellowship need to be tested.

Paul did not intend his summons to prove everything to be taken in a general way. Rather, he wrote his letter to the saints in the provincial capital with the view that things in Ephesus had already transpired that would be considered a disgrace to mention. However, since the rape of children and the seduction of youth happens in all cultures, it was necessary to clearly recite the dire warning of Jesus, that those whom it concerned might hear: “But whoever causes one of these little ones…to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offences. .. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:6-10; Luke 17:1-2).

One cannot offer the love of the gospel to everyone all the time, for at times the spirit of opposition is so massive that silence can be more merciful than inciting unbelievers to commit blasphemy. It was not in vain that Jesus spoke the unsettling words: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces” (Matt. 7:6). Whoever served in the military or worked in the company of men may have had to hear dirty jokes and offensive stories. However, the one whom the Lord encourages should speak a clear word in a firm manner, so that the atmosphere can change. Often some of those present are glad when one person has the nerve to confront and shine the light on such evil murmurings.

Jesus not only denounced sexual aberrations, but above all, He uncovered and condemned the hypocrisy of the pious. When eye witness brought to him a woman taken in adultery, demanding His approval for her stoning, He at first remained silent. Yet when the fanatics pushed Him further He answered them: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last” (John 8:7-9). Whoever must continually pass judgment over others, or has to uncover their sin, should never do this with pride, for we are all sinners by nature and not one hair better than the guilty. The difference between them and us exists in the fact that Jesus saved us, and we are upheld in His presence by His grace. The warning words and condemnation that Jesus passed over the Scribes and accent-the-law Pharisees constitute one of the most expedient chapters of the New testament, for therein the hypocrisy of the so-called pious is uncovered and condemned (Matt. 23:13-36). It was not in vain that Paul shook-up the pious religious in Ephesus, and laid out their practices in the dazzling light.

“Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead,and Christ will give you light!” (Eph. 5:14)

This verse constitutes a merciful word for the world´s population. The absolute majority of all mankind is asleep and spiritually dead. They live without God, eat, drink and at times beget children like animals, and all the while they hardly listen to the voice of their conscience. Only seldom do they pay attention to the strong, creative words of God. Born-again Christians share the responsibility when they let their friends, neighbours and own relatives sleep on, or watch them slowly rot away in their wretched state of spiritual death. Whoever doesn´t know what he should say to them can at least pray for the sleepers, asking the Lord to send a flash of spiritual lightning, so that they might finally grasp: JESUS lives, and HE is coming again! If I don´t wake up He will judge and condemn me, because I have not bothered at all with His teaching, His power and His light.

Prayer: Father in heaven, we worship You, for you are the Holy One, and You tolerate no sin, either by us or by the spiritually dead. We thank You that Your Son Jesus Christ has redeemed the world population, and offers to them, even now, eternal life, together with His love. Help us so that we may not sleep on, but arise to make it clear to the lost that the chance for grace will, at some time, also come to an end for them. Amen.

Questions:

  1. Who does the gospel describe as the “light of the world”? Why?
  2. How can we prove and warn other people, as well as form an opinion of them, without incurring guilt?

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