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The Light of Christ
We use many statements to indicate contrasts, chalk and cheese,
good and evil, black and white, day and night. This is the kind of
contrast Paul is drawing, between darkness and light in our reading
this morning.
Paul is speaking of the old life without Christ, as compared to the
new life in Christ. In this scripture Paul is speaking to believers
when he says, "For once you were full of darkness" (Ephesians 5:8
NLT). He is reminding the believers, us if we fall into that
category, that before they came to Christ, before we came to Christ
we were dead in our trespasses and sins and we were the children of
Satan. We were condemned, we deserved death, we were going to hell,
we were without any light whatsoever and more than that we were
content to be in darkness. But then something happened and by the
grace of God Paul says, "you have light from the Lord." (Ephesians
5:8 NLT). Because Jesus came to save us we are in Christ and we are
now light and that is a big contrast. Jesus said, "I AM the light of
the world." and that light has been transferred to us, We who were
once children of darkness have now become children of light.
The Lenten Season is a time to evaluate our lives in the light of
the Bible, in the light of the love of God we read about in the
Bible and we see at work in Jesus. And part of that evaluation is
answering the question, are we living as children of light should be
living? Are we shining brightly in a darkened world or have we grown
so dim that we can hardly be distinguished from non-Christians? So
this morning I would like to see what we can get out of this
scripture and how we can apply it to our lives this week.
There is no question that we are called to Live as Children of
Light. The apostle Peter wrote, "But you are not like that, for you
are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's
very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness
of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful
light." (1Peter 2:9 NLT)
That's our calling. Now I know that many times we put ourselves
down. That we often use excuses to get out of doing things we are
not comfortable with. I hear people say things like "Oh, I'm just a
nobody." "I'm just a loser." "I don't have any faith." "I'm just an
'ordinary run-of-the-mill Christian." "I don't have any talents and
can't do much for the Lord..." Well I'm sorry to have to tell anyone
who is listening that none of those excuses stand up in the light of
the word of God. Each and every one of us has been called to live
lives which are radically different lives from those who are still
groping in darkness and sin. We have the responsibility to show up,
to stick out in the world, by living a way of life which shows the
contrast and shows that Christ really does make a difference in how
we live our daily lives. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we can cast
an illuminating beam of light into the darkness and be a positive
influence, because we have the light of Christ in us.
In his letter to the Romans Paul reminds us that that we need to
change our way, Paul wrote "Don't copy the behaviour and customs of
this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing
the way you think." (Romans 12:2 NLT) This is not something that
will just happen overnight and be over and done with; it is
something that has to continue to happen every day as we seek to
live out our lives for God.
Now it's all very well the apostles telling us to live as children
of light, but, is it possible to live as children of light? And if
it is how do we go about living as children of light?
The first requirement is that we need to want to live a life that is
pleasing to the Lord. And our actions need to reflect that desire.
And so Paul says, steer clear of questionable things as well as
things that you know for certain are just plain sin. Paul says that
in order to produce the fruit of light, our actions must correspond
to light. Paul names three things that are produced; goodness,
righteousness, and truth.
These three things are in stark contrast to malice, injustice, and
lies.
Goodness comes from a Greek word that describes love in action. It
refers to the giving of oneself. In I Thessalonians 5:15 Paul says,
"See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good
to each other and to all people." (1Thessalonians 5:15 NLT)
A life of goodness won't just happen. The reality is if we don't
practice self-sacrificing love in the little daily things it won't
happen in the big things. Christ in our lives must make a
difference, and must change us to the point where we make a
difference.
We often think that only bad habits and bad things that can be
contagious, but good can also rub off. On Friday in Algeciras the
young people of the Campo de Gibraltar had a conference, which has
been on the notice sheet for a couple of weeks. The conference was
called ContagiaT, which is a play on the word, to get contaminated,
the concept was pick it up, pass it on.
There is a story that Benjamin Franklin wanted to convince the
citizens of Philadelphia to light the streets at night, as a
protection against crime and as a convenience for evening travel.
When he failed to influence them by words, he bought an attractive
lantern and placed it on a long bracket in front of his house. Every
evening he lit the wick and soon his neighbours noticed the warm
glow in front of his house. The passersby appreciated the light and
soon others began placing lanterns in front of their homes.
Eventually the city recognized the need for well-lit streets.
(source unknown)
If ours lives shine others will see the need for God's light in
their lives as well and will seek after it.
Walking in the light not only produces goodness which reaches out to
others around us but it also produces righteousness. Righteousness
means living in right standing with God. In his second letter to the
Corinthians Paul wrote "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be
the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God
through Christ." (2Corinthians 5:21 NLT).
In his first letter to Timothy Paul encouraged Timothy to pursue, to
actively seek, to hold on to this right standing with God "But you,
Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue
righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love,
perseverance, and gentleness." (1Timothy 6:11 NLT)
Pursuing a right standing with God and others means we live the same
on Monday morning as we lived on Sunday in church and if we do that
people will see it. We won't have to go around telling others, "I'm
a Christian", It will be obvious to them.
The third thing that Paul says walking in the light produces is
truthfulness. Truthfulness means the absence of lies. Truth is about
what we say whereas goodness is about what we do and righteousness
is about how we live. In Ephesians 4:25 Paul wrote, "So stop telling
lies. Let us tell our neighbours the truth, for we are all parts of
the same body." (Ephesians 4:25 NLT). Earlier in verse 15 he had
written, "Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every
way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the
church." (Ephesians 4:15 NLT)
Living in the light produces goodness, toward others, right
standing, before God, and truth. If we allowed this to happen, if we
actively pursued these attributes, they would soon begin to permeate
into every area of our life, and shine out around us.
We all know that we will never measure up like we should in the
light of God's spotlight, but if we continue to walk in the light we
have been given, we will shine for Him and make a difference.
There is another story about a couple who took their young son with
them on a trip to Europe where they visited many cathedrals. When
they returned home the little boy's Sunday school teacher asked him,
"Did you learn what a saint is?"
The little boy remembered the many stained glass windows which
depicted the Christian saints in all these cathedrals and he said,
"A saint is a person who the light shines through."(source unknown)
This week let us be persons who the light shines through.
How do we do this? Where do we start? If we see that we are not
shining as brightly and we are not really walking in the light, what
do we do?
In Verse 10 we read, "Carefully determine what pleases the
Lord."(Ephesians 5:10 NLT). Try to find out. This responsibility is
on our shoulders, not on anyone else's.
The Message Bible says, "figure out what will please Christ--and
then do it" (Ephesians 5:10 The Message) Paul says you, we, need to
make it our business to try to figure out what pleases the Lord. If
we want to live as children of light we need to be continually
trying to figure out what the will of God is in every situation so
that we can please Him rather than grieve Him.
This means we need to be actively involved in our Christianity.
Christianity is not a spectator sport. We can't be passive
Christians. We are in partnership with God. There are some things
that only He can do for us, there are some things we have to do for
ourselves. We have to find out what is pleasing to God. We have to
begin to walk in the light. We have begin to believe the Word of
God.
When we walk in the light we become spiritually awake. Verse 14 is a
wake up call for believers who are in a spiritual slumber. It was
taken from a scripture in Isaiah. "Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light
shine for all to see. For the glory of the LORD rises to shine on
you. Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth,
but the glory of the LORD rises and appears over you." (Isa 60:1-2
NLT)
I am told that this was used as a part of an early resurrection hymn
and used at baptisms. What Paul is saying is break off sin, by
repentance, and enter a life of holy obedience.
A final story this morning involves an interviewer who asked,
"What's it like to wake up one day and realize you are a great
success?" The person being interviewed apparently replied, "That
doesn't happen; if you are a success you haven't been asleep."
(source unknown)
Unfortunately there are a lot of Rip Van Winkle in the church.
Christians, who go to sleep not long after they made the decision to
follow Christ. Paul exhorts the church to wake up and step into the
light. To become the light because of the salvation that Christ
offers today.
So today I encourage you, look back on your own life since becoming
a Christian, what positive changes have you seen? Where have you
seen the greatest change, in your language, your desires, your
values, the way you treat people?
Is any fruit being produced? Any goodness, any righteousness, any
truth? Are you trying to actively figure out what pleases the Lord
and then do it?
If the answer to the second question is yes, keep on seeking His
will and His desire. If is the answer is no, then somewhere, you've
missed the mark, and you can't blame anyone or anything for that.
You were once darkness--But now you are light in the Lord. Things
are Different Now. |
