00:00:00:41 – 00:00:21:18
Clint Loveall
Hey everybody! Thanks for starting the week with us as we continue through the book of Ephesians. Here we are in the fifth chapter. Starting here with all of you. Where are we, Michael? We’re six the sun. Right? That’s five. Paul’s getting into a section. We’re going to have lots to talk about over the next couple of weeks.

00:00:21:23 – 00:00:46:24
Clint Loveall
This is a continuation of where we’ve been. Paul has started to talk to the church about the things that are out of place in the Christian life. And now, as a way of encouragement, he’s going to continue to focus on those things, setting a standard and calling them away from some of the things that Paul believes are dangerous.

00:00:46:24 – 00:01:11:04
Clint Loveall
So, let me read probably a handful of verses here. We’ll come back and try to go through them with a little detail. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be associated with them. For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.

00:01:11:09 – 00:01:36:22
Clint Loveall
Live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to found out, find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. It is shameful to mention even what some people do secretly, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.

00:01:36:27 – 00:02:10:31
Clint Loveall
Therefore it says sleeper awake, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. We’ve mentioned before in the Bible study that Paul, is comfortable. I would say even purposeful, in using the contrast between the faith and the world. And here I think we see that, as Paul reminds the church, that they are to be different. They are to be made of different stuff and do different things and have different standards than the world.

00:02:10:31 – 00:02:32:33
Clint Loveall
This is not the first time we’ve seen this in this letter. I don’t think it will be the last time we see this in this letter, but he is saying, you know, again, don’t let anyone teach you otherwise. Don’t let anyone deceive you with empty words, because those things lead people astray. Those things risk the disobedience of God.

00:02:32:38 – 00:02:59:55
Clint Loveall
Do not be associated with him. And then, Michael, a pretty common theme throughout the Scripture we think of a book like the Gospel of John, Light and Dark. And, this is just a metaphor for Paul that makes sense. And I think it’s easy to understand. So he says, we are to live as people, not who hide things in the dark, not who do the things of the dark, but people who are in the light.

00:03:00:00 – 00:03:23:48
Clint Loveall
Not only don’t take part in those things, but expose them, shine light on them. Not necessarily, I think, in the sense of judging others, but in the sense of keeping the standard of Jesus Christ and making that standard known in the world. Nothing revolutionary here, but but pretty good.

00:03:23:52 – 00:03:48:45
Michael Gewecke
This is one of those texts, Clint, where it’s worth circling back around, I think, just for a moment to some of the Bible 101 kind of stuff, because as we study through the Bible here together in this study, we do try to stay very close to the central theme of what we’re studying so that we can relate it to what the whole passage is about, what the whole book is about.

00:03:48:45 – 00:04:11:04
Michael Gewecke
And some of those central anchoring themes so that we’re not wandering off. But there are these moments where it would be fun to be one of the biblical scholars digging into these things. And I think that this text is a really good example of that, because you have words like verse seven, therefore do not be associated with them.

00:04:11:09 – 00:04:35:49
Michael Gewecke
And here we’re talking about those who are disobedient. And if you’ve ever been in the Christian community, you know, there’s always the explicit word. You have the teaching, but there’s often, relational word then that everybody kind of knows all there’s something going on over here or this person maybe is doing something in the dark and people aren’t, you know, really talking about that, or they are talking about it and it’s gossip.

00:04:36:01 – 00:05:02:25
Michael Gewecke
You know, we don’t have the benefit of any context of what was happening in the original culture. That’s one of the things that biblical scholars try to study. That’s hard to do when you’re thousands of years removed, but here it’s worth remembering. And the whole point that I’m sharing this diatribe is simply to say this was delivered to real people, in real community, with all of the names and troubles and personalities that we appreciate in our Christian communities today.

00:05:02:25 – 00:05:24:31
Michael Gewecke
There’s a there’s always ripples in the midst of living out the faith together. And here I’m struck by the very clear choice that’s being made. You are either people who live in the light, and that brings with it a kind of transparency, a kind of return to the source of light. Or you’re the kind of people who live in darkness.

00:05:24:36 – 00:05:58:44
Michael Gewecke
There’s hiding. There is covering up, there’s trying to position and to show a particular side of yourself, of your actions so that people will see some and not others. And here it’s clear it’s made explicit. Christians have no business with one of those sides. And the question is, what are we going to live into? And I think that regardless of what was happening in the Ephesian Christian circles, whether that be one church or many, no matter what was happening, then the word still reaches out to us today.

00:05:58:44 – 00:06:20:17
Michael Gewecke
Because ultimately the choice of are we going to live as people who are open, honest, humble, transparent with the faith and lives that we have? Or are we to trying to squirrel things away in the closets of our souls? That this becomes very relevant in that and this image of light darkness becomes a powerful way of reaching into that.

00:06:20:22 – 00:06:47:45
Clint Loveall
You know, it’s it’s fascinating how far Paul goes along those lines. Michael, it we would expect him to say, you know, you once were in the darkness, but now you’re in the light. But here in verse eight says, for once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. So live as children of the light.

00:06:47:45 – 00:07:29:55
Clint Loveall
The fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. And then he becomes very, very practical. Find out what is pleasing to the Lord, and take no part in what isn’t in the in the deeds of darkness. Right. So there is a there is a very a simple practicality to this that Paul can say to the church as people of light, as people who are enlightened by Christ, do what pleases God and stay away from what, doesn’t even expose what doesn’t live in opposition to the darkness and according to the light.

00:07:30:00 – 00:07:58:05
Clint Loveall
And again, this isn’t this is, it’s kind of, I mean, in one way, I guess it’s kind of nice. This isn’t a lot of difficult interpretation. You don’t need a lot of help from language or Bible study or history. It just this is a simple call, as Paul encourages the church be the light, live in the light.

00:07:58:10 – 00:08:37:32
Clint Loveall
Let your deeds and words be of the light. You’re surrounded by darkness, but don’t be pulled into it. Don’t be misled by it. Because the light ultimately becomes visible. Sleeper awake, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Which, if you have a Bible that inserts those words, when the Bible does that, it’s telling you that we think that that was part of some ancient, either liturgy or perhaps a hymn suggestion, maybe that that’s a verse of a song that early Christians might have sung.

00:08:37:37 – 00:08:56:24
Clint Loveall
It’s something that seems familiar to them, but we don’t know where it came from. It’s not a it’s not a Bible verse. It’s not a scripture quotation. But Paul is saying it to them as if they will know where it’s from. And so when you see an inset like that, that’s usually what that means.

00:08:56:29 – 00:09:26:09
Michael Gewecke
I want to just point out here late in this passage. Now, looking all the way up to verse ten, I think that ten gives us the thing that we’re called to be drawn towards 11. Therefore defines what the opposite of that is. And no, try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. I love how that is both ongoing, and it invites us to the fact that it’s going to require work.

00:09:26:22 – 00:09:52:42
Michael Gewecke
And I think that that’s an amazing invitation for us to wake up every morning a new, a fresh and just say, today I’m going to try to find out what is good and pleasing to God. That task alone is compelling enough, is oriented enough. It’s strong enough to draw us forward in that day and to give us a positive task to be drawn towards.

00:09:52:42 – 00:10:18:36
Michael Gewecke
That’s a beautiful gift. The next verse that I think helps illuminate the the, the first through the ways in which it’s different, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them and this sounds very poorly in the beginning part of this take no part in the unfruitful works. This is written throughout many of Paul’s historically ascribed layers.

00:10:18:36 – 00:10:44:26
Michael Gewecke
So the letters that we are very confident he wrote, and this is an amazing thing, the idea that the Christian life should bear fruit, that the Christian life should lead towards a kind of set of actions that are useful for the building up of the body. This isn’t merely a simple kind of moralism, that Christians should just be good people and do good things, because that’s a nice thing to do.

00:10:44:31 – 00:11:04:37
Michael Gewecke
It’s because fundamentally, we all have a role, a task, a gifting, and we are called as part of being the body of Christ to share that in such a way that we can bear fruit and more importantly, the whole body can bear fruit. And so I find these things really interesting. We are to find out what’s pleasing to the Lord.

00:11:04:42 – 00:11:26:09
Michael Gewecke
And we know for a fact that that is going to look like avoiding, fruitfulness in our life. It’s going to be in the positive, pursuing lives that bear the fruit of the spirit. And that kind of life is going to be one that does present growth opportunities for ourselves and for the body of Christ that we’re implanted in.

00:11:26:09 – 00:11:49:40
Michael Gewecke
And ultimately, that is the reason why we’re called to stay away from even talking about these shameful acts, because we know that fundamentally, those are the things we’re called to leave behind. So why are we giving time to them? It should be the fruit of the faith. It should be, even in these words, waking up, rising from the dead and and Christ shining his light.

00:11:49:40 – 00:12:17:31
Michael Gewecke
And that’s that. It’s a beautiful way of imagining that we rise up out of those things that tend to hold us down, both the things that we’ve created and the things that we bear as humans, and the brokenness that has come with that we get to as the people of God. Therefore find a new way that lives in the light, and that is an invitation to a new kind of fruit bearing life for ourselves, of course, but also for the people were called to live faith with.

00:12:17:36 – 00:12:48:43
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I think, again, we have sort of a summary in reverse here. Verse 12. What people do in secret. And I think one of the aspirations, one of the goals for people of faith is to live in such a way that you don’t need to keep parts of your life secret, that, it is an encouragement and a challenge to live a life that could be in the light, and you wouldn’t be embarrassed by it, that you wouldn’t have reservations about it.

00:12:48:43 – 00:13:13:01
Clint Loveall
So live a life in which there’s nothing to hide. And that’s, again, a high bar. And we could unpack lots about what that means. But that’s the idea here, that there are people of the darkness who do what they do in secret. And the people of the light are not to have those things in their life. So they need not worry about being exposed.

00:13:13:01 – 00:13:19:37
Clint Loveall
They are already redeemed by the light. They don’t need to worry about being judged by it.

00:13:19:42 – 00:13:53:17
Michael Gewecke
We mentioned this before we jumped on here today. This is going to be a section that in some ways plods a little bit and I think that today is a part one, maybe argue it’s a part two, but you really do need to come and be part of the conversation tomorrow, because I think one of the ways that this really becomes practical really quickly is we begin to see that for Paul, this isn’t theological or even philosophical, of course, it is rooted in those things.

00:13:53:22 – 00:14:23:22
Michael Gewecke
But this is really reflected in practical life. It’s intended to be lived out by Christians making choices each and every day that are God honoring that lift up the brothers and sisters in Christ and that find ways of making transparent the good news that we’ve received. And so I certainly hope that there’s been encouragement in this. I sincerely hope you join us tomorrow, because as we continue along this way, we’re going to see some very practical ways that this is lifted out by example.

00:14:23:36 – 00:14:33:07
Michael Gewecke
And I think in some ways that will help us connect this front part to see what the light looks like when it’s lived out by people of faith.

00:14:33:12 – 00:14:58:08
Clint Loveall
I think there are times, Michael, and we will certainly get some of this this week, where the scripture is interesting because it turns the focus so far down on a particular issue or particular item. I think maybe it’s a little tougher to resonate with these kind of passages today. And tomorrow, where we’re sort of looking through the wide lens of the Christian life in general.

00:14:58:08 – 00:15:23:06
Clint Loveall
But I think it’s equally as important. You know, of course people are attracted to hot button issues, and we’re going to get to a couple of them. But there’s something to be said for a reminder to think of the Christian life as a whole. And to imagine the markers, the the limitations that we try to stay between as we navigate it.

00:15:23:06 – 00:15:36:18
Clint Loveall
And so I, I think in some ways these passages is a little less exciting than, you know, the kind of, oh, he’s talking about that, but I think they’re equally as helpful if we try to listen to them.

00:15:36:23 – 00:15:45:14
Michael Gewecke
Certainly. I hope you’re going to join us tomorrow. Like this video. If you found it helpful, help others find it in their own studies and subscribe so you don’t miss a stay like this. See you tomorrow.

00:15:45:16 – 00:15:45:52
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.