The Christmas Eve Disco Ball
When Ephesians 5:8 says “now you are light in the Lord,” it is not speaking to us just as individuals, but also as members of Christ’s body. Individually and together, we are light in the Lord. Individually and together, we are to live as children of light. Individually and together, we will shine the light of Christ throughout the darkness of the world. You are a mirror and so am I. We will fulfill our reflective calling only when we join together in common work and witness.
Read Article
Finding Your Place in God’s Story of Darkness and Light, Part 2
Ephesians 5:8 uses the metaphor of darkness and light fluidly. Yes, we are to live in the light and become children of light (as in John 12). But, as in Matthew 5, we are light now because of what God has done for us in Christ. Like Jesus, we have the privilege and calling of shining God’s light, God’s love and truth, into the darkness around us.
Read Article
Finding Your Place in God’s Story of Darkness and Light, Part 1
Ephesians 5:8 echoes the language of Isaiah, and in so doing it makes you and I part of the biblical story. Yet, from the perspective of Ephesians, those who live without God are not just in darkness. They are darkness. And those who live with God are not just in the light. They are light.
Read Article
Nowness and Newness
Once we were really dead; but now we are really alive in Christ. Once we were really separated from God and his people; but now we have been brought near through Christ. Once we were darkness, but now we are “light in the Lord.” We experienced a fundamental reality change, a genuine transformation, when we received God’s grace through faith. We moved from once to now. “The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). For us, the now is new.
Read Article
Let Your “Is” Determine Your “Ought”
In Ephesians 5:6-8, Christian ethics is not based on God’s commandments, but rather on our new identity in God. We are not to deceive or disobey. Why not? “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” There is an “ought” here: You ought not to deceive or disobey. Instead, you ought to live as a child of the light. This “ought” is based on the “is” of your new identity: Now you are light in the Lord. If we want to find out what we “ought” to do (and not do), we need to pay attention to the “is” of our identity in Christ.
Read Article
Should We Cut Ourselves Off from “Worldly” People?
The word translated here as “partners” (summetochos) appears twice in the New Testament, only in Ephesians. In Ephesians 3:6, it is used in the phrase “sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (emphasis added). In secular Greek, summetochos can mean being a joint owner of something with another person. So Paul does not say we should never have relationship with those who are disobedient. We are not to cut ourselves off from them. Rather, we are to refrain from joining with them as partners in their wrong behavior. With regard to the question of how we as God’s holy people are to live in an unholy world, Paul’s answer is clear: we are not to engage in immoral behavior. Yet at the same time we are not to withdraw completely from the world in order to make this easy. Rather, we are to remain engaged with those who are caught in darkness. God may very well use us to help them to be drawn to the light of Christ through us precisely because we are in relationship with them.
Read Article
Ghostbusters and the Wrath of God
Many Christians have backed away from mentioning the wrath of God. We have emphasized God’s love and grace without mentioning that God is saving us, not just from our own hurts and messes, but also from what Scripture often calls God’s wrath. But what does this really mean? When we hear the word “wrath,” we might envision petty fits of rage. But in the biblical understanding God’s wrath is not like this at all. It is much closer to what we would call “righteous indignation.” Yes, it involves emotion. But it is emotion that stems from a deep sense of the wrongness of injustice, from hatred of the hurt that sin does to God’s creation and his beloved people. God’s wrath is really an expression of God’s holy justice and his love for his creation. It’s not a divine temper tantrum. Paul mentions God’s wrath in Ephesians 5:6 to remind us that God doesn’t benignly overlook immorality, impurity, or greed. God does not minimize the evil of sin. Rather, God detests it and judges it. But this is not the end of the story, thanks be to God.
Read Article
Avoid Empty Words, Part 2
The Apostle Paul was particularly concerned about “empty words” that might deceive us concerning the best ways to live when it comes to sexuality and money. Indeed, we should be wary of the flood of such empty words in our own day. But the phrase “empty words” suggests another application, one that Paul would not have considered. I’m thinking of the way that modern technology fosters “empty-wordiness.” Twenty-four-hour news shows require words to be spoken long after the meaningful ones have run out. Countless cable channels fill our televisions – and perhaps our living rooms and our minds – with silly and senseless words. Then there’s the Internet. This technological wonder fosters a flood of empty words unlike anything before in human history. Email invites quick rather than thoughtful responses. Texting accelerates our progress towards verbal emptiness. Twitter users post 6,000 tweets . . . per second. That’s 500 million tweets a day, or 200 billion per year.
Of course, our technology can also capture and distribute “non-empty words,” words that are full of truth and love.
Avoid Empty Words, Part 1
Paul was concerned that the recipients of his letter might be enticed by purveyors of empty words to reject a Christ-shaped perspective on life, especially when it comes to sexuality and greed. We have no shortage of such empty words today. In multiple ways, the empty wordsmiths of our world convince us that life is best when filled with sexual exploits and lots of possessions. We can begin to be persuaded that Christian morality is outdated, irrelevant, and oppressive. Thus, Paul’s injunction to the Ephesians deserves a new hearing today: Let no one deceive you with empty words. Listen for the truth of words. Seek their substance. Pay attention to those who lives reflect the solidness of their words. Let the words you speak be full of meaning and love.
Read Article
What Do You Desire Most of All?
What do you desire most of all? What do you want more than anything else in the world?
If, like me, you grew up going to Sunday School, then you know the “right answer” to this question: God. This may very well be the right answer for you. You may in fact desire the Lord more than anything else in life. But, most of us, even if we desire God deeply, still have competing desires. If we’re truly honest with ourselves, our heart’s desire is God and . . . you can fill in the blank. Ephesians 5:5 makes a striking and troubling connection between our desires and the worship of idols. This verse says, “No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a person is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” The grammar of the verse favors the identification of the greedy person, in particular, as an idolater.
Who You Are and What Is Coming
A better way to read Ephesians 5:5 sees it as a promise. “No immoral, impure, or greedy person . . . has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” From another passage in Ephesians we know that we do in fact have a glorious inheritance in God’s future kingdom (Ephesians 1:18). This inheritance is guaranteed, not by our actions, but by the seal of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14). So then, if we do have an inheritance in the kingdom, and if we know for sure that we have this inheritance because of the Spirit, then it must mean that we are not immoral people, impure people, or greedy people. Yes, we may sometimes slip up and engage in immoral, impure, or greedy behavior. But we are not defined by these actions. Rather, we are defined by our relationship with God and his grace in Christ. We are God’s special people, God’s beloved children (Ephesians 1:4-5).
Read Article
Words Matter!
Words matter! So make your words count. This is a Twitter-sized version of a major theme in Ephesians. We see this theme in Ephesians 5:4, which focuses on language we should avoid: “obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking.” Why? In part, because words matter.
Read Article
Should Christians Tell Silly Stories?
When we carefully study both the context and the language of Ephesians 5:4, we see that Paul is not saying Christians should never tell a joke or a funny story. This is not a blanket prohibition of all humor and laughter. Rather, we are being cautioned about language that is obscene and impure. We are to avoid words that degrade what God has created for good, including our sexuality. (Many off-color words and jokes effectively cheapen the human body or various bodily activities.)
Read Article
Finding a Better Freedom
Once we realized that God would not condemn us to Hell for using coarse language, once we sensed that God’s grace covered us fully, we began to take more seriously verses like Ephesians 5:4. We began to discover a new freedom, not the freedom to say whatever we liked, but rather the freedom not to say things because they didn’t please the Lord. We found new freedom to see how our words could build people up, offer respect and kindness to others, and reflect the fact that we have been created in God’s image.
Read Article
What Should Christians Think About Cussin’?
We might do well to examine our words, both their purity and their impact. We want every part of us, including our speech, to be an expression of our holiness as God’s special people. Moreover, we want our words to build people up, to encourage and inspire others.
Read Article