Imitators of God - Walk in the Light

Ephesians 5: 1, 3 - 14

Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children.

But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting – all of which are out of character – but rather thanksgiving. For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light –for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth –trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says:

“Awake, O sleeper!

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!”

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I am a high school English teacher, which means I spend a lot of time talking to teenagers about literature. In my literature classes, I often teach students about metaphors, which are (in case you don’t know) a literary device where one thing is compared to something totally different, in order to give a deeper, more complete description of that thing. But there are some metaphors, some specific comparisons which have been used over and over again throughout literary history, for a variety of reasons. When a specific comparison is used repeatedly, it is called an archetype.

The reason I bring all of this up (beyond the fact that literary devices are amazing and always need to be discussed!) is that the ideas Paul introduces in our passage today are all tied together by a single controlling metaphor, which is actually an archetype, a symbol or comparison which is almost universally recognized and accepted: the contrast between the dark and the light.

You see this dichotomy portrayed constantly in literature and popular culture. Recall the image of Darth Vader, the evil Sith Lord, tempting Luke to turn to the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars. Or consider Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a novel that, in one sense, seeks to reveal the depravity that can be found in the human heart. Or there is always Tolkien, where the evil Sauron is habitually referred to as the Dark Lord, who lives in the Dark Tower and is served by the Black Riders; contrasted with him is Gandalf, who, after passing through death and returning as a kind of savior-figure, becomes Gandalf the White.

I could continue giving examples of this idea for quite a long time, likely far longer than any of you would be willing to continue reading, because this idea really is found everywhere. Hopefully, you’ve got the idea. It is a fairly universal concept for people to associate goodness with light and evil with darkness.

And Paul taps into this universal understanding in this passage, using it to illustrate the second significant area where we are to be imitators of God. Two weeks ago, we began looking at this passage by examining the overarching theme of these verses: that we are to be imitators of God. Just as little children imitate the people around them, particularly their parents, so we are to take on the characteristics of God, through spending time with Him, studying His actions and reflecting on His character. All so that we might become more like Him.

And Paul outlines three specific areas where we ought to be imitators of God. The first, which we examined last time, is that we should walk in love. The characteristic that Paul highlights in this section of our passage, the second area where we must be imitators of God, is walking in the light.

Don’t Even Think About It

Now, Paul spends a fair bit of time fleshing out this idea, illustrating what it means for us to walk in the light. In essence, he is laying out three proofs for us, three arguments why we, as believers, ought to strive to walk in the light.

First of all, we should walk in the light because we are saints, as he calls us in verse three. The Greek word Paul uses here is hagios, often translated as “holy.” You might not be surprised to learn that this word is used 219 times in the New Testament, because, as an adjective, it means “something set apart or consecrated; something holy.” But it can also be used as a noun, in which case it is usually translated, as it is in this passage, as “saints.” In this usage, it literally means, “a most holy one” or “a set apart one.” But the common linguistic practice of the writers of the New Testament was to use this word to refer to anyone who had professed belief and faith in Jesus.

So, according to the first century usage of this word, anyone reading this who has put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior is a saint. All believers in Jesus are saints.

And because we are saints, God’s holy ones, there are certain things that we ought not to be a part of, certain things that are antithetical to our character as God’s people. In other words, though Paul doesn’t put it this way, these are the activities or the characteristics of darkness. And these things, as the New Living Translation puts it, have no place among God’s people.

Then Paul gives us what I think is quite an interesting list. One commentator separated it into two basic categories. First, there are sins of appetite, which covers those found in verse three: sexual immorality, impurity and greed. Then there are sins of speech, which are found in verse four: vulgar speech, foolish talk and course jesting.

I hope you won’t be disappointed, but I do not intend to delve too deeply into this list of iniquity in this post. We could, no doubt, spend a long time just examining the details of these various sins, though I question how beneficial such an investigation would be. I wouldn’t want anyone to accuse me of posting a “How To” list of sinful behavior!

However, I do want to point out two general observations about this list of sins. First, it should be fairly obvious that this is not an exhaustive list. The depravity of the human heart is far more creative than that! Our hearts are led to many sins, or variations of sins, that are not included in this list, and I don’t think there is anything in the passage to indicate that Paul meant this to be an exhaustive list of sinful behavior. But that fact brings up an interesting question: Why did Paul highlight these particular sins? Most commentators believe that there are two likely answers. Possibly these are the particular sins that the Ephesian believers, to whom Paul was originally writing, struggled most deeply with, and Paul was seeking to convict them in his letter by highlighting areas in their lives that needed to be transformed by Christ. Or, perhaps these sins represent Paul’s list of “the worst of the worst.” Paul, in this case, would be highlighting sins which he feels are the most damaging, the most detrimental to the Christian life, and thus sins that are of utmost importance for believers to avoid.

In my mind, it doesn’t really matter which of these theories, if either, is correct. What strikes me is how appropriate this list of sins is for the world today. How many of you were like me and immediately saw in this list of sins a snapshot of modern western culture, both in and out of the Church? Promiscuity and greed are, without doubt, some of the most powerful guiding forces of the modern world. Equally widespread is the practice of laughing at what the Bible calls sin, as well as the almost universal and ever increasing acceptance of foul language. The sins Paul highlights in these verses are directed at some of the most predominant sinful characteristics of modern culture, and thus, they represent some of the most prevalent temptations being faced by the modern church. God knows what His people need to hear in every generation, and His Word speaks directly to those needs.[1]

A second observation is this. Notice that Paul does not command the Ephesians believers to stop doing the things listed in these verses. Rather, his command is among you there must not be any of these things. In the NIV, it is phrased even more strongly: There must not be even a hint of them; the King James puts it more strongly still: let it not be once named among you. The point is, Paul isn’t satisfied with keeping these sins out of the behavior of the Ephesian believers; he doesn’t even want them to speak about them! These sins are so dangerous, or so easy to fall into that we are wise to not even think about them

The idea that I see Paul pointing to is this. The Greek phrase that he uses here literally translates as “name not the name.” In other words, don’t even give these activities a name among you!

I find this idea very interesting. This might feel like a bit of a tangent, but bear with me for a moment, if you will. In his famous novel, 1984, George Orwell describes a totalitarian government that seeks to enslave its people completely. Big Brother, who was the visible face of the government in the novel, was not satisfied with people not doing and saying anything against the government. He wanted people not to even think of anything against the government. And to keep people from being able to commit “thought crimes” the government was actively developing and implementing a new language, called NewSpeak. This was a language of reduction. Most languages expand their vocabularies over time; by contrast, NewSpeak was slowly, systematically removing words from the language. Words used to communicate concepts that Big Brother did not want people to think about were being eliminated, and the idea was that, eventually, thought crime would be rendered impossible, because people would have no word with which to name those concepts that he considered criminal. And if they couldn’t name them, they couldn’t think about them.

This is, I think, what Paul is getting at here. These sins are so antithetical to the Christian life that Paul wants them to be eradicated completely from our experience. It isn’t enough for us to not participate in them; rather, he wants them not to even be named among us, so that we will not even be able to think about them.

It seems to me that this is the essence of what Paul means when he says we are the holy ones of God. This kind of sinful behavior has nothing to do with us, so much so that we don’t even have a name for it, because we are set apart from this world. We are God’s saints.

Heirs of the Kingdom

The second argument Paul gives for walking in the light is that we are heirs to the Kingdom of God. This is an idea that Paul covered at some length back in chapter two of this epistle, where he reminds the Ephesian believers of their identity in Christ. They are rebels who, by grace, have been adopted as sons and daughters, who can now look forward to an inheritance in the Kingdom of God.

But here in chapter five, Paul emphasizes this idea by highlighting the negative. He tells us that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Now, I realize, this is one of those verses that make some people a little bit uncomfortable, because it seems to imply that there are some sins that can disqualify us from the pardon that Jesus purchased for us on the cross. Though it takes us a little bit far afield, I want to briefly address that idea by suggesting two thoughts (since the theme of this post seems to be indulging in tangents).

First, notice that each of the sinful behaviors listed in verse five is summarized in one word: idolatry. In commenting on this verse, William Burkitt says, “Any thing that has our highest esteem and regard, our extreme love and delight, and is the special object of our hope, ... and trust, of our fear and care, this we make our god.”[2] In other words, whatever we are seeking with all our heart, that is our god. So Paul is suggesting here that those who are caught in these sins are seeking fulfillment and security through satisfying their lustful appetites. Whether they are lusting for the opposite sex or for material possessions, their whole heart is seeking the satisfaction of that appetite. If I could only have what I crave, they think, that will give me happiness and all that I desire.

In other words, these people have made their appetite their god, or, as Paul puts it in Philippians 3:19, their god is their belly. It makes sense to assert that someone who is seeking another god will not be welcome in the Kingdom of the true God. Until they forsake their idol, their appetite, and submit to the true God, they can not hope to be numbered among God’s children, and thus, they can not hope to have a share in the inheritance reserved for God’s children. To put this in yet another way, we whose expectation and hope is to inherit the Kingdom of God must reject this kind of idolatry in our lives. We must seek God alone.

Secondly, it is important to recognize the context of this statement. Verse six is a continuation of the thought that Paul begins in verse five: Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. The rather obvious implication, as some commentators hurried to point out, was that someone in the first century was proclaiming that the sins forbidden in verse five were actually acceptable practices for Christians to pursue. Some of the commentators credited the Gnostics, who believed that the spirit was good and the material or physical was evil. Thus, what one did with one’s body was unimportant, since it was inherently, irredeemably evil anyway, and such actions did not affect the spirit. Thus, they said, go ahead and indulge whatever appetites you might have! Others felt these empty words referred to the idea that Paul addresses directly in Romans 6: because God’s grace can cover all our sins, we ought to sin greatly, so that His grace might abound![3]

Once again, I don’t think it matters if either of these suggestions is accurate. The point is, any time someone proclaims that sin is acceptable to God, they are leading you into idolatry. And anyone who follows such a person will incur God’s wrath.

I think Warren Wiersbe sums up well the basic idea that Paul is aiming for in these verses: “The Christian is a king, and it is beneath his dignity to indulge in the practices of the lost world that is outside the kingdom of God.”[4] God adopted us into His family and made us joint heirs with Christ, and anyone who steadfastly rejects that inheritance to, instead, serve the god of their appetite will, ultimately, get what they seek. And they will have all eternity to regret their choice.

We who are heirs to the King of Kings must rid ourselves of all idols, and dedicate our lives to serving Him, alone.

We Are the Light

The final argument Paul gives us to walk in the light is really a summation of the entire passage. We should walk in the light because we are light.

Notice the phrasing that Paul uses here: you were at one time darkness, but now you are light. Not “you were in darkness,” but rather “you were darkness.” Before the grace of the cross, everything about us was evil. Our nature, our desires, everything that we were made up of was dark. But now, we have been transformed by the power of God. We are no longer darkness, we are light!

And, because we have been transformed, because we are now light, Paul concludes Walk as children of the light. In other words, live like the new creation that God has called you to be, not like the old man or woman that you once were. Let the fruit of your life be consistent with the fruit of the light: all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Because that is who you now are: a child of the light.

Final Thoughts

So Paul exhorts us, using these three arguments, to walk in the light. Because we are saints, we should stand apart from the activities of darkness. Because we are heirs, we must not serve the idols of darkness. And because we are light, we must not live in or bear the fruit of darkness.

But what does it mean, in a practical sense, to walk in the light? Suppose we are all convinced that this is what we need to do. How do we do it? What, exactly, is Paul calling us to in this passage?

Wiersbe has two thoughts on that question, which is what I’d like to leave you with today. First, walking in the light means living a transparent life.[5] When something is in the light, we can see what it is. That is so obvious, I feel rather foolish pointing it out. But when applied to this passage, the implication is that when we walk in the light, our lives will be totally visible. Our actions, our motives, our desires, everything will be on display for anyone to see, because the light makes everything visible.

So if we are going to walk in the light, we’ve got to be living the kind of life that can stand up to that kind of scrutiny. When we get on a plane, we have to submit to the various security checks that are in place in every airport around the world. And I’ll bet that most of us have no problem stepping through the metal detector or allowing our bags to be x-rayed. It may be an annoyance (and a violation of our privacy, but that’s another topic!), but we’re not overly worried about getting through the process, right? And why is that? Because we know we have nothing to hide. We’re not trying to smuggle things that we shouldn’t have onto the plane, so the light of the security checks holds no fear for us.

Paul is calling us to a life like that. The light of God reveals every corner of our lives. So we ought to seek to live in such a way that we have no more problem with His scrutiny then we do with the airport security checks, having nothing to fear because we have nothing to hide.

Second, walking in the light means allowing God’s light to shine through us.[6] Paul tells us that God’s light exposes the darkness for what it is. The word translated exposed means a number of different things: to confute, admonish, convict, convince, rebuke, reprove. That is a picture of what our lives, as believers, ought to do when we come into contact with those outside of God’s Kingdom.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. This does not mean that we should be looking for opportunities to vilify and condemn non-believers. If he were suggesting that, Paul would be pretty completely contradicting what he said in the verses we looked at last time, where he exhorts us to walk in love!

Remember walking in the light is part of how we are imitating God. When we live like children of the light, avoiding the darkness, our lives become a conduit for God’s light to shine through. When a healthy person walks through a hospital, their health naturally reveals the sickness and injuries of those in the hospital. Not because the healthy person wanted or was trying to prove how much healthier they are than those around them. Rather, sickness is naturally more pronounced, more visible, when seen next to someone who is healthy.

In the same way, our lives ought to expose the sinfulness in the lives of those around us. Not because we are seeking to condemn them or are calling them out for not living the way we do, but simply because the sickness of sin is naturally more pronounced, more visible, when seen next to the health of righteousness. The people around us ought to immediately see the difference in our lives. And just as the sick person yearns for the health they see in those healthy people around them, so those who are lost in sin ought to be drawn to the light in our lives.

That is the kind of life that God has called us to live. That is what it means to walk in the light.

For those of us who are followers of Jesus, God has called us out of the world and set us apart as His holy people. We are the heirs of His Kingdom; He has made us children of the Light.

So walk in the Light.

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[1] I feel compelled to note that I originally wrote the words found in this paragraph back in June of 2006, and I have recorded them here without any significant changes. It is disheartening to see that they are just as true now as they were then, almost 20 years ago. These same sins continue to plague the modern world and have, sadly, made significant inroads in infecting the church as well.

[2] William Burkett’s New Testament Commentary on Ephesians 5:5. Electronic version accessed in PowerBible CD.

[3] Romans 6:1 – 2a What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not!

[4] Wiersbe, Warren. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament. David C. Cook publishing, 2007. P. 613, electronic edition.

[5] Wiersbe, Warren. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament. David C. Cook publishing, 2007. P. 613 – 614, electronic edition.

[6] Wiersbe, Warren. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament. David C. Cook publishing, 2007. P. 614, electronic edition.