Monday, January 23, 2023

Awaken, O Sleeper!

Monday, January 23, 2023

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.  He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you.  Such sins have no place among God’s people.  Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you.  Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.  You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God.  For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.  Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.  Don’t participate in the things these people do.  For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord.  So live as people of light!  For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.  Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.  Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.  It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.  But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible.  This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”  Ephesians 5:1-14

Some Biblical passages require zero commentary, except perhaps, an honest glimpse in the mirror.  The image of people sleeping in all the wrong places is a stark reminder that there is a time to sleep, and a time to wake-up.  We’re not talking about getting up to arrive at work on time, or get the kids off to school.  The “wokeness factor” is about how we approach life’s darker areas.

The apostle Paul reminds the believers at Ephesus that sexual sins (which is any sexual activity outside of marriage), obscenities (language, pornography, etc), and materialistic greed are what people do when they don’t have a clue about God. 

Disciples of Jesus don’t participate in the activities of darkness for two reasons:

1.    Sexual impurity obscene language and foolishness, as well as materialism, lead to the darkness of societal downward-spiral.  It’s destructive!

2.    Because a believer has received Christ, the light of God’s goodness dwells within any disciple of Jesus, and that darker side of life will diminish our view of that for which we were created and saved.

We have, as apostle Peter declared, been called out of the darkness to serve Christ:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  1 Peter 2:9

It is totally inconsistent to be a believer who proclaims the light of Christ from the shadows.  If there is any hope for this generation’s ability to witness of God’s saving and sanctifying grace, it will be for the church of Jesus Christ to walk in that light to which Jesus calls us.

For You Today  

There’s enough darkness…time to stop sleeping through life; believers wake-up, and walk in the light.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Emptying the Church - Part 1  and  Drunkard Road

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©   

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