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 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©
