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Walk as Wise

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This Sunday we continued our series in Ephesians. You can view the sermon here.

Paul, in Ephesians 5, is looking at our identity in Christ from different angles. It is as if he is slowly turning a diamond and observing the different facets of it.

If we are in Christ, then we are beloved children of God and we should imitate Him. We do this by walking in love, light, and wisdom.

Verse 15 calls God’s children to look carefully at how we walk. We are not to live as those who are unwise but as those who are wise. Our union with Christ is the most important truth about who we are. In Christ, we have been given His wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30).

If this sounds foreign to you, you are not alone. We tend to view our salvation from the standpoint of forgiveness or justification alone. That is a wonderful truth, but that is not all God has blessed us with in our salvation. He has made us wise in Christ.

A Cause for Humility

This is a cause for humility, not pride. We were unwise. Unwise in the biblical sense means foolish; we were not following God, we were in active rebellion against God (Psalm 14:1). The Holy Spirit changes our hearts so that we see Christ as beautiful where before we wanted nothing to do with Him. If we are puffed up by this truth, it is evidence that we do not understand the work of grace which God has done in our hearts.

Foolishness is the denial of God (Romans 1:18-32). What, then, is wisdom? Wisdom is the proper application of biblical knowledge. It is bringing our biblically informed intellect and common sense to a situation and applying biblical knowledge to it.

The Bible’s view of wisdom is incredibly freeing!

One example is choosing a spouse. God tells us the kind of character we should look for in a potential spouse. We can easily sum it up with the character Paul has been expounding on in Ephesians 5. Therefore, we can take biblical knowledge and apply it to a person we think we might want to marry. Do they meet this criteria? If yes, then you can pursue it in wisdom. But if not, you should move on because it would be unwise and foolish to pursue something God has forbidden.

Wisdom is Practical

When we walk in wisdom, as those who are wise, then we will know how to make the best use of the time in these evil days (5:16-17).

Using the wisdom God has given us will help us have the right priorities in life. Wisdom tells us that every time we say yes to something, we say no to something else. There are wise activities we can do to make the most use of our time, and there are unwise activities.

How do we know the difference? We need to use the wisdom that God has given us. Ask yourself: what responsibilities has God given to me? This is a simple question, but it can really help us apply our biblical knowledge to a specific situation.

A personal example may help here; God has given me the privilege (responsibility) of being a husband, a daddy, and a pastor. These are my priorities. Therefore, if there is something that comes up which will interfere with me faithfully obeying God in those areas, I don’t need to do it. Even if the thing might be good and not sinful, I still need to say no.

Wisdom is meant for the nitty-gritty of life. God has not given us the wisdom of Christ to win arguments, or so that we might know really big words and sound smart. Rather wisdom is for us to use in our everyday life, so that we might grow in imitating our Father and glorify Him.

Love One Another Because God has Loved us

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There is not a better feeling than to hear someone you love tell you they love you. It is wonderful to know that you are loved and to hear it. But you only have this feeling from someone you know loves you. If you do not know they love you they can say it all day but the impact won't be there.

When my wife tells me she loves me it's amazing! I know Victoria loves me. Or when Carson or Nora walk up to me and say “Daddy I love you” that makes me feel good because I know she loves me. Or when dad sends me an email often times he will close the email out by telling me he loves me.

We have an innate desire to want to be loved. The Apostle John reminds us in this passage that we have been loved by God and God placed us in His family to be loved. We are doubly loved. We are loved by God and loved by our brothers and sisters in Christ. God has placed His children in a loving family, a family that loves because God loves them. I don’t know about you but that is something I want to be a part of.

John’s main theme in 1 John 4:7-12 is that we should love one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Apostle gives us three reasons why we should love one another.

      1. God is Love
      2. God has loved us.
      3. God abides in us.

In this post we will look at God is love and will review the last two points in another post.

Let us love one another because God is love.

What do you think is the distinguishing mark of God’s children?

Love is what sets us apart from the world. Jesus told his disciples this in John 13:34-35: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In Mark 12 when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he answered: “Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

God’s children are characterized by their love. We will be known and the world will know we are disciples of Jesus because of our love.

John does not leave this in the theoretical realm either. The way he writes shows he loves those he writes too. Verse 7 starts with the word beloved. He loves them much. These people are his dear friends. We can trust then that when John writes that we should love one another he is doing this as one who is loving. William Tyndale said that John “singeth his old song again.” John wrote often of love. He penned perhaps the most popular verse in the Bible, For God SO loved the world. In chapter four of First John alone he uses the word love 26 times. John has much to say about love, because he loved much.

Why does John command us to love one another?

Two reasons.

First, we should love one another because love is of God and the one who loves has been born of God and knows God. Our love for one another is an evidence that we have been born again and that we know God. This is evidence that we have been born again because God is the source of love. Love finds its origin in God. Therefore when we love one another we give evidence that we have been born of God and know God.

Second, we should love one another because the one who does not love does not know God because God is love. If God is love and we claim to know God but we don’t love then we don’t know God. Simple as that. You have to love the simplicity of John. He deals in black and white. He is not concerned with the gray areas.

If you love one another, if you love God’s children, then you have God as your Father because your Father is love. One writer told of a time when a member in his church came to him and said they were not sure if a member of the church was a Christian. Like any good pastor, he was alarmed and asked why they thought this. The member replied that there was no evidence of love in their life. The pastor responded by saying “I don’t know whether the person is a Christian or not, but it’s certainly hard to tell when love isn’t present in his life.” He went on to say it is hard to tell “because love is the manifestation of the indwelling of God.

Verse 8 and 16 of this chapter make the wonderful statement that God is love. This deals with the very nature and essence of God. God is love, therefore, He defines love, love does not define Him. This means that if we wish to know what love is and what love does we must look to God. This is the second statement of this nature John makes in this letter. In 1 John 1:5 he says that God is light and John records Jesus in the gospel of John saying that God is Spirit. Hebrews also tells us that God is a consuming fire. How do these fit together? John Stott wrote: “He who is love is light and fire as well. Far from condoning sin, his love has found a way to expose it (because he is light) and to consume it (because he is fire) without destroying the sinner, but rather saving him.” God is love and we should praise Him for His infinite wisdom that all of His wonderful attributes work together for His glory in the salvation of sinners.

This is a perfect transition to verses 9 and 10 which will be our starting point in our next post.

Walk as Light

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This Sunday we continued our series in Ephesians. You can view the sermon here.

Paul, the author of the letter, never gives a command without grounding it in the reality of who we are as Christians. Ephesians is structured this way. The first three chapters deal with the realities of who we are in Christ; then Paul moves to the implications, or the actions Christians should take because of this truth. In Ephesians 5:8-14 this pattern continues.

We were darkness but now we are light in the Lord (5:8). The text does not say we were in darkness but rather we were darkness. Our lives were characterized by sin and ignorance of God’s truth. But that is not who we are now. Now we are light. We are holiness and we have been given knowledge of God’s truth.

The implication of this is that now we are to walk as children of light. Remember, in 5:1 the command was to be imitators of God. That thinking continues here. God is light and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). Therefore we are to walk as the children of light whom we are. This is our identity.

We live from the identity that is most important to us. This can range from the role we have at our job to being a spouse or being a student. Paul is calling us to live out of a higher identity than we could ever give ourselves. God, our Father, has made us children of light, He has placed us in Christ. This is the identity that should drive our behavior.

How do we know if we are walking in light? Paul says the fruit of light is all that is good, right, and true (5:9).

Is the action good, is it holy? Then it is walking in light.

Is it right? Then it is walking in light.

Is it true? Then it is walking in light.

Walking in light is pleasing to God. For those who are in Christ, Christians, we have the ability to please God. Jesus said if we love Him we will obey Him. Our obedience, walking in light and holiness, pleases and glorifies God. Our obedience tells God that we think the identity He has given us is the most important truth about us.

Children of light will not take part of the unfruitful works of darkness (5:11). This is the negative prohibition. Those who are darkness are not to be imitated; rather God, who is light, should be imitated. It is not even proper to talk about the shameful things those who are darkness do in secret (5:12).

The Holy Spirit, through the words of Paul, is calling us to a higher standard than we normally hear. Not only are we to do what is good, right, and true; we are not to take part in the unfruitful works of darkness. Not only are we to not take part in works of darkness; we are not even to talk about them. This is a fully encompassing holiness. Every aspect of our life should be holy.

Notice I said this is about your life and not someone else. It is easy to read a passage like this and think about the sins of the culture and call those out. But Paul is mainly concerned with our walking in light. The darkness can’t walk in light. That’s the point. Why would we be surprised when darkness acts like darkness.

We should be more surprised when we who are light take part in the unfruitful works of darkness. Are you surprised when you sin? Does it grieve you when you sin? That is the most shocking thing, not the sins of the culture.

Rather our good works, our lives of holiness, can be a rebuke to the culture around us. Who have your actions rebuked lately? This is a consequence of walking in light, not the reason we walk in light. We walk in light to glorify God and please Him. That is our driver, that is our motive.

May God be gracious to us this week to help us walk as children of light. We have a great Father who has given us a new heart so that we might imitate Him. Why would we want to do anything else?

Your Place in God’s Plan

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John Anderson wrote our sermon application post this week.

This week, per our Pastor’s request, we turned our Bibles to Esther 4. The book of Esther details the account of Esther and Mordecai, two Jewish people living in Susa, of the kingdom of Persia. Persia conquered Babylon in 539 B.C., and the enslaved Jewish people then began their return to the land of Israel. Some Jews, however, stayed behind in Persia, thus setting the backdrop for the book of Esther. Persia functioned as a world power in the 5th century B.C., which is when the details of the book of Esther took place.

Our Pastor focused on God’s providence. Specifically, he keyed in on one very famous statement made by Mordecai to Esther: “who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” This statement references Esther’s position as Queen of Persia and the genocide awaiting the Jewish people. Surveying the events in this book, it is difficult to explain the circumstances and outcomes without pointing to the providence of God! Esther, an exile in the land, became queen only because the previous queen was disobedient, leading to a vacancy in the position. Esther was then considered for the role due to her natural beauty, something God given. Mordecai raised and counseled Esther only because she was an orphan and he was her cousin. If any one of these circumstances had not been true, Esther would have never ascended to the throne, and she would not have been able to help save her people! These events point to God’s providence.

Providence is God’s sovereignty (His complete rule and reign) in action. God providentially works out all circumstances, big and small, to accomplish His purposes. No event occurs outside God’s providential scope. This doctrine provides the foundation for amazing promises such as Romans 8:28— “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Without a powerful, ruling God who ensures results; promises such as Romans 8:28 are not promises, but rather empty babble. Believers should take great comfort in the fact that God moves history and events in His direction. He directs them to the grand purpose of redeeming sinners, thus bringing Him glory.

When the stage seemed set for God to save the Jews (Esther being the chief instrument), Mordecai displays one of the healthiest views of God’s providence ever recorded. He states that even if Esther were to wrongly stay silent, “relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.” Mordecai understood God’s saving and compassionate nature. So even if the details showed impending doom, Mordecai knew that God would be at work behind the scenes (from a human point of view) to bring salvation to the Jewish people. Undoubtedly, Mordecai knew the history of his people, a history of God raising them up against unspeakable odds to become a great nation. The accounts of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and so many others prove this point. Because Mordecai knew God’s will, he trusted Him with the details.

Some things we can learn from God’s providence and the story of Esther are as follows:

  • Know God’s ultimate purpose. His purpose is to glorify Himself by redeeming a people through the shed blood of Jesus. By knowing this fact, we know where God is directing history, events, and circumstances.
  • Know God’s plan for the believer. All we know for sure is that if we are in Christ, God is working out or lives to conform us to the image of Christ and, one day, live in glory with Him. We must know the end of our story to trust that God is working out the mysterious details in our favor.
  • Know God’s revealed will for our lives. This will is what he holds us accountable to. To be sanctified, to love Him and our neighbor, to be conformed to Christ’s image, etc. This will is what we are to worry about and pursue. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6).
  • Admit that we cannot figure out God’s secret will. God’s secret will is the unfolding of all life events based on His eternal decree. His secret will somehow works to accomplish salvation for many and conform them to Christlikeness. Since we know God’s purpose (redeeming people) and his revealed will (follow Him), we can trust Him with His secret will.

Believers with a healthy view of God’s providence, then, will stay away from the sinful boasting recorded in James 4:13-14—

‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.’

As we look back at the account of Esther and Mordecai, we learn that Mordecai, though imperfect, knew God’s heart. God loves His people and brings salvation when they cry out. It turns out that the Lord used Esther to approach the King and plea for the deliverance of her people. The plot of evil Haman was revealed, and the Jews received a decree to defend themselves from any future attackers. God saved the Jewish people! The events unfolded this way because God maneuvered them toward His ultimate purpose: glorifying Himself by saving His people.

Prayerfully, we can continue to grow in our knowledge of God’s ultimate purpose, plan for the believer, and revealed will. If we know these and trust God’s good character, we can function as faithful followers even amidst the soul-wrenching chaos of life’s circumstances.

Be Imitators of God

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This week we picked back up in our sermon series through the book of Ephesians. In the first three chapters of the book, Paul lays out the doctrine we must know to live as Christians. In the last three chapters, he works out what we must do in light of who we are in Christ. Christians have a new identity in Christ and we must live that out.

Our text was Ephesians 5:1-2.

Our sermon followed four words as a track to run on: imitation, identification, intention, and satisfaction.

Imitation. We are to be imitators of God, we are to be like God. This should be the cry of every Christian. We obey because God loves us; not to be loved by God. We love God, therefore we obey Him.

The motivation to forsake the sins which Paul will address is God’s love for us; not guilt, fear, or shame. Law is a poor motivator and will not endure. Love for God and His love for us will sustain us as we pursue holiness; as we seek to be imitators of God.

This is a high calling, and it is easy to make excuses for why we cannot do this. The church at Ephesus was surrounded by sin and evil, but Paul did not give them any excuse. We cannot use our current circumstances as a reason not to take Paul’s words seriously. No matter how evil the culture around us might be; that is not an excuse for disobeying the command to be imitators of God.

You can be an imitator of God because of Ephesians 3:20. Paul does not call us to do this in our own strength and power but in the power of the Holy Spirit. If we try to be patient on our own when we are impatient, we will fail.

We are to imitate God’s communicable attributes. God is gracious, therefore I must be a gracious person. God is forgiving, therefore I must forgive. This is how we seek to imitate God.

Identification. What is our motivation in imitation? It flows out of our identification. We are God’s beloved children. You are not a second class citizen, you are a full fledged member of the family.

To be a dearly loved child of God is to be preferred above all others. God treats us with partiality; He is partial to His children and we are the objects of His affection.

Here are a few searching questions you can ask yourself to determine how you view God’s love for you:

  • How do you truly view God?
  • Are you totally convinced that God loves you as His beloved child?
  • Do you believe that God sees you with eyes of love or with condemnation?

We should naturally gravitate to imitating our Father. We should be careful about the family name. Our conduct should honor God and not bring reproach on His name.

Intention. One of the ways we imitate God is by walking in Love. Our lives should be characterized by love (John 13:34-35).

This love is an active love, a personal love, a sacrificial love. Christ actively gave His life for us. He sacrificed Himself; His love cost Him His life.

“A love that costs nothing will accomplish nothing.” We are to imitate God by having love drive our imitation of Him. If our love for others never costs us anything, we are not truly loving that person.

Satisfaction. Our obedience pleases God. When we imitate Him, He is pleased. Again we must remember: we do not do this to earn God’s love, but because He loves us.

How will you imitate God this week? How will you love sacrificially as Christ loved you?

Personally, the call to love at a cost is an area in which I need to work. It is easy for me to “love” someone when it is convenient for me or if they are like me. It is a lot harder to love the inconvenient or different.

That’s where I am asking God to help me imitate Him this week. May He be glorified in answering that prayer.