Ephesians 5:7–14
7Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9(for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”
Focused Thinking: (Eph 5:7–12)
7Therefore do not be partakers with them;
Why?
You were sons of disobedience, but now you are sons of obedience.
You were sons of darkness, but now you are sons of light.
When you repent of your sin and place your faith in Christ, there must be a past tense.
When you surrender to Christ as your Lord and Savior, there must be a former life.
You can’t be forgiven and not be free.
You were forgiven so you could be free.
What is the fruit of the light?
All goodness
All righteousness
All truth
That is radically different than immoral and impure people.
That is radically different than empty-words people.
That is radically different than covetous people.
That is radically different than idolatrous people.
Believers are characterized by goodness, righteousness and truth.
Sinners are characterized by evil, wickedness and falsehood.
Children of light desire to please the Lord instead of the flesh.
What are believers instructed to do?
11Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness.
- Sin bears no fruit.
- Sin profits no one.
11b…but instead even expose them;
- This can be done non-verbally as well as verbally.
- This refers to believers rather than unbelievers.
- Only God can expose and convict unbelievers’ deeds (1 Cor 5:12–13).
Personal Application:
WOW!-That really raises the standard.
- It isn’t good enough to resist deeds of darkness; you should expose deeds of darkness.
- We must speak the truth in love to disobedient believers.
Focused Thinking: (Eph 5:7–12)
What does light naturally do to darkness?
13But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.14For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on You.”
- Light exposes darkness.
- Light exposes evil deeds.
- Exposure gives the disobedient believer the opportunity to confess.
- Exposure gives the disobedient believer the opportunity to repent.
What should disobedient believers do?
- They need to wake up.
- They need to rise from the dead.
- When disobedient believers confess and repent, Christ shines on them.
Personal Application:
Ephesians 5:7–14 is really a picture of church discipline.
- Believers should walk in the light.
- Walking in the light exposes those who are walking in darkness.
- Exposure gives the disobedient believer the opportunity to confess and repent.
- Believers should follow the principles of church discipline taught in Matthew18:15–20.
Interactive Prayer:
Father, there is so much wrong in the church today. Tragically, the church has more sons of disobedience than sons of obedience. It ought not be this way. One of the reasons we have so many walking in darkness is because we have so few walking in the light. If we don’t have torch bearers among us then we lose the standard. If we don’t have torch bearers then shades of darkness become normal.
Father, please empower us to walk in goodness, righteousness and truth. Help us raise the bar in this church. Give us wisdom to pick curriculums, write curriculums and create environments that enable us to mature believers and develop leaders. Change the percentages in our church. Take us from 20% to 70% of our people being people of goodness, righteousness and truth. I know that will take time but I want us to be known as children of light and as sons of obedience. I pray that 30% of the church will always be full of unbelievers. Father, make us a church that is believer driven and seeker sensitive.
Father, raise up connect group leaders and equip class teachers. Raise up leaders and teachers who are growing spiritually and will reproduce sons of obedience. Bring mature leaders to our church to help us grow the immature believers. Bring to our church people who have a vision for resourcing this church and serving this church. Bring us half-timers who are ready to go from success to significance.
Father, help us perfect our strategy, gain confidence in our strategy and execute our strategy in excellence. Help us remove unnecessary barriers to people connecting, being equipped and serving. Give us a clear focus. Help me to communicate our strategy as clearly as possible. Father, prepare our people’s hearts to be connected, to be equipped and to serve. Give us the ability to be the “friend of sinners” to the unbelievers and the “Teacher” to the believers. I pray that Christ will shine on us and cause people to see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.
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