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The Life of Love And Light
Brian Mashburn
April 17, 2016
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Living As Children of Light
After last week's teaching on Ephesians 4:25-32, one of our 6th grade students approached me and asked, "So if I do any of those vices or sins, I'm going to hell?"
No, dear ones. No.
Ephesians 4-6 are straight talk, to be sure, but it is about how a Christian is to live. It is NOT about how to live in order to be a Christian. There is a vast difference, and your grasp on it will dictate the posture of your heart as you follow Christ. Will you live from fear or victory? Will you "try harder" or "surrender more"? Will you live loved, or live earning love?
As we round into Ephesians 5, Paul lists some more vices that are unfitting for those who "live in the light". These are serious matters, a call for Christians to give up sinful actions. But you will not earn salvation by it, you show it. This is no subtle distinction. It is the difference between a Gospel-based or a works-based salvation.
Why is it that, when we hear of God's call to put off the deeds of darkness, we so quickly forget that "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast" (Eph 2:8-9)? Could Paul have said it any more clearly?
These chapters put me in the position as a minister of the Gospel, on the one hand, of declaring forgiveness and hope to all of us who have committed sexual sin, impurity, covetousness, obscene language, coarse joking, immorality, greed, and idolatry. While on the other hand condemning these actions as contrary to the life of love, new life in Christ, and life as children of light.
May we confront sin boldly, as Paul does, co-operating with the Spirit in power, but without fear that our failures might be more powerful than the forgiveness of God.