Ephesians 5:10
The Straight Walk
Paul was expressing an important truth in this book, namely that how
we live is important. I want to follow Paul through a few verses to
see that; but first we need to understand the word that he used to
describe our life. It was "walk."
When Paul spoke of our walk, he was talking about our life, i.e. how
we live. The word walk is just a more pictorial. It illustrates
what Paul wanted us to understand about God’s concern.
1. To walk means step by step.
2. It means that God is interested in every single action we
take.
a. Our actions and reactions
b. Our thoughts, words, deeds
c. God is even interested in what we are walking toward in
life and what we are walking away from and even what we
are walking beside.
So when Paul, in these verses, spoke about our walk, he was talking
about how we live moment by moment.
Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in
the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk….
Eph 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as
dear children;
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us…
Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise,
Further, he warns us that some are attempting to lead us the wrong
way:
Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words:
for because of these things cometh the wrath of
God upon the children of disobedience.
And he commands us:
Eph 5:7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
Then he tells us why.
Eph 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now
are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Take note what he said in verse 8.
1. He said we are the light and we were the darkness.
a. He did not say we are IN the light and were IN the
darkness, but that we ARE the darkness and ARE the
light.
b. Understand what that means.
(1) Once you become a Christian, whether you wanted it to
be so or not, you ceased to be the EFfected and
became the AFfecter.
(2) Lost people are always EFFECTED by the world. The
word means changed of influenced.
(3) Saved people AFFECT the world. That word means to
cause a change or to influence.
c. Everywhere you and I go, we either produce light or
darkness.
(1) Darkness means sin. It is our old nature. It speaks
of actions that should be hid.
(2) Light speaks of good, truth, righteousness. It
speaks of our new nature.
d. We are not to be those influenced by the world anymore.
e. We are to be those that influence the world.
2. That verse also means that the difference between a Christians
nature and a lost person’s nature is the difference between
daylight and dark.
With that in mind, Paul gave several commands to the Christians at
Ephesus concerning how they should walk, live, and influence the
lives of others.
I. \\#10\\ Proving what is acceptable to the Lord.
Eph 5:10 Proving what is acceptable unto the
Lord.
A. To prove something means to test it.
B. Stating this assumes two premises:
1. All things are not acceptable to the Lord!
a. Has this dawned on us that God is not pleased with all
things?
b. Some of God’s people are either greatly ignorant or
deliberately sinning.
c. They seem to think nothing is wrong.
d. Everything is not wrong, but the only way we are
going to know what is wrong is to test everything.
2. That we can test to see what is acceptable and not. The
Bible gives us some test that we can run.
a. If it is called sin in the Bible, it is wrong.
Luke 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do
not the things which I say?
b. Does it bind?
1Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me,
but all things are not expedient: all things are
lawful for me, but I will not be brought under
the power of any.
(1) Christians are free to do anything they want.
(2) Why? Because they are free from the law, or
rather from the consequences of the law.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death.
(3) However, just because we can….
(a) Doesn’t mean we should.
(b) Doesn’t mean it’s right.
(4) We are charged not to use our freedom to do
wrong.
1Peter 2:16 As free, and not using your liberty
for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants
of God.
(a) Paul said, "I can but I will not if it
creates a bondage for me!"
(b) Whatever you can’t stop you must stop or it
becomes sin for you!
i. Can I smoke? drink? drugs?
ii. Can I cuss? watch porn?
iii. Can I get addicted to soft drinks?
coffee? chocolate?
iv. Sure I can, but I shouldn’t, not only
because some of them are wrong of
themselves but because I won’t
be brought under the bondage of any!
(5) The Bible teaches us that we are to bring our
bodies in subjection to Christ not in subjection
to controlling habits.
(a) That is why we are to fast.
(b) That is also why we should be punctual,
obey laws,
go to bed at a reasonable hour,
get up when first called,
stay within a certain weight,
live within our means,
and all other things that requires
discipline.
c. Does it destroy the temple?
(1) The Bible is clear that the body is God’s temple.
(2) The body is the place where God lives in this
dispensation.
1Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your
own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God’s.
(3) If we abuse it, God will deal justly with us.
1Corinthians 3:17 If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of
God is holy, which temple ye are.
(4) Again, there are reasons why Christians do not
do certain things. Something’s are wrong in
multiple ways.
(a) Some are sinful because they offend God.
They are sinful.
(b) Some are sinful again because they bind us.
(c) Some are sinful yet again for they destroy
the Lord’s temple.
d. Does it hurt our testimony?
1Thess 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
(1) These command does not deal with actual, factual
sins.
(2) It deals with the perception of what someone
might think is sinful.
(3) Christian, one of the great truths we will learn
about sin is, "It is not just important what we
do. It is also important what others think we
are doing."
(a) We do not have to cuss to make someone think
we cussed.
(b) We do not have to be committing adultery to
make someone think we committing adultery.
e. Do we know it is not good?
James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
(1) God has placed in every person a natural alarm
of right and wrong.
(2) It is called the conscience.
(3) The Bible teaches that the conscience can become
seared and hardened, but a Christian who has
been filled with the Holy Spirit should have a
sensitive conscience to alert him to right and
wrong.
John 8:9 And they which heard it, being
convicted by their own conscience…
1Timothy 1:19 Holding faith, and a good
conscience; which some having put away concerning
faith have made shipwreck:
(4) There are some things that you may not have a
Bible verse or even an explainable reason why it
is not good, but you know it isn’t! Stay away
from it!
(5) The Bible teaches that if you don’t know it is
RIGHT, it is WRONG for you!
Romans 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if
he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for
whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
(1) That verse confuses some.
(2) It means if you don’t have a faith that what
you are doing is right, God will judge like
what you did was wrong.
II. \\#11\\ Stay Away From Darkness, Reprove the World
Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
them.
A. Stay away from the darkness.
1. Stay away from the labors, the deeds, the work that
produces darkness.
2. He just told us to test what is acceptable to the Lord.
3. Here Paul said, "If it failed the test, stay away from
it."
4. Do you get the idea Paul was thinking about that one who
had to be told everything or they will claim they didn’t
know?
a. You tell your teenager, "How about helping me finding
my keys?"
b. 10 minutes later they are sitting on the couch.
c. "I thought I asked you to help find my keys! I’m
already 10 minutes late leaving for work!"
d. "Oh. I found them ten minutes ago. They fell behind
your dresser."
e. "And why didn’t you tell me you found them?"
f. "You just said to find ‘em. You didn’t tell me to
tell you if I did."
5. You would think that if Paul told them to test what is
acceptable and what is not, that they would know to stay
away from that which is not; but to make certain, he told
them that too.
B. Reprove the world.
1. Instead of being like the world, Christians are supposed
to reprove the world.
2. Again, that command assumes a basic premise; namely, there
are wrong behaviors.
a. Wrong is still wrong and right is still right.
b. The world and even the church can change its mind
about wrong or be ignorant about what is wrong, but
that will not change God.
3. Not only does this verse assume there is wrong, it
commands the Christian to speak out against the wrong.
a. The word "reprove" means to admonish, to convict, to
convince, to tell a fault.
b. That means with words.
c. This goes back to what we are: Not the effected but
the affecters.
d. The Bible is commanding us that our life must repel
the darkness—even if that means doing battle with
it—and to spread the light.
4. Of course there are some considerations in performing
this ministry.
a. Condemn sin and not people.
b. Speak in love and compassion.
c. Don’t correct everyone for everything. "Pick your
battles."
d. Don’t be a hypocrite.
5. Few enjoy telling someone what they are doing is wrong,
but Paul urges us to accept this ministry with two
truths:
a. \\#13\\ If we don’t manifest the truth, we aren’t
doing the work of the light.
Eph 5:13 But all things that are reproved are
made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth
make manifest is light.
(1) We are the light.
(2) The light manifests. The dark hides.
b. \\#14\\ If we don’t, they won’t see the truth.
Eph 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee light.
The ministry to which we are called is challenging. It is not easy to
reprove the world, but in a world filled with darkness, God has
called us to be the light. If the light on every other church goes
dark, I want the light here to shine brightly. And if the light in
every other believer goes dark, I want my light to shine brightly.
How about you?
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