Bible Studies at Bristol Road

Baptist Church

Life in the Body of Christ

EPHESIANS
STUDY NINE : Children of Light

Chapter 5: 1-20

David A. Green BD
June 2003
 Ephesians
Life in the Body of Christ

Study No. 9

Children of Light
Chapter 5 verses 1-20

5 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just
as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.
3
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any
kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place,
but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy
person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God.a 6 Let no-one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things
God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners
with them.
8
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children
of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
10
and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds
of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the
disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14
for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the
most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish,
but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to
debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms,
hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always
giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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 Ephesians
Life in the Body of Christ

There are three sections to the passage before us this evening – of which the first is
by far the most memorable.

verses 1 and 2 be like Him

verses 3 – 14 children of light
verses 15 – 20 wisdom and worship

(We shall be revisiting the section on the Holy Spirit and worship in a later study –
as I felt the fellowship has need of a more in-depth discussion of these themes. So
tonight we shall see it as a conclusion to the theme of “Living as Children of Light”.)

Before we step into the study itself, you may like to consider one remarkable feature of the
passage – and that is the quotation in verse 14b.

“Wake up, O sleeper,

rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

There is a considerable body of opinion that takes this to be an early Christian baptismal
hymn or liturgy. We can’t trace an OT origin with any certainty (Isa 60 1 and Isa 26:19 are the
most likely candidates.) – and the poetic form of the words is as significant as the content.

My own view – for what it’s worth, is that this is another hymn or credal statement like the one we
have already identified in Chapter 4 verses 5 and 6:

“One Lord,
One faith,
One baptism;
One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

The passage before us begins with a beautiful but immensely challenging summary
of the heart and habit of the Christian Life:

5 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just
as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.

It is all about family likeness, family love, and family worship.

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 Ephesians
Life in the Body of Christ

A. LIKE HIM — The heart of the Christian Life in action v1,2

5 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just
as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.

There is sufficient here for our whole study – but we’ll content ourselves with an
overview of these two verses which provide the root and hope of our conforming.

As dearly loved Children

As Christ loved us…
As a fragrant offering

The essential command here is “be imitators” – and the original is the word from
which we derive our word “mimic”.

As children…

It is one of the embarrassing realities of family life that we see ourselves in our
children. Children may inherit some of those features – but they learn a great deal
by imitation. Here Paul does not think of it as an embarrassment but as something
he positively encourages us to do habitually.

In the previous section we saw how the command is tied to the theological reality of
being “in Christ” – here we see the command tied to the relationship of sons and
daughters of God.

This is a LOVING, a LIVING and a GROWING relationship with Him that is worked
out in our relationship with the rest of the family – with each other.

As Christ loved us…

“Live a life of love…” my goodness! What a standard! But then it was so in the
Master’s teaching wasn’t it?

Beginning with His love for us it reaches out into the community at large by way of
the church to demonstrate in practical ways and in genuine affection that we who
belong to Him as children love one another and seek to demonstrate His love to the
world.

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Life in the Body of Christ

In His earthly life – and of course supremely in His work upon the cross – Jesus
constantly demonstrated His great love towards us – not in some sentimental way
but in a robust and consistent attitude.

As a fragrant offering and sacrifice before the Lord…

This is an unusual turn of phrase suddenly presented. Yet I suggest the phrase
would have had meaning to those to whom Paul wrote. They knew the significance
of incense even in the pagan world, and they would have known from their teaching
as Christians of the OT sacrifices and how Jesus was our Passover.

The notable thing about this phrase is the fact that obedience to the command
makes a mark on our surroundings as well as ourselves. You cannot miss the
fragrance of incense – it captures your senses and makes you aware that worship is
intended and sacrifice too.

As we shall see in a few minutes when we reach the end of this section, worship is
never far away from both ethics and evangelism.

Here he wants us to know that we are required to live in a manner that pleases the
Lord whom we worship, that provokes attention in the world at large, that demands
sacrifice and commitment and leads on to witness.

Peter has the same emphasis in his first letter:

2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God,
that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received
mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires,
which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse
you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

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Life in the Body of Christ

B. Children of light verses 3-14

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any
kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place,
but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy
person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God. 6 Let no-one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things
God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners
with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children
of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds
of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the
disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14
for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Once again Paul refers to the background immorality and sexual sins of the region of
Asia Minor to which he writes. He addresses the need of his hearers to adopt a life
style that is in sharp contrast to the standards of the place and time.

If you look down the verses you will see the range of subjects he touches on:

sexual immorality and impurity

obscenity and coarse language

(such things are altogether under God’s

judgement)

don’t associate with such

don’t enter into any partnership with such instead expose them.

As we saw before, the Ephesian Christians would have to cope as we have to cope
with an evil age in which personal morality has declined.

Paul gives us the central thread of this argument in verses 8 – 10

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Life in the Body of Christ

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as
children of light …10 and find out what pleases the Lord.

Then he uses that unknown quotation to round it all off:

“Wake up, O sleeper,

rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

I want you to notice first of all what Paul says here about our TALK. This is
something he has already addressed in the earlier passage. He returns to it here to
remind his friends that the wrong type of talk should be replaced with the right kind
of talk.

The wrong type of talk is describe here in verse 4 – (a parallel passage is found in
Colossians 3 v 8)

obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking

We have little difficulty identifying the first – but we notice that Paul has something
to say about two other forms of conversation

Foolish talk – comes from a root meaning drunken or senseless = foolish and is like
the others to be seen in a sexual context.

Coarse joking – includes witty talk which is elsewhere (particularly in the Greek
philosopher Aristotle) commended as a virtue. The world sets a high price on wit –
particularly that kind which has subtle innuendo and is more popular in intellectual
people – or praised in modern day comedy – but for the Christian a much higher
standard is set.

What Paul wants is to supplement this negative instruction with something positive:

v4 rather thanksgiving

v12 “not even mentioning what the disobedient do in secret”

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 Ephesians
Life in the Body of Christ

The balance between exposing the deeds of wickedness – and yet not being
preoccupied in conversation with such things reminds us of a frequent double
standard that applies in many Christians.

We speak up in criticism of such things – but secretly enjoy being able to talk about
them.

The over-arching teaching here is the two POSITIVE INSTRUCTIONS embedded in

the passage:

v 10 find out what pleases the Lord

v 14 Wake up…

There’s a PROCESS and an APPLICATION – and it’s interesting to note that Paul
writes about “finding out what pleases the Lord”. Once again Paul uses a word that
has currency in the world of Greek philosophy. The word for “find out” by testing in
a moral situation.

Some things are not as straightforward as is often claimed. There are areas of ethics
which make great demands on the individual to untangle the difficult moral
questions of our day – in much the same way as the philosophers and teachers of
the age in which Paul lived studied hard to give guidance.

Some things are self evidently wicked – Paul has been listing those things. Other
things must be learned by study of the Word and by experience.

Paul also uses this phrase in: 1 Thes 5:21, Phil 1:9,10 and Romans 12:2.

What matters is that we actually make the effort to find out.

So Paul concludes with what must be a quotation from the ancient liturgy “Wake
up!..” possibly a baptismal phrase. It reminds us of the passage in Romans which
led to the conversion of S Augustine

11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your
slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly
over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of
light. ROMANS 13 v11~~

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Life in the Body of Christ

It is a real danger – falling asleep. (And not just in long Bible Studies either!) We
are lulled into false security – and rhythm of surrounding sin causes us to become
drowsy. We try to stay alert – but the effect is often hypnotic. WAKE UP!

We need a resurrection change – and Christ has seen to that! And if we wake up He
will shine upon us. The true light that lightens the world – that makes everything
clear will epiphany – shine on – us.

C. Wisdom and worship verses 15-20

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the
most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish,
but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to
debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms,
hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always
giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(As I said earlier – I will be revisiting this section in the next study God willing in
August 20th – which I hope will give you more opportunity for discussion and input.
Right now I want to see these verses in their present context.)

It seems that Paul has difficulty moving away from more references to conversation
and social behaviour. He encourages his hearers to apply what they have
learned and come to worship with music and thankfulness.

Central to this advice is his instruction concerning the infilling of the Holy Spirit in
verse 18 which Paul applies with an astonishing contrast with drunken behaviour.

He counsels them to FIND AND APPLY WISDOM

No doubt this wisdom comes from the foregoing verses and the theme of v 10 “find
out what pleases the Lord”.

This teaching is also found in Colossians 4:5 :

5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.

Here he emphasises the need for vigilance as much as knowledge.

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Life in the Body of Christ

You are to live as someone who belongs to the Family of Christ – who is trying to
imitate Him in daily life. You are to be constantly finding out, from the application of
Scripture to your everyday situations, what pleases Him. This kind of wisdom
watches for dangers – and for opportunities:

16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

and finally…

He tells them to WORSHIP and work together with MUSIC and

THANKFULNESS

19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make
music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for
everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
See Col 3:16
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all
wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him.

Notice that in Ephesians the emphasis starts out “speak to one another…” He is
giving us a subject matter and a suitable manner to converse and relate to each
other within the Church.
I notice that the music is the music of the heart that rises in praise to the Lord! I
don’t need perfect pitch for this.
We’ll leave the detail of these words to our later discussion study. The suggestion
seems to be that we should be talking to each other in song.

Commentators don’t agree about whether Paul is using “making music” in a

figurative or literal sense – but of this there can be no doubt – music has a unique
place in human experience – and in the working Church. Let’s not argue needlessly
about what sorts of song to use in worship – but get on living the Christian life in a
melodic way. That way we will produce a new work pleasing to God
and attractive to outsiders : “Christian Life – The Musical”.

David A Green BD June 2003

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