Children of Light (Eph 5:6–14) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

The first few years of my Christian life proved to be a most unusual time. The Spirit of God swept across our country with a time of spiritual awakening. I am thankful to have been awakened to my sin and to the work of Christ in those days. Thousands came to faith in Christ. Yet with every work of God, there seemingly came a false work of Satan. What God did to show His glory, Satan attempted to counter with sloppy professions of faith that ended up coming to nothing.

At first, being untaught and grasping very little doctrine, most of us just got excited about the many professions of faith. Lots of them took place. People, especially young people, made decisions at rallies, retreats, and church services. Baptisms took place in rivers, seaside, and baptisteries. Lots of them! No doubt, many were genuine. Yet unfortunately, many were not.

What was the difference? Both genuine and false professions happened side-by-side. Baptismal services included both. Church membership included both. They stood beside each other, sang together, attended classes together, and even did acts of service together. But some were genuine; some were false. What distinguished the genuine from the false professions of Christ? It boiled down to the walk—how the gospel believed and received affected relationships, thoughts, conversations, and actions. The walk didn’t save anyone. It simply distinguished the true from the false.

When Jesus Christ changes your heart He also changes your walk. That’s why the Bible describes the transformation as “new birth,” “born again,” “new creation,” “life,” and “light.” Yet that transformation by Jesus Christ through His saving work doesn’t mean that the Christian remains passive. The Christian walk begins, often slowly, sometime imperceptibly, but it grows and develops so that Jesus Christ and union with Him become evident in the believer. That’s why an appropriate testimony of knowing Christ is not just something past tense, as though what happened five or twenty or forty years ago is all that matters. It’s a present reality, an ongoing new life, or to follow our present text, it’s “Light in the Lord.” Do you know this present reality of walking in the light? Let’s consider the rationale for the Christian’s walk, the calling in the walk, and it’s witness.

I. A rationale for the Christian’s walk

We’ve noted that throughout Ephesians, Paul has termed the Christian’s life as a walk. That term refers to the way that we conduct our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with performance in order to gain God’s favor or to achieve salvation. It has to do with how we live each day as a result of the grace of God shown to us in Christ. So the apostle writes, “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. . . . So this I say and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. . . . Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us. . . . Walk as children of Light.” Each exhortation calls for action and attention to how we live as disciples of Jesus Christ. So how does he motivate this walk? He gives a three-fold rationale for the Christian’s walk.

1. Look at the present moment

Something was happening at that time in Ephesus to dupe Christians. We notice it because the original language implies that Paul calls for them to stop an action in progress. “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” It was happening to some. The slick, misleading talk of pseudo-spiritual people either in the church or in the community, used clever talk and persuasive arguments that, when really listened to, were nothing more than “hollow sophistries” [Cleon Rogers, ELKGNT, 443]. It went something like this: ‘Oh, you’re under grace and not under law, so it doesn’t matter how you live. Go ahead, enjoy yourself! Follow your desires since you’re under grace.’ ‘You know that Jes[...]