5 jTherefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 Andkwalk in love, las Christ loved us and mgave himself up for us, a nfragrant ooffering and sacrifice to God.
3 But psexual immorality and all impurity or covetousnessqmust not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.4 Let there be rno filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking,swhich are out of place, but instead tlet there be thanksgiving.5 For you may be sure of this, that ueveryone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (vthat is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 wLet no one xdeceive you with empty words, for because of these thingsythe wrath of God comes upon zthe sons of disobedience.7 Therefore ado not become partners with them; 8 for bat one time you were cdarkness, but now you are light in the Lord.dWalk as children of light 9 (for ethe fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and ftry to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 gTake no part in the hunfruitful iworks of darkness, but instead jexpose them. 12 For kit is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But whenlanything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
m“Awake, O sleeper,
and narise from the dead,
and oChrist will shine on you.”
We have discovered over the years that our lives are much better when we are walking with the Lord and living his lifestyle of morality and purity; as opposed to walking with the world and its darkness.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are trying to walk in darkness when God has changed your identity to be the light, things will only stay hidden so long. When we allow things from the darkness to infiltrate our light-filled life, our lives become a paradox. True light automatically casts away darkness, but when we allow dark things to be named among us as normal, we allow it to affect us rather than us affecting the culture.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that Paul had a great overarching theme, "Be imitators of God" But he still had to explain behavior repeatedly that weren't examples of godly behavior. While they seem obvious to us, they are in need of clarification because sin clouds our judgement and we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. As leaders we should shine more light into ourselves and the people God has given us. So that in turn they can be light.
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