Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:16

Because we are ‘in Christ,’ He has made us aware that He and all His people are on a mission.  The mission is the advancement of His Kingdom and the building of His Church.  Christ is accomplishing this by building people and then using people to build people.  He has saved us in order that we might participate in His larger purpose.  All of this activity is proceeding through history to a conclusion.  The conclusion is ultimately the eternal state, with a new heavens and a new earth.  We do not know when all of that will come to pass, but we do know that as individuals, we really only have so much time.  We may have, as Moses says, seventy or eighty years, but even at that ‘it is soon cut off, and we fly away.’  Therefore, if we are going to do anything to advance the kingdom and cause of Christ, now is the time.  Certainly, as we look to Christ daily to enable us to ‘walk circumspectly,’ we can also look to Him to enable us to ‘redeem the time.’  This will give us confidence that we will have many Divine appointments that we may point others to Christ.

Our Sovereign God of Grace
we rejoice that You will advance Your Kingdom
in every way that You desire.
We praise You that You have given unto us,
the privilege of participating in that advancement.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Ephesians 5:14

Christ gives light because He is Light.  The light He gives is the truth dawning upon the soul of everyone to whom He imparts it.  We see two injunctions in our text for today, ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead.’  Paul quotes Christ as following those two injunctions with the promise, ‘And Christ will give you light.’  This brings to mind a remark which Augustine made in his work, The Confessions, when he said, ‘Give what you command, command what you will.’  From Chapter 4 through Chapter 5 of Ephesians, Paul has much to say about behavior; both what to do and what to refrain from doing.  If we remove the Person of Christ and His Spirit from the discussion, we land in a place in our thinking and belief which makes holy living entirely a matter of our own ability to ‘think right, speak right, and do right.’  The result of that is a host of very frustrated people who, instead of hearing that they must look to Christ, hear only that they must be more self-disciplined, and better regimented.  The truth is, Christ is the answer in sanctification, just as he is in salvation.  He is able to command what He wills because He will give what He commands.  This means that He will give light just as He has awakened us from sleep and raised us from the dead.  All our inclinations to holiness are the direct result of the work of Christ in us to give us light.

Our Good and Wise God,
we rejoice that Christ is the Light.
We praise You that He gives His Light unto us,
by His Spirit, that we may
grow to be like Him.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

Ephesians 5:10

Truth often dawns upon us slowly.  As God transforms us, He brings us from death to life, from far to near, and from darkness to light.  As we ‘walk as children of light’ we will evidence ‘the fruit of the Spirit.’  As this process occurs, the truth of what it means to be genuinely Christlike will dawn upon us a bit at a time.  Thus we engage in ‘finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.’  For us to find out ‘what is acceptable to the Lord,’ will in many instances sweep away our misconceptions about what really is acceptable.  This will undercut much of the form and ceremony of mere will worship.  It will not necessarily put us in line with popular religious trends or whatever the religious establishment deems ‘acceptable.’  What Christ did, and what the disciples did in imitating Him, thoroughly upset the religious establishment of the day.  If we, like them, imitate Christ and truly ‘walk as children of light,’ then as we are ‘finding out what is acceptable to the Lord,’ we will inevitably encounter opposition, often from the directions we least expect it.  As we daily look to Christ, we have confidence that, by His Spirit, He will show us more clearly what is acceptable to Him.

Our God and Father,
We rejoice that by Your Spirit
You grant us wisdom,
as we grow in grace.
We praise You that You will continue to conform us
to the image of Christ,
that we may know what is acceptable to You.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth….

Ephesians 5:9

For us to ‘walk as children of light’ is for us to evidence ‘the fruit of the Spirit.’  Paul uses three words to summarize that fruit.  He says ‘the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.’  In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit more fully when he says, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:  against such there is no law.’  This fruit is the direct result of the work of the Spirit in the life of everyone who is ‘in Christ.’  Just as is true of justification and adoption, sanctification is, ‘of God’s free grace.’  The first two are acts of God’s free grace, which He performs once.  The other is ongoing in the life of each person who is in Christ.  So far from producing carelessness or spiritual laziness in believers, this knowledge, that the Spirit is producing fruit in us, enables us to follow Christ with the awareness that we cannot ultimately fail.  Every encounter we have with Christ, as the Holy Spirit shows Him to us, enables us to imitate Him more thoroughly and consistently.  We then become more Christlike in our doing good.  As we do, the Holy Spirit continues to reinforce the character in us which demonstrates the fruit which He is developing. 

Our Kind and Generous God,
we rejoice in the Spiritual work which You do in us.
We praise You that the Holy Spirit will
continue to develop His fruit in us
until we become like Christ.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning