EPHESIANS: LIVING IN ALIGNMENT WITH OUR HIGH CALLING

Part II: Walking Worthy Of Our High Calling In Christ, Ephesians 4:1-6:20

D. Walking Worthy Of Our Calling By Separating From All Evil

(Ephesians 5:1-17)

I. Introduction

A. Having extensively written about the high calling we believers in Christ have in our Lord, clarifying the great extent to which God's grace in Christ has been administered in our behalf in Ephesians 1:1-3:21, Paul applied that truth to the Christian walk in Ephesians 4:1-6:20.

B. In Ephesians 5:1-17, Paul presented the fourth realm of walking worthy of our calling, that of separating from all evil. Today's world is certainly full of evil at all levels and in every realm, what the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing in many ways, so we view this timely passage for our insight and edification (as follows):

II. Walking Worthy Of Our Calling By Separating From All Evil, Ephesians 5:1-17.

A. In walking worthy of our calling in Christ, we believers should walk in love, imitating God as His dear children, for God is a God of love, Ephesians 5:1. That love was supremely evidenced in Christ's love for us that led Him to give Himself on the cross as an offering and a sacrifice, a sweetsmelling savour to the Father in atoning for our sin that He might save us and shower us with His blessing, Ephesians 5:2.

B. Accordingly, the self-sacrificial extent to which God went to save us from sin implies that we should walk in separation from evil, what Ephesians 5:3-4 describes (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 638):

1. The self-centered sins of sexual immorality, any kind of impurity and greed should not even be named among God's "holy" ones, those called to be separate from the sin from which they were saved, v. 3; Ibid.

2. Self-centered sins in speech like obscenity (aischrotes), foolish talk (morologia) and coarse jesting (eutrapelia, "vulgar, frivolous wit") are unacceptable and must be countered with thanksgiving, v. 4; Ibid.

C. Paul explained that this separation from evil is essential in God's view, for people who typically practice the vices named in Ephesians 5:3-4 have no inheritance in God's Kingdom, and God's wrath is coming on the lost world because of such sins, strong motivation for a believer to separate from them in this life, Ephesians 5:5-7.

D. After all, we believers were at one time in spiritual darkness, but now we are positionally light in the Lord, so our experiential walk needs to match our lofty position in Christ, Ephesians 5:8. The product of the Holy Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth, what pleases the Lord versus a life in darkness, Eph. 5:9-10.

E. Separating from evil includes not being "sharers together" (symmetochoi) with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even "exposing" (elegcho) them, Eph. 5:11; Ibid.; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 248-249. Paul explained this exposition of the works of darkness in Ephesians 5:12-17:

1. God alone in Scripture exposes and convicts the deeds of the lost world (1 Corinthians 5:12-13), so the exposure of evil in this context must refer to exposing evil in other believers, Ibid., B. K. C., N. T., p. 639.

2. Thus, "separated" believers must not participate with the evil works of believers in darkness, v. 11.

3. In addition, the evil works committed by even some fellow believers in secret are so vile just as exists in the lost world that it is a shame for us even to speak of them, Ephesians 5:12.

4. However, when the light of God's righteousness exposes such evil deeds, it manifests those deeds to be what they truly are, and a guilty believer then should be motivated to wake up and rise from the dead of functioning in such vile works in the light of God's righteousness that exposes such evil, Eph. 5:13-14.

5. We believers then must be very careful how we live, making the right use of every opportunity we have to live righteously since the era in which we live is evil, and even a number of believers are engaged in that evil in their walk, Ephesians 5:15-16 ESV, NIV; Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 639.

6. Accordingly, we believers need to discern the difference between God's righteousness in "light" and the evil of "darkness" that we not be foolish (aphones, "senseless") or "unwise" (asophoi), but "comprehend intellectually" (syniete) God's will, that we live separate from sin, Ephesians 5:17; Ibid., p. 639-640.

Lesson: We must wisely walk worthy of our calling by separating from evil works of darkness, for our loving God Who saved us from evil by the self-sacrificial death of His Son calls us to a holy, "separated" walk. Sins like sexual immorality, any kind of impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk and coarse jesting contrast with the holy walk God wants from us, and we are to avoid participating with other believers who practice evil and even expose such evils of other believers and watch that we avoid evil and use every opportunity to live rightly in our evil era.

Application: May we take great care to be like our loving, holy God and live separate from all evil in our evil era.