Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20040804.htm

APPLYING THE BELIEVER'S POSITIONAL RICHES IN CHRIST
Part XXVIII: Applying The Truth That Believers Are Light In The Lord
(Ephesians 5:8 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. A great "push" exists in Christendom for people "to put aside our differences and unite as brethren" in accord with Christ's prayer in John 17:20-21 that His flock "be one"; after all, Jesus predicted He would join Gentile believers with His believing Hebrew disciples to make one fold with one Shepherd, Jn. 10:16.
    2. Yet, the world of evildoers are NOT part of Christ's fold, for in that same John 17 prayer, Jesus said, " . . . I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me . . ." In fact, even among true Christians, only those who walk in the "light" truly commune with God in spirit, 1 John 1:5-6, 7!
    3. Applying one of the 33 positional truths the believer possesses the instant he trusts in Christ provides a proper approach to this subject, and that truth is that believers are "light in the Lord," cf. Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. III, "Soteriology," p. 262:
  2. Applying The Truth That Believers Are Light In The Lord, Ephesians 5:8 et al.
    1. We who trust in Christ as Savior from sin are "light in the Lord" so that we should "walk as children of light," Ephesians 5:8 with Ephesians 2:1, 8-10.
    2. This "walk" by those who are "light in the Lord" is to be made with a focus on the believer's living SEPARATE in fellowship from those who live in the spiritual darkness of error and sin, Eph. 5:7, 9-13:
      1. Just before revealing we Christians are "light in the Lord" so that we should "walk as children of light" in Ephesians 5:8, Paul, in Ephesians 5:3-6, called us not to partner with the lost who live sinful lives in immorality, covetousness and evil speech, nor to partner with those who seek to deceive us with empty words that condone or gloss over the evil of these sins, sins that will elicit God's wrath.
      2. Then, just after revealing we Christians are "light in the Lord" so that we should "walk as children of light" in Ephesians 5:8, Paul, in Ephesians 5:9-11, called us to prove what is acceptable unto God while having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; rather, we are even to expose them. Such avoidance of fellowship and even exposure of what is evil is the purpose of "light", cf. Eph. 5:13.
      3. Thus, being "light in the Lord" means we are to live righteous lives that expose to others our stand for God's truth versus error and God's righteousness versus sin; this focus fits the calling of our Lord Jesus Christ Who is revealed in Scripture as the Source "Light" for us His "children of light" (as follows):
        1. Opposite the people of ancient Israel who looked to spiritists and mediums for insight into reality, a step that actually kept them floundering in spiritual darkness and defeat due to the evil and deception of such evil spirits of Satan (Isaiah 8:19), God wanted Israel to look to the Word of God; failure to seek insight from Scripture kept the nation of Israel in such spiritual darkness, Isaiah 8:20.
        2. To counter this national drift from Scripture's insight into spiritual darkness, God graciously sent His Son, Jesus, the Great Light Who revealed God's truth and exposed the error of sin and evil, and He sent Him into a realm of great darkness, the apostate land of Galilee, Isa. 9:1-2; Matt. 4:12-16.
        3. Hence, we who trust in Christ are God's "children of light"; we positionally reflect God's Scripture truth and righteousness and expose error and sin, Eph. 5:8b; hence, we are to let God's Scripture truth and righteousness shine out in our lives as a witness and not to let ourselves have that witness diluted by our wrongly heeding or uniting with those who are committed to evil, Matt. 5:13, 14-16.
Lesson: When we trust in Christ as Savior from sin, we are POSITIONALLY made "light in the Lord" to "shine out" God's truth and righteousness COUNTER to error and sin, Eph. 5:8; Matt. 5:13-16.

Application: (1) Though Christ wants all of His flock to be UNITED, (2) in PRACTICE, (a) there is a FALSE flock and (b) people of God's true flock who are caught up in sin and error, so (c) our UNITY must be a SELECTIVE one that CONTRASTS with and even EXPOSES these evils. (3) May we then (a) focus on SCRIPTURE to WALK in God's LIGHT (Isa. 8:20), and (b) apply it in the Spirit's power to STAY upright and SEPARATE from those committed to ERROR and SIN to the DEGREE necessary for us to stay effective "lights": this requires us to be (+) fully separate from lost apostates (2 Jn. 9-10), (+) partially separate from sinful believers (2 Thess. 3:6) & (+) fully united with the godly (1 Jn. 1:5-7).