“Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Ephesians 5:8b-11)
The apostle Paul exhorts us to live lives worthy of God’s Kingdom. Since we are called to be holy we are to be separated from sin. We are to live in purity, love, selflessness, and righteousness. Therefore we must shun the ways of the world. How can we endorse the ways of the ungodly, not matter how prominent or powerful or imitate their lifestyles? After all, we are one with Christ. He calls us to imitate Him. He enables us to do so by filling us with His Holy Spirit. Because of His blessings we have repented of sin and, in so doing, we have renounced all worldly values and standards. We desire to have anything to do with them since they only keep people enslaved to sin and blind to the truth of God’s word.
As we ponder God’s standards in light of what we value, we should feel convicted for we all live according to the standards of the world to varying degrees often to the point that we lose sight of Christ. These standards promote and praise evil, lying, abuse, debauchery, selfishness, and sexual immorality in all its forms. The media and the world of entertainment are steeped in this sinful agenda. And we who are believers often buy into this through imitation. We not only do not criticize it, we support it with our time and money. The Lord would rather we be focused on Him and His Word.
Over the past several years, and especially in these three years of pandemic, the Church has apparently failed to stem the rise of darkness. We are surrounded by a world in chaos, confusion, violence, and fear. We blame the government, the political parties, other nations, other people for the suffering and turmoil, yet we believers have the calling and power to counteract the darkness, to free people from slavery to sin with the words of the gospel of truth.