“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)
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 and live lives of purity and righteousness. We are not to live in the way we did when we were in the world or in any way continue to follow the ways of the world. We have been made one with Christ and so He expects us to imitate Him, a labor which He, by the Holy Spirit, enables us to do so. We have repented of sin. We have repudiated the old life and all its values and standards. We will not want to have anything to do with them now since they only kept us enslaved to sin and blinded by the world’s values.
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 site of Christ. These standards promote and praise evil, lying, abuse, debauchery, selfishness and sexual immorality in all its forms as well as the use of coarse joking that promotes or approves that sexual immorality. The media and the world of entertainment is filled with 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. Perhaps we do this because we want to be liked by our worldly companions and so not to be characterized as straitlaced and prudish. The Lord would rather we should be focused on Him and His Kingdom. We must uphold its standards not the world’s. Why waste time on things that are not part of eternal glory?