Exposed by the Light

(Ephesians 5:11-14)

We live in dark times as Christians today. The darkness of sin and evil is possibly the worst it has ever been.

This is to be expected because we are told in the Bible that as the last days come, so too will the activity of Satan increase to try and overwhelm the people of the Lord.

We cannot be complacent. We cannot allow the influence of these things into our lives to pull us back into the world. Instead we need to expose this evil to the light of the truth and awaken ourselves and those around us to see the light of the truth of Jesus Christ.

Do not follow darkness

This scripture today speaks to us in several ways. The first part of the scripture tells us not to take part in the unfruitful works of darkness.

11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; 13 but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. 14 Therefore it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” (Ephesians 5:11-14)

The unfruitful works of darkness can be misleading and sometimes may even seem to be good, but are not.

In this world, darkness is everywhere. The darkness of evil and opposition to Christ Jesus are everywhere in this world.

Consider the religion of atheism, and yes, whether they consider it a religion or not, it is indeed a religion. A religion is any belief system and atheism is a belief system. They believe that there is no God, so their position is a position of belief and so is a religion.

Atheists believe that to rely upon an invisible God is foolishness. They believe it is akin to believing in fairy tales and as such atheists mock those who choose to hold fast the faith in Jesus Christ.

Atheists claim that to believe in what you cannot prove by empirical means, that is, to believe in something that cannot be proved by science and experiment, is fundamentally futile. And so they mock and ridicule anyone who believes in a God who cannot be seen. They claim to be wise in their own understanding on the basis that if a thing cannot be proved, then it cannot be real and should be rejected.

Thinking this way is darkness. It is foolishness of the highest order because they reject God. The evidence of God is all around us in the Creation that He has made that is so complex, and yet so perfect that it could not have come into existence except by the hand of God.

But atheists claim the Creation did not happen. That the universe began with a “big bang” and that life as we know it came through a process of electrochemical reactions in a perfect mix of primordial soup that occurred by random chance. And they believe that all life evolved through a process of common descent from that first kindling of life in the primordial soup. That first single cell somehow developed by evolutionary processes to become millions of species of animal AND plant life through processes of natural selection and evolutionary change.

To propagate millions of species would require transitional stages in the evolutionary process, the so-called “missing link.” Atheists have been looking for the missing link that crosses over between apes and mankind for years and have not found it. But what of the rest of the millions of species of plant and animal life today? Surely to evolve into what we see today there must be millions of transitional species and links?

And yet in the fossil records there has not been found any such links between species. For the diversity that exists today there would have to be so many transitional species linking one to the next that these should make up the bulk of the fossil record. And yet they do not.

Atheists have accepted the myth of the theory of evolution as fact and called it science without proof that such a system exists or even can exist. But they accept it and teach it as scientific fact in schools because to reject this myth would mean that the alternate must be true…which is to accept a Creation made by God.

This is darkness and as we are instructed, let us take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness and instead expose them by the light of the truth.

There is also the darkness of sin in the world that the people of the world have rejected as sin and called “good.” Sinful things like substance abuse, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, greed and the like. All of these things are sinful and are darkness because they are in opposition to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Exposed by the Light

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has called all of us to repent from these things and come to God. Grace is available and ready to cover the sins of anyone if they will repent and turn to Christ, and there is no sin too great that it cannot be covered by God’s grace. When we repent and turn away from these things we are turning away from darkness and towards the light.

When we repent we are exposing the unfruitful works of darkness to the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to turn away from those forms of evil and to seek righteousness.

Exposing something to the light shows it up for what it is and it becomes clear whether a thing is good or evil.

Let me give an example. In the law it was stated that homosexuality was a sin punishable by death. But if a person turns away from that lifestyle and repents, they have the same opportunity of salvation as anyone else.

Now let me preface these remarks by saying that I am not attacking homosexuals. I am merely showing insights gleaned from studies of the homosexual community about that lifestyle to use as a comparison.

If we look at homosexuality, forgetting about what the Bible says for just a moment, we can test this lifestyle to see whether it should be acceptable or not.

It has been identified, even by the LGBT community themselves, that the rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse, violence and sexually transmitted diseases in homosexual communities are significantly higher than in non-homosexual communities. The rates of these things are typically four to ten times worse than in the heterosexual community, depending upon which study you look at, but in ALL studies they are significantly worse.

If this were any other lifestyle, governments would be running programs to eradicate the lifestyle because of the cost to human lives and the community as a whole. They would be seeking ways to help the homosexual community turn away from this destructive lifestyle for their own benefit as a public health priority to prevent the destruction and pain caused by this lifestyle…if it were anything else than homosexuality.

We only need to look at other lifestyles, such as substance abuse, alcoholism or gambling and see how governments are trying to help and educate people to step away from these lifestyles because they are so damaging to individuals, families and communities. Governments say that these other things are a sickness or a disease and they recognise that some people have genetic tendencies that may lead them to follow these destructive paths, and are trying to help them stop.

Homosexuals say they can’t change because they are “wired this way.” But is that any different to an alcoholic who is genetically “wired that way?” We hope the alcoholic will stop drinking for his own sake and that of others because alcoholism is destructive. But statistics show that homosexuality as a lifestyle is likewise highly destructive and yet no-one seeks to help them to change or leave that lifestyle.

Why? Because the proponents of the homosexual lifestyle refuse to be exposed to the light of the knowledge of the truth and do not want to change. They do not accept that this lifestyle is damaging them and hurting them physically, mentally, psychologically and emotionally. They do not change because they do not WANT to change and they don’t want anyone else to expose this lifestyle to the light of truth.

And in all of this discussion above, I have not mentioned what the Bible does or does not say about homosexuality, other than to mention the one point that it was a sin in the law of God given to Moses. However, seeing the destructiveness of this lifestyle, it is evident why God called it a sin, because God wants people to be free from sin and to be able to live peaceful and healthy lives without suffering.

Will God forgive homosexuality? Yes, He will, if a person turns to Him and repents of this sin, and puts it away from him or herself. It is no different to any other person who comes to Christ as a sinner, and we were all sinners before coming to Christ, and we all need to repent of our various and different sins.

It is time to awaken

Now is the time to awaken from sleep. The time of darkness is over and we are called to awaken and step into the light of the truth of the gospel.

These issues above on homosexuality and atheism, which are accepted as good in this world, do not stand up to the light of the truth. The light of the truth shows them up to be false. They are not good, right or true and so they should be rejected for the falsehoods that they are.

The only way that we will come into the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ is to reject what is false and seek the truth.

But the darkness is very persuasive as can be seen in the two examples I discussed above. The world blindly accepts both atheism with it’s reliance on evolution as fact, even though it has not and cannot be proven, and the world accepts homosexuality as being normal in spite of the evidence showing how destructive it is as a lifestyle.

Furthermore, the world ridicules, opposes and even takes legal action against those who oppose these two positions, especially on the grounds of biblical principles. They consider those who oppose these things to be pariahs and treat them shamefully.

But God’s will shall prevail. God will have the final say in all matters and the truth will be known.

For Christians everywhere it is time to awaken and seek the light of the truth. We walk in the day and not in the darkness of this world. We have a future based on the truth of Jesus Christ and these unfruitful works of darkness, along with all others, have no place in our lives.

Reject and turn away from the darkness. Turn to Christ and be filled with the light of His teachings.

And do not stop from seeking and learning the truth because the darkness can steal in and overtake you, as we are warned by the scriptures.

35 Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them. (John 12:35-36)

Yes, the darkness can overtake you and swallow you if you stop seeking and walking with Christ. We must continue to move forward with Him and so remain in the light to stay ahead of the darkness that is in this world.

So awaken and look up to Christ and whatever darkness there is around you will be exposed by the light.

You might also like:

Beware Of Arrogance
Seeing Jesus
Walking In The Light
Seeking The Lost Coin
Walk In The Light
There Are None So Blind
Jesus Is The Light
Help Me Father God
Darkness To Light
They Did Not See
Walking Properly With Christ
Let There Be Light
What Is Holding You Back