The Demands of Walking According to Light (2)

The first demand of walking according to light in Ephesians 5:11-14 is be separate, (v. 11a).

Second, we are to take a stand in 11b-13: but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

Lest we think that it’s enough just to withdraw from sin, as a monk would do in the monastery, Paul adds that we are rather to reprove “the unfruitful works of darkness.” The Greek word behind reprove (elegcho) developed the principal meaning of convince and refute. So strong is this word, in fact, that, as the great reformer John Calvin rightly observes, “It literally signifies to drag forth to the light what was formerly unknown.” What a vivid picture! We drag error—no doubt kicking and screaming the whole way—into the light to expose it.

Paul, for example, declared in no uncertain terms that this is a pastor’s responsibility. On your own read what he wrote to Pastor Timothy (I Tim. 5:20; II Tim. 4:2) and Pastor Titus (Titus 1:9, 13). To say the very least, all this flies in the face of the attitude of our day. While the growing tendency in many churches is to avoid even the mention of false doctrine or sin, Paul’s repeated emphasis is the refutation of such practices. The ruling attitude in society today is “tolerance.” “How dare we say that something is wrong,” it is argued.

We should appreciate commentator Kent Hughes quite blunt but truthful observation: “According to the world, Christianity ought to be as broad and accepting as possible. And the fact is that clergy who think in this way, who baptize every form of sin as OK, become the darlings of the media. A cultured accent, a fuchsia-colored bishop’s shirt, and the urging to place condoms in Gideon Bibles will get you a spot on Good Morning, America. Our culture loves the ‘open-minded,’ nonjudgmental, ‘live and let live’ personality.”

Commentator William Hendrickson also addresses another attitude of our day when he writes: “One is not being ‘nice’ to a wicked man by endeavoring to make him feel what a fine fellow he is. The cancerous tumor must be removed, not humored.” Still the attitude today is to address people’s “felt needs” and avoid even mentioning sin.

The fact is, however, that to be tolerant of sin is not only to approve of it—to overlook and sanction it—but is even to be complicit in it, to actually be an active participant. God does not want His children to be tolerant but to be discerning. Back in the 16^th Century, John Calvin preached on Ephesians and spoke these words: “Most men and women nowadays wink at all manner of evil and disorder, and stop their ears at the things that they might ill heard, and every man seeks to conceal his fellow’s wickedness, men of men’s, and women of women’s. They might remedy a great number of enormities that are committed, but they would rather go and pollute their gowns and coats with other people’s dung and filthiness, than expose their vices. . . . The very way therefore for us to show in practice and in good earnest that we belong to God and are enlightened by His Holy Spirit and by His Word is to expose things which otherwise would, as it were, lie lurking a long time if we did not draw them into the light.”

Many today would read that and think, “But that was centuries ago and is just the old theology of a bunch of dead guys. We are much more enlightened today.” But that was precisely Calvin’s point. We are only “enlightened” if we love the light and expose error to be error. God demands that we take a stand for Truth, that we expose and rebuke sin. How, then, do we do that?

First, and foremost, we rebuke sin in the lives of those around us indirectly by just living Godly in front of them. The entire context surrounding our text, in fact, emphasizes a life of “goodness and righteousness and truth” (v. 9). The right attitudes, actions, words, values, motives, and priorities will be convicting to those whose lives are the opposite of those qualities.

Second, we rebuke sin directly. There will be times when sin must be openly rebuked. Now usually this is to be done by pastors through the pulpit ministry or through church discipline (I Cor. 5; Matt. 18:15-17), but there will be times when every Christian should humbly take a stand and speak against sin.