“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)
In his time of global confusion and fear, we believers are called to keep the light of Christ Jesus shining with the words of the gospel of truth. A global pandemic does not give any believer an excuse to engage in selfishness and sin or give way to fear. And here in Ephesians we find an exhortation from the Apostle Paul 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 marked by purity, charity, and righteousness. We are not 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. 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 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 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 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. 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 be focused on Him and His Word.