Walk for Life
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So Shall I Walk
So Shall I Walk
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
# So shall I walk. (A series on the love, light and wisdom of walking with Jesus) from Ephesians 5.
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
**Walk for (your) life.**
(Open in Prayer)
Last week we learned that walking with Jesus/walking as Jesus walked is to walk in love--divine love, agape love, love that is the fruit/manifestation/byproduct of God operating/working within you by HIs Holy Spirit.
# Love is the impetus for which God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus to be the Christ/the Messiah to save the world. And indeed, Jesus, who knew no sin while living, died a sinner's death--crucified on the cross of Calvary without putting up a fight--
“...led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth" (Acts 8:32)--was buried (in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea--as we learned from Bible Trivia night), and on the morning of the first day of the week, Sunday, on the 3rd day (and, hence, why early believers gathered to worship Sunday mornings) got up and got up with all power in His hands. Showed Himself alive to His disciples and then ascended to heaven. Jesus, now sitting at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. Jesus, now makes intercession for us (Ro 8:34; He 7:25)
Jesus, this Jesus--to walk with Him/to walk as Him is to walk in love/to walk as love--to live a life of loving others as only God loving through us makes such a life possible.
# To walk in light
To walk with Jesus is not only a walk in love. To walk with Jesus is a walk in light. (And, from the text I will present, I argue a walk in freedom.)
Jesus spoke:
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
As representatives of Christ, as recipients of the grace of Jesus Christ, as those who acknowledged we are beneficiaries of the demonstrated love of God--not merely words spoken without follow through, but demonstrated love...as Apostle Paul wrote :
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
As a representative of Christ, I have and hold and carry and exude the light of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said it this way:
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
>
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Q: I ask myself, do enough people glorify God because of the life that I live?
The Apostle Paul charges us in this way:
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
# God's Spirit/Light in my life brings forward what is good, right and true.
And when I am around other people, and they experience the light of Jesus Christ because of my life, because of my presence--and dark things are uncovered and what was hidden now becomes revealed (for by definition light illuminates)--
Q: when I am around other people, with the light that I bring/walk in, are they led to freedom (or do I bind them with judgement)?
And so I ask you who are my spiritual kin, "Are the people around you free to live?" ...experiencing what Jesus declared:
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
...I ask this because as bearers of Christ's Light we are bearers of the truth and we live in such a way as to clarify what life of worship God will favorably receive unto Himself (is acceptable to the Lord).
**So what does God want for us? (That we may, walking/following after Him, walk in light and have life.**
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
We can find out more of what God wants by what Jesus did.
2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. 3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
**In this text some dark things came to light and a life hung (Conspicuously) in the balance.**
The text/scene opens--it was a new day but a familiar/old pattern.
Jesus was in Jerusalem.
Jesus was in the temple, where He had been before.
Jesus was teaching, which He had done before.
Jesus had a crowd, who He had before.
While Jesus sat and taught, the scribes and Pharisees approached Him.
The scribes and Pharisees were the religious authorities with political and cultural influence on Jewish life and practice because of their knowledge, understanding, interpretation, study and attempt at exact practice of biblical law (Moses' law).
These religious leaders (publicly) interrupt Jesus's teaching (classroom setting/"Professor Jesus")) with an agenda they had acted upon in the past--trying to catch Jesus in the wrong so that they may bring charges against Jesus, discrediting Jesus in front of the crowds that gather to Him--the people that believe Jesus is from God.
**The religious leaders know that Jesus is compassionate and so they manipulate a scenario to force Jesus to act outside of His character or to undermine Jewish religious standards.**
But as one might could guess, when you bring darkness/a dark situation to the Light Of This World, everything nearby brightens up and everything is seen for what it is.
This time the religious leader brought before Jesus a woman caught in adultery--in the very act.
Adultery, under Roman law, was not a capital offense. However, the biblical law (Moses' Law) prescribes death for both partners involved in an adulterous relationship (Le 20:10).
**This set up by the religious leaders is revealing of several important things:**
1. **1st The religious leaders are unjust**/not concerned with justice because the let go the woman's partner--if they caught the woman "in the very act" then for sure they caught her partner.
2. **2nd The religious leaders don't value people/this woman.** Sitting the woman in the midst of Jesus, they spoke for her, about her--silencing, discounting, diminishing and dismissing her voice.
3. 3rd The religious leaders are prideful--willing, even eager, to destroy a life rather then preserve.
And so these religious leaders expose an act of adultery that had been done in secrete, and they bring it more out in the open by brining the woman to Jesus, in front of all of those gathered as Jesus taught.
**Jesus, in contrast to the religious leaders, responds revealing several notable things:**
1. **1st Jesus is just**--Jesus asked one question that leveled the playing field regarding Moses' law--"He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” (Jn 8:7).
This reminds me of the words:
> Romans 3:10 (NKJV)
> As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
>
How we know Jesus' question leveled the playing field is that John 8:9 (NKJV)
9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
2. **2nd Jesus values people**. Jesus valued the woman. The first time, in this account, we hear the woman speak for herself, in her own voice, is when Jesus ask her a question.
3. **3rd Jesus loves her to life.** Jesus and the woman both know what is true of her actions and the religious law, yet Jesus does not condemn her. Jesus preserves her life and instructs the woman in the way of truth.
11 She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
When God begins to work in your life, as His Holy Spirit is on the inside of you helping you to look more like Jesus, your life decisions will begin to make evident what is good, right and true. Those around you will begin to know what is good, right and true.
**I will ask you the question, I have to ask myself:**
1. Will you be just, acknowledging none of us is perfect?
2. Will you value people, especially people others dismiss and try to condemn?
3. Will you love others to life, restoring and not destroying a person's opportunity to walk with Jesus?
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
What will you do with your light?