Reflection

Introduction

Well, the year is drawing to a close as is the season that have been working through together.

This means it is time to reflect on the year that is coming to a close and to honestly evaluate how much their lives have reflected Christ.

As we are approaching a change of Season, it is also a time to reflect on all of the things that Christ has done IN YOUR LIFE both this year and over the last 3.

Whether you feel they’ve failed or succeeded, I hope with this sermon to encourage you to imitate Christ even more in the year ahead by choosing to “walk in love” and “walk as children of light.”

Be a reflection of Christ to a world that is looking for hope!

We must understand that what the message Paul is giving to Ephesus here is a message of action.

And it is a message that will move you from your comfort zone to an uncomfortable place.

Big Idea

Christians reflect the image of God and represent the nature of Christ by walking in what is good and right and true.

The book of Ephesians is split into two halves of nearly equal length (chaps. 1–3 and chaps. 4–6). The first half is doctrinal and tends to focus on the person and work of Christ—highlighting that we are not ultimately accepted into God’s family by our good deeds but by the grace of God through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9).

The second half focuses on concrete action and ethical living on the basis of the free gift of God that we have received through faith. It’s important for students to understand this.

Otherwise, they may get the false impression that we have to earn God’s love and merit his grace through moral living.

For Paul, however, the order is reversed: we strive to live righteous lives out of gratefulness for the unconditional love and unmerited favor we have already received in Christ.

Grace and love should be the cause of good deeds, not the other way around!

Today what I would like us to do as we consider the idea of Reflecting, I want us to focus on 3 words that Paul uses in this portion of his letter to the Church at Ephesus that will help us understand HOW we are to be a reflection of Christ.

I. Imitators

The word “imitators” (Ephesians 5:1) directly relates to the idea of reflecting the likeness of Christ.

Here’s what Darrell Bock has to say about the relationship between these concepts:

“In sum, the believer is to be an imitator of God, reflecting his character to the world: Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children. Not only are we to reflect his character; we are to look like his sons and daughters in how we live: like father, like son and daughter” (Darrell L. Bock, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary [Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019], 147).

Similar to the word “imitators,” Paul’s encouragement to “walk as children of light” (5:8) is connected to the theme of reflecting the image of Christ.

Bock again notes this connection, stating that the phrase is “a call to reflect [emphasis added] these three core virtues: that which is good, right and true” (Ephesians, 155).

As Christians, we are called to mirror the values of Christ. When Paul mentions the “fruit of light” in the immediate parenthetical (v. 9), he no doubt has in mind the fruit of the Spirit, which Jesus embodied throughout his life and ministry.

Like the moon, which reflects the light from the sun in order to emit moonlight, we are to reflect the light of Christ in the world, to be little lighthouses for those laboring in the darkness.

II. Expose

When Paul instructs the Ephesians to “expose” the “works of darkness” (v. 11), this certainly can include direct verbal rebuking or reproving though argument and discussion, as the word in the original Greek denotes.

The immediate context, however, seems to suggest that Paul here is referring more to an indirect exposure through a contrasting lifestyle.

Bock puts it like this: “Exposure means that believers neither participate in nor condone these works. It is in the believers’ contrastive way of living, by showing a different path, that such exposure must take place” (Ephesians, 156).

Tying this concept of exposure to the theme of reflecting the light of Christ, Bock adds, “Believers and their lives are seen as light that is to be a contrast to the world and that exposes by showing a different, more beneficial way to live and to relate to others” (Ephesians, 158).

In essence, Paul is urging the follower of Christ to be a light that reveals the path to the good life that God has ordained for each one of us. Paul’s quote in verse 14 reveals that the goal of this type of exposure is transformation, the dynamic change of darkness to light.

“For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ‘Awake, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!’ Not only is light seen as exposing here, but that light is now seen as transforming through a call to rise from the dead and recognize what is exposed, and by so doing receive the benefit of what Christ is as light” (Bock, Ephesians, 158).

III. Walk

In verse 15, Paul commands the Ephesians to “walk” for the fifth time in the span of just two chapters (4:1, “walk … worthy of the calling”; 4:17, “no longer walk as the Gentiles do”; 5:2, “walk in love”; 5:8, “walk as children of light”). This is clearly an important theme for Paul. It highlights the fact that the call to reflect the likeness of Christ is a progression, a procession, a continual life choice and lifestyle.

As your reflect on the previous year, honestly evaluate how you have walked throughout the various ripples and waves of life.

Have you been lighthouses for others? Or have you yourselves needed a guide in the darkness?

If you have failed to forgive someone who has wronged you, get back up and keep walking forward by praying for your enemies and forgiving their trespassers as God has forgiven them.

If you have coveted the possessions of your peers (for example, the new iPhone or gaming system that their neighbors across the street have) to the point of idolatry—confusing the Creator with his creation—be reminded that life is a journey and God offers them the grace that you need to stay the course and to start being grateful for, and content with, what God has given you.

You have every reason to continue to try your best to walk in love and light in the coming year, knowing that a loving and merciful God is also walking with you!

Application

When Christians consistently treat people well, they expose the poor treatment by others, which gives offenders the opportunity for honest self-evaluation, inner conviction, reform, and transformation.

Your decision to live for Christ despite the actions of others, may be the very reason they become convicted and turn back to Him.

In the coming season, if FBC is a successful light to the community, it will not be because of who you are but rather who you are immitating!

It will be because of how you are walking and who you are walking with.

And it will be because of you boldness to Expose sin and the devil everywhere they appear.