Connect

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, we love to help you know God's word better and apply it to your life through clear, practical Bible teaching and real encouragement. And if you'd like to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and exclusive resource offers designed to help you stay strong in your faith, all delivered right to your inbox.

Signing up is quick and easy, and you'll be glad you did. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today. That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: John would often just be taken into the congregation and propped up and even lifted up above the people so that they could hear his now soft, elderly voice. He would be lifted up and people would be listening to this aged, venerable, legendary apostle, and he would simply say, "Little children, love one another." That was it. That's all he could get out. "Little children, love one another."

Next week, they bring him into church and they'd have their service and they'd lift John up again. John would say, "Little children, love one another." They did this for a while until somebody just said, "You keep saying the same thing over and over again. You got anything else for us?" And he said, "Here's why. It is the Lord's command, and if this only be done, it is enough." If all you ever manage to do is to love one another, everything else will take care of itself. Love one another.

So I find it interesting not John, but Paul, says, "Walk in love, just as Christ loved." Now, speaking of John, listen to the words of the pastor of Ephesus, John the Apostle, in 1 John chapter 4, and it'll tie it neatly together. This is John. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." Same thought as Paul. "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

So this blessed church of Ephesus, getting as their pastoral lineup the Apostle Paul, Timothy, John, then Polycarp, if you know your church history, also a heavyweight. Boy, they had it made. Go over to Ephesus today, though, it's just ruins. It's completely taken over by Islam. Good luck finding a church.

Jesus will later on write a little postcard in the book of Revelation, written by John but it's inspired by God, to the church of Ephesus saying, "You've left your first love. You don't love Me as much as you did at the first." And so when we truly love Him, we'll love one another and God will preserve that fellowship. So they eventually did go awry, but for the time being, he writes, "Walk in love, as Christ has loved us and given Himself."

But now he pivots a bit, and he gives us a list of activities, a list of sins that will stop the flow of true love. These will bottleneck the flow of love in any group, in any relationship. "But fornication," sex before marriage or outside of marriage, "all uncleanness," perverse sensuality, "or covetousness," wanting what you don't have, "let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking."

Interesting word, it's the word *moros*. We get the word moron from it, and the idea is stupid talking. Foolish talking is probably a little more palatable for most of our ears. "Nor coarse jesting," which means double entendre, taking something simple that you hear and making it have an overtone of something sensual. "Coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather," this is what is fitting, "the giving of thanks."

If you have something to say, let it be good. Let it be thankful. Let it be pleasant. Let it be edifying. Not coarse, not blasphemous, not idolatrous, not covetous, but the giving of thanks. Now, there are in the New Testament three different lists like this, lists of sins that go against the spirit, that bottleneck the flow of love. One is found in the book of Galatians chapter 5, one is found in 1 Corinthians 6, and here. Those are the three lists. They're very similar.

"For this you know," verse 5, "that no fornicator, unclean person, or covetous man," notice this, "who is an idolater." He puts covetousness in the same category as idolatry. Why? Because you are elevating materialism over God. "No fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Those are some tough words.

Now be careful, because what I read just described a lot of our past lives. But that's the keyword: past lives, not our present life. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "And such were some of you," not are some of you. This isn't something you continually practice. So the idea here is this unrepentant, continual behavior, lifestyle of disobedience in these areas.

"Don't be deceived," he says in verse 6. "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Don't let somebody come and say, "Oh well, a lot of people do it. It's normal in culture, normal in society." Don't let anybody deceive you. God's standard is God's standard. It hasn't changed. "Therefore do not be partakers with them."

So, we're to walk in humility, unity, variety, purity, charity. Now in verse 8, we are to walk in the light. As we are told, we are to walk in incorruptibility. That's the idea of walking in the light rather than in darkness. Verse 8, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk," live, order your behavior, your steps, "walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord."

When you were saved, whatever day, whatever evening, whatever moment that was, whatever church service or prayer you said that was a prayer of faith, the moment you took that step of faith, you in effect walked out of the realm of darkness and you stepped into the light. And so the idea of walking in the light, incorruptibility.

Now in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, let me read this to you. Paul writes this: "Even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

We're to walk in the light. What does it mean to walk in the light? What is light in the Bible? Well, it's a metaphor. It physically speaks of the glory of God. In the Old Testament, when God showed up, there was some display of luminescence. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, darkness was over the face of the deep, and God's first words, "Let there be light," and light was.

When the people of Israel were leaving Egypt, God's presence was visible in a pillar of fire by night and a luminescent cloud by day. So physically, light speaks of the glory of God. Take that thought all the way to the future, the New Jerusalem is described as saying there's no need for the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God is the luminescence of it, and the Son, Jesus Christ, His light will radiate it.

So physically, light speaks of the glory of God. Morally, light speaks of the holiness of God. God is flawless. God has no flaws. He is perfect. He is unique. He alone is immortal, Paul wrote to Timothy, who dwells in unapproachable light. So morally, it speaks of His holiness.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps make clear verse-by-verse Bible teaching available to people searching for truth, purpose, and hope. And this month, we want to thank you with a pair of powerful resources to help you understand your identity in Christ and God's design for your life and relationships.

When you give, you'll receive the Expound Ephesians nine-CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love. Together, these resources explore the richness of the gospel, reveal your place in God's family, and show how biblical truth brings strength, restoration, and lasting hope to your relationships. We'll send both resources as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let's return to today's teaching.

Skip Heitzig: I remember several years ago, a book became a very famous book written by a Jewish rabbi, Rabbi Harold Kushner. It was called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Some of you are nodding, you're familiar with that book. It's an interesting read, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, but it's based on the rabbi's belief in something called finite theism.

Finite theism basically means this: Yes, God created the world, and yes, God is a good God and a loving God, but there's evil in the world because God can't fix it. He's incapable to do anything about it. It's gotten out of His control. He'd like to be able to control the madness, but bad things happen to good people.

So the rabbi, for us to cope with the bad things that happen to good people, encourages us to forgive God. Poor God. He'd like to do better. He'd like to be a better God. He'd like to be able to manage the world that he created, but he's unable to manage it. So now it's incumbent upon you as his good little creature to forgive him.

There's nothing to forgive. He's perfect. He's flawless. Yes, bad things happen to good people. There's reasons for evil in the world that can be explained, maybe not satisfactorily to the person who is at that moment suffering, but there are good, solid reasons why evil and suffering exist, and it's certainly not because God is flawed to any degree.

So physically, light speaks of the glory of God. Morally, light speaks of the holiness of God. Intellectually, light speaks of the knowledge of God. God knows everything. Nothing is hidden, the Bible says, from His sight. In the book of Proverbs, "The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all of his goings."

So He sees and He knows everything: everything you do, everything you say, everything nobody else knows about, only you know about. Lewis Sperry Chafer used to say secret sin is open scandal in heaven. God knows it all. So to live in the light, to walk in the light, is to walk in light of God's knowledge, of God's holiness, and of God's glory.

So you've left darkness, walk, verse 8 of chapter 5 of Ephesians, walk as the children of light. Verse 9 as a parenthetical statement, "For the fruit of the Spirit," other manuscripts, and I believe this is correctly translated, instead of saying the fruit of the Spirit, there's a marginal note in some of your Bibles that say the fruit of the light. That's a better rendition.

So God is light, walk as children of the light, for the fruit or the result of the light is in goodness, righteousness, and truth. In other words, these three supreme characteristics will be evident of somebody who is walking in the light. This will be the result. These are the tests of a person having true faith or not. Do they exhibit these things: goodness, righteousness, truth?

And then, concluding that thought, "finding out what is acceptable to the Lord." Let me give you a verse of scripture that I think fits nicely with this, and that's Romans chapter 12, the first couple of verses. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

As you present your body, you give yourself on a daily basis: Lord, I want to walk before you, I want to obey you, I'm yours today. And you live that out, you find out, verse 10, what is acceptable to the Lord. That's walking in light. That's walking in the Spirit.

And as a counterpart, "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." How could you have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness? Either by participating in them or by tolerating them. "Nah, not a big deal. Now everybody's into that." Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, reveal them.

Now let me give you another little scripture that fits nicely with this, and that is 1 Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul writes to the Corinthians and it says, "Look, I wrote you a previous letter," a letter we don't have, "not to keep company with sexually immoral people." Now he explains it. 1 Corinthians 5:10, "Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters." These are unbelievers who exhibit these properties.

I didn't mean them because then you would have to go out of the world. We'd have to put you on a spaceship and take you out of the earth if I said you can't ever hang out with anybody who lives that way, because everybody lives that way in the world as unbelievers. But he clarifies, "Now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person."

So he clarifies that, and now he says, "Don't even have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light."

Tonight, when you go home and get in your car to drive home, you're going to turn on your headlights. You're not going to drive home without them because the headlight of your car will expose what is in front of the vehicle. And because it exposes potential problems, obstacles, pedestrians, vehicles that may not put their lights on on their car—because it's an older car, new ones automatically do that—it's going to keep you from harm.

You don't need headlights during the day. The sun offers that. It exposes any potential darkness. So in exposing darkness, it helps you navigate through life. It's shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret, but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.

Here's an example of this on a moral level. The Pharisees, everybody thought they were the good guys. They were the exemplars of Judaism, of righteous living, religious living, until Jesus came along and he exposed them, exposed their motives, and said in what must have been just a jaw-dropping exposé, "Woe unto you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are whitewashed tombs. You look good on the outside, you're full of corruption and death on the inside." And he tore the mask off of them, he turned the headlights on them. He turned on the sunlight and exposed the deeds of darkness.

"Therefore he says, 'Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'" Now we don't exactly know what this is a reference to. It says, "Therefore he says," and you would think "he" must be God because it's capitalized in your Bible and my Bible.

There are four different Old Testament texts in the book of Isaiah that have nuances of what I just read, of verse 14 in them, but none of them are a direct quote. The closest one would be Isaiah chapter 60 verse 1, but this is believed to be an early Christian hymn that Paul is quoting, an Easter hymn that calls unbelievers out of their lifestyle of darkness into Christ's gospel light.

That's the consensus of most scholars. It's an early hymn that certainly encapsulates scripture, scriptural truth, but he's quoting a hymn. So I love the fact, if that's true, that the early Christian worship leaders were calling unbelievers through evangelism—it was like an evangelistic hymn. They were writing evangelism in their songs, calling people to faith, saying, "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

Let me give a little challenge to our worship team. We don't have the original tune to this. Maybe you could come up with one, and we could sing the words to this, maybe in a new translation that you would prefer, but something that would be catchy and write a whole song around that. That's my challenge to the worship team based on this. "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

So, we are to walk in humility, unity, variety, purity, charity, incorruptibility, and there's another one: we are to walk carefully. We are to walk in Paul's word, "circumspectly." Look at verse 15. "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

To walk circumspectly has the idea of walking with precision, placing your step precisely on the right place in the path. When we were kids, our parents gave us instructions like look both ways before you cross the street, watch where you're going, all that kind of stuff has the idea of this. Walk circumspectly, walk carefully, precisely put your foot. Take time before you just run into something and do something impulsive. Give pause. Walk carefully.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, offering truth, hope, and encouragement where it's needed most. And this month, we'd love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you the Expound Ephesians nine-CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love.

These resources will help you understand your identity in Christ and see how God's design brings strength and restoration to your relationships. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Music: Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection. A connection.

Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.