The Child of Light and the Works of Darkness

The Child of Light and the Works of Darkness

(No. 2401)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY 24, 1887.

"Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them." Ephesians 5:11.

SINS, especially the grosser vices, are "works of darkness." They
delight in concealment. They are not fit to be seen. They flourish in
the darkness of the unrenewed heart. They are most fully maintained in
the ignorance of a soul that is without the knowledge of the
ever-blessed God. They are also works of darkness because those who
follow them have a sad life of it, after all–they are not only dark as
to knowledge, but they are dark as to comfort as well! There is no true
light, no real joy in sin. "The wages of sin is death." And they are
works of darkness, too, because they tend to further darkness–the man
who pursues them goes from blackness to a deeper blackness–and in the
end his portion will be darkness unbroken by a ray of hope, "the
blackness of darkness forever."

You know that darkness stands for the powers of evil, as light is the
fit emblem of the holiness of God and of His Infinite goodness and
purifying Grace. Well, now, whether we, who are the children of light,
are busy or not, it is quite certain that children of darkness work!
They are always working–there is no cessation in their activity.
Master Latimer used to say that the most diligent bishop in England was
the devil, for whoever did not visit his diocese, the devil was always
visiting his people! His plow never rusts in the furrow, his sword
never rests in its scabbard. The powers of darkness cannot be blamed
for their slothfulness–is there ever a moment in which they are not
busy and active? Luke warm-ness never steals over the powers of
darkness! The work of the night goes on horribly, there is no pause to
it and, therefore, let us who are of the day work, too! God help us to
counteract the working of the silent, hidden leaven of sin by our own
struggling to produce in the world a better tone of thought and feeling
and, by spreading the knowledge of God's Grace and everything which
will increase reverence to God and love to men!

The text speaks of the works of darkness and it calls them
"unfruitful." So they are, for sin is sterile. It produces its like and
multiplies itself, but as for any fruit that is good, any fruit that
can elevate and benefit men, any fruit which God can accept and which
you and I ought to desire, sin is barren as the desert sand! Nothing
good can come of it. Every now and then we hear it said, "Well, you
know, on this occasion, we must set aside the higher laws of equity,
because just now it is imperatively necessary that such and such a
policy should be pursued." But it is never right, either for an
individual, or for a nation to do wrong–and the most fruitful policy
for men and for nations is to do that which will bear the Light of God!
The works of the Light of God are fruitful works, rich and sweet, and
fit to be gathered, pleasant to God and profitable to men! But the
works of darkness are fruitless, they come to nothing, they produce no
good result. They are like the apples of Sodom which may appear fair to
the eyes, but he that plucks them shall find that he has nothing but
ashes in his hand! O you who are performing works of darkness, know
that no good fruit will come of all your work! You can have nothing
that is worth having as the result of all your toil!

My text, which I have just introduced to you by these few remarks,
demands our attention as a great practical lesson to Christians "Have
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
them." Those works of darkness which are horrible and unmentionable,
you cannot have fellowship with them! They produce a very potent evil
to all mankind and, of course, you will avoid them. Pass not by them
and flee from them! But you must also keep clear of those works of
darkness which apparently seem to be colorless and to produce no
particularly evil effect. You, as a Christian, have to live a solemn,
earnest, serious life. To you–

"Life is real, life is earnest,"

and if there are works of darkness which do not seem to be as bad as
others, but are simply frivolous, foolish and time-wasting, have no
fellowship with them! These unfruitful works of darkness are to be
avoided by you as much as those which are most defiling. Hear this, you
Christians, and God help you to obey the command!

In coming to the consideration of our text, let us enquire, first, What
is forbidden? Fellowship with "the unfruitful works of darkness."
Secondly, let us ask, What is commanded? "Reprove them." And thirdly,
let us consider, Why are we to act thus?

I. First, then, WHAT IS FORBIDDEN? "Have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness." We can have fellowship with them in a
great number of ways.

Notice that the text does not say, "Have no fellowship with wicked men.
Have no dealings with men who are not converted," for then we must
necessarily go out of the world. Many of us are obliged to earn our
daily bread in the midst of men whom we certainly would not choose for
our companions. Many of you, I know, are forced every day to hear
language which is disgusting to you and you are brought into contact
with modes of procedure which sadden your gracious spirits. Our Savior
does not pray that you should be taken out of the world, but that you
should be preserved from the evil of it! If you are what you profess to
be, you are the salt of the earth, and salt is not meant to be kept in
a box, but to be well rubbed into the meat to keep it from
putrefaction. We are not to shut ourselves up as select companies of
men seeking only our own edification and enjoyment! It is intended that
we should mingle with the ungodly so far as our duties demand. We are
forced to do so–it is the Lord's intent that we should, so that we may
act as salt among them. God grant that the salt may never lose its
savor and that the unsavory world may never destroy the pungency of the
piety of God's people! With evil men, then, we must have some kind of
fellowship–but with their works we are to have no fellowship. In order
to avoid this evil, let us see what is here forbidden–"Have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness."

And first, dear Friends, we have fellowship with the unfruitful works
of darkness by personally committing the sins so described. "Be not
deceived; God is not mocked." After all, a man must be judged by his
life. If you do that which is holy and righteous and gracious, you have
fellowship with the holy and the righteous and the gracious. But if you
do that which is unclean and dishonest, you have fellowship with the
unclean and the dishonest. The Lord will, at the last, put us among
those whom we are most like–in that day when He shall separate the
people gathered before Him, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the
goats–the sheep will be put with the sheep and the goats with the
goats. If you have lived like the wicked, you will die like the wicked
and be damned like the wicked! It is only those who live the life of
the righteous who can hope that they shall die the death of the
righteous.

I, who preach to you with all my heart the Doctrines of the Grace of
God, do, nevertheless, just as boldly remind you that the Grace of God
brings forth fruit in the life and, where it is really in the heart,
there will be in the life that which tokens its presence. If you and I
are drunks, if we can do a dishonest action, if we are guilty of
falsehood, if we are covetous, (I need not go over the list of all
those evil things), then we belong to the class of men who delight in
such practices–and with them we must go forever! We are having
fellowship with them by doing as they do and we shall have an awful
fellowship with them at the last by suffering as they shall suffer!

God make us holy, then! The very name of Jesus signifies that He will
save His people from their sins and He saves them from their sins by
their ceasing to commit those sins that others do. His own Word is, "Be
you holy, for I am holy." "Be you clean that bear the vessels of the
Lord." Nothing more dishonors Him than to have a following of unclean
men–men who refuse to be washed and resolve not to quit their old
sins! Great sinners, yes–the biggest sinners out of Hell–are welcome
to come to Christ in order to be cleansed from their sin and set free
from it! He keeps a hospital wherein He receives the most sick of all
the sick, but it is that He may heal them! And if men do not wish to be
healed but count the marks of their disease to be beauty-spots–if they
love their sins and hug them to their bosoms–then thus says the Lord
to them, "You shall die in your sins." God save all His professing
people from this form of fellowship with the works of darkness!

Next, we can have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness by
teaching wrongdoing, either by plain words or by just inference. Any
man whose teaching tends towards unholiness, who directly or
indirectly, either by overt phrase or by natural inference, leads
another man into sin, is particeps criminis, a partaker of the crime!
If you teach your children what they ought never to learn. If you teach
your fellow workmen what they had better never know and if they improve
upon your lessons, and go much farther than you ever meant that they
should–if they proceed from folly to crime–you are a partaker of
their sins and you have fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness. And, believe me, there is nothing more awful than for any
minister of Christ to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness by keeping back any part of the Truth of God–by withholding
any of the precepts of God's Word, or by denying the terrible and
eternal consequences of sin! There is nothing more dreadful than the
end of such a man must be! I think that I would sooner die and be
judged of God as a murderer of men's bodies, than have to go before the
Judgment Seat charged with being the murderer of their souls through
having kept back helpful Truths of God, or insinuated destructive and
erroneous doctrines! Yes, we can easily have fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness in that way.

Further, there are some who will have fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness by constraining, commanding, or tempting others to
sin. How much harm is often done in this respect by lack of thought!
What you do by another, you do yourself. If you command another to do
for you what you know to be wrong–I will not say that the other is
right in the compliance–but I will say that you are wrong in having
given the command. Let fathers, let masters, let mistresses see to it
that they never command others to do what God has not commanded them to
do!

Sometimes it is not actually a command that you give, but you put the
person into such a position of temptation and trial that the
probabilities are that that person will do wrong–and if it is so–in
the sight of God you will have to share the guilt of that wrong! When a
master pays his servant less wages than he ought to have–if that
servant commits a theft, I condemn the theft, but I cannot clear the
master who put the man into a position in which he must have been
sorely tempted to take something more to make up for that of which he
had been defrauded! I do not excuse the theft by him who committed it,
but, still, I cannot screen the one who put the other where, in all
probability, he would be driven to commit a dishonest act. If I place a
man in a position where it is most probable, seeing that human nature
is what it is, that he will commit a sin. If I have wantonly put him
there, or put him there for my own profit and gain, I shall be a
partaker of the sin if he falls!

If you are a nurse girl and you take those little children and set them
on the edge of the cliff, letting them go to the very brink of it–and
they fall over, you cannot clear yourself of blame in the matter! It
may be that you told the children not to go too close to the edge, but
then you put them where you might be morally certain that, as children,
they would go–and you are responsible for all that happens to them.
So, if I set another in a place where I might be able to stand, myself,
but might be pretty sure that he could not, I shall be a partaker of
his sin. "Well, I drink my glass of wine," says one. Yes, and
apparently it does you no harm, whatever–you have never been excited
by it, and you feel grateful for it–but there is another man who could
not do as you have done without becoming a drunk and, by your example
he is made a drunk and helped to remain so. The practice may be safe
enough for you, but if it is ruinous to him, take heed lest you be a
partaker of his unfruitful works of darkness!

It will require great care and some self-denial, so to act towards
others that we can say when we go to bed at night, "If any man has done
a wrong thing, today, it is not because I have set him the example."
Oh, that we might all repent of other people's sins! Did you ever
repent of them? "I have had enough to do to repent of my own sins,"
says one. But these sins of which I am speaking are your own, as well
as other people's, if you have led others into the way of committing
the sin, or have put any pressure upon them to lead them to commit the
sin! You are having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness!

Sometimes men get to be partakers of others' sins by provoking them.
When fathers provoke their children to anger, who has the chief blame
of that sin? Surely the father has! And when, sometimes, persons
purposely play upon the infirmities of others to provoke them, are they
not more to blame than the offenders? I am sure that it is so. I have
known some try to draw others out when they have known their propensity
to go beyond the truth–they have, for mirth's sake, led them on and
tempted them to lie! Who is the greater sinner of the two in such a
case as that? I am no casuist and shall not attempt to weigh actions,
but I am able to say this most assuredly, that, if you provoke another
to anger, that anger is, in part, your sin! If you wantonly incite
another to sin by daring him to do it, or by any other method of
tempting him to do wrong, you, yourself, shall share the accusation at
the Last Great Day.

Further, Friends, we can be partakers of the unfruitful works of
darkness by counseling them. There are some men who will not do the
wrong things, themselves, but they will give evil advice to others and
so lead them into iniquity. We have known persons act the part of the
cat with the monkey–they have used some other hand to draw the
chestnuts from the fire. They were not themselves burned, but, then,
they really did the deed by their agents. Theirs was the advice, theirs
the wit, theirs the shrewd hard-headedness by which the evil was done!
And though they did not appear in the transaction, yet God saw them and
He will reckon with them in the Day of Account.

I feel very jealous of myself when I have to give advice–and that
experience often falls to my lot. A person will plead, "Well, if I do
right in such a case as this, I shall remain in poverty, or I shall
lose my job. If I follow out my conscientious convictions to the
fullest, who is to provide for me?" And, you know, the temptation is to
feel, "Well, now, really, we must not be too severe in our judgment
upon this poor soul. Can we not agree with the evident wish of the
person asking the advice, moderate the Law of God, or, in some way make
a loophole, and say, Well, it will not be right, but, still, you see,
under the circumstances_."

Now, I never dare do that, because, if wrong is done and I have
counseled it, I shall be a partaker in the wrong! You who are called to
give advice to others–as many of you may be by reason of your age and
experience–always give straight advice. Never let any man learn policy
from you. Of all things in this world, that which often commends itself
to certain "prudent" men, but which, nevertheless, never ought to
commend itself to Christians, is the idea of doing a little evil in
order to obtain a great good! In fact, what we are doing is believing
ourselves to be wiser than the commands of God and imagining that
strict truth, honesty and integrity would, after all, not be the best
thing for men, even though God has so ordained! Let us so guide others
that we shall have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness!

But we may have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness by
consenting to them and tolerating them. For instance, you live in a
house where there is a great deal of evil going on and you, yourself,
stay clear of it. So far so good. But you never protest against it–you
have been altogether silent about it. "Mum," has been the word with you
and, sometimes, when they come home from a place of evil resort and
they tell you about the "fun" they have had, you laugh with the rest!
Or if you do not laugh, at any rate you have not decidedly expressed
your disapproval. You do disapprove of the evil in secret–you even
pray against it–but nobody knows that! The wrongdoers, especially, are
not aware that it is so. In fact, they fancy that, as they treat
leniently your pursuit of religion, though they think it cant, so you
treat leniently their pursuit of sin–though in your heart of hearts
you believe that pursuit to be evil!

Our Lord commands us to clear ourselves of all toleration of sin–not
with harshness, not with denunciation and in an unkind spirit–but with
a mild, gentle, but still powerful, honest rebuke. We must say,
especially if we are parents, or masters, or persons having much
influence with others, "Oh, do not this abominable thing! I cannot have
any share in this evil, even by silently tolerating it. How I wish that
you would give it up! I entreat you, come out of this Sodom– escape
for your lives!" A few more loving home testimonies for God and who can
tell but that the husband may be converted, and the son may be led to
the Savior? But for lack of this personal witness among Christians, I
am afraid that the Church of God comes to be paralyzed and much of her
power and usefulness is taken from her. Do not let us tolerate or wink
at sin in any instance, whatever!

Far be it from us, also, to ever have fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness by commending or applauding sin, or seeming to agree
with it. We must let all men know that whatever they may do which has
about it an ill savor, it has an ill savor to us and we cannot endure
it. We must always protest against it, lest we be partakers of the sins
of others. O dear Friends, I believe that the great lack of the Church
just now is holiness! The great need of the Church is nonconformity! I
mean nonconformity to the world! We must endeavor to bring back the
strictness of the Puritan times and somewhat more. Everybody is so
liberal and takes such latitude, nowadays, that in some quarters it is
impossible to tell which is the Church and which is the world! I have
even heard some ministers propose that there should be no Church
distinct from the congregation, but that everybody would be a
Church-member, without the slightest examination, or even a profession
of conversion!

It is supposed that people are now so generally good that we may take
them indiscriminately and that they will make a Church quite good
enough for the Lord Jesus Christ! Ah, me, that is not according to
Christ's mind, and that is not Christ's teaching! God's call to this
age, as to all that went before, is, "Come out from among them and be
you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I
will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My
sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Bear your protest, my
Brothers and Sisters, against everything that is unrighteous and
unholy–everything that is not God-like and Christ-like–and let your
lives be such that men shall not need to ask to whom you belong,
whether to God or to the devil, but they shall see at once that you are
the people of the ever-living and blessed God!

This, then, is what is forbidden–"Have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness."

II. The time flies so fast that I can only very briefly answer the
second question, WHAT IS COMMANDED? "Reprove them." Our life's business
in the world comprehends this among our other Christian duties–the
reproving of the unfruitful works of darkness.

First, we are to rebuke sin. I find that the word which is here
rendered, "reprove," is that which is used concerning the Holy
Spirit–"When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment." We are, therefore, so to live as to
let the Light of God in upon men's consciences that we may rebuke them
for their sin!

But we are also to try to let the sinners, themselves, see the
sinfulness of their sin, to let the Light in upon the sin and, by God's
Grace, so to reprove them as to convict them of sin–to make them feel,
from the testimony of God's people, that sin is an evil and a bitter
thing–and that their course of conduct is that evil thing. The Light
of God has come into the world on purpose that the darkness may know
that it is darkness and that God's Light may overcome and disperse it.
We are not to quench our Light and mingle with others who are in the
dark, but to unveil our lamps and let the Light that is in them so
shine that the darkness shall thereby be reproved! I do not say,
Brothers and Sisters, that we are to go through the world wearing surly
faces, looking grim as death, perpetually promulgating the Law of God
and saying, "You shall not do this and you shall not do that." But,
cheerful as we must be with the Love of God in our hearts, we shall
prove to men that the freest and the happiest life is a life of
holiness, a life of consecration to God and that, together with the
faithful testimony of our lips, shall be a reproving of the sin that is
in the world. The very existence of a true Believer is the reproof of
unbelief! The existence of an honest man is the reproof of knavery! The
existence of a godly man is the best reproof of ungodliness! But when
that existence is backed up by verbal testimony and by a consistent
example, then the command in the text is fulfilled, for we are
reproving the unfruitful works of darkness.

III. Thirdly, let us ask, WHY ARE WE TO ACT THUS? Why are we sent into
the world, dear Friends, to reprove sin and not to follow in its track?
The reasons are given in this very chapter.

First, because we are God's dear children and, therefore, we must be
imitators of Him. You, a child of God, and having fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness? You, a child of God, imitating the lost
and fallen world? You, a child of God, submitting to the influences of
the devil and his filthy crew? Far be it from you! Ask your Father to
make you holy as He is holy. To that end were you born and sent into
the world–entreat your Father to help you to fulfill the very purpose
of your being!

Next, remember that we who are Believers have an inheritance in the
Kingdom of God. We are heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
Well, then, shall we have fellowship with those who have no inheritance
in this Kingdom? Remember what we read just now–"For this you know,
that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God." And
will you, who have a part in this inheritance, make common lot with
such people? Oh, be it far from you! Heir of Glory, will you be a
companion of the heirs of wrath? Joint-heir with Christ, will you sit
on the drunk's bench, or sing an unclean song with the profane? Are
their places of amusement fit for you to frequent? Are their dens of
iniquity haunts for you? Up and away from the dwellings of these wicked
men and women lest you are destroyed in their destruction!

A little further down in the chapter, in the seventh and eighth verses,
we read–"Be not you, therefore, partakers with them. For you were
sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord." What? Has a
marvelous conversion happened to you? Have you been turned from
darkness to light? Are you really new creatures in Christ Jesus, or is
it all a lie? For if, indeed, you have been twice-born, if you have had
a resurrection from among the dead, if a second creation has been
worked in you, how can you go and live with these dead men and mingle
with these who know not the life of God? Unless your profession is
nothing but a farce or a fraud, Grace will so constrain you that you
must come out and refuse to have fellowship with the unfruitful works
of darkness!

The text describes these works as being unfruitful and you read, in the
ninth verse, "The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and
righteousness and truth." Now, if you are to bear the fruits of the
Spirit, what fellowship can you have with the unfruitful works of
darkness? The two things are opposed to one another! You fruit-bearing
trees, are you going to join in affinity with these cumber-grounds that
soon must be cut down and cast into the fire? What? Will you interlace
your vine branches with these fig trees that have leaves upon them, but
no fruit, and upon which no fruit will ever grow, for they are under
the curse of God? No, it must not be so! People of God, serve Him and
come away from those who render Him no service, but who rather seek to
pull down His holy Temple, and to destroy His name and influence from
among the sons of men!

The Apostle gives us one more reason why we should have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness–"for it is a shame, even, to
speak of those things which are done by them in secret." What? Shall we
have fellowship with things of which we are ashamed, even, to speak?
Yet I have to say it and to say it to my own sorrow and horror–I have
known professors to have fellowship with things that I dare not even
think of now! They have been found out at last–some of them were never
found out till after they were dead. What a life to lead–to sit with
God's people at the Communion Table! To talk, even, to others about the
way of salvation, yet all the while living in the practice of secret
sin! Why, surely, it were better to get into prison at once than to be
always afraid of being caught! To go up and down the world making a
profession of religion and yet to be acting a lie all the while, and
living in constant fear of being found out! Whatever sin we may fall
into, God save us from hypocrisy and make us honest and straightforward
in all things! Shall we, then, go and have fellowship with things of
which we should be ashamed, even, to speak? God forbid!

I am afraid that I am speaking many Truths of God that you will regard
as having nothing in them that is comfortable to you, but, Brothers and
Sisters, can I help it? Can it be avoided? If we are to make full proof
of our ministry and preach all the Truth to you, must we not take every
passage of God's Word, whether it is of rebuke or of comfort, in its
due season? To myself, the effect of thinking over this subject is
this–I have cried, "Lord, have mercy upon me." I have fled, again, to
the Cross of Christ. I have sought anew for an anointing of the Holy
Spirit that I might not, in anything, have fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness. And if my discourse has that effect upon
you, it will do you great service! Oh, ask the Lord to make our outward
lives more thoroughly pure and true! Give me a little Church of really
gracious, devoted, upright, godly men, and I will be glad to minister
to them and I shall expect God to bless them!

But give me a large Church consisting of thousands, if there are in it
many whose lives, if they were known, would disgust a man of God, and
whose lives, being known to the Spirit of God, are a grief to Him, why,
then the blessing must be withheld! We may preach our hearts out and
wear ourselves to death in all kinds of holy service, but, with an
Achan in the camp, Israel cannot win the victory! I beseech you,
therefore, search and look! One pair of eyes, two pairs of eyes in the
pastorate, and the eyes of the elders and deacons of the Church can
never suffice to watch over such a company as this is! The Lord watch
over you, and may you have a mutual oversight of one another! And,
above all, may each one exercise daily watchfulness over his own heart
and life! Thus, beloved Brothers and Sisters Christ, I leave the text
with you, praying God to bless it–"Have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."

Now, if any here are living in fellowship with those unfruitful works
of darkness, I pray them to escape for their lives from them! May they
fly to Christ, who alone can save them! And when they have once found
healing through His wounds and life through His death, then let them
pray to be kept from all sin that they may lead a holy and gracious
life to the glory of Him who has washed them in His own most precious
blood! The Lord send a blessing, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: EPHESIANS5.

Verse 1. Be you, therefore, followers of God. Or, imitators of God–

1. As dear children. Children are naturally imitators. They are usually
inclined to imitate their father. This is, therefore, a most comely and
appropriate precept–

"Be you, therefore, imitators of God, as dear children."

2. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself
for us, an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.
What a path to walk in! "Walk in love." What a well-paved way it is!
"As Christ also has loved us." What a blessed Person for us to follow
in that divinely royal road! It would have been hard for us to tread
this way of love if it had not been that His blessed feet marked out
the trail for us. We are to love as Christ has loved us and the
question which will often solve difficulties is this, "What would Jesus
Christ do in my case? What He would have done, that we may do–"Walk in
love, as Christ also has loved us." And if we want to know how far that
love may be carried, we need not be afraid of going too far in
self-denial. We may even make a sacrifice of ourselves for love of God
and men, for here is our model–"As Christ also has loved us, and has
given Himself for us, an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a
sweet-smelling savor."

3. But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be
once named among you, as becomes saints. So far from ever falling under
the power of these evils, do not even name them–count them sins
unmentionable to holy ears! In what a position do we find,
"covetousness," placed–side by side with, "fornication and all
uncleanness"! In the Epistle to the Colossians, covetousness is called,
"idolatry," as if the Holy Spirit thought so ill of this sin that He
could never put it in worse company than it deserved to be in! Yet I
fear it is a very common sin even among some who call themselves
saints. God deliver us altogether from its sway and help us to hate the
very name of it!

4. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not
convenient, but rather, giving of thanks. All sorts of evil, frivolous,
fruitless talk should be condemned by the Christian. He should feel
that he lives at a nobler rate, he lives to purpose–he lives to bear
fruit–and that which has no fruit about it and out of which no good
can come is not for him. "But rather, giving of thanks." Oh, for more
of this giving of thanks! It should perfume the labors of the day! It
should sweeten the rest of the night, this giving of thanks! We are
always receiving blessings–let us never cease to give God thanks for
them. If we never leave off thanking until we are beyond the need of
blessing, we shall go on praising the Lord as long as we live, here,
and continue to do so throughout eternity!

5. For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor
covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of
Christ and of God. What a sweeping sentence! This is, indeed, a sword
with two edges! Many will flinch before it and yet, though they flinch,
they will not escape, for Paul speaks neither more nor less than the
Truth when he declares that "no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor
covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of
Christ and of God."

6. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things
comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. These are the
very things God hates! If, therefore, they are in you, God cannot look
upon you with the love that He feels towards His children. "These
things" He cannot endure and, "because of these things comes the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience."

7. 8. Be not you, therefore, partakers with them. For you were
sometimes darkness. Then, "these things" suited you.

8. But now are you light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Get
clean away from these dark things! Travel no more in the thick gloom of
these abominations! God help you to walk in the Light as He is in the
Light!

9. 10. (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and
righteousness and truth) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. We
ought to pray that our whole life may be "acceptable unto the Lord." We
are, ourselves, "accepted in the Beloved." And, that being the case, it
should be our great desire that every thought and word and deed, yes,
every breath of our life should be "acceptable unto the Lord."

11, 12. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them. For it is a shame, even, to speak of those
things which are done by them in secret. It was so with the old heathen
world in which Paul lived–he could not write or speak of those
abominable vices which defiled the age. But is London any better than
Ephesus? Surely, old Corinth, which became a sink of sin, was not a
worse Sodom than this great modern Babylon! There is great cause to say
of the wicked, even to this day, "It is a shame, even, to speak of
those things which are done by them in secret."

13. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
Then drag them to the Light of God! There will be a great howling when
these dogs of darkness have the Light let in upon them, but it has to
be done.

13-15. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says, Awake,
you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you
light. See, then, that you walk circumspectly. Not carelessly, not
thinking that it is of no importance how you live, but looking all
around you, "walk circumspectly," watching lest, even in seeking one
good thing, you spoil another. Never present to God one duty stained
with the blood of another duty! "See then that you walk circumspectly."

15, 16. Not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time. Buying up the
hours–they are of such value that you cannot pay too high a price for
them!

16-18. Because the days are evil. Therefore be you not unwise, but
understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. If you want
excitement, seek this highest, holiest, happiest form of
exhilaration–the Divine exhilaration which only the Holy Spirit can
give you–"Be filled with the Spirit."

19. Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. We would have
thought that Paul would have said, "singing and making melody with your
voices to the Lord," but the Apostle, guided by the Holy Spirit,
overlooks the sound, which is the mere body of the praise, and looks to
the heart, which is the living soul of the praise–"Making melody in
your heart to the Lord," for the Lord cares not merely for sounds,
though they are the sweetest that ever came from the lips of man or
angel–He looks at the heart. God is a Spirit and He looks spiritually
at our spiritual praises–therefore let us make melody in our heart to
the Lord.

20, 21. Giving thanks, always, for all things unto God and the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves, one to
another, in the fear of God. That principle of maintaining your rights,
standing up for your dignity and so on, is not according to the mind of
the Spirit! It is His will that you should, rather, yield your rights
and, for the sake of peace, and the profit of your Brothers and
Sisters, give up what you might naturally claim as properly belonging
to you–"Submitting yourselves, one to another, in the fear of God."

22-30. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the
Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ's is the
Head of the Church and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the
Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own
husbands, in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present
it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought
men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife
loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes
and cherishes it, even as the Lord, the Church; for we are members of
His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. What a wonderful expression!
To think that we, poor creatures that we are, should be thus joined to
Christ by a marriage union, no, by a vital union–is, indeed, amazing!
Oh, the depths of the love of Christ, that such an expression as this
should be possible!

31, 32. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This is
a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. There is
the mystery, that He should leave His Father, and quit the home above,
and become one flesh with His elect, going with them and for their
sakes, through poverty, pain, shame and death! This is a marvel and a
mystery, indeed!

33. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife
even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Thus
the Spirit of God follows us to our homes and teaches us how to live to
the Glory of God! May He help us to do so, for Christ's sake! Amen.