#DailyDevotion Expose The Darkness To The Light Of Christ
Eph. 511Don’t have anything to do with the works of darkness, from which no good can come. Instead show that they are wrong. 12We’re ashamed even to mention what such people do secretly. 13When you show that anything is wrong, it is seen in the light; anything you can see is as clear as light. 14So it says: “Wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Because we are children of the Light and in Christ are light St. Paul warns us about having nothing to do with works of darkness. A few verses above he mentions some of these, 3“Sexual sins, anything unclean, or greed shouldn’t even be mentioned among you. This is the right attitude for holy people. 4No shameful things, foolish talk, or coarse jokes! These aren’t proper. Instead give thanks. 5Be sure of this, that no one who is immoral, unclean, or greedy (a greedy person worships an idol) has any share in the kingdom of Christ, Who is God.” Of course this list isn’t exhaustive. There are always the Ten Commandments and Paul has other list in other letters like Galatians.
The thing is, dealing with the things of darkness does no one any good. There are some deeds of darkness we’re even ashamed to mention of what people do behind closed doors. It may be the fashion of the day to completely misuse Jesus’ teaching of “don’t judge” but speaking by the Holy Spirit, Paul clearly teaches we should show that works of darkness are clearly wrong. Jesus himself in his Sermon on the Mount and on the Plain exposes the darkness of our hearts when he teaches us the meaning of the Ten Commandments. We should not be shy, no matter how much the world cringes when we expose such deeds as evil and idolatry.
“When you show that anything is wrong, it is seen in the light.” Yes, seeing the deeds of darkness as exposed in the light shows how such things are opposed to the will of God and not helpful to ourselves, themselves or the world. The world may be like Dracula when exposed to the light. It may attack us for exposing it to the light. But only when are dark deeds are exposed are we or anyone else able to repent of them.
Having seen our dark deeds exposed and being given the gift of repentance from God we can sing with St. Paul, “Wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Yes, before the light of Christ shined upon us we were in death’s cold, sullen sleep. Now that the light of Christ has shined upon us we have experienced a resurrection of our heart/spirit/soul. He has given us new heart which listens to him, trust him and does what he wants because he has come to live out his life in ours. It is God who wills and does good through us. Christ shines upon us and gives us his glory. We look forward to the day when with our own eyes we see him in his marvelous light in our new resurrected bodies which will bear his glory.
Until that day we let the light of his promise that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to his kingdom of light infect our lives and let it conform our ways to the ways of light, faith and Christ and love of neighbor.
O merciful God and Father of Light, continually expose in us the darkness of our fleshly deeds that we may repent of them and be given the light of your Son Jesus Christ to live in now and in eternity. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.