Eph-80-81 - Lesson 33 - Ephesians 5: 9-13
Publication Date: 05-20-1981
On Ephesians 4:25 where I want to begin tonight, or where we will begin tonight , the first part of what the Research Team gave me is the work that Walter Cummins published in our wonderful Way Magazine on "The Spoken Word." Also, as we cover Ephesians 4:28 tonight, I had all the information in front of me from another article that Walter Cummins has in the... has had in the Magazine. The first article on Ephesians 4:25 is entitled "The Spoken Word." The one on Ephesians 4:28 is "Workers for God." Both of these pieces of work by Walter are absolutely superb. And I believe that they should appear and will appear in our research journal GMIR whenever we begin publishing that. {GMIR Aramaic word meaning ' to perfect, accomplish , mature, complete, arithmetically to be divisible without any remainder.}
And I noticed again that some of the things that were stated are just so beautifully and logically presented, I'm truly thankful for, not only Walter, but the whole Research Department. I think our Biblical Research Department is just second to none. And it' s even going to be better by God' s mercy and grace next year and in years to come than it is at this time. And right now I do not believe that our Biblical Research Department needs to take a back seat for any academic institution or work in the world.
And I thought today, I have never... I've never thought of Walter Cummins in any other capacity than to be my assistant. I know Vince Finnegan, you know, on the books is my assistant. And that' s great. But I've never thought of Walter Cummins in any other capacity for so many years as always being my assistant. And I think he' s just the most wonderful person that any president could have as his assistant. And also to be chairmen of the Department of Greek, and then the coordinator of the Biblical research of The Way International. For any one man to have that position and that responsibility is an awesome reality and I'm real proud of Walter and real thankful for him. But I am also thankful for the rest of our wonderful men and women in the Research Department.
I would like for the Corps all over the country to go to the Magazine and find "The Spoken_Word," that's the title of it, dealing with Ephesians 4:25 and other scriptures, and before the next Corps meeting next week, you endeavor to master that great piece of work by Walter Cummins. It's just, you know, the spoken Word. Over fifty Greek words are used in the New Testament in connection with the faculties of utterance. Over fifty. And then he takes the most important ones and he lists them and it' s just. .. it' s just a piece of research work that you should really as a Corps master in your heart and in your life.
Ephesians 4:25 in the King James reads, Wherefore put away lyin g, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.
The ' putting away' was interesting to me again because of the Greek word aniko, a-n-i-k-o.
And this word is ' the putting away,' this word ' put away,' aniko, is the same root word as in 4:22, where we use the word ' rest,' meaning ' to rest.' Is that right? Yep, that is right. I taught you that,
didn't I? Did I or didn't I? Doesn't look right to me. It is the same root. What chapter am I missing? Am I missing anything? I don't know. Right now I'm screwed up, ha ha. First time today. You check the word again and I'll do that, too and see what I'm missing here.
But a-n-i-k-o is the word for ' putting away from you. ' To put away. And it' s the same root as the word ' rest.' I don't know where the word appears, but it's got to be in there.
Now, that word ' speak,' every man speak. That word ' speak ' is from the Greek word
laleo, l-a-l-e-long-o. And that' s where Walter' s article on "The Spoken Word"_c omes in because that is.. .he uses that word laleo in here, which I teach in Corinthians when I teach the Foundational Class. And he says the word is employed 24 times in I Corinthians chapter 14. I had forgotten that.
This word is truly significant. I couldn' t quite understand it Research Department, what you said on page 26B 16, where you defined it ' to make vocal utterance,' ' to babble,' 'to talk,' 'to exercise the faculty of speech without reference to the words spoken.' I just wondered if there might not be another word that could be substituted or utilized at this point. I know that Zachariah 8:16 is the quotation that is used here, or spoken of. And that Zachariah 8:16 adds force to what is said by using a quote, a quotation. That' s why my question to the Research Department is, How can it be without reference to what is spoken if it is truth plus the quotation of the Word of God that's given. It doesn't quite fit for me.
'With his neighbor' has to be a believing neighbor. This 'speak truth with his neighbor' is a figure of speech gnome, g-n-o-m-e, which simply is a citation. And that' s a citation from Zachariah 8:16.
There are a series of figures of speech, Corps, in chapter four which just put the 00mph, the highlight, to the particular things that are set whereby you put off the old man. This phrase here 'speak every man truth with his neighbor' is one of them. The other one appears in verse 26, 'be angry and sin not.' ' Steal no more' is another one. 'Corrupt communication' is the fourth one. 'Grieve not the holy spirit' is the fifth one. ' All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking' is the sixth. And then ' be kind' and so forth, is the seventh.
You see, the last phrase in that verse, in King James, For we' re members one of what? [Another] And it' s relative to the neighbor. Now you just look at that. Wherefore put away lying, speak every man truth with his what? [Neighbor] For we are members one of another. That doesn't mean just a neighbor who lives next door, but it has to be a believing neighbor because we are members one of what? [Another]. You could not be a member ' one of another' ifhe was an unbeliever. That's how I know this is going to work. This tells me that the neighbor is a believer. And this ' we' re members one of another' continues the imagery of the Body of Christ.
The literal according to usage of this verse is as follows: Wherefore put away the lie... and I believe in my heart, before I go on with the literal that until man is born again, it's all a lie anyways. And that' s why I believe that this translation will fit in the light of that knowledge. Because when a man is not born again, his whole life is just a lie. Now you're born again, and that ' s why I think the text states it ' wherefore put away the lie,' the life you' ve been living , the screwed up life you have lived outside of God. It' s been just a life of a lie. It' s not truth. It' s just the opposite of truth and that's my reason for translating it this way... Wherefore put away the lie.
You've got to go with that translation. You have no other text to go by both from Aramaic and Greek it's 'lie.' Not 'lying.' If the Research Department has anything to share in the light of that, I'd be blessed to hear, but you' ve heard my reasons for translating it, Research Department, this way.
Now since they're born again, their whole life is changed, so the life of lying, and living a lie, and being a lie, and being false, is to be put away.
And every man... this is the translation ... and everyone, everyone. The word ' man' you could use because it's an inclusive noun, but I prefer to use the word ' one.'
Wherefore put away the lie and everyone speak the truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another. That is literal according to usage.
Now for the expanded according to understanding. It's not bad. Because of this... What we coughing for? Everybody sick?...Because of this... and the reason I went in the expanded along this line is because verse 24 last week told us that we are created by God in righteousness and in true purity, through holiness. Twenty four.
That's why 25, Wherefore ... 'wherefore' can be translated 'because of this.' Because of this what? Being created in righteousness and truly pure. See it's an inside job.
Because of this being created in righteousness and truly pure by the grace and the love of
God.. .Because of this being created in righteousness and truly pure, you put away, completely lay to rest the lie that you have been and were living and each one of you speak the truth using a quotation from the Word with his believing neighbor for we are members one of another in the Body of the Church.
Robinson {Edward} said, he translated, 'speak every man truth with his neighbor' and he said it's from Zachariah 8:16 which adds force to what is said by using a quote. That's why I translated that. I think that' s great. It adds force to what is said. If you're speaking to someone, it adds force to what you say by using a quote, a quotation from God's Word. In other words, ' you share the Word with them.' That' s why I went with that translation. I want to give it to you again in this sense.
Speak the truth using a quotation from the Word, which means 'share the Word.' Quote the Word to them. Tell them what the Word says, with his believing neighbor. Why? For we are members one of another in the Body of the Church. This verse is just mind blowing.
Here, you have a born-again believer neighbor who needs to grow up a little more. So what do you do? Each one speak the truth to that neighbor, that believer, using the Word, quoting the Word because we' re members one of another in the Body of the Church. It's a real positive thing to do.
Verse 26 in King James reads, Be angry.. .ha ha... we like that one, don't we. Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Here is a verse of Scripture that' s very, very difficult for most people. And it' s not too easy for us either. But I think we are able to share the truth of the greatness of this and it's been burning in my heart for a long time to do this with our people.
Everybody has problems with ' how can you be angry and not sin?' You know, how can raise hell with something and not be sinful in doing it? Teed off and not be sinful. And how can you go... and what does it mean 'don't let the sun go down upon your wrath?' See.
In the context, here, verses 26 and 27 deal with your believing neighbor, specifically. Then the Greek word for ' anger' which is from the root orge, o-r-g-long-e means 'anger together with the desire of revenge .' That' s bad. That' s a heavy. The Hebrew word means ' to kill, and all the tumults of passion that terminate in killing.' So it's a real heavy word when it said ' be angry.'
And the way I believe it's used in God' s Word, ' be ye angry' means ' it's a long time anger with your believing neighbor until a change has ensued.' The desire to... of revenge is a change. And I, knowing the Word in the light of the new birth, it's where a change finally comes about. Until that time, you just, long-term, you just stay put witnessing the Word, sharing the Word. You do not dislike the believing neighbor; you simply dislike that he is not fully accepting the Word and walking on it. So it' s a long-term anger until a change has ensued. You just stay faithful.
I don't know what else to do with those words. It is a righteous anger. Yet it is a righteous anger without sin.
Among the scholars, there is a disagreement on these words. Well, I don't know about my being a scholar; that I don' t anything about being about. But it's simple to me because righteous anger is commanded by God's Word when it says ' be ye angry.' Well, the scholars can fight about it. I don' t care. It' s a command. Not just permitted to get teed once in a while when somebody' s off of God' s Word, a believer is off of God's Word. You' re always teed off righteously at any believer, born-again believer, who is off of God' s Word. And for those of us in the Way Ministry, it' s been a lifetime.
Get into it with them on... Oh what subject do you want to talk about? Baptism? Food? One God? See. All that stuff.
The Aramaic is accurate in the words ' and sin not.' It literally translates ' and you will not sin.' Again, this ' be angry and sin not' is that figure gnome. Quotation. A citation from the Old Testament. It' s from Psalm 4:4. But in King James, Psalm 4:4, it's translated 'stand in awe.' The real sense of the Hebrew is ' one of admonition;' sin not. Where we' re admonished to not sin. Sin not.
' Let not the sun go down on your wrath. ' Ha ha. That again is beautiful. People went to bed when the sun went down, when it got dark. That's when they went to bed. So what that simply is saying, ha ha, ' don't go to bed teed off.' Don' t let the sun go down on your wrath. In other words, go to bed; don' t go to bed mad. ' When you go to bed' is what it means. Let not the sun go down when you go to bed. And they went to bed when the sun went down. When it got dark, they went to bed, see.
' Upon your wrath.' And the word ' wrath' here is basically ' irritation.' Ha ha. Previously when I taught Ephesians, I made mention of this fact, ' don' t let righteous anger shake you, wondering if it was right on. When you go to bed, go to sleep.'
Now, this is what we have done with it in the literal, ha ha, according to usage. I got more papers up here than Carter has liver pills, or something. Then, I can' t find my... whatever it is I take off of it.
Okay, verse 26. You be righteously angry.. .this is literal according to usage.. .and you will not be sinning. Don't go to bed even with a momentary irritation, ha ha.
I don't think you get nearly as much fun out of this as I do. It's neat. It's absolutely scrumptious, see. At the opening, is that heavy word, remember? Anger. So it's a real heavy time. So what he is saying, in the heavy time, when your standing on God' s Word and sharing that with the believing neighbor, you' re righteously angry... you're not sinning. And you don't even go to bed with a momentary irritation. In other Words, when you go to bed, thank God the day is over. Say your last prayer and start snoring.
Boy, that would save a lot of sleeping pills, wouldn' t it? Practicing that principle. Boy, oh boy, what a tremendous Word. And hardly anybody understands verse 26. They argue about it, but they don' t get the understanding.
Now this is the expanded one according to understanding, I hope. And again, I would like to just lay some things before the Corps, and especially before the Research Department. I translated the first part of verse 26, You always stay angry with an all-out desire to have them to change which anger will not be sin on your part.
Then I have another translation of that first part of it: You be righteously angry, 'teed off' with sin... 'Teed off' I put in quotes. But don't you sin by acting ' holier than thou' vaunting yourself by acting so righteously like you never sin.
I do not know which one of those two the Research Department feels would be the better. The last part of the phrase that I translated which would go with both of these that I have given you here on the expanded one for understanding. This, the last part, goes with that first one and with the second ... also.. .even if it is only a momentary irritation. When you go to bed, go to sleep. That's what I did with it.
Now, verse 27. King James says, Neither (or neither) give place to the Devil. The word 'place' is simply a portion, a part. No believer will give full place to the Devil, but he may be giving a part, a portion. He' ll mark off a spot, ' this is Devil' s permission over here, over here, no permission, you know. And you really give the Devil a portion or a spot if you stew about it after you go to bed and you toss and you tum and can' t sleep.
This word 'the Devil,' ' the Devil' in the Aramaic is a very interesting and exciting Word to me and it blesses my heart. It' s a compound word where the first part means ' to eat' or ' to devour.' The latter
' to slander' or ' to accuse. ' So when I got to translating this, literally according to usage, verse 27 reads: Do not give any portion or space or an opportunity to the Devil. So I used those three words synonymously: portion, space, opportunity. Do not give any portion or space or an opportunity to the Devil.
The expanded according to understanding: And you will not give a toehold, an opportunity or an occasion for the Devil to eat you. Ha ha. I get more fun than you ever will out of working this stuff, huh.
You see, and to me, that communicates to my understanding. John 10:10. The thief cometh not but for to what? [Steal, kill, and destroy] Right. To eat you out. To beat you. And that's why that Aramaic word, on the word ' Devil' really thrilled me.
And that ' s why I put it into the expanded translation: And you will not give a ' toehold.' Now, at L.E.A.D., you know how important it is to get a what? [Toehold] Ha ha. And when you' re really climbing in, you' re blessed for a toehold. How thankful you are when you get a foothold. Now the adversary can never get a foothold in a believer' s life until he first has a toehold. That's why I translated it that way.
Do not give... and you will not give a toehold ... shave all the rocks off... an opportunity or an occasion for the Devil to eat you. And that' s exactly what he likes to do to believers.
Now we go to verse 28. King James says, Let him that stole steal not more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. And here again, is another great work that I believe should be in our research journal GMIR, Walter' s work on " Workers for God."
It' s just tremendous where he... you know... he just goes into God' s men are called many things in the Word. They' re called: fellow workers, ministers, or servants, slaves, fellow slaves, partners, messengers, soldiers, fellow soldiers, athletes, fellow athletes, stewards, ambassadors, witnesses, all of those. And he covers them so beautifully. And I love very much how he covered the word ' slave,' because it' s a much stronger word than to be a minister, or to be a servant. It is to be one who is branded, marked out, sold out. And baby, from that day on, there are no ifs, and' s, or but' s. You never budge on it. You are branded. Most believers are never branded. They may be servants, they may be ministers, but they are not branded. When you' re branded, you stay faithful. You do not budge. You do not change. You stay put. If all hell breaks loose, you still live the believing Word.
I think the prophet once said, If I was in the midst of hell, God I know you' d be there. (Psalm 139:8) He' d be there. That' s the doulos. That, of course, is just a tremendous piece of work.
And the other great part that I think... and this is a second piece that I want the Corps to master before next Wednesday night, " Workers for God," the work on ' witness.' You see, it's the same word basically that's translated ' martyr,' see. And we got a lot of those canonized. That's not at all what a witness is. A witness is a living example, not a dead one. The word 'martyr' simply means that you lay down your life in witnessing. And boy, when you put the doulos together with ' witness,' then you' ve got power for abundant living. It's just a fantastic work by Walter and I' m real grateful that it was published. Because once it' s in print, people can take a look at it if they want to.
I'd like a cup of coffee, please.
Now, we are in verse 28. The Aramaic translation is ' and he who was stealing.' I understand it from the English, ' let him that stole,' past tense. The Aramaic is real simple, real strong. ' And he, the one who is born again, who was, past tense, stealing.'
Thank you.
His whole life was one of those before he was born again.
Whenever you bring a cup of coffee to a right-hand man, you put the handle to the right. When you serve a cup of coffee to a left-hand man, you put it on the left-hand side and put the handle to the left. Corps principle number seven or something, ha ha. Mrs. Wierwille would say, Well, be thankful you even get a cup of coffee. [Laughter] Ah, you're wonderful.
See, ' let him who stole, steal no more.' 'Stole and steal,' that' s a figure of speech and is polyptoton p-o-l-y-p-t-o-t-o-n. It' s a repetition of the same root word in different parts of speech or reflections. But, that's not earth shaking right now in my heart.
You see, in some Eastern culture, it was not considered a sin or a shame to steal because that's the way they lived, the only way they lived. Somebody told me... or not only told me, one of our people, but it was in a national magazine, that the basic culture of Russia today is to steal. And in some respects I can understand this. If you don't have anything and you're starving to death and there' s a loaf of bread you can get a hold of... steal the dam thing. I understand that.
So this verse is really sharp, really sharp. Let him who stole, even though that man previously considered it the way to live and there was no shame in it, no sin in it. He said, Well, let that fellow who stole, steal no more. Something has happened on the inside of that man. Something that happened, where He is able to meet all of our need according to His riches in glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. More than conquerors.
A record in the Old Testament, I forget where it is, but it's in there, that it' s never, you never need to borrow or steal bread or... what is that in the Old Testament? Begging bread. One person stand and tell me. {Psalm 37:25, I have been young and now am old; yet have I seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread.} Psalm 27:25 who? {Psalm 37:25} 37:25. All the years, he's never seen the righteous to have to do what? {Beg bread} Beg bread.
First of all, I wish the Christian world could hear this. Secondly, I wish our government in the United States could understand it. The Word says, If you don't work, you don' t eat. A lot of that stuff. Well, what we've been doing is stealing from the people who are willing to work to give to the people who don' t want to work. That's a bunch of crap. That's stealing. That's why this verse is so hot in my soul tonight. Let him who stole, quit stealing, dang it. See.
Many years ago I was really knocked for a loop along some of this line in India, from Dr. Williams. I think he loved India maybe like I love the United States, I don' t know. Because only a man knows how much he loves his own country, I guess.
But... as we were traveling together, he said to me, Dr. Wierwille, I hear you have whores in the United States.
You know, I never had given it a thought. I just took it for granted. [Laughter] And I said, yeah. He said, Why does a rich country like the United States have whores?
And I said, I don't know.
And he said, I can't understand it. Cannot your women make enough money to live? Yeah, but they figure that' s cheaper and more pleasurable or something, I don' t know. And he said, Well, I think it's sinful that the United States has whores.
And I said, What do you mean?
And he said to me, why, I can understand India. He said we don' t enough food, we don' t have enough of anything hardly for a lot of people. And we have whores because that' s the only way they can continue to live physically.
And I thought to myself, well boy, that' s slapping me in the face good. And I took it as a wonderful lesson. There is no excuse in the United States for any women being a whore because she doesn' t need to get screwed and paid for it in order to get money so she can live. There's plenty of work available and if there isn' t she ought to get born again, then there' s a guarantee of work. ..other work, available. I tell you, when you' re honest, some of these men in other countries have some real logic behind their thinking. How would you have liked to have handled that? I just simply admitted, Well, I think we' re wrong in the United States. But I said, I think you' re wrong in India, too, because no reason to have whores here if you get them born again.
So I don' t know. But this verse today as I worked the final working on this verse 28 is when my heart really went back and burned with that truth that Dr. Williams had stated. Because in many Eastern cultures, it was not considered as sin or as shame to steal, if it was a matter of livelihood. You sometimes wonder who will live in the greatest condemnation before God and justice and judgment when the time comes.
For in most of what are called poor countries even, there is sufficient money, food, and other things for the people to live if those in positions of authority were not so selfish and egotistical, and want it for themselves , and let the rest of the world die... or a country die.
The word ' labor' in verse 28 is the word which literally means ' hard work resulting in fatigue.' That's how I felt coming from the woods last night. And I didn' t do anything. It was just hard work being there with the rest of you. Today I got so tired of being with some, I came home. Ah, you' re wonderful.
' Working with his hands' is an Eastern cultural type of thing. Today in our culture, you could have it, you know, the truth is working with your mind or working with your hand, whatever you' re working at. But in Eastern culture, every son was to be trained to work with his hands, even if he was the son of a king. Had to learn a trade, a profession of business.
Jesus Christ was a saddle maker. He made them to ride, I guess, what do you want? Tennessee Walkers , or? See. I think not only did he do that, Paul did it, too, you know. Someday I'm going to find a...or Walter, or some of those, are going to find me a manuscript to prove it. .. and a wonderful carpenter by trade. Many times doing carpentry work and being a saddle maker were sort of in the same household, because building carpentry and having saddles to use for their business and carrying on, were very, very closely aligned. Well, I won' t argue the point, but I wish we' d keep looking.
II Thessalonians.. .Do your hands ever get so dry you can hardly hold anything? Golly, mine are so dry tonight, I wonder why? II Thessalonians, chapter 3:10... this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he what? [Eat] Right. Even unemployment is no excuse for stealing. He just doesn' t eat. Goes and gets work. Boy, when I first saw the greatness of these principles many years ago, and then of course, I uniquely by God' s grace, inculcated that into our W.O.W. program and very dynamically in the Corps leadership.
I want to start by, again, reading these fabulous expanded translations that Dr. Wierwille gave you last week of the first eight verses before we start going in the ninth verse.
Verse one is: Become therefore imitators of God like as beloved sons.
And then verse two, which of course is the great theme verse for Rock of Ages ' 81, this coming August. And boy, this is a tremendous verse in light of Jesus Christ Our Passover has just come out and a lot of other things. Of course that' s the tone for the whole year.
It says: And conduct your life in love... and it' s... the theme is God' s Call to Love... Conduct your life in love , yes, even as Christ also loved you and surrendered himself for you a sacrificial offering to God for a sweet smelling fragrance.
And of course, Jesus Christ our Passover is all about how Jesus Christ is the sacrificial offering. And how he did love us and gave himself for us. And so we' re to conduct our lives, our walk in love. I was thinking how in this context here, our four major research books are all sort of capsulized in this section, because walking in love is sort of the theme ofreceiving the holy spirit today. To learn how to walk by the spirit, walking in love, of course is central to that in I Corinthians 13 which is covered in there.
And then the sacrificial offering, that' s Jesus Christ our Passover. And then as you saw last week in verses, this whole section, especially verses three, four and five... fornication, uncleanness, idolatry and all those things.. .sort ofrelate to Jesus Christ is Not God.
And then the inheritance mentioned in verse five ties into Are the Dead Alive Now? Because most people think you have an immediate inheritance of some kind when you die, you go to heaven. But that's not the case, because you have to wait until Christ returns which is the subject of that particular book. But, I thought that was kind of neat how all those four major research books that we have are all wrapped up in this particular section.
Now verse three: But idolatry, even all impurity, having more gods than needed, surely let not even one other name even be named among you as that is totally not for saints.
{Verse four} Nor use the name of God in vain, nor words that blame Him for evil. Nor say or do something making Him a laughing stock which is totally unnecessary and discrediting, but rather this, thanksgiving.
{Verse five} For this you know that every man who worships idols is impure having more gods than he should have. And this one who is worshipping more than one God, there is not for him any rewards in God' s future kingdom.
{Verse six} Allow no one to seduce or terrify you with words of undue admiration or irreverence because of these men indeed comes down the wrath of God upon the sons of the Devil.
{Verse seven} And become not, therefore, joint partakers with them, the sons of the wrong seed.
{Verse eight} For you were formerly in spiritual darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Therefore, walk in like manner as he who is the light walked and as children of light, God.
We closed out with the conclusion: to walk in like manner as he who is light walked and as children of light and God is light.
In this section, I don' t know if you follow this, what we gave out, oh, way back in the beginning, last September, the structure, how it' s laid out. But this whole section from 5:1 to 6:9 parallels Ephesians 2:8-10. There' s only three verses in that first section, but it' s a mammoth section here in the practical side. And I'm always thinking of that balance between the doctrine and the practical side.
In 2:8-10 is where you have those verses, For by grace are ye saved through faith: and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. When it comes to your salvation, it' s not of works, it' s of grace.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
That we should walk in these good works. That' s on the doctrinal side. We' re His masterpiece. We' re His workmanship. And yet He created us that, that we could walk by that spirit. Walk in those works. And now you get over to the practical side of it, 5:1 to 6:9 and it's ' walk.'
And remember in this section, it's where you have these three times the word ' walk' is used. In verse two you have ' walk in love.' And you get down to verse eight, it's ' walk as children ofl ight.' And in verse 16, it' s ' walk circumspectly or accurately.' And then from verse 21 all the way to chapter 6:9, it has to do with submitting to one another. Wives and husbands, children and parents. Servants and masters. That kind of thing. It has all to do ' walking,' see. ' Walking in love, walking as children of light, walking accurately and submitting one to another in this walk.'
And so here, we started on now again with ' walking as children ofl ight.' But verse ten says, Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
And you know from Romans 12:2, it says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, or well pleasing, and perfect will of God. That good, well pleasing, and perfect will of God. You do it by renewing your mind. And here, the ' walk a children of light' or walking in like manner as he who is the light walked and as the children of light, by doing that, you prove what is acceptable unto the Lord.
See, verse ten ties right into verse eight and verse nine sits in the middle parenthetically. And this particular parenthesis is called an epitrechon , spelled e-p-i-t-r-e-c-h-o-n. It's a parenthetical addition, not complete in itself. And it' s a brief explanatory remark. It' s not like a parenthesis which is more lengthy and more detailed. It' s a brief explanatory remark and it's not complete in itself.
This one, this epitrechon, is put in here to emphasize, or further emphasize ' walking as children of light ' in verse eight, by showing the reason for that walk, or the results of it, the fruit of that walk, walking as children of light. And understanding that, now you can understand why in verse nine, it says, For the fruit of the... and the word ' spirit' in most texts is...most of the critical Greek texts is as well as a lot of the manuscripts ... is the word ' light,' photos, p-h-long-o-t-o-s.
And in the Aramaic it's d-n-o-h-r-a, dnohra, which means ' ofl ight.' You know the word ' roka' is ' spirit.' This is dnohra, ' ofl ight.' So most of the critical Greek texts and a lot of the manuscripts as well as the Aramaic have the word ' light' here. And of course, in receiving the holy spirit today on page 343, it gives it as 'light,' because it ties into the context.
They probably... by the way, in studying manuscripts, a lot of times I'm looking for reasons why people would substitute certain words. And the reason they probably substituted ' spirit' for the word ' light' here is because of the fruit of the spirit that' s mentioned in Galatians. They were familiar with that passage and so they thought this ought to be ' spirit' instead of ' light' to agree with that particular passage. And so they inserted the word ' spirit' and dropped the word ' light.' But originally it should have been ' light' because of the context.
You walk as children of light for the fruit oflight is... see it? See how it ties in? And it' s explaining that walk in light and what the result or fruit of it will be.And this ' walking' and the ' fruit of the light' is going to be in contrast to ' walking in darkness' which has been in the context here of ' spiritual fornication ' which is idolatry, serving more gods than you need. Contrast to that would be serving the one true God.
And the fruit of the light...now this word ' fruit' is a figure, hypocatastasis, which you' ve had a million times before, spelled h-y-p-o-c-a-t-a-s-t-a-s-i-s, hypocatastasis, where the main idea is only implied from the context. And it's replaced here by an imported object or image which is being compared. The result of the operation of the manifestation of the spirit is being compared to ' fruit of a tree. ' Or specifically the ' fruit of light,' the result of that ' walk by the light.' And to ' walk by the light' means you have to ' operate the manifestations of the spirit.'
So ' manifestations of the spirit' is not right; it' s just not right here in the text. I mean it' s not wrong. It' s just not right, here in the text. Okay? Because you still have fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5 22.
So you have fruit of the light, which is that figure hypocatastasis, is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
The word ' is' in the King James is in italics. See it? So that means that it is supplied. And if you supply it there, you could also supply it after the word ' all.' As a matter of fact, the Aramaic here reads ' in all them. ' The Greek is ' in all' and could be ' all them ' as ' all the believers,' representing the believers. In which case you could supply the verb to be after ' all,' and say ' the fruit of light in all believers is' ...what? ' Goodness' and these other things, ' righteousness' and ' truth.'
Now, these three words: goodness, and righteousness, and truth. From The Fruit of the Spirit, that little booklet that I wrote, as well as the... that's in the back of the Intermediate Class Syllabus, I believe. ' Goodness' is a guarding fruit. There were three guarding fruits. Peace guards the heart. Temperance or self-control guards our results so that we get proper results in our lives. And then goodness guards others as we minister to them, as we' re good to others it guards them as we minister to other people. It' s a guard to them.
And then you have ' righteousness,' which according to The Bible Tells Me So on page 67, it' s defined... it' s the God given justification whereby a person stands in the presence of God without any consciousness of sin, guilt or shortcomings. Which is an inside thing, where you stand in the presence of God with no consciousness of sin, guilt, or shortcomings, condemnation of any kind.
And then the third word is ' truth.' And truth does not lead you to error or deception. Truth... and in the context here again, thinking of the one true God as opposed to the error or the darkness...which is serving more gods, idolatry.
So we receive the truth of God' s Word. We retain that righteousness, the inside job. We stand in the presence of God without any consciousness of sin, guilt or short comings. And then in our goodness, we release to others, and guard others from erring from that truth of serving more than one God.
I thought about this, these three, in light of the ' three' s' that you had up above, where it talked about fornication, uncleanness, covetousness. And I had profanity and those other things. And then it mentioned fornication , uncleanness and covetousness again. It' s in verse four as well as, where is it? Five. ..no, three and five. Those are the two. And then in four you have the things that deal with speech: profanity and so on.
But ' fornication' is ' fornication with other gods.' And opposed to that is the truth. You have the truth. You could set up a chart. Put fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness across the top. Fornication with other gods. And underneath that you put truth. The opposite of fornication with other gods is truth, serving the one true God. And then instead of uncleanness, you have righteousness, where you stand in the presence of God without any sense... consciousness of sin, condemnation, or short comings. Where you stand in God' s presence clean, as opposed to those who serve other gods who stand in His presence unclean, who stand in His presence with a consciousness of sin, guilt, and short comings. Because their gods are short of what the true God is.
And goodness. Underneath that... covetousness ... underneath that, that's that covetous desire for other gods? As opposed to that in our helping others, we have goodness which helps to guard others from getting into that error of desire for more gods, to serve other gods. I thought that was kind of interesting, how the three paired up there.
So you have the fruit which is the result of the light in all the believers is that goodness which guards and the righteousness ... no sense of sin, condemnation, or guilt, and so on. And truth, the truth regarding the one true God.
That explains the ' walking as children of light' and the results of that walk. 'Now wouldn't you rather have that' is the essence of it, instead of the results of those who serve more than one god, which according to verse five, they have no what? [Inheritance] Inheritance. No rewards in the Kingdom of God. Now ours is... the ' fruit of light' is 'goodness, righteousness and truth.' But their fruit is ' no rewards,' ' no inheritance.' See it? How it's opposed?
Then you pick up in verse ten ' as you walk as children of light , you prove what is acceptable unto the lord.'
The word ' proving' again is the same word basically you have in Romans 12:2, proving what is good, well pleasing and perfect will of God is. One of the commentators gave it as: proving is to be taken with ' walk' of verse eight. We prove via our walk. Well, that' s because of the figure epitrechon. One of them suggested this word was 'proved as tested in battle.' And I thought of the contest, where you' re not just getting out there to try it out, but you' re proving that God works. You' re proving what is well pleasing to God by your walk, by serving the one true God.
And this word ' acceptable ' is not the word ' acceptable' that' s used in Ephesians 1:6, where is says ' He has made us accepted in the beloved.' But it' s the word in Greek, euareston, spelled e-u-a-r-e-s-t-o-n , euareston. And it' s the word used in II Corinthians 5:9, where it says, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing. If you remember it says accepted there, acceptable, I believe, in the King James. But it's the word for ' well pleasing' again. That' s what this word means. You break it down. The word eu , e-u , spelled e-u, means ' well.' And the rest of it areston means ' pleasing.' So it' s ' well pleasing' literally.
The word areston implies, that' s the latter part of the word, implies the establishment of a positive relationship between two factors. And therefore, it originally meant ' to make peace, or ' to reconcile.' Now isn' t that interesting? To make peace, or to reconcile, where you establish a positive relationship between two different factors, two different parties. But from that original, legal sphere, the term passed into the aesthetic in the sense of ' to please someone. ' So ' to please someone' meant to... originally it meant ' to reconcile them' or ' to make peace between them.' So if we' re at peace with God, we are well pleasing to Him. And you can' t be serving more gods than one and be well pleasing to Him. See it?
The Aramaic is given as either ' pleasing' or ' acceptable.' And of course here it would have to be ' pleasing,' not the idea of ' acceptable,' because God made us accepted according to Ephesians 1:6.
And then it says ' pleasing unto the Lord.' The Aramaic is ' before our Lord.' In the Greek, simply 'to the Lord. ' And that is the one, the one true God, not several. And as you renew your mind and walk in the renewed mind, you prove what is well pleasing to the one true God. You' re children of light in contrast to those who are serving more than one god. Isn't that interesting? How that whole thing follows through, here?
Now verse eleven. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
This word ' fellowship' in the Aramaic, it's a participle, yeah, it's a participle, meaning ' partaking.' But it has the word ' be' in front of it. ' Be not.' So it' s, ' and be not partaking.'
The Greek, I'll give you the Greek word, sunkoinoneite, spelled s-u-n-k-o-i-n-long-o-n-e-i-t-e. Now you recognize the word kiononia in it, and koinos. koine Greek, common Greek. And then sun, prefix to it, makes ' together.' So it' s ' together with.' So the idea of partaking or partners is already involved, and you can see that.
But this word kiononia denotes ' participation,' ' fellowship' especially with a close bond. It expresses a two-sided relationship . It' s used in Greek literature in law, a contract of partnership. And the related noun, koinos, k-o-i-n-o-s is used of things that are common, koine Greek, means common Greek. And it's used especially to express a legal relationship, common ownership. Again, a partnership. It' s used in that context. So it' s very similar to our legal idea of partnership today. And the Legal Department supplied us with a rather lengthy brief, I call it... on partnership. What it is legally. I'll read you just sections of it here:
A partnership is a voluntary association of two or more persons as co-owners for the purpose of carrying on a business for profit as co-owners. Partners, unless otherwise agreed, share equally in the profits or losses of the partnership. They have equal rights to management. Partners as opposed to stock holders, are individually liable to the full extent of their personal assets for the liabilities of the partnership after the partnership assets are gone.
For example: Suppose you have an XYZ partnership. Three people. X, Y and Z. Alright? X, while acting in the scope of his partnership injures somebody else. We will call him A.
Alright? So, A sues and wins a judgment for 40 million dollars against X. The partnership only has 1 million dollars in assets. And X and Y are otherwise insolvent. I guess that means broke. A may go after Z to the full extent of his personal assets to satisfy the judgment. Did you capture that? If X injures A, A can come back to either Y or Z, his partners, and collect from them because they are just as liable as X is, even though X was the one that hurt him because X, Y and Z have a partnership. You share fully in everything. The good and the bad. Understand?
That's this word ' partnership.' That's a legal term as it's used today. And the Greek term was very similar to it, like we saw from the definitions. And the key to partnership is ' voluntary association.' They may be started at any time and ended at any time. You can start a partnership today and dissolve it tomorrow, legally.
And, I thought that was interesting in light of having a partnership with people, not from a spiritual standpoint, but from your walk. In the ' walk' category. Renewed mind. It says we're not to have a partnership with the unfruitful works of darkness. If you did have, then you renewed your mind to what the Word says. You get out of that partnership. You change it. It's a voluntary association. You don't have to stay partners with the unfruitful works of darkness, which in this context is serving other gods. More gods than one. You don't have to continue your partnership with those who serve other gods than the one true God. That's the word ' partnership.'
Dr. Wierwille gave this in the last Ephesians teaching as 'partnership' as well.
Now, 'unfruitful works of darkness.' The Aramaic reads ' works of darkness, which fruits are not in them.' Works of darkness, which fruits are not in them. In other words, they have no fruits.
Whereas the Greek is simply ' the unfruitful works of darkness.' Reminds you of a previous discussion we had on the word ' fruit.' It' s not unfruitful in the sense that they don' t have any fruit, because they do have fruit, but it' s bad fruit. Okay? But it' s unfruitful in the sense here, that there's no rewards in the Kingdom, no inheritance, see? So it' s unfruitful in that it doesn't produce any inheritance. See it in the context here? But they do have fruit today: bad fruit.
This word ' fruit' is a figure, or ' unfruitful,' I'm sorry. Unfruitful. Catachresis, spelled c-a-t-a-c-h-r-e-s-i-s, where one word is replaced by another word which is contrary to ordinary usage, or is only remotely connected with it. In this case, the word ' unfruitful' is properly applied to a tree or a plant. Normally, you would use this word ' unfruitful' of a tree or a plant. But in this context, it is used to describe ' works,' works that are unfruitful. A more literal statement would probably be' unprofitable works,' rather than ' unfruitful.' But it uses this term ' unfruitful' as a figure catachresis, which would normally be used of a tree.
This phrase contrasts with the ' fruit of the light' in verse nine. Here it's the 'unfruitful works of darkness.' Another example of this figure would be from Deuteronomy 32:14, Thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. Have you ever seen a grape with blood in it? No. That' s a figure, catachresis. Here' s another one from Exodus 5:21: You have made our savor to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh. Now, do you smell with your eyes? To stink in the eyes of Pharaoh. The ' eyes' representing the ' nostrils.' Isn't that interesting? Catachresis.
Now the word ' works' is the figure, metonomy of effect, where a noun is replaced by a second noun which stands in some relation to the first noun. The effect of a man' s action , his works are used instead of the man himself. The man is... how does it say it here... you don' t have fellowship with the man' s works or partnership...you have partnership with the man, see? But his works are put for the man himself. That' s why it's a metonomy. You don' t have partnership with works. You have partnership with a person, normally, see. So the noun is replaced by a second noun which stands in some relation to the first. The effect of a man' s action, his works, are used instead of the man himself. The man is actually the one who should be reproved. You don't reprove his works, you reprove the what? [Man] The man, see. Instead of the abstract action, works.
Even though a great theme of Ephesians is that a man is saved without works. Remember we read it in the corresponding section in Ephesians two? Not of works lest any man should boast. Yet our rewards, our inheritance, which is also.. .if you remember the figure metonomy in 5:5, verse five... sets the context that a man' s works are the subject of the section. We' re talking about his works. Whether it' s serving more than one god or serving the one true God. If you' re serving more than one god, is there an inheritance for your works or a rewards for your works? No, see. It's unfruitful works. And the works here are put for the man himself, being the ' man' is to be reproved. The ' man' is unfruitful in what he does, because of his worship of other gods. No rewards. That' s why it' s unfruitful works.
Now, 'of darkness.' Simply, ' of darkness' in both Greek and Aramaic.
Now back to your chart I told you about a while ago. Fornication, uncleanness and covetousness, remember that? And underneath that you had truth, righteousness, and goodness. And underneath that you could write, ' no partnership with, unfruitful works, and works of the darkness.' Because you have fornication with other gods as opposed to the truth which is the one true God. And we' re to have no partnership with those who are fornicating with other gods.
Under ' uncleanness' they are... their nature is uncleanness. Our nature is what? [Righteousness] Righteousness. And so their nature, the nature of their works are unfruitful. They' re unfruitful works because there ' s no rewards for what they do. There' s no rewards for uncleanness serving other gods. There is a reward for serving the one true God.
And under ' covetousness,' the greedy desire for more gods than needed. In contrast you have the' goodness,' where you guard other people, serving the one true God. And under that, the works of the darkness. The works of the darkness. Serving the darkness which is more gods than you need.
I think it' s interesting how all these three' s keep coming up in here.
Now the rest of the verse, ' But rather reprove them.' One of the expositors gave this as ' to reprove: it means to show someone his sin and summon him to repentance.' It does mean only ' to rebuke, to blame, or expose,' but ' to set right, to point away from sin to repentance.' It implies ' educative discipline .'
And of course you know that ' reproof is not the word ' rebuke,' that's also used in the Scriptures. Rebuke would be to rebuke them. Reprove is when they are not believing rightly and then you have the correction that goes with it to get them back to believing rightly.
So when you' re talking about reproving, it' s more than just telling them they' re wrong, it's then to correct them, to bring them back, which sort ofreminds me of Galatians 6:1. What was it in... it says, 'If a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.' If somebody is overtaken in a fault, like serving other gods, you which are serving the one true God, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness but considering thyself lest you also be tempted to serve their gods.
Like Solomon was tempted by his wives to serve all those pagan gods. Like so many ofthe... when they married the Moabites, when the children of Israel married the Moabites, wasn' t it? They were drawn away to serve their gods. Remember all those different sections in the Old Testament where they were drawn away, instead of trying to help them, or reprove them, to bring them back to believing rightly, they were sucked in by it. And here, that' s the essence of this reproving. It says we're not to become partners with. Don' t have a partnership with the unfruitful works of darkness, or the works of darkness which are unfruitful. There' s no fruit in them. No rewards.
But rather, in contrast to that, instead of setting up a partnership with them, with their unfruitful works of darkness, what do you do? You reprove them, to try to get them to believe in the one true God.
Now look at verse 13. Skip 12. And change the word ' but' to ' and' in your mind. And all things that are what? [Reproved] Reproved. You see again, you have verse 13 following right upon 11. But rather reprove them and all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. And so again, John and I talked about this, that this verse 12 could be another epitrechon, which is a parenthetical addition not complete in itself, a brief explanatory remark. And in this particular use of that figure epitrechon, it would be emphasizing their unfruitfulness, because it says, For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
Some things are worth doing. Some things are worth talking about. And some things aren' t even worth mentioning. Here, you have one of those things that it is a good idea not to even mention. That is: the things that they do. It is a shame even to speak of the things which are done of them in secret.
Now let' s take a look at that particular verse. The Aramaic word is...for shame.. .is ndid, n-d-i-d. And it means ' abominable. ' And you know what happens when you put a bomb and a bull together. [Laughter] You' ve got a big mess, especially if the bomb goes off. Well, you know essentially what ' abominable ' means. That's tracing the root of the word back to its...no it's not. [Laughter] Just a side line.
The Greek Word is aischron, spelled a-i-s-c-h-r-o-n. And it can mean ' deformed,' ' indeco rous,'
' indecent,' ' dishono rable.' But what's interesting, is that it is related to the word for ' filthiness' back in verse four, which we rendered as ' profanity,' ' cursing.' Remember that, your literal of verse four? ' Nor use the name of God in vain.' That was the first phrase of the expanded. Nor use the name of God in vain. Profanity, cursing. So this could be, it' s a curse, it' s profane, or it' s profanity even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
And the word ' speak' is not laleo. If you've studied that article on the words. What' s that called? The article... "The Spoken Word." To speak, it is not laleo, which just means ' to move your lips, throat and tongue.' But it's !ego, and refers to the purport or sentiment of what is said, as well as the construction of the words. It refers especially to the substance of what is said, it was the word ' to collect and lay out together,' where you think a thing through logically. You get it thought through in your mind. You collect everything and then you lay it out. That' s the word ' speak.' To lay it out in that sense. And it dwells on the substance of what is said, rather than simply on speaking it. Okay?
Moving your lips.
So it' s, it' s indecorous, or deformed, or profanity, a curse, to really get into a hot discussion, so to speak, of those things which are done of them. That phrase 'to those things which are done of them' in the Aramaic is literally ' the thing they do,' singular, ' the thing they do.' And the Greek is 'the things being done by them.' The Greek puts it in a passive sense; the Aramaic in an active sense.
Well, what is the thing they do in secret? Worship of other gods, in their mysteries, their secrets, their mystery religion.
In the last teaching on Ephesians, Dr. Wierwille mentioned the mystery religion, religions of Bacchus were so prevalent and devilish that even the Roman Senate ordered their discontinuation in the city. This reference to mystery religion , devilishness, is throughout the verses in this context. And, you know, sometimes people may even order you not to speak about something. It' s like in, I was thinking in our household, our family. There are certain things that we do. And then there is other things that we just talk about. And there are certain things which it is forbidden to even speak about, ha ha. Not too many of those , but there are some things. And these mystery religions of Bacchus were ordered discontinued in the city by the Roman Senate.
But it's profanity, it's cursing, it' s swearing, it' s indecent, indecorous, abominable even to get into a discussion of the thing they do in secret in their mystery religions. And the trinity is a what? Mystery. The worship of their other gods is a mystery because nobody can explain it, see. See how it all ties in?
And this verse, if it's an epitrechon, is inserted, a brief explanation of how unfruitful their works really are. It' s so unfruitful that it's not even a good idea to discuss it. You know, when you're
advertising, you want the people to talk about your product, right? Because the best means of advertising is word of mouth. But these things are things that shouldn' t even be discussed.
Interesting.
I' m sure there' s a lot more than. .. there, than what I understand, but I, you know, it's just fabulous how all these things are tying together in the context of the one thing that God hated, was worshipping other gods. Really unfruitful works. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, for it is a shame even to speak, see. It' s profanity even to get into a discussion of those things, of the thing which they do in their mystery, in their secret.
Then you go back to verse 13, which ties into ' but rather reprove them' of verse 11. And all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. In this verse, which goes on to explain some things about reproving, there are three verbs used in the passive voice. The first one, the first verb which is ' reproved,' and the third one at the end of the verse, ' make manifest ' in the Greek are both participles. And the middle one, ' made manifest' is an indicative verb, but it's still passive. Passive voice. And in Aramaic, the same thing is true; they' re all passive voice.
Now, what' s passive voice? Well, active voice is where the subject does the action. ' I threw the ball.' But passive voice would switch around where the subject receives the action. ' I was thrown by the ball.' Got the picture? That' s passive voice, where the subject is acted upon.
So this first phrase should be ' all things which are reproved.' And the King James pretty much has that. All things that are reproved.
The second phrase, and the King James did pretty good here, ' are made manifest.' They don't make manifest, they are made manifest. See that?
And the third phrase, King James missed it, because it is translated in an active sense. ' For whatsoever doth make manifest,' he makes manifest, that' s active. It should be should be passive, ' whatsoever is made manifest is light,' which changes the whole sense of that last phrase.
Whatsoever is made manifest is light.
Now look at the verse again. All things that are reproved, the reproof has to go beyond just rebuking, but to the point of correcting. And whatever is reproved is made manifest, or brought to light, by the light. And whatsoever is made manifest, or brought to light, is itself what? [Light] Now that thing that has been reproved becomes light. Sheds a whole different light on that verse, doesn't it?
God is light. I John 1:5. Jesus Christ is light. John 8:12 and John 12:46. The Word is light according to John 1:4. And here it says, anything that is reproved is made manifest by the light.
I want you to look at John three, once. Have a very interesting scripture here. Well, verse16. John 3:16. For God so loved the world, He sent himself [No] No, He sent, He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His self, sent not his son, excuse me, in to the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is already condemned. So, if I believe on somebody else, or something else, or that he is something else, I got a little problem... because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten god [No] No, the only begotten son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world. And men loved darkness, serving other gods, rather than the light, the one true God. Because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hates the light, the one true God. Neither cometh to the light. He doesn' t even come to the light. Why? Lest his deeds should be what? [Reproved] Reproved. Lest his deeds should be reproved. He won't even come near the light, because if the light shines on him, it would expose him. He would be reproved. So he stays away from what? [Light] Those serving other gods stay away from the what? Light. In the context of believing that Jesus is the son of God, see. For everyone... verse 21, but he that doeth truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. People that hate the light won' t come near the light. People that love the light, that do the truth, are going to come to the light.
Let's suppose somebody is walking error, but he has a heart' s desire to know the truth. Where is he going to come? To the light, to be reproved, to be made manifest. See it? Now back to Ephesians.
All things that are reproved, they have to come to the light in order to be what [Reproved] Reproved. You have the light in you... God in Christ in you... right? You are the light of the world today because you have that light in you. So if people come to you, what do you do? Become partnership with their error? [No] With their unfruitful works? Their works of darkness? No. What do you do? You reprove them and all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. Just like we read in John, chapter three. And whatsoever is made manifest, in turn it becomes what? [Light] Light. See, back up in verse eight, it says, 'we are light in the Lord.' Today we are the light. Why? Because we have the light in us.
In Philippians 2:15 and 16, it says, You shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation holding forth the word of life. As we hold forth the word of life, we shine as lights in this world. And somebody comes who serves more than the one true God, we hold forth the light of the Word and
he' s reproved, and then he' s made manifest. And when he' s made manifest, he becomes a what? [Light] Light. See it? Serving the one true God. You could also add Matthew 5:14, and16, where Jesus said, you are the lights of the world, to that.
The Expositor' s Greek Testament rendered this verse as follows.. .this is not one of those that was on your list of seven that you were given today. .. All these shameful things which are done by
them. ..now this is the way they... it' s sort of an expanded of this verse: All these shameful things which are done by them in secret, when they are subjected to the open rebuke which Christians ought to give them and are laid bare by the light of the Christian truth acting in their reproof, so that the doers of them are made to see them in the odiousness of their real nature for everything that is disclosed in its real colors ceases to be secret and becomes of the nature of light. I thought that was real interesting.
Lamsa says: And anything that is made manifest is light. Just like I said it should be translated.
The Revised Version also says: For everything that is made manifest is light.
The New English says: But everything when once the light has shone it up, is illumined and everything thus illumined is all light.
I thought all those were good.
The moon by itself is dark. But when the sun shines on it, it is all lighted up. And in turn, is a light to the world at night. Interesting illustration.
When God shines in our hearts and lives we become light in order to enlighten a dark world, a crooked and perverse nation.
In addition to that, along this line of this verse, I want to give you the literal, the way the Aramaic reads here: And everything is being reproved by the light and is being revealed and everything that is revealed is light. I'll give it to you once again. For everything is being reproved by the light and is being revealed and everything that is revealed is light.
One other thing I want to give you on this verse is a figure of speech. And that is that last phrase,
' whatsoever is made manifest is light.' And it's the figure horismos, spelled h-o-r-i-s-m-o-s, which means ' defining.' Defining. Not divining, defining. Like you define a word. This clause succinctly defines the meaning of ' light' for this entire section.
I thought of another good example of ' reproof is ' confronting. ' We' ve used that term quite a bit. When you reprove someone, you confront them with the Word. They believe in other gods, confront them with the truth, one God. See.
Now back on your chart. You had the fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness. And underneath that you had truth, righteousness, and goodness. And then you had underneath that no partnership, unfruitful works, and works of darkness. Then underneath that put reprove, reveal, and light.
' Fornication' is ' serving other gods.' The truth is serving the one true God. We' re to have no partnership with the other gods, but rather... or with those that serve the other gods... but we're to do what? Reprove them. To get them to serve the one true God. They are unclean. Their uncleanness with other gods. We are righteousness. No sense of guilt, consciousness of guilt, and all that stuff, sin, shortcomings.
Their works are unfruitful. There' s no rewards for what they do. And in addition to reproving, when you reprove, you reveal, bring to light their real nature. You reveal it. Or bring it to light. Make it manifest.
And then ' covetousness.' The desire for more gods than is needed as opposed to goodness, guarding others, as they serve the one true God. They are of the darkness, but when they're reproved and they' re revealed , and that which is revealed then becomes what? [Light] Light, as opposed to darkness. See.
So what do you do when somebody serves other gods, including a three-in-one, which is not the one true God? Serving more gods than are needed. What do you do? Become a partner with them? [No] No. If you've been a partner with them , what do you do? Break your partnership; it' s a voluntary partnership. You break that partnership. If somebody else has a partnership with them, reprove them. Make it manifest, by the light, if they want to believe. And if they don' t want to believe, then you just kick the dust off your feet and move on. They don' t want to hear the Word. They don' t want to see the light. They don' t want to come to the light lest they be reproved. So you just walk on.
But if somebody does want to hear, how are they going to hear unless you, as a light of the world in the midst of a dark or crooked and perverse nation, hold forth that light, as it says in Philippians.
Holding forth the Word of life. Because we are the lights in the world. Isn' t that something?
So you walk as children of light, proving what is acceptable, have no partnership with the unfruitful works of darkness, but you reprove them. And whatever is reproved by the light becomes light. Made manifest by the light. Becomes light.
Now that' s essentially the second part of this section of Ephesians that has to do with our walk. And it' s walking with the one true God. And I thought, too, you know, walking in love. How can you walk in love and serve more than one God? How can you walk in love in a husband and wife situation and love more than one wife? Ever think about that one? Three wives. Could you have three wives and really love them? No. Or three husbands, put it on the other side and really love them? No. See, you can't have three gods either and really love. Nor can you expect somebody to believe that hogwash and really be loving them. Your saying that they' re nuts, that they can' t understand anything. See the logic of the world as opposed to the logic of the light of the Word and God?
Well, I think it' s a great section. And this opened up my eyes last week to this whole thing, and I just continue to work it and see how our walk, because of what God made us in Christ Jesus. Now we walk in that. We're His masterpiece, but we walk alignment and harmony with it. Walk in love and walk as children of light serving the one true God.
Fornication | Uncleanness | Covetousness |
Truth | Righteousness | Goodness |
No partnership with | Unfruitful works | Works of the darkness |
Reprove | Reveal | Light |