In 2012, D.A. Carson published his book, The Intolerance of Tolerance. Around the time his book released, he spoke on the subject at a conference I attended; I remember thinking that his book was timely and potentially prophetic, but none of us could have fully appreciated the gravity of what was coming. The following quote from Carson’s book illustrates exactly what I mean:
Neither the old tolerance nor the new is an intellectual position; rather, each is a social response. The old tolerance is the willingness to put up with, allow, or endure people and ideas with whom we disagree; in its purest form, the new tolerance is the social commitment to treat all ideas and people as equally right, save for those people who disagree with this view of tolerance. Advocates of the new tolerance sacrifice wisdom and principle in support of just one supreme good: upholding their view of tolerance. So those who uphold and practice the older tolerance, enmeshed as they inevitably are in some value system, are written off as intolerant. Thus banished, they no longer deserve a place at the table.[1]
I would suggest that the “older” tolerance allowed space to disagree charitably with those who did not share your point of view. Not only are those of the “older tolerance” banished from a place at the “table.” Today, we find ourselves in a very interesting state of affairs in that if your ideology does not line up with that of the loudest and most vocal of ideological voices regarding sex, identity, what it means to be human, and what must be tolerated, you will be diagnosed with a certain phobia and placed into the category of “mental illness.”
So, before we get into Ephesians this morning, I thought it would be fun it first define the word Phobia and then consider some phobias that do actually exist to better appreciate Ephesians 5:11-14.
So, what is a phobia? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), a phobia is a “intense, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger.” Furthermore, NIH affirms that, “Although adults with phobias may realize that these fears are irrational, even thinking about facing the feared object or situation brings on severe anxiety symptoms.” According to Wikipedia, a phobia is, “an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation.” The definition that Merriam-Webster still provides for “phobia” is, “an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.”
So, permit me to list a few common phobias and then share with you some other phobias that are not as common.
- Acrophobia: An intense fear of heights.
- Claustrophobia: An intense fear of confined spaces.
- Arachnophobia: An intense fear of spiders.
- Entomophobia: An intense fear of insects.
Here is a list of phobias that you may not have heard of before:
- Arachibutyrophobia: An intense fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.
- Nomophobia: An intense fear of being without your mobile phone.
- Plutophobia: An intense fear of money.
- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (a 36-letter word): An intense fear of long words.
Taking a stance against something is not necessarily due to a phobia but possibly a moral conviction. A legitimate question that must be answered is from what standard does your moral conviction come? Does it come from culture, or does it come from something that transcends culture? For the Christian, our moral standard is not culture but the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. Here is how the apostle Paul explained what standard we use to judge what is good or evil, it is Ephesians 2:19-22, “So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
Jesus, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords and serves as the cornerstone of His Church, gave those who make up His Church this command, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20). The prophets and the apostles are the foundation of Jesus’ Church, and it is the prophets and the apostles whose teachings make up the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible is, “...inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we are going follow Jesus and live as though the Bible is the Word of God, we will be labeled by those still in darkness as “phobic” and “intolerant.”
As a people who, “were once darkness, but now... light in the Lord” we live for what God loves and we stand against what God hates. Listen, if we are going to try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (v. 10), we will be compelled to live counter-cultural in a world that calls evil good, and good evil. As “children of light” we belong to the God who condemns any culture that calls evil good, and good evil: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isa. 5:20)!
We Expose the Darkness by Not Participating in It
Now we come to Ephesians 5:11 where we are commanded to avoid all participation “in the useless deeds of darkness.” What does that mean? The NIV translates verse 11 this way: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” The NKJV gets closer to the heart of what Paul is communicating: “And have no fellowshipwith the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” The word used for “participate” (synkoinōneō) does not mean “fellowship” in the Greek, but it does mean “share.” It is a Greek word that is also used in Philippians 4:14, “Nevertheless, you have done well to share [synkoinōneō] with me in my difficulty.” To share in something is to have fellowship with it.
What are the useless deeds of darkness? Well, they include but are not limited to sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, foolish talk, and vulgar joking. The useless deeds of darkness is what we were once slaves to before we were made alive with Christ when we, “lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3). The useless deeds of darkness is what the apostle John described in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
You may recall how the holiness of God is used to the third degree unlike any other attribute of God mentioned in the Bible. Day and night the seraphim do not cease to call out to one another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come” (Rev. 4:8). I pointed out how this is a literary devise used in the ancient languages to emphasis a very important point. There is another literary devise I told you about when we began this series in Ephesians, which comes in the form of repeated words or phrases; one such phrase that is repeated over and over again in Ephesians are the phrases “in Christ”, “in the Lord”, “in Christ Jesus”, and “in Him”; collectively they are used about 33 times.
If you are a Christian, your identity and life is in Christ. Paul’s description of the Christian as being “in Christ” is a phrase that is equivalent to “remaining” in Jesus; here is what Jesus said about remaining in Him: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me” (John 15:1-4). Sinclair Ferguson said this about what it means to be “in the Lord”:
To be in the Lord is to belong to a new world, to inhabit a new kingdom in which we become new men and women. In this new kingdom, new powers are at work in us – the powers of the Spirit of the crucified, risen, ascended, reigning and returning Christ. Once we were in the darkness. Worse, the darkness was in us – we were darkness. Now we have been drawn into the light, illuminated by Christ the Light of the world. More, we have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light. In the Lord we are light![2]
So, if we are now “children of light” because of our redemption and union with Jesus, why in the world would we want to have fellowship with or share in the useless deeds of darkness?
Not only are we not to participate in the “useless deeds of darkness” but we are to “expose them.” What does Paul mean that we are to “expose” the useless deeds of darkness? Well, it is clear Paul is not telling us to avoid the world, for that would go against the way he lived his life and much of what is written in the both the Old Testament and New Testament. The design and plan for God’s people was always to be on mission by entering into the darkness as His instrument to light up the darkness. Israel was saved from Egypt to be God’s kingdom of priests to be His light in a dark world: “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:5-6).
Israel’s great failure was that they repeatedly and continually and habitually as a nation, “participated in the fruitless deeds of darkness” when by their mere existence should have exposed the emptiness and uselessness of sin. Israel’s problem was a heart problem only Jesus is able to fix. Jesus is God’s “Yes” to the promise of Deuteronomy 30:6, “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live.” Jesus is God’s answer to Ezekiel 36:26, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” You, Christian, are the recipient of such promises through and in Jesus, so why would you even want to have fellowship, share, and remain in the fruitless deeds of darkness that rob you of the kind of life you were designed to have in God? Not only are the “deeds of darkness” fruitless, but the wrath of a holy God is set against such deeds! This is why Paul wrote concerning those who continue to practice sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (5:3), “for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret” (v. 12).
Our Life in Christ Exposes the Uselessness of the Deeds of Darkness
The only hope for lost humanity is Jesus! He is the only solution for our sin problem. Only through the life of Jesus and the death that He died for sinners can the spiritually dead be raised to new life. Sinclair Ferguson is spot on in his description of what happened when the Christian was saved from the wrath of God: “We have been invaded and transformed by Christ the Light.” Now as those who are alive with Christ, we carry the light of Jesus into the darkness of the world, this is why Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.... Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14, 16). So what happens when light invades a dark room? It exposes what is in the room.
One of two things will happen when light exposes what is in the darkness, it will anger those who love the darkness, or it will reveal a better way to those tired and wearied by the darkness. To expose the darkness in the context of Ephesians is to contrast the living against the dead. It is not picket signs on the corner, bumper stickers, or hats that protest the darkness. It is what happens when light pierces the darkness of sin’s domain. The light of Christ displayed in and through His people reveals to those in the darkness that there is a better way because Jesus is the only way to experience the kind of redemption of our souls and the forgiveness of all our sins that will grant us true salvation and freedom (1:7). Many will reject Christ as the only remedy for our salvation as intolerant and they will run to the darkness, but there will be some whose sin will be exposed by the light of Christ, and they will run to Him for the life only He can give. This is the point Paul makes in verse 13, “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” I think the New Living Translation translates this verse in less confusing way: “But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible.”
Legislation and laws are good only in that it helps to suppress the evil we humans are capable of, but it can never fix the evil we are capable of. If you are darkness, you will yield the “useless” fruits of darkness to one degree or another. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can remedy the dark heart of humanity! The gospel of Jesus Christ alone, “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Christian, you are living proof that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is still possible today! You serve as a reminder everywhere you go that either the wrath of God can be avoided through Jesus, or the wrath of God is coming upon those who reject Him (see 2 Cor. 2:14-16).
We who were asleep and dead in our sins, are only alive because the light of Christ has shown upon us. It is here in verse 14 that Paul quotes what was most likely an early church hymn composed on the basis of Isaiah 60:1-2 and Christ as the fulfillment of its promise:
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”
Here is what Isaiah 60:1-2 promises: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. ‘For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.’” Here is another one for those who reject Jesus as God! Only Yahweh has the power to redeem and raise the dead, yet Jesus has done in your life what only God is capable of doing. We who were once dead, heard the voice of Christ, and we arose to follow Him and now we live! We who once enjoyed the darkness, delight in walking in light as those who now belong to the One who said, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12). Pursing Jesus is the only way to fight against our own sin and the temptation to participate in the useless deeds of darkness.
Amen.
