“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of
these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do
not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are
Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light
consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is
pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:6–10, NASB95)
As I read these verses I thought of Psalm 1 where we read in
verse 1 of this progression from walking amongst those who scoff, put down,
minimize, and reject the word of God for their own beliefs and desires. From
there the psalm progresses to demonstrate how after walking along their path,
the person then stands and contemplates what he had just seen and heard. He
starts to play with it in his mind and justify it in some way as being enticingly
valid. The next thing we read is that he is sitting right among them engaged in
those same activities. This person has been deceived by their empty words,
turning away from the full and right Word of God. Having been saved from sin,
the person returns to sin. Having been freed from the judgment of God because
of sin, this person returns to the activities from which he was saved. Surely
they will be judged for those actions and their unrepentance, and we are not to
follow in their path, listen to their counsel, nor participate in their
actions. This is not who we are.
Psalm 1 continues to say in verse 2 that this man who is
blessed is the one who delights in the law of the Lord and who meditates on it
day and night. This is what Paul tells us here in these verses. Don’t be deceived
by the ways of sin. Hide God’s Word in your heart, and walk according to who we
truly are—people who have come to know the Light of the World—Jesus Christ. It
is according to His ways that we are to walk, and accordingly not to
participate in the things we once did in darkness. Instead, we are to do that
which consists of goodness, righteousness and truth as we seek to please our
Lord.
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of
the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But
his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly
planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf
does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but
they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not
stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but
the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1:1–6, NASB95)
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