Ephesians 5:8-11
8for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9(for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;”
Trying to learn what is pleasing to The Lord. This is what all religions seek to do. Most are very different. Islam has an image of a harsh God, so the daily practices are many and there is very little joy. Naturalistic beliefs which are usually found on the islands involve many superstitions. For example, if you cross a stream, one must appease the god by particular actions. There are many of these beliefs. This creates all sorts of anxiety and paranoia in the believers.
Christianity also spells out what is pleasing to The Lord. There are the general Ten Commandments and Jesus simplified them by saying that they can be summed up by loving God and loving others. However, today’s passage seems to have some subjectivity to it. Not that God has different standards for everyone. It’s more that we are all at different places and God works with us as individuals. He guides us daily and has a lesson plan for each of us. We figure it out as we go.
I have to pause for a second and marvel at how much God loves us. The fact that He wants to give us individual attention staggers the mind. It’s not disapproving attention. When I walk across campus, I see groups of students energetically talking to eachother. I’ll see freshmen boys being silly and tossing carrots at friends. This makes me smile. We make God smile much more. Thank You, Lord.
How do we find out “what is pleasing to The Lord”? Today’s passage give us a hint. We are to walk in the Light. It says that it consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. Goodness refers to character, righteousness refers to right relationships and truth deals with honesty. This is enough to fill one’s life. Then it says, “not to participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness”. There are some things that we know we shouldn’t do. Ask God for help. He will give you a distaste for it, so we will want to stop. This is all true, but still very general.
God wants to work with us individually. It’s important to be in the bible, as that’s where we learn His ways. A bible teaching church gives us further awareness. As we live our days, He will bring these things to mind. For example, we all have to interact with difficult people. God will aide us. One such person comes to mind. We rubbed eachother wrong. I would have to back off. My tendency is to confront too when my toes are stepped on. God’s wisdom of being patient and giving the relationship some space would come to mind. I also think of the passage, “love covers a multitude of sins”, (1 Peter 4:8). At times, I will speak to the individual. This is also biblical. But it needs to be done in a biblical manner (with gentleness and humility). The relationship was never enjoyable. But we did learn to do what was required of us in a tolerable manner. While the potential for drama was always at hand, we always were able to work it out without management stepping in.
This was just one example. God wants to help us with all sorts of things. This shouldn’t make us feel guilty or overly controlled. That’s not His style. As we learn from Him, we will learn to welcome His input. I wasn’t raised in a home which demonstrated how to nurture healthy relationships. However, I’m learning those things through my friends (who were raised as such) and God’s nudgings. This is all part of “learning what is pleasing to The Lord”.
Thank You, God, that You care for us. Thank You that You invest so much in us. Help us to yield to You.