Children of the Light (ii)

Secondly, Paul tells us that if we live in the day, we behave differently. Christianity isn’t just doing things differently, but it’s not less than that. John MacArthur says that being a Christian involves a radical moral change. We behave differently. Look at verses 6-8 with me.

What’s Paul saying? Don’t sleep, watch. Don’t doze off at your post, like the disciples in Gethsemene, but watch. Look out for the dawn, look out for the second coming. Don’t be caught off guard, don’t sleep, watch. Don’t be lulled away by the devil’s lullaby that the world sings. Stay awake! And be sober. Is your life sober? Not just in terms of alcohol, but in terms of it’s direction?

Verse 7 tells us that it’s people who live in darkness who sleep and get drunk, but we watch, and we’re sober. The core of our life’s behavior is watchful and sober. We’re watchful over our spending, because God gives us money so that we can show that we love God more than money. We’re watchful over how we spend our time, because life is short and eternity is long. We’re watchful over our viewing habits, because the devil can use anything to inflame our lusts. We’re watchful over our kids, because God didn’t give teenagers common sense, He gave them parents.

A sober person is self controlled, balanced, calm and steady. They have the right priorities.

But we’re not alone in this fight for spiritual sobriety. We’re armed, we’ve been given protection. Look at verse 8 with me. We have a breastplate and a helmet. We have faith, love and hope. The breastplate goes over our hearts. What’s in the heart of our new behavior? Faith and love. Faith in God, and love to man. Faith that no matter what happens, God is good, and God is in control. We didn’t use to behave like that when we were in the dark, we used to behave like we were God, like we were in control, like we were all that mattered, but now, our hearts have faith in God. And our hearts have love to man. Jesus told us that people would know we love Him because we love each other.  This is daytime behavior, loving people. In the darkness we love people because of what they can do for us. We love people who we think are worth loving. But in the light, we serve all, we love all, we help all.

And we have a helmet to guard our heads, to guard our thoughts. It’s a helmet of hope. This helmet gives us hope when everyone around us is losing theirs. It means we know how the world will turn out, we know how the story ends.

Is your behavior watchful and sober? Are your hearts filled with love and faith? Your mind with hope? Do you have a new nature, a new behavior.

If you can answer those questions yes, then verses 9-11 tells us that we have a different destiny.