Part 5 — Christianity With Its Shoes On
Copy your Father, as dear children
Chapter five of Ephesians opens with a command that sounds impossible until you notice who it is spoken to. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour [Ephesians 5:1-2 KJV].
As dear children. That is the key. Children copy their fathers — not to become sons, but because they already are. You are not imitating God to earn a place in the family. You are imitating Him because you are in it. And the pattern of love is set at the cross. Not love as a feeling, not love as a word in a card, but love that gave himself. If it costs you nothing, Ephesians 5 would not call it love.
You were darkness. Now you are light.
Then comes one of the plainest identity statements in the Bible: For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light [Ephesians 5:8 KJV]. Notice the wording. It does not say you were in darkness and are now in the light — though that is true. It says you were darkness and now are light. That is not a change of location. It is a change of nature.
And because of what you now are, there is a plain instruction: have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness [Ephesians 5:11 KJV]. That verse quietly asks about your evenings — what you watch, what you scroll, what you laugh along with, and what you keep quiet about to stay comfortable in a room. It reaches your mouth as well as your screen. Earlier in the same chapter Paul puts it plainly: Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks [Ephesians 5:4 KJV]. Nobody polices that for you. Light does not argue with darkness. It simply shows up and changes the room.
Walk carefully, buy back your time, and be filled
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil [Ephesians 5:15-16 KJV]. Circumspectly means looking around you — walking carefully, alert to what is going on, like someone crossing a busy road rather than wandering along with their head down. And redeeming the time is a market word. It means buying it back. Time slips away by default; it has to be reclaimed on purpose. Nobody drifts into a strong prayer life or an open Bible. Those hours are bought — usually from something else that was pleasant and pointless. So the wise believer asks a simple question about the week ahead: "what am I buying my time back from?"
Paul adds, Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is [Ephesians 5:17 KJV]. God's will is not hidden in a fog for the specially gifted. Most of it is written plainly in the letter you are reading. Then comes the contrast: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [Ephesians 5:18-20 KJV].
One thing takes you over and leaves you emptier; the other fills you and leaves you singing. And look at the evidence of a Spirit-filled believer as Paul lists it. Not spectacle. Not noise. Singing, melody in the heart, and thanksgiving. A grateful believer with a song going on inside them, even on a wet Wednesday in February — that is what being filled looks like day to day. Thanks always, for all things. Not thanks that everything is good, but thanks to a God who is good in everything.
The home, where it all gets tested
Then Paul takes the whole letter and walks it straight through your front door. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God [Ephesians 5:21 KJV]. That verse governs everything that follows. Before husbands and wives are addressed separately, both are told to put the other first. Then comes the command that costs the most: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it [Ephesians 5:25 KJV].
The standard is not "as much as she deserves" or "as much as you feel." It is the self-giving of Christ for the church — sacrificial, protective, faithful and costly. Any man who uses this passage to demand anything for himself has read it upside down. It is the heaviest command in the chapter, and it is aimed squarely at husbands. And the chapter closes plainly: Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband [Ephesians 5:33 KJV]. Here is the point of it all. If the teaching does not change the atmosphere of your home, it has not landed yet. The house is where Christianity gets its shoes on.
So ask the honest questions. Is the light on in my evenings, or only on a Sunday? Is my time being spent or bought back? Is there a song in me, or just noise? Is my house easier or harder to live in because I am a Christian? And if you are married, measure your love against verse 25, not against your spouse's performance — that is the only measure the chapter allows. None of this earns anything. It is simply what a child of light looks like when nobody is filming.
Ephesians 5 in plain words: copy your Father like a dear child, and walk in the kind of love that gives itself away. You were darkness and now you are light — so live like it, and keep no company with the works of darkness. Walk carefully and buy back your time, because the days are evil. Be filled with the Spirit, with singing and thanksgiving. And take all of it home — into marriage, into the family, into the way you treat the people who see you at your worst.
Ephesians 5 in a sentence: You are light now — so live like it at home, where nobody is watching but God…
Key Takeaways:
- We copy our Father as dear children, not to become children — [Ephesians 5:1 KJV]
- The measure of love is the self-giving of Christ, not our feelings — [Ephesians 5:2 KJV]
- A child of light trades foolish talking for thanksgiving — [Ephesians 5:4 KJV]
- You were darkness; now you are light — a change of nature, not location — [Ephesians 5:8 KJV]
- Believers keep no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness — [Ephesians 5:11 KJV]
- Time is bought back on purpose; it is never left over by accident — [Ephesians 5:15-16 KJV]
- Being filled with the Spirit shows up as singing and thanksgiving — [Ephesians 5:18-20 KJV]
- Husbands are held to the costliest standard in the chapter — [Ephesians 5:25 KJV]
Where to go from here:
Read Ephesians 5 through in one sitting this weekend, slowly, and ask where it touches your evenings, your words, your diary and your home. Then take the step before the week is out: one hour, bought back on purpose.
📽️ Watch this teaching 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDUe1E_AOjw&list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH4XQMBbu36aO6pHQ_T4ACae&index=1
🧭 Start Here — Who We Are in Christ! — the teachings to read first 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/start-here/
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➡️ Next — The Christian Compass, this Sunday 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/tag/the-christian-compass/
That is where we begin: who we are in Christ, taken in order. Then, Monday to Thursday, we take one truth and look at it from four sides. Fridays, we work through a series — at present Ephesians: The Letter Written to You. One email on Sunday closes the week and opens the next.
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