Have you ever watched the Westminster dog show? You see the best of every breed. Each dog and their owner are impeccably dressed. Each dog is groomed to perfection and trotted before the judges and the crowd in an attempt to show off their unique canine beauty. I can not imagine the hours of training it took to stand confidently with chins lifted high, their shiny coats carefully brushed and styled.

I wonder what the dog is really like when nobody is watching. Has it ever chewed the owner’s favorite pair of shoes? Is it ever free to run free? Are they ever mistaken for a mutt?

Which begs a more important question, what are you really like when nobody’s watching?

How much time did you spend this morning in front of the mirror? Let’s be honest no one here this morning just rolled out of bed threw on some clothes and came to church. There might be some people, and you know who you are, who are thinking that some people did just that and so what if they did.

It is right about now that my grandmother is rolling over in the grave and I am sure a number of you know exactly why. Like my grandmother you were taught and raised that when you go to church you were to wear your very best clothing. People, myself included, actually had Sunday clothing, clothing you only wore on Sunday or special occasions.

The reason for this, as it was expressed to me, is that if you were going to the White House to meet the president you would certainly dress your very best so when you go to God’s house does he deserve anything less?

You have to admit the person makes a point. AND so does Jesus when talking to the crowds about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees he said, “Do not do what they do… everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and their tassels on their garments long.” (NOTE: A phylactery was a leather box containing scripture verses that religious people wore on their foreheads and arms.) The phylacteries had become more important to the status they gave than for the truth they contained. Jesus rebuked those who were interested in how they looked in public rather than how they were seen by God. He wanted them as he wants us to be obedient, faithful, and committed to Him—even when nobody else sees.

I started all this by asking you how much time did you spend in front of the mirror examining how you looked. Need I remind you of our reading from 1 Samuel 16:7 God said to Samuel, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Since it is the heart that Jesus looks at how much time did you spend this morning examining your heart? To make sure it was primed and ready to surrender to God this morning in worship.

In today’s passage, Paul is telling us that it is more important to live for God’s approval than it is to live for man’s applause. Live as children of light” (5:8).

Is this difficult? Yes. But it is worth it.

What does it mean to

“live as children of light.”

To live as children of the light Paul said

“put away falsehood” ... give up stealing … strip away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice” … turn away from fornication and greed, as well as “obscene, silly, and vulgar talk”
(4:25—5:4).

Think about it. Vulgar words may be spoken by the mouth BUT they come from the heart. Envy may be seen in our actions BUT the attitude comes from the heart.

Think about your life. What actions and attitudes in your life tend to block God’s light? What can you do to strip away impurities so you can live as children of the light reflecting the light of Christ?
• Put away falsehood, and start to be honest with yourself and others about who you really are.
• Strip away all bitterness and wrath by reaching out to a relative who you’ve been feuding with for years.
• Turn away from fornication and greed, as well as obscene and vulgar talk — behavior that might have its momentary pleasure, but always leaves you feeling dark and dirty in the long run.

“Live as children of light,” says Paul, “for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”
(vv. 8-9)

The challenge Paul lays before us is to “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord” (v. 10). The Greek word for “try to find out” also means “discern” or “test.” It is an active verb, one which challenges us to put effort into trying to learn what is the best Christian behavior in the face of challenging real-life circumstances.

Learning to do the will of the Lord is not something that is theoretical. It’s something that is practical.

Think of it this way. You are practicing playing an instrument. When you are learning a song to play on the piano or the guitar, the point is not simply to know what the notes are that are written on the page, but to get to the point where you can play exactly the notes that are written on the page without having to look at the page, and to do it with interpretation and passion and intensity, and in beauty. The point is not merely to rote memorize what the notes are on the page, but to be able to play the song so that it becomes a part of you.

Well, it’s the same thing in trying to learn and do what is pleasing to the Lord. It’s not just that we know that in one particular Bible passage it says to do this, and another says to not do that; it’s that the reality of what God wants us to do is ingrained in our experience so that it becomes a part of us, and we learn to do what is pleasing to the Lord by doing what is pleasing to the Lord.

In rehearsing a piano song or a guitar song, when you get it the first time you’re not done rehearsing. After you’ve done it the 20th time you’re not done rehearsing. After you’ve done it the 100th time you’re not done rehearsing. You’re working until it’s ingrained in you and it becomes a part of you. And this is what the apostle Paul is talking about: Children of light practice the Father’s pleasure in such a way that it becomes a part of us.
—Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III. “The new walk (3): Children of light.” July 9, 2006

“Live as children of light,” says Paul, “for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true”

So try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. You have nothing to lose but darkness, roughness and impurity. As you cut away what Paul calls

“the unfruitful works of darkness”
(v. 11),

You’ll find yourself getting ever clearer about what a Christian life looks like.