“Separation from the World”
Walking in the Light Pt. 2  Eph.5:6-11a    9-26-2004

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them. 
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live (lit. walk) as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: 
"Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." 

Introduction
Starting in 4:17 Paul began exhorting us not to live like the Gentiles. And his main argument has been, “Don’t live like them, because you’re not one of them anymore.” The sins of their lifestyle are all aspects of the old you that you have been rescued from. So now that you are rescued, why go back to that horrible condition you so desperately wanted to be freed from? Imagine that an unbeliever is like a willow tree, and a believer is like an oak tree. When you became a Christian God miraculously transformed you from being a willow to being an oak. You now have an oak trunk, and oak sap, and oak everything, except remaining on the branches are some leftover willow leaves.  What Paul is saying is, “Strip off those lingering willow leaves and allow the budding oak leaves to replace them.” Don’t keep standing there looking like a willow. Become the full-blown oak that you are. That’s been the message so far – don’t be like them.  For 20+ verses he’s been telling us not to be like unbelievers. 
Now he moves on to address the question of exactly what kind of relationship we are to have with unbelievers. We understand now that we are not to be like them. But exactly how should we relate to them? What kind of relationships should we have with people in the world? How are we to interact with them? What does it mean, exactly, to be in the world but not of the world as Jesus talked about in John 17:14-16? We know we are not to intermarry with them (1 Co.7:39). But is it OK for a Christian to date a non-Christian? Or to be best friends with someone in the world?  In 99% of jobs you can’t really avoid working with them, but are there some kinds of business relationships or associations with them that should be avoided? And when we are with them, what should we do about the day and night difference between us and them? Is it best not to talk about it, and just let them observe it for themselves? Should we point out their sin?Or should we make them as comfortable as possible so we can befriend them in the hopes that they will trust us more when we eventually share the Gospel with them? Up to now Paul has made it clear that we are not to live like those who are in the darkness, but what exactly should be our relationship in interacting with those in darkness? That’s what Paul turns his attention to starting in v.7. There are two key words sum up what our relationship to them is to be: separation and exposure. If you can remember those two words, you will know the basic thrust of how we are to relate to unbelievers. This morning we will study the first one in vv.7-11.

Separation (vv.7-11a)
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the main point of vv.7-11a is. There are three imperatives in the Greek:

7 do not be partners with them. 
8 you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as sons of light 
11 Have nothing to do (lit. Do not fellowship together) with the fruitless works of darkness 

All three of those commands are calling us to a life of separation from the world. This has always been God’s concern for His people – that they be holy and set apart from the world, and separate.  That’s why He gave Israel all the holiness codes in the OT – like the dietary laws and rules about clothes. He wanted them to dress differently, eat differently, talk differently, buy and sell differently, govern differently. And all those things served as illustrations of what it means to be set apart from the world. Because I know someone is thinking, “Wait a minute, isn’t that a contradiction with 1 Cor.5?

spiritual separation

1 Cor.5 says we can’t separate from the world.

1 Cor 5:9-11
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people- 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 

In 1 Cor.5 he says, “When I tell you not to associate with sinners, I’m not talking about unbelievers – that would be impossible. You would have to leave the world.” But here in Ephesians he’s telling us to be separate from those who are going to suffer the wrath of God in hell. So which is it? Are we to separate from the world or not? We can get a clue about how to answer that question at the end of v.11. 

11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 

In 1 Cor.5 Paul is talking about church discipline. And, as you know, the last step in church discipline is to put the unrepentant sinner out of the church and have nothing to do with him at all. Look at the last line of v.11 - With such a man do not even eat.
	It’s talking about physical separation from him as a person. And obviously you can’t do that with the world. Unless you become a monk and go to a monastery, you can’t be physically separated from the world. But when God calls us to be separate from the world, He’s calling us not to separate physically or geographically, but spiritually.

Isa 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure

The issue isn’t social isolation – it’s purity. He’s talking about spiritual separation from evil. This is what the monks and the Essenes didn’t understand. God doesn’t want us to leave the world and lock ourselves into a monastery where we have no contact with the world. “In the world and not of the world” means being in physical proximity but not spiritual proximity. When God called Israel out to be separate from the Gentiles, He didn’t mean they were to have to interaction with the Gentiles. Israel was supposed to be a light to the Gentiles. It’s just that they were to be separate from their sin. And in Eph.5 Paul gives us three important reasons for that separation. And these are different from the reasons you and I would most naturally think of. Usually we warn our children not to hang around bad people because of the negative influence it will have on them. And that’s a very valid concern. In fact, not just for children, but for adults. Paul addresses the adults at Corinth and warns them, Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character. (1 Cor 15:33)

Prov 13:20
He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. 

Bad companions is toxic to the Christian life – both for children and adults. But that’s not Paul’s point here. He gives us three other compelling reasons for separation from the world.

Three reasons for separation

1. They are displeasing 

The first reason is they are displeasing to God. They are so displeasing to God, they incite His wrath.

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 

If a person has unrepentant sexual immorality, unrepentant impurity or any kind of unrepentant greed, then he is an idolater, and he is not saved. People like that have absolutely no inheritance in the kingdom, and will suffer God’s wrath for eternity in hell, because they are disobedient to Him. And so the conclusion is in v.7. And it’s not, “Therefore don’t be one of those people.”

7 Therefore do not be partners with them. 

He’s not saying that if you fall into one of these sins that your Christianity is cancelled and now you’re lost. The “us” and “them” distinction remains even when we sin. So the argument isn’t “Don’t sin, otherwise you will suffer God’s final wrath.” The argument is, “Why be partners with the kind of people who make God mad?” I love my wife, and I desire to have closer and closer intimacy with her. And so if I find out someone did something to make her furious, I don’t call that person up and say, “Hey, what did you do? I want to do it too.”

Partners
This word for partners is used only one other place in the Bible, and it’s here in Ephesians.

Eph 3:6 through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together (partners) in the promise in Christ Jesus. 

The only partners we are to have in life are other believers. We have social interaction with unbelievers, and we have acquaintances and neighbors who are unbelievers. We even befriend people in the world in order to reach them with the Gospel. But that kind of friendship isn’t the same kind of friendship that you would use this term to describe. It’s not a true partnership. We have some level of friendship with them, but they are never to be our close companions.  Because your close friends – your companions in life, really do function as partners. And so it’s wrong for a Christian to have those kinds of close friendships with unbelievers. If you want to have them as your companions, that’s a sign that something is seriously wrong. How can you love God and desire to be around His enemies for companionship? We should want to reach out to people in the world to reach them with the Gospel.  But if you desire their companionship that points to something seriously wrong in your relationship to God. If there were a group of people who hated Tracy and who were Tracy’s enemies, what would you think of me if I desired the companionship of those people? 
It’s just like everything else God requires of us – it goes back to love. God knows that the best possible thing that could ever happen to a human being is for you to love your Creator. God has scanned His infinite mind and all possibilities both real and theoretical and there is not now, nor will there ever be any circumstance that is better for a human being than for him to love God. It literally doesn’t get any better than that. And so in His incredible grace, God gives us one command – to love Him (every other command is fulfilled in that one). And so you can see why it’s so important that we be separate from the world.  Because you can’t love God and simultaneously love that which He hates. You can’t love God and enjoy the company of His enemies – people who live their lives in total disregard of Him. I really don’t understand how someone could be a Christian and desire the company of unbelievers more than believes.  Especially during the middle school and high school years. Those are the times when God has designed us to really need Christian fellowship the most. It just amazes me when a student will claim to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart, and yet he has no interest in youth group, no interest in Christian fellowship. But he loves to go out and do things with people who the Bible says are God’s enemies. How can a person like that claim he loves God? Not even the world puts up with that kind of thing. The constitution of the United States (art. 8, s. 3) says “adhering to the enemies of the United States, giving them aid and comfort, shall be treason.” And God is not only our King, but He is our Husband. And so friendship with the world is not only cosmic treason, it is spiritual adultery against God.

James 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

This is particularly a problem with young, single Christian women. Men and women each face  their own, unique temptations. And one of the temptations that seems to overtake even some of the most godly Christian women is the desire to date unbelievers.  In my experience, more young women have ended up straying from the Lord as a result of that sin than pretty much any other sin I can think of. Whenever that happens I wish those girls could sit with me in my office and hear the bitter sobbing and weeping of the endless stream of women who come in for counseling. Who dated an unbeliever, then out of his interest in her made some overtures toward Christianity and appeared to be converted - then they end up married, and a few months later every trace of his supposed conversion is out the window- and now the woman is stuck in a lifelong marriage of intense sorrow and pain. It is a massive problem. And frankly, I don’t understand it. Why would we seek fellowship with the world when the Church is available?  True fellowship is so sweet. It’s such a wonderful thing. The world can’t come within a million miles of approximating true Christian fellowship.

2 Cor 6:14-7:1 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."   17 "Therefore come out from them 
and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."   18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."   
7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 

That’s God’s description of your non-Christian friends. That non-Christian guy you want to date – God’s description of him is he is …
- wickedness 
- darkness
- of the Devil
- an unbeliever
- an idol
- an unclean thing that contaminates body and spirit 

How can we be close friends with someone like that? The only way to be friends with someone is to have something in common (you have to talk about something). And they certainly aren’t going to have anything in common with you (since you are light and they are darkness)… And so the only way to have a deep friendship is for you to develop something in common with them (you adapt to their darkness).

 Mad at the Church

Someone will say, “I don’t want to be friends with people in the Church, because Christians have always been the ones who have really hurt me.” “I have been mistreated and abused in the Church, and I don’t want to be friends with Christians anymore.” “The Church is full of hypocrites.” 

If that’s how you feel, first let me say this: I understand that some of you have been deeply hurt by the sins of people in the Church. Some of you have spent years of your life pouring yourself into a friendship only to have that friend viciously turn on you over some little thing overnight. Some of you have had your reputation destroyed through gossip in the Church. Some of you have been devastated by the inconsideration and insensitivity of others. Some of you have been deeply hurt by careless or spiteful words. I’ve experienced enough of that myself to understand something of the pain of it. So believe me, I’m not naïve about that.  Anytime you get in close proximity with sinners, you’re going to get hurt.  You get hurt more in the Church than in the world – not because Christians are less loving or are worse sinners than the world. But because those who love you the most and whom you love the most always are the ones who hurt you the most – because you are more vulnerable to them. Ask any married woman in the which man has hurt her the most and it will be her husband. Ask any man which woman has hurt him most and it will be his wife. Ask a child and it will be a sibling.  Wherever there is the deepest love, there is the most potential for pain. But that is not an excuse to commit adultery with the world by embracing them as our close companions. If you are close friends with unbelievers, and you use some painful experience in church as an excuse - You need to realize that being hurt by your spouse does not justify adultery.  And it really is just an excuse. 
We don’t seek the companionship of sinners because we’ve been hurt by Christians.  We do it because we are attracted to the sin. That argument that the Church has hypocrites is just an excuse.  Are you going to tell me the world doesn’t have hypocrites? You can’t stand to be a part of a group that has sinners and inconsiderate people and hypocrites and therefore you’re going to go to the world? Like they don’t have any hypocrites or mean people in that organization? That’s just an excuse.The real reason we go to the world for companionship is we are attracted to their sin.
Another excuse people make is they say, “Jesus was a friend of sinners.” And they paint a picture as though Jesus were the type who loved to hang around in bars and with prostitutes. But the Bible doesn’t say that. That was the accusation Jesus’ enemies made against Him. Jesus called sinners to repentance. Unrepentant sinners hated Jesus. Those kinds of arguments are just excuses. The real reason people become friends with the world is because they are attracted to their sin. Maybe you go to them because you don’t want to talk about spiritual things.  You want to talk about earthly things, and worldly people will do that with you. Whatever the real reason, attraction to this world is a symptom of a very sick faith.

False Religion
Another way we can commit adultery with the world is by linking arms with false religion. This is really getting to be a problem. In many sectors in the evangelical church, Christians are so enamored with wanting to be liked by the world, that they will have so-called “worship-services” or prayer events with false religions. Last week I got an e-mail that just made me want to cry. It was from the ministerial association of the conservative, evangelical churches in Boulder County. They were inviting us to come participate in an event at LifeBridge Church designed to “save the soul of our community.” They are all excited, because “representatives from various faith traditions (Evangelical,
Catholic, Muslim, B'hai, Buddhist, etc)” are going to come and talk about their historic engagement in community.” The keynote speaker will be Father Thomas Keating, and he will preach on "How can society be healed unless faith leaders and their communities take responsibility?" Then the e-mail said this:  
“In these type of events we don't necessarily coalesce around a common theology or even our common approach or solution to the problems and challenges our community faces but rather around our common love for our community.”
Amazing. We may have different solutions and different approaches (slightly different – we show people the truth and the only way to know God, they deceive people and drag them into eternal hell). But none of that really matters. The important thing is we all love the community.  Why would evangelical pastors bring their flock to a supposedly Christian church to hear a Catholic priest who is famous for combining Christianity with eastern mysticism talk about saving the soul of our community in a way that is acceptable to all the false religions? I wish I were invited to speak at that event. I would get up and read Mt.23 – “Woe to you hypocrites and blind guides!”  That’s the kind of thing Jesus said when He encountered the leaders of false religion. He didn’t get together for an ecumenical prayer service to the false gods. He rebuked them, cursed them and called them names and consigned them to hell.  In just half a chapter Jesus calls them sons of hell, who are going to hell and who are taking others with them to hell. He calls them blind men, blind fools, blind Pharisees, and twice blind guides. Six times He calls them hypocrites. He calls them whitewashed tombs, full of hypocrisy and wickedness and everything unclean, prophet killers, snakes and a brood of vipers. Seven times He curses them.  All that in one encounter (20 verses). That’s Jesus’ attitude toward the leaders of false religions. How do you think it makes Him feel when we say, “Let’s set aside our little differences and join hands in unity with them”? Let’s join them as they worship their false gods, and let’s give them a platform to speak as they slam the door of heaven in men’s faces and lead multitudes with them into eternal wrath. How can we claim to love Jesus Christ and then turn around and embrace what He hates? If He tells us that those people incite His wrath, why would we want to partner with them? So the first reason for separation from the world is the fact that they bring God’s wrath. They are displeasing to God.

2. They are darkness

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live (lit. walk) as children of light 

We should separate from the darkness because we are no longer darkness. Did you notice that he doesn’t say you were in darkness? He says you were darkness. And he doesn’t say now you are in the light, or that you are enlightened, but that you are light in the Lord. Other places in Scripture talk about being enlightened, or being in the light, but this is different. Sometimes light is used in Scripture to illustrate truth or understanding (in the sense of enlightenment). But here it’s a moral and ethical picture. Darkness stands for evil and light stands for good. And as a Christian, it’s not that you are influenced by light, or that you are seeking light, but you are light in the Lord. Jesus said it in Matt 5:14 You are the light of the world. This shows the dramatic, total transformation that occurs when a person becomes a Christian. Becoming a Christian doesn’t just change what you are like or how you behave. It changes completely what you are.

What Does it mean to be light?
What does it mean that you are light and you used to be darkness? The whole question of what you used to be and what you are now was spelled out in detail in ch.2.

Eph 2
You were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 … gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 

That’s what you were.  And if you want some specific examples, in this section we’ve been studying starting in 4:17 Paul has given 23 examples of the sins of the old man.

1.	Futile thinking
2.	Darkened understanding
3.	Ignorance
4.	Hardening of the heart 
5.	Lost sensitivity
6.	Sensuality
7.	Every kind of impurity
8.	Lying 
9.	Stealing
10.	Unwholesome talk
11.	Bitterness, 
12.	Rage 
13.	Anger
14.	Brawling
15.	Slander
16.	Every form of malice
17.	Sexual immorality
18.	Impurity
19.	Greed
20.	Obscenity
21.	Foolish talk
22.	Coarse joking
23.	Idolatry

That’s what we used to be. That’s what the world still is. And that’s what he means by darkness. But now you are light. What does that mean?

•	True righteousness 
•	True Holiness
•	Truthfulness 
•	Generosity
•	Self-sacrificial giving
•	Building others up 
•	Kindness 
•	Compassion
•	Forgiveness 
•	True, Christ-like love
•	Gratitude

That’s the new you. That’s what it means to be light. Unbelievers, at the core of their being, are darkness. They can mimic elements of goodness, but their hearts are pitch black. Believers, at the core of their being, are light. 
We can mimic the deeds of darkness, and Paul has to keep reminding us not to partner with the darkness…

But the essence of who we are is now light in the Lord. That is, because of Christ, we are considered righteous by God, and we have been given a new, righteous nature that is becoming more and more righteous. And that’s the second reason why we are not to partner with darkness. Your role is determined by your Maker. If anyone ever told you “You can be anything you want to be” that person didn’t tell you the truth. You are what your Maker made you. A screwdriver can’t decide it wants to have a life of pounding in nails.  If its creator created it a screwdriver, its destiny is going to be screwing in screws – that’s all it’s good for. And if God made you a light bulb, a life of spreading darkness is not in the cards for you. People who are slaves to sin are stuck in darkness, but you don’t have to live like that.  You’ve been set free. So all you have to do to live the Christian life is to just simply live out what you are.

8 now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 

The word children (lit. sons) implies a genetic connection to the parent. Jesus is called the Son of God because He has the same nature as God. All God asks of us is that we live as sons of light.  Just let your new genetic makup become a reality. Let your new spiritual DNA kick in, and the result will always be pleasing to God.

9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 

If you just simply live out what you are – you just let the light in you bear its natural fruit, your life will be a life of goodness, righteousness and truth. Goodness highlights inner character.  Righteousness is the living out of that character. and truth encompasses 
- openness and honesty (as opposed to hypocrisy), 
- truthfulness (as opposed to deceitfulness) and 
- the truth of God (as opposed to false doctrine and incorrect thinking).

If you wanted to sum up all of virtue, you could use any one of these three terms. If you lived completely according to truth, you would never do anything evil. The same goes for righteousness and goodness.  And so by using three different terms, each of which points to all-around holy living…And then he sticks the word “all” in, you can see the point.
Verse 9 doesn’t leave any nook or cranny of Christian living untouched.  Light results in and produces every conceivable detail of the Christian life. And the word “for” in v.9 means he’s explaining what he meant in v.8. The reason living according to your nature as a child of light will work is because the natural fruit of that is goodness, righteousness and truth. And those things summarize the whole goal of the Christian life.  Want to have success in the Christian life? Just live out your genes and it will all happen. But what does that mean, exactly?  What does it mean to live according to your nature as a child of light? “That’s a little abstract. Give me some specifics about how that looks in day to day life.” Paul says, “OK, let me write v.10.

10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 

The word translated find out means “to discern” and it’s actually not a verb – it’s an adverbial participle. And adverbial participle explains how the main verb is carried out. 

And the main verb is the word “walk” (live) in v.8. So if you remove the parenthesis you have, “Walk as sons of light…finding out what pleases the Lord.” What does it mean to live out my light genes?  What does it mean to live out my genetic makeup of being a son of light? In practical terms, how do I go about expressing who I am in the Lord and letting the light produce its natural fruit? Simple. Just discern what is pleasing to God. If you just seek to please God, the light in you will produce its natural fruit. Think about it. What does the darkness do? The people who are darkness – what is their relationship to God? Their relationship with God is that everything they do makes Him mad (v.6). Everything they do just piles on more wrath. So what’s the opposite of that?  A relationship that pleases Him. They can’t do that. 

Rom 8:8 Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. 

The sinful mind is hostile to God. But we are light in the Lord, and so if we simply live as light, it will result in ALL goodness, righteousness and truth. And all we have to do to express that light is, when we face every decision in life, ask, “What would please God?” And it doesn’t take a Master of Theology degree to figure out the answer to that question. Once in a while there is a tough call where it takes some discernment to determine which of two good options would be more pleasing to God. But the vast majority of the time it’s very easy for the Christian to know what’s pleasing to Him. So how do I know if I’m holy enough? How do I know if I’m separate enough? Just do things that please God.  That will guarantee you are very different and very separate, because they certainly aren’t doing anything to please Him. God is light, He has brought us into the kingdom of light, He has made His light shine in our hearts and made us sons of the light. And so while those who are darkness are doing things that make God angry, the most natural thing in the world is for us not to partner with those who bring Him anger, but rather to discern what brings Him pleasure.

Sets Christianity Apart
This really gets to the heart of the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. Very often Christians will wonder about the moral unbeliever. That guy who lives on your block who is so nice and friendly and gracious and humble and loving. He seems more Christ-like than a lot of Christians you know. And you wonder how someone like that could incur the wrath of God. In fact some of you, when you see someone like that, might assume he must be going to heaven (even though he doesn’t know Christ) – especially if you hear him talking about God. Why does the Bible says someone like that is unrighteous when he seems to righteous? The unrighteousness of a person like that is exposed when you realize that you never hear him talk about pleasing God. Yes, he thinks things like integrity or honor are good things. Yes he is honest and compassionate and sincere. Yes, he pursues the virtues. But you never hear him say he is doing that because he wants to please the Lord Jesus Christ.  It’s not done out of love for God which means it’s not really righteousness.  It just looks like righteousness. He might do it because he thinks it’s best for society, or because it’s in his own best interests, or whatever reason, or he has evolved some sense of morality. But if the reason isn’t to do it for God, then it’s for something else, which means it’s is idolatry. God doesn’t command us to do good deeds because it helps Him out in some way. He can easily do all the good deeds He wants. If that’s all He cared about He could have created machines that would just do nothing but good deeds all day long. What He wants is fellowship with His creatures – He wants us to love Him. He wants us to want to please Him.
***********
So we are to be separate from them because they are displeasing to God and we seek to please God, and because they are darkness and we are not. Then v.11 gives a third reason. We are to be separated from the sin of this world because 
1. They are displeasing 
2. They are darkness
3. They are desolate

11 Have nothing to do with (lit. do not fellowship together with) the fruitless deeds of darkness 

We should have nothing to do with that because it’s fruitless. Unlike the light, the darkness produces no fruit – it’s desolate. The deeds of darkness are are sterile and barren.  God can accomplish good through them, but they themselves are unable to produce any good result. Why would we want to involve ourselves with that? They will contribute nothing to your spiritual well-being. They will contribute nothing to the spiritual wellbeing of others.  They will contribute nothing to the kingdom of God. They won’t bring about joy or love or faith or gratitude or perseverance or patience or humility or anything else of value. They will achieve nothing of eternal value.  All they do is consume resources. Doing the deeds of darkness is like a farmer going out and laboring hard sowing all his fields, but instead of sowing seeds he sows rocks.  What a waste. Every moment in this life is precious. It’s precious because it has the potential to be used for some eternal good that will produce eternal good fruit.  And so any moment I spend doing the deeds of darkness is a tragic waste and an irresponsible misspending of that moment. What sorrow there will be on judgment Day when the things we poured so much time and effort into go up in smoke. We all know what it’s like to work hard on a job, and then have it turn out to be all for naught. Someone comes along behind you and changes it all, or it all has to be done over, or someone undoes it. That causes great frustration. Imagine on Judgment Day knowing that had we just followed the simplest path of obedience we could have had unspeakable reward. But instead that moment or hour or year in our life turns out to be absolutely profitless. The life of every unbeliever is pointless and worthless. Why partner with that kind of pointless, meaningless, worthless emptiness? We are here on earth for a reason. If your reason for being here were accomplished you would be gone by now. You are still here because there is more for you to do. We simply don’t have any time to waste. I think a lot of times we do fruitless, worthless things because we don’t really believe what God says about reward. We do the fruitless deeds of darkness because we really don’t believe the deeds of light are really all the fruitful. The good things we do in life we do every day. And so they start to seem mundane and menial (and fruitless).  And so we don’t believe that there is eternal fruit and unthinkable reward connected to them. If God has called you to be a mother of young children, every moment that you are obedient to that, you pile up those vast, eternal rewards that are promised all through Scripture.  The same goes for filling out paperwork at your job or mowing the yard or whatever is part of the responsibilities of your calling. Jesus said in Mt.6 that if your motives are right, for every act of love, for every act of generosity, for every secret prayer, for every moment of fasting…

Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matt 6:1-18)

If we really believed that, the thought of doing something that is fruitless – even for a moment, would be appalling to us.

Why should we separate ourselves from the world? 
We should do it because…
1. They are displeasing 
2. They are darkness
3. They are desolate
And so if we separate ourselves from them, we are blessed! Separation from the world is the path to true blessedness.

Ps 1  Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. 

So in this section about how we are to relate to the world, the fist half tells us to be separated from their sin. But that still leaves the question of exactly what kind of interaction are we to have with them? The answer to that starts at the end of v.11 (next week).

Benediction: Heb.13:20,21  May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.