Expose
“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;” Ephesians 5:11
Expose – So you did a little soul searching? You looked hard at what pulls your strings. You decided to cut some ties to the fellowship of the dark. Paul is cheering. But this is only the first step. Now you get to do what Paul and Silas did with the fortune-telling slave woman. Expose the lie!
It’s not enough to just opt out. That’s the right direction, but only half the way. God calls us to do more than retreat from our previous alliances with unfruitful deeds. He tells us to do something about it. And the word Paul chooses will get you into trouble with all those old associations. No doubt about it.
Elegcho. To shame, to disgrace, to convict, to prove one wrong, to rebuke, to reprove, to make manifest, to expose. There is no such thing as a Christian wallflower. There are no milk toast followers of Jesus. If God has a grip on you, you are going to cause some trouble. You’re going to make a stir. So you might as well be ready.
Somehow we have been convinced by this god-denying culture that religion is a personal and private matter. Believe what you want but don’t make it a public issue. Of course, we now see that believing anything about God seems to cause furor among those who hate Him. It should. But I am here to tell you that Christians are not passive, private wimps. Christians serve the God of the universe, the Maker and Creator of all things, the supreme Authority. And God hates a lie. He hates the lie of the culture that proclaims the deity of money and status and prestige and power. He hates the lie of a world that seeks advantage and abuses the innocent and perpetrates genocide and ridicules righteousness. He hates the lie that we have to look out for ourselves. He hates the lie that He doesn’t care. He hates the lie that any faith is good enough and that all roads lead to Him. He hates the lie that our obligation ceases when we accept His Son, that the world and the earth are not our concern.
God hates the lie that our lives belong to us.
If we have stepped away from that fellowship with the dark, we are the perfect people to speak a word of light back into those dark places. God wastes nothing. Where you came from is your first mission field. Let the truth ring out. Expose the darkness you once lived and you will convict and reprove others who are stumbling. Speak from your own pain and you will discover the pain of someone else. This is not condemnation. It is revelation. What God did for me, He can do for you.
Who do you know who is living a lie that once described you?
