Participate

“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;”  Ephesians 5:11

Participate – I participate in a lot of different things.  I am in a Frequent Flyer club.  I am a member of my Home Owners Association.  I have an account with Citibank.  But this is not the kind of participation that Paul has in mind.  The word Paul uses is a lot stronger, and a lot more personal.  Paul’s talking about who pulls your strings.

Paul chooses a word that expresses the idea of active sharing.  It’s interaction.  It’s the word for fellowship, the same root word that is used to describe our fellowship in the body of believers.  This isn’t carrying a membership card.  This is being intimately involved, putting your time and your life into it.  Letting your life be moved by decisions and responses.

Now look carefully as what Paul says.  Don’t get intimately involved or share actively with any unfruitful deeds!  Sugkoinoneo.  To fellowship with.  Don’t have anything to do with it.  Don’t let the hooks catch you.

Ahhh!  Are we listening? 

Involved in that next big deal that skirts the edge of the law.  It’s legal all right, but is it godly?

Intimately involved with that person whose life is an affront to God?

Sharing who we are with that group of people who espouse a morality that shames the name of Jesus?  Letting them push you along?

Endorsing and advocating the symbols of a culture that opposes humility and holiness

( J-Lo and Brittany, Brad and Pierce and “All My Children”)?

Giving allegiance to the perpetrators of dark deeds (Artest and Tyson, Bonds and Bryant)?

Living a life that treats God as an addition to what I already do?

The “who” and “what” of our fellowship, our intimate connections, are the real measures of our submission to the Lord.  Do a little ruthless self-examination before the end of this year.  Where are you fellowshipping?  Where do you share yourself?  Who pulls your strings?