"The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy." (Romans 13:12-13)

Here's a hard question worth asking. If you lined up the average churchgoer next to the average person who wants nothing to do with faith, could you actually tell them apart? Paul's whole point is that you should be able to. The difference should be as obvious as noon and midnight.

We were rescued for this. John says we're called to "walk in the light as he is in the light" (1 John 1:7). We got pulled out of the darkness that used to run our lives and brought "into the kingdom of his dear son" (Colossians 1:13). If anyone in Christ is "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17), then it makes zero sense to keep living like the old one. The stuff Paul lists off, the partying, the immorality, the constant drama and jealousy, that's the world's normal. Among God's people, Paul says there shouldn't even be a hint of it. Instead we imitate God like beloved kids copying a parent they adore (Ephesians 5:1).

And when we do that, something quietly powerful happens. Paul told the Ephesians, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light... Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them" (Ephesians 5:8-14). You don't expose darkness by yelling at it. You expose it just by being light. People notice a life that's genuinely different. It gets under their skin in the best way, and they start asking questions.

Jesus warned us this wouldn't be automatic. "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap" (Luke 21:34-36). Notice He threw the everyday "anxieties of life" right in there with the obvious sins. Those worries can trap us just as fast. His answer was simple and steady: watch and pray.

So let's be the church. Not perfect, but different. Understand what God's after, stay alert, keep praying, and surround yourself with people running the same direction. The days are hard, but you were built for exactly these days. Let's stand together and be who He called us to be.

A Few Honest Questions:

1. If someone watched your daily life, would anything about it point them toward God?

2. What "deeds of darkness" have quietly crept back in that you've stopped noticing?

3. Who are the people running the same direction as you, and are you actually running with them?