Realizing that the Lord’s coming is due at any moment, how should we live in these final days of grace? First of all, Paul says that we should cast off the works of darkness. These works are described as rioting, drunkenness, chambering (sexual immorality) and wantonness (sexual immorality with no shame), strife and envying.

Christians living in this polluted world are under tremendous pressure. My mother used to say, “Son, any dead fish can float downstream with the current. It takes a live fish to swim upstream against the current.” She said, “You’ll be faced with a tide of evil, and the easy thing is to flow with it. But that only proves that you’re spiritually dead.” She said, “Be alive unto God. Be alive unto Jesus Christ. Dare to go against the tide!” Thank God for mothers who give that kind of advice to their sons.

Every once in a while, I hear my wife quietly sobbing. I go into the room to see what’s wrong, and her hands will be over her face. She’s a very beautiful and sensitive person. The newspaper will be in front of her. She’s so sensitive to people and to suffering that, when she reads some of the things that are happening today, it just tears her up inside. My wife has too much empathy for the tragic victims of this crazy world in which we live. She cries for that little child who’s been beaten or cruelly tortured and who doesn’t even know why. Sometimes, I have to get up and turn off the television because her reaction is just too great. The stuff that people are doing is just so shocking that a sensitive person is completely torn up by it. It’s sad to me that our children, being exposed to it for so long, have somehow built up an immunity to the violence of these days.

In light of these things, how should a Christian then live? “Let us put on the armor of light.” The literal phrase in the Greek is “weapons of light.” Did you know that there are weapons of light? Truth is a powerful weapon of light. What a power the man has who uses the weapon of light in a dark and evil world, the man who will not bow his knee to Molech, the god of the flesh, but who stands strong in the face of the corrupt society around him.

Another powerful weapon of light is love. We’re to put on love and let God’s love fill our hearts and our lives. What is destroying our whole system? Greed. We want someone else to make the sacrifices. Let someone else quit their driving. I’m not willing to sacrifice. Look at the whole economic upward spiral. Why? Because the laborers are demanding higher wages in order to buy the higher-priced goods. The manufacturers are saying, “We’ve got to put higher prices on the merchandise so we can pay the higher wages.” Greed drives inflation even higher.

Where’s it going to end? It’s almost over! The night is far spent. The glorious day of the Lord is at hand! Paul next exhorts, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” He is the Light. Oh, that we will walk in His strength, His ability, and His power! It’s only through Him that we have any chance at all in this world in which we’re living.

If you don’t appropriate the power and strength of Jesus Christ, you’re a goner! If you believe you’re only a product of accidental circumstances, a series of evolutionary changes, then life for you is meaningless. But life is real. Life is earnest. The grave is not the Christian’s goal. Dust thou art, to dust returneth was not spoken of your soul! God has a plan and a purpose for you. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and discover the glorious life that God has for you. Life with meaning, a life of beauty, a life of joy, a life of love, as we walk in the Spirit, and as we, through Him, become a light in this black, darkened world.

Make no provision to fulfill your flesh’s desires. Don’t give it an opportunity. If you do, it can take over and bring you under its power and control. Knowing the time, it’s high time that we wake up. It’s almost over. The cry goes forth. “Behold, the bridegroom cometh!” Jesus said, “Be ready!” – for they that were ready went into the marriage supper! (Matthew 25:6).

Taken from “Answers For Today” By Chuck Smith pastorchuck.org