Paul addressed his Ephesian epistle, “To the saints which are at
_Ephesus_, and to the faithful _in Christ Jesus_.” The people addressed
were in Ephesus, and they were likewise in Christ. What did it mean to be
in Ephesus? Ephesus was one of the great centers of paganism. It was
adorned with costly and magnificent temples. It was rich and voluptuous.
Both private and public life were utterly corrupt. Even the religious
practises of the Ephesians were unspeakably vile. This city was a moral
bog, a sink of pollution, filled with all corruption, and reeking with
vileness. It was a second Sodom. Vice stalked abroad everywhere and was
honored and worshiped.
We might therefore well say, “Can any good thing come out of Ephesus? Can
Christianity flourish in such surroundings?” But there were saints in
Ephesus, and faithful ones, too. They were such in their lives and
characters as to win the commendation of that great apostle to the
Gentiles. Out of that obnoxious mud of iniquity were growing the pure
white lilies of Christian character. That is the glory of Christianity and
of Christ. Those who were now Christians were not superior to the other
Ephesians; they were not by nature different. In fact, Paul tells them
that they had been the children of wrath, even as others, and that they
had been such by nature. What a triumph of divine grace that raised these
people up out of such unspeakable filth and made them faithful saints! And
yet that is the power of our great Christ.
Some persons look around at the present condition of things in this world,
at sin abounding on every hand, and say, “There is no use for me to try to
be a Christian or to be different from the others.” There are many who
look at things in this way. They think it useless to try to be righteous
under present conditions. Once while walking down the street of a certain
city, I came upon a policeman standing on the street-corner. I engaged him
in conversation, which I quickly turned into religious channels, and began
inquiring about his own standing. He said to me in a hopeless voice, “Oh,
there is no use talking; there is no chance for a policeman.” I tried to
tell him of the power of God and of what salvation would do for him. But
it seemed as an idle tale to him, and he could only reply, “There is no
hope for a policeman.”
There are many other people today in various situations who say: “There is
no hope for me. There is no use for me to try.” Those Ephesians might have
talked the same way. They had just as much reason to do so as any one
else. Probably some of them did talk like that and were lost; who can
tell? There were a great many, however, who turned from idols to serve the
true and living God, received Christ into their hearts, and found the
power of salvation in the gospel. They found power in the blood of Christ
to cleanse them from their impurities, and not only so, but also to raise
them so far from the mire of sin and wickedness abounding around them as
to keep them faithful in Christ Jesus while still dwelling in Ephesus.
It is not so much a change of environment that people need as a change of
heart and of character. Diamonds are often found embedded in volcanic mud;
mud surrounds them on every side, and yet they have lain there for
centuries and are still diamonds. What is the secret of it? Why have they
not become contaminated? It is because the mud never entered the diamond;
and that was the reason that the Ephesian saints could be faithful and
still live in Ephesus. They were left amidst the foul mud of corruption,
but the mud was taken out of them, and the grace of Christ kept it from
getting back in again.
We can not get away from the mud and defilement of sin in this world. Sin
will ever be all about us. Its stench will be in our nostrils from day to
day. Our eyes will be offended by it, and our ears will be shocked. But so
long as we keep it all on the outside, we can be saints and faithful in
Christ Jesus. We are told that one of the chief things for us to do is to
keep ourselves “unspotted from the world.” Phil. 2: 15 says, “That ye may
be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the
world.” Again Paul says, “Neither be partakers of other men’s sins: keep
thyself pure” (1 Tim. 5: 22). We are not only to keep free from committing
any sins of our own, but also to avoid partaking of the sins of others.
That is very important.
Now, we are, as it were, in Ephesus. There is sin abounding all about us.
God wants us so to abhor the sins of others that we shall not follow them,
nor find pleasure in those who do sinful things. There are two ways in
which we can partake of other people’s sins. One way is to approve of
their evil works. It may be that we ourselves would not do those things,
but if we approve of some one else’s doing them, it is just about as bad.
Never allow yourself to approve of another’s sins. You can not keep clean
and do it. Again, we may be partakers of other men’s sins by partaking of
the results of them. If a man cheats another in business, and then I share
in his ill-gotten gain, I am partaking of his sin. It may be that I would
not steal my neighbor’s melons; but if another steals them, and I, knowing
his theft, eat of them with him, do I not partake of his sins? And so it
is with all the affairs of life.
We must keep ourselves separate from sin. We can not help being in
Ephesus. We must live in this corrupt and sinful world. So the important
thing is that we attend to keeping ourselves in Christ—unspotted from the
world. If the Ephesians could do this, so can we. But to do it, we must
walk uprightly. We must not stoop down into the mire of sin, but keep
ourselves erect, and keep our spiritual nostrils above the poisonous gases
of sin.
Lot was a man of God. He dwelt in Sodom, and we are told that his
righteous soul was vexed from day to day because of the wicked conduct of
the Sodomites. But he kept himself clear; he had no part with them; he
hated their sins. When we reach a place where we do not hate sin, where we
can see it and hear and know of it and find no vexation in our souls, it
causes us no uneasiness, we have no particular repugnance for it, it is
time that we were becoming awakened. We are commanded to abhor that which
is evil, and it is only by so doing and by keeping ourselves clean from it
that we can be safe in Christ Jesus and dwell in this wicked world.
There was a bit of heaven in every Christian heart in Ephesus. That bit of
heaven was just as pure as the celestial realms above. We too have that
heavenly element in our hearts; and in that transplanted bit of God’s
holiness will flourish all the plants of righteousness that bloom in the
courts eternal. But we must guard these plants by keeping the gates of our
hearts closed night and day against evil. Only thus can we keep pure and
acceptable to God. This we can do and be holy and faithful in the worst
“Ephesus” that exists today, if it be our lot to abide there.