Why the Dark Life Is Not the High Life in God

The dark life, a life apart from God, the life that you used to have before you came to Jesus, is a focus of Paul in his fourth chapter to the Ephesians. He first references the Light Life and then contrasts it with the Dark Life. In today’s podcast, we will look at the ins and outs of both kinds of life. Years ago, John F. Kennedy used this story about darkness in so many of his speeches. It concerned Colonel Davenport, the speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. In the days before Connecticut became a state, an incident occurred during an era known as “the dark day.” One day a thick darkness —probably the result of an abnormal atmospheric condition—blotted out the sunlight. The colonial legislature was in session then, and some of its members concluded that the day of judgment had come. The cry went forth, “It is the day of judgment! Let us go home and get ready!” However, an old church deacon in the legislature stood up and said, “Brethren, it may be the day of judgment—I do not know. The Lord may come. But when he does, I want Him to find me at my post, doing my duty up to the very last moment. Mr. Speaker, I move that candles are brought in, and we get on with the colony’s business.” The Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave us simple instructions to occupy till He comes. I, too, prefer to be found doing my duty and not to default every time some howler of calamity sounds the siren. Jesus would not ask me to “occupy” was it His knowledge that I must be smothered by the unleashing of a nuclear inferno. Dark days do not always mean judgment.¹ I like this illustration. I enjoyed that amid the dark day; they brought out candles to light the way. That’s a great lesson; the Light Life is superior to the dark. In today’s Light on Life, we will talk along these lines so that by the time we are done, we realize once and for all ‘Why the Dark Life Is Not the High Life in God.’ That’s our primary focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Choose the High Life. Set your heart on the Light Life. For therein lies one key to inner satisfaction.

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Which manner of living produces the satisfaction that you know that your heart craves – the Light Life or the Dark Life? The answer is obvious. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

Podcast Notes

The Dark Life: Why It’s Not Your Life

Ephesians 4:17–22 (ESV) — 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

We have a description of Satan’s Dark Life in these verses that continues to this chapter’s end.
And with that thought, here’s the Quote of the Day.

There are two degrees of darkness, according to our Lord. First is the darkness that is absolute—where there has never been any light. That is the darkness of the heathen. But the second is another degree of darkness and more intense—the darkness that follows rejected light.²

This quote is from AW Tozer.
Now, if you back up to verse one of chapter four and read down through verse three, what you have is a description of the opposite kind of life than what’s described in the verses we’ve already read.
In Ephesians 4:1–3, we have the High Life in God.

Ephesians 4:1–3 (ESV) — 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

These two kinds of life, the one we see described in verse one and the other kind of life we see in verse seventeen, are two lifestyles that stand in complete contrast to each other.
Humility, gentleness, patience, love, unity, and peace stand against futility, darkened understanding, death, ignorance, hardness of heart, callousness, sensuality, and greed.
Which life is the better life?
Which manner of living produces the satisfaction that you know that your heart craves?

Proverbs Describes the Dark Life

Now, many passages and biblical accounts detail the wrong way to live.
For example, here in Proverbs two, check this out.

Proverbs 2:1–19 (ESV) — 1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Now, if you keep reading this down to verse eleven, you will see why you need God’s wisdom.
I’m not going to read it for you here, but it continues along this same vein of acquiring and walking in the wisdom of God.

Proverbs 2:11–12 – 11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, 12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,

Notice the words, ‘the way of evil.’
The way of evil is the Dark Life.

Proverbs 2:13–19 – 13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, 14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, 15 men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. 16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, 17 who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; 18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; 19 none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

So, we can see from this passage in Proverbs that the components of the Light Life in God that if you pursue them and seek them as you would silver, they will keep you from the Dark Life of defeat and death.

Two Kinds of Life Means Two Kinds of Kingdoms

Why are there two kinds of life?
There are two kinds of life because there are two kinds of kingdoms.
Listen to it in the book of Colossians.

Colossians 1:13 (ESV) — 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

You see, two kinds of kingdoms.

Delivered from the Dark Life

The Greek word ‘domain’ here – ‘He has delivered us from the domain of darkness – is the Greek word ‘exousia.’
It means authority or power.
The word is also translated as right, jurisdiction, charge, disposal, control, or claim.
Now read this definition back into Colossians one.

He has delivered us from the domain – now take out the word domain – He has delivered us from the authority, power, right, jurisdiction, charge, disposal, control or claim of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

So, the Dark Life has no authority or power over you.
It has no right to exercise any rights over.
The Dark Life has no claim on you.
It has no jurisdiction or charge.
You are not at its disposal or control.
The Dark Life is not your life.
You owe the old life nothing.
The Dark Life has no jurisdiction.
Do you understand what jurisdiction is?
It is the right and power to interpret and apply the law.
The laws of Texas don’t apply to me because I am not in Texas jurisdiction.
I’m in a different state.
The laws of the Dark Life don’t apply to me because I am in a different jurisdiction.
The scriptures refer to Satan as the accuser of the brethren.
That’s in Revelation 12:10.
He can not rightfully accuse you.
Now that doesn’t mean he won’t try.
He will try until you realize that he doesn’t have a legal right to do so.
Once you realize your rights and say no to the devil’s accusations, he will quit.
He cannot successfully continue his attacks because you call his bluff.

Romans 8:33 (ESV) — 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Lightfoot defines and describes the word exousia as follows: “Here, arbitrary power, tyranny. The word exousia (ἐξουσια) properly signifies liberty of action, and thus, like the corresponding English word license.³
Exousia involves not just the idea of authority or power but the license to exercise it.
A policeman has the authority to back the law of the land.
This was given to him by those who employed him.
This officer not only has the authority, but he has the license to act on his authority.
This verse, delivered from the domain of darkness, means that Satan’s license has been revoked.

Light Life or Dark Life: The Choice Is Yours

So, there is a life associated with each kingdom.
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of light.
The Kingdom of Satan is a kingdom of darkness.
There is a light life and a dark life.
We could say it this way: there is a High Life and a Low Life.
There is a life that lifts you and lifts others with you and one that pulls you and everyone else down – high life, low life.
The choice is yours as to which life you choose to live.

Deuteronomy 30:19 (ESV) — 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

In Florence Nightingale’s “Notes on Nursing” (1859) she mentions on the first page the evil effects of “the want of fresh air, or of light, or of warmth.” In the text of these notes is a chapter entitled “Health of Houses,” the longest of her five sections deals with light. “A dark house is always an unhealthy house, an ill-aired house, a dirty house.” And in her added final chapter to girls on “Minding Baby,” she writes: “Plenty of light, and sunlight particularly, is necessary to make a child active, and merry and clever…. Never leave a child in the dark.”⁴

You see, it’s a choice.
Your house can be filled with light or with darkness – light or darkness, your choice — your call.

Why There Is So Much Dark Life on Display

People wonder why there is so much sin in the world.
Why are so many good people being hurt?
Innocent people are being shot down in schools, malls, and grocery stores for no reason.
The devil’s children are at work.
The dark life is manifest in them.

John 8:44 (ESV) — 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

People make bad decisions, evil decisions because their minds are under the influence.
It’s just like an alcoholic who can’t control his emotions, vocabulary, or body because they are all influenced by alcohol.

Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. Let me illustrate. Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. “Why,” he exclaimed, “when I went a-courtin’ I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark.” “Yes,” the hired man said wryly, “and look what you got!” – ⁵

Look what you got when you made decisions in the dark – under the influence of the darkness of the devil and his domain.
People often ask, they wonder, even believers in Jesus, at times, ponder the thought, ‘Where was God when all this is happening?
What is God doing when evil is seemingly everywhere?
God’s MO for darkness was evident from time immemorial.
Look at Genesis one.

Genesis 1:1–5 (ESV) — 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

God saw the darkness, and He moved.
He created light, and the light dispelled the darkness.
Robert Atkin said: ‘There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle.’ ⁶
Light is the answer to darkness.
Choosing that light is your responsibility.
God moved when there was darkness.
Even when man sinned and fell under the spell of the dark life, the Spirit of God moved.

Genesis 3:15 (ESV) — 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

And so, right from the start, when darkness entered planet earth via the souls of men, the spirits of men, and the hearts of men, God already had laid out a plan to conquer that dark life with His own life — the light of God.
That light came in the form of Jesus over 2000 years ago.

John 8:12 (ESV) — 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Choosing the Light Life

I’ve been saying all throughout this podcast that you must choose the light.
Choosing Jesus is choosing the light.
Obeying His Word is choosing the light.
Believing His Word is choosing the light.
Acting on His Word is choosing the light.
Having done all to stand is choosing the light.
Not casting away your confidence is choosing the light.
Abiding in Jesus is choosing the light.
Choosing to not walk like unbelievers walk, which is what we are talking about in this podcast, is choosing the light.
We could go on and on, but you get the point.

Components of the Dark-Life

How do you act on the Word that says to us that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds?
How do we not walk as unbelievers walk?
The Spirit of God, via the Apostle Paul, gave us a list here, right?
We have descriptors of the Dark Life.
There’s a lineup evil.
You’ve seen lineups where people are brought in, usually three of them, for a witness to identify who the bad guy is that they saw commit the crime.
Here’s the lineup of the dark life in Ephesians four.
- Walk in the futility of the mind.
- Darkened understanding.
- Alienation from the life of God because of ignorance on the inside.
- Hardheartedness.
- Callousness.
- Sensuality.
- Greed and impurity.
- Deceitful desires.
Let’s take these up, one at a time.

The Dark Life: Walking in the Futility of Your Mind

Ephesians 4:17–22 (ESV) — 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

The mind is the battlefield we fight on.
The mind must be controlled.
It must be disciplined.
The mind must be spoken to in a corrective fashion.
The mind is the swinging door between the dark life and the light life.
It must be brought into a renewed state of thinking.

Romans 12:2–3 (ESV) — 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

That means you first must know what God is thinking.
His Word reveals to us what He is thinking.
Understanding how He thinks must become a passionate pursuit.
Walking in the futility of your thinking is deadly.
The Greek word ‘futility’ means uselessness due to being purposeless or incapable of producing results.
Futility means being incapable of producing results.
We could add to this, ‘with your thinking.’
Walking in the futility of your mind means that you are incapable of producing results because of your own thinking.
When I say ‘your own thinking,’ know that you haven’t had an original thought in your life.
How your mind thinks is a product of immersion in the culture of your society.
You thought like the world – you thought like the devil, the god of this world.
When you came to Jesus, your mind did not change.
Your thinking patterns remained the same.
Your heart of man received transformation – a rebirth.
You were born again.
Renewing the mind is part of the discipleship journey.
Bill Johnson said this about renewing the mind.

In the process of discipleship that follows, we work to instill the values God has for us in all areas of our everyday lives. Embracing and displaying these values in a godly lifestyle reveals in many ways whether we are following Jesus or just attending church.⁷

I like that quote.
We don’t just attend church; we work on our thinking.
If we are not producing results, if we are experiencing futility, it’s because our thinking is wrong.

Matthew 6:33 (AMP) — 33 But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

Notice that – it’s his way of doing and being right.
Now, why did the Lord choose to change your heart and not your head?
One reason is that your spirit is the control center of your entire being.
God had to get the core, the center of your being, right before He could work on the fringes.
A strong, healthy, believing spirit is the nucleus of the Jesus life.
A strong spirit can control a weak mind.

Proverbs 18:14 (AMP) — 14 The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear?

Your spirit becomes strong by active feeding.
So, praying along this line is needful.
The thought of this word is located in several verses in the New Testament.

Romans 1:21 (ESV) — 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

The word ‘futile’ implies that you’re trying to go somewhere but can’t get there.
Some in the world want to idolize the mind.
They elevate human thinking above God’s thinking.
The scripture calls that rebellion.
We will continue this thread in another podcast.
Why the Dark Life Is Not the High Life in God.
You guys have a great God week in Jesus’ Name Amen.

How to Overcome Darkness by Following the Light of the World

___________
References:

Source unknown Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
11 From Tozer’s “The Tozer Pulpit Set” (1994), Volume 1, Book 1, page 25. A. W. Tozer and Harry Verploegh, The Quotable Tozer II: More Wise Words with a Prophetic Edge (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1997), 132. ↩
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 6 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 179–180. ↩
John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018). ↩
D.J.D. Our Daily Bread, May 5 Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
Robert Atkin Martin Manser, ed., Christian Quotations (Martin Manser, 2016). ↩
Johnson, Bill. The Mind of God (p. 13). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why the Dark Life Is Not the High Life in God

Podcast: Light on Life Season 9 Episode 27

by Emery Horvath

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Read the Notes

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Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

The Dark Life: Why It’s Not Your Life

Proverbs Describes the Dark Life

Two Kinds of Life Means Two Kinds of Kingdoms

Delivered from the Dark Life

Light Life or Dark Life: The Choice Is Yours

Why There Is So Much Dark Life on Display

Choosing the Light Life

Components of the Dark-Life

The Dark Life: Walking in the Futility of Your Mind

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

The Dark Life: Why It’s Not Your Life

Proverbs Describes the Dark Life

Two Kinds of Life Means Two Kinds of Kingdoms

Delivered from the Dark Life

Light Life or Dark Life: The Choice Is Yours

Why There Is So Much Dark Life on Display

Choosing the Light Life

Components of the Dark-Life

The Dark Life: Walking in the Futility of Your Mind

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