Jeremy L. Berg

In Sunday school we used to sing a song that went, “I’m alive, alert, awake, and enthusiastic <clap-clap>.” Even if we were half asleep, or didn’t like singing, we would move our lips along to the song just to avoid drawing attention to ourselves.  Similarly, many churchgoers are spiritually lip-sinking to the right tune, looking like enthusiastic disciples of Christ.  Yet, beneath this vibrant exterior there lies a slumbering spirit, a mind still conditioned by the night (Matt 23:27-28).

They may recite the creeds, but inwardly doubt their veracity.  They may pray the Lord’s Prayer but only as an empty ritual.  They may speak of love and grace, but inside harbor much resentment and bitterness.  They confess Jesus as Lord, but are still slaves to their own desires.  “They honor God with their lips,” Isaiah says, “but their hearts are somewhere else” (Mark 7:6; Isaiah 29:13).  They are walking as if awake, but they are still under sleep’s heavy spell.  They are physically in the kitchen enjoying the breakfast buffet, but their spirit is back in bed sound asleep.  They are religious zombies.   Spiritual sleepwalkers.

The New Testament captures the essence of this split-reality—a world half-awake and half-sleeping.   With the rising of the Son, the world found itself suddenly divided into two overlapping ages, or days.  We find light and darkness, day and night, the old and new creation all coexisting. The old creation, or “yesterday,” is painted with the effects of sin and death, and characterized by the counter-kingdom values of ‘the world.’  All who align themselves with “the pattern of the world” (Rom 12:2) are, according to the New Testament, still in the dark, still living in yesterday’s story.

But for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, God’s new day—called “today” (Heb. 4:7)—has dawned in Christ, and all are summoned to wake up, “lay aside the works of darkness, put on the weapons of light” and “live decently as in the daytime” (Rom 13:12-13).  “Listen!  Now is the time of God’s favor; today is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2).  Anyone “in Christ is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17).  We are called to be “children of the light and children of the day” (1 Thes 5:5), letting our lights shine into the darkness in hopes of waking others as we do (Matt 5:16; Phil 2:15).  Summing it up, Paul says:

So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart… Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation (1 Thes 5:6-8 MSG).

Reflection Questions:

1. Are you FULLY awake?  Or living in two worlds – acting religious at times but walking in darkness other times?

2. Meditate on 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 the rest of this week.  Write it on a note card and carry it with you as a reminder to live fully awakened to God!