Oh, Sleeper

"for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: 'Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" Ephesians 5:14

Wake up, O sleeper! The king james version says this: "arise thou that sleepest.." that is,Katheudo in greek. Katheudo means to have "carnal indifference to spiritual things". Carnal indifference is a very fun way of saying you don't give a crap. This verse is actually talking to those who are already believers. All who are apathetic, wake up!
Interestingly enough in the second part of this it says rise from the dead. This word Dead comes from the greek Nekros. It actually refers to the condition of an unbelievers spirit! A dead spirit. So lets double-take. "Wake up, you apathetic Christian, rise from your spiritual death." ok are we on the same page so far?

For the next line i'll go back to the KJV, "And Christ shall give thee light". the greek here for light is epiphauo, and it literally means to shine forth, but it means to shine forth in reference of the glory of Christ. It indirectly tells us that if we meet him, that is.. wake up, we will receive and reflect his light, making us more like Him.

This verse is a challenge, it challenges you to get off your chair and wake up. You sit there at the expense of your soul. Christ told us that if we are lukewarm, or apathetic he will spit us out of his mouth. (Revelation 3:16) He basically is telling us between these two verses that We need to get up or get out. It sounds harsh, but you cannot serve both God and man.(Matthew 6:24) You will love one or hate the other, and with our fractured spirit's we are more likely to start hating God than start hating man. So wake up, o sleeper!

Derek