Eph.5:14 – For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”

If you want to take a quick temperature of our world today turn on the news for a moment. It doesn’t take long until you are overcome with the sounds of fear, anger, greed, and hidden agendas. This language that we are bombarded with on a daily basis is the language of darkness. Without Christ our minds are totally veiled, unable to see the truth about anything. For Christians there is the danger of allowing the constant drone of darkness to dull our senses so that our perception becomes no different than those in the world. Paul sounds out in this verse with a loud voice intended to awaken us from our sleep, “WAKE UP YOU SLEEPER, AWAKE FROM YOUR SLEEP OF DEATH”. That is my paraphrase but you get the point, Paul is trying to startle the sleeping Christian because the consequences are eternal. Here is how Barnes describes this passage.

“”Sleep and death are striking representations of the state in which men are by nature. In sleep we are, though living, insensible to any danger that may be near; we are unconscious of what may be going on around us; we hear not the voice of our friends; we see not the beauty of the grove or the landscape; we are forgetful of our real character and condition. So with the sinner. It is as if his faculties were locked in a deep slumber. He hears not when God calls; he has no sense of danger; he is insensible to the beauties and glories of the heavenly world; he is forgetful of his true character and condition. To see all this, he must be first awakened; and hence this solemn command is addressed to man. He must rouse from this condition, or he cannot be saved……Why not use the same language to the sinner slumbering on the verge of ruin, in a deep sleep, while the flames of wrath are kindling around him? We have no difficulty in calling on sleepers elsewhere to awake when in danger; how can we have any difficulty when speaking to the sinner?”

To me there needs to be an urgency in our hearts to awaken the lost and the sleeping saints. Darkness has a hypnotic effect on those who live in it for extended periods of time, awakening comes as the word of God penetrates our heart. We are at a crucial time, there is an entire generation in America that needs to hear the Word of God. Each of us need to find a way to proclaim and teach God’s word, eternity is upon us,