“Anyone whose life is not holy will never see the Lord” (Hebrews 12.14, NCV). The apostle Paul was acutely aware of just how vital holiness is for Christians. Already in chapter 5 of Ephesians he has exhorted his readers to purity in their lifestyle (vs.1-7). Now, pulling on the rich heritage of light and darkness familiar to him through the Old Testament, Paul unpacks the need for a holy life, a separate walk from the world with Christ (v.8-14).
A Holy Walk (5.8-14)
As children of light, Christians walk separated from darkness.
8for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
For at…darkness: Before Christ, they practiced these sins and were identified by darkness. Paul states this matter-of-factly; he has no intention of being the older brother who brought up past sinful performance condemn them (cf. Luke 15.30).
But now…the Lord: A sharp contrast is drawn from where they once were and where they are now. Now they are in the Lord which carries with it certain ethical charges and changes. How have they become light? How did the Lord enlighten them? By His word (2 Corinthians 4.4) and by His Spirit (Ephesians 1.17). Through the word the Spirit opened their eyes so that they might see the glorious light of the Lord.
God is light (1 Jn 1.5). God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6.16). His truth is light (Psa 43.3). Light expresses His perfection & glory & majesty & truth. Darkness, on the other hand, is everything in opposition to His perfection & glory & majesty & truth. It is in this darkness the world gropes and in which we once made our abode. But not anymore. In Christ, we are “children of light.”
Walk as children of light: Here is the obligation of those rescued out of darkness. “The life lived as children of light is characterized by goodness, righteousness, truth, and whatever is pleasing to the Lord” (Patzia 258).
It is assumed that since God has so graced us with His marvelous light there will be a change in how we live our lives. Whereas once we did what was displeasing to the Lord, now we discern and seek to do “what is pleasing to the Lord” (v.10). Whereas once we did what was bad, unrighteous, and false, now we seek to do “all that is good and right and true” (v.9).
There are tangible benefits from being made light in the Lord. Cf. Acts 26.18. First, we are released from the power of Satan and are now under the power of God. Second, we are forgiven of our sins. Third, we find our place among those being sanctified by faith in Christ.
Let us then be thankful for God graciously giving this new identity (“you are light”). We know the bitterness of our former life, indeed, the bitterness of drinking of the cup of God’s wrath for sin. But now, in the Lord, we have tasted and seen the goodness of God as we drink from the cup of salvation.
9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
For the fruit of [the] light: Fruit is “a figurative term for the moral results of the lights, its products as a whole” (Nicoll 356). The earliest manuscripts read the light making “the Spirit” (NKJV, KJV) a transcription error intended to harmonize this verse with Galatians 5.22.
Found…and true: This triad summarizes living in light. “All goodness” is a disposition inclined toward good works (cf. 2.10); “righteousness” is moral integrity by obedience to God’s word; “truth” is what corresponds to reality, esp. relating to God. This triad at least in part corresponds to the new self described in 4.24: “true righteousness and holiness.” Assuming “goodness” corresponds to “holiness,” this is the inverse of the order from 4.24.
This could serve as a commentary of sorts for what Jesus says in Matthew 5.14-16. Letting our light shine so that others may see it means we pursue goodness (a disposition seeking to engage in good works), righteousness (moral integrity & rectitude), and truth (freedom from falsehood and embracing, loving, and speaking moral truth). Sometimes there is a yawning chasm between what we know how we live. My brethren, these things ought not be so!
10and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
And try to discern…the Lord: To live (“walk,” v.8) as children of light means Christians will “find out” (NIV) what is acceptable to the Lord, He Himself being light. The present tense indicates that this is the lifelong, habitual practice of light-children. Keep discerning what pleases the Lord.
Like Yoda said, “No try. Do or do not.” To “discern” is “to ascertain by test and experiment. Our whole walk should be directed to finding out what things are pleasing to Christ, rejecting at once everything that is not so, and clinging to all that is…The supreme practical rule of the Christian’s life must be to please Christ” (PC 209). The way to discern what pleases Him is accurate & diligent study of His word. Further, through careful practice we can please our Lord. “Discern” & “pleasing/acceptable” are both found in Rom 12.2. This has led some scholars to see here (Eph 5.10) sacrificial language, i.e. our entire life, every action is a sacrifice unto God as we are ever laid upon the altar.
Implied in this is that there is a lifestyle which is displeasing to God, i.e. a life lived in darkness, a life stubbornly refusing the light. Wickedness, unrighteousness, and falsehood would characterize that kind of life.
Pause for a moment and notice the progression of these verses:
- Transformation (v.8): We have been changed from darkness to light. Hence, we abandon immorality and pursue holiness; we put off ignorance and put on knowledge; we are no longer but now have joy.
- Obligation (v.8, 10): We are called to walk as children of light and live so as to discern what pleases God. Don’t go back to the darkness and engage what is not pleasing to God; walk farther into the day where God-pleasing activities are.
- Demonstration (v.9): We will demonstrate 1) divine beneficence/benevolence – doing good to all men; 2) divine righteousness – rendering to men what is theirs and to God what is His; 3) divine reality – the way things ought to be with God in control.
11Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Take no part…darkness: The works of darkness are works done by those who are darkness themselves. Such works are unfruitful, i.e., barren, having no life in them. They only produce death (see Rom 6.21). Sin is not only useless and leaves us empty with nothing; it can only promise us eternal death in the hereafter! The pleasure of sin is momentary; the pain is eternal.
Therefore, the Christian is to “have no fellowship” (NKJV) with the evil so prevalent in the world. We must not do what they do. We must also not be a crafty Jonadab to an Amnon, counseling others to sin (cf. 2 Samuel 13). Nor should we found giving approval to those who practice sin by allowing vice to masquerade as virtue or calling sin by another name (e.g., unbridled and aberrant lust is merely love; delusion is mental health; deception is “living my truth”). That is old self behavior; the new self accentuates light, especially…
Instead expose them: Expose here means to convict through actions and words. (1) Deeds: By living the life excellently Christians convict and even condemn the world (see Noah, Hebrews 11.7; by his construction of the ark “he condemned the world”). As we seriously and soberly live the normal Christian life we expose the works of darkness. (2) Words: By speaking the word engagingly we can convince them of the truth. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? (Leviticus 19.18b) “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly [surely reprove, NASB; LXX: firmly reprove (same root: ἐλέγχω)] with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him” (Leviticus 19.17).
Christians must never be content with passivity toward darkness. We are light and must shine forth into darkness (Matt 5.14-16; Phil 2.15). We do this out of pity for those still trapped in darkness. We know what it is like to be enslaved to the dark. You’ve been in that hell! In pity, pray that God too may grant repentance to those in darkness so that they also may be light in the Lord.
Now when people’s darkness is exposed it is traumatic so expect a reaction (see John 3.19-21). They may hate you for it, but love motivates us so that we cannot remain silent. Love for lost people blinded by sin and enslaved to the darkness. Love for the Lord for what He has done for us and what we are confident He can do for others.
12For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
For it is shameful…in secret: Clarke says this is a reference to the mystery cults of Ephesus which were engaged in extreme levels of debauchery as recorded by Livy. However, it need not be limited to those cultic practices performed at night. It certainly could be the secret vices engaged in the home. Either way, it is shameful for those who practice them to talk about, but Christians must speak out and shed light into the dark corners of culture & society. Paul has done that throughout these two chapters as he contrasted the old self with the new self.
They do in secret: Shameful things done in secret shows that there is still some semblance of conscience within lost sinners. If they had no conscience, no internal mechanism whereby we know good from evil and right from wrong, they would have no problem boldly doing that which is shameful out in the open. They still bear the divine image, marred as it is by sin. Their actions, sinful as they are and done in secret, betrays this. The light of right and wrong is not fully extinguished. Why do these shameful deeds in secret if they did not inherently know they are evil? Cf. Romans 2.14-15: “the work of the Law is written on their hearts…their conflicting thoughts accuse them.” They love their darkness, but they want to keep it in darkness “lest his works should be exposed” (John 3.20).
At the same time, what was once unspeakably shameful and practiced in secret is now out of the closet and out in the open. Yes, there are times when people “proclaim their sin like Sodom” (Isaiah 3.9). It is justified as something good and presented as an alternative lifestyle. The degradation & depravity of man knows no bounds today. We’ve got an entire internet full of corruption and foulness. Parades are held in celebration of debauchery. Sin has crawled out of the shadows of hiding and is now all over the TV & silver screen. Even the truth that “those who get drunk, are drunk at night” (1 Thessalonians 5.7) has been replaced with “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” It is still darkness; it just seems the darkness is advancing. Fast falls the night. And it is still shameful, disgraceful. Deep down inside those who practice these things know this is the case. Yet, they have seared their conscience, walled it off in an attempt to silence that still small voice which tells them, “This is not right.”
13But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light [LSB]: When Christians identify those evil, barren works of darkness to those who practice them, “people will come to see the true nature of evil and, it is hoped, turn to the light” (Patzia 261). The light which all things are exposed by is understood as either the saints of God (called light in v.8) or the word of God which Christians proclaim or, as the next verse says, Christ Himself (“Christ will shine on you”). As mentioned, through actions and words is how Christians expose all things.
- Holiness of Life: Matthew 5.16. The light of a transformed life is a powerful testimony which Christians possess. All throughout the second half of Ephesians the difference of the Christian life has been accentuated. We live different that we once did, and we live different than the world. Such a life shines the light of Christ; He is the One who took a child of darkness and caused us to be a child of light.
- Purity of Doctrine: Hebrews 4.12. The light of God’s word shines forth and shows us the way to heaven. It also exposes the danger of every other pathway. Without God’s word as a “light for my path” we end up with confusion and contradiction. But by the light of God’s word we come to know the end of both the way of sinners and the way of salvation.
- Clarity of Profession: 2 Timothy 2.24-25. As children of light, we believe the doctrine and behave in a holy manner. We must also open our mouths and speak the truth with clarity. We hold forth a message of life amongst the dead, of light in the midst of darkness. Just as truth was communicated to us, we make it our aim to communicate it to others with the hope that those who are darkness now will be light in the Lord as we are.
All things become visible: Or they are seen for what they are, viz., in this context, shameful, evil, darkness. Sin is seen for being sin. A larger application is to understand that light also helps us to see the good, right, and holy for being just that. Cf. Psalm 119.105; Proverbs 6.23. God’s word shows us the good way in which we are to walk. Indeed, to “reprove” is to prove once again that a good thing is a good thing.
We, Christians, are enlightened (1.18; 5.8) and we are enlightening others. “Christians are to be God’s light in the midst of darkness” (Boice). We’re like Motel 6 – “We’ll leave the light on for the you.” Brethren, let us hold forth the light of the gospel in the midst of a “crooked and perverse generation.”
14for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
For anything…is light: Here is the transformative effect of the light of the gospel. Once enlightened, what was darkness is light (verse 8). By seeing our holy life; by hearing the word of God; by seeing the beauty of Christ; by coming under conviction by the Holy Spirit; by having the eyes of their hearts enlightened by the Spirit; by seeing the light of the gospel; they are exposed by the light and see clearly their condition before the holy God: darkness, disobedient, under the wrath of God (v.6), no inheritance (v.5), dead (2.1; 5.14). Such a terrible state is to be abandoned, and the life of light, goodness, righteousness, and truth is to be received and embraced. So darkness becomes light.
Therefore it says: or “He says” (KJV, NKJV). Either is an acceptable translation.
“Awake, O sleeper…on you”: Three metaphors for turning to God are linked in this statement: 1) Awakening from sleep; 2) Being raised from the dead; 3) Christ shining light into darkness. This may have been a song sung when a person was baptized (Patzia 262; see also Special Study).
Awake, O sleeper: Here is the first image used to describe the state of unbelievers: spiritual slumber. They are asleep in sin! They are asleep in a house which is on fire. They are senseless to the fact of their own jeopardized state: ready to sleep themselves right into hell itself.
Arise from the dead: But it is worse. The second image used to describe the state of unbelievers: spiritual death. They are dead in their trespasses and sins. There is no spiritual life in them. Without God, without Christ, without the gospel, spiritual death upon natural death will give way to eternal death.
Awake…arise: First awake, then arise. The normative order of coming out of sleep or coming back from the dead. We wake up, then we get up. Both of these actions, though, must be done to us in this context. Not only are we asleep, we are dead. So we need God to wake us up and raise us from the dead. Until God calls us, we remain in spiritual slumber and spiritual death. “Awake…arise…” is similar to Jesus’ call to Lazarus [“Lazarus, come forth,” John 11.43]; Until Christ called Lazarus, he remained dead. When the first rays of the light of God’s word break through the veil of unbelief, the Spirit performs His glorious work of shining in our hearts “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4.6).
Awake: Here is the one aspect of conversion: a spiritual awakening to the glory of God in Christ. But with the great awakening to Christ comes an awakening to our own sinfulness and our need for a Savior.
Arise: This is followed immediate by another aspect of conversion: a spiritual resurrection from death to life in Christ. We do not raise ourselves; God by the Holy Spirit “made us alive…in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2.5-6).
These are twin descriptions of the single action of God in bringing those in darkness to the light so that they become light.
Christ will shine on you: Here is a beautiful description of conversion, turning to God, and regeneration, granting of new spiritual life: Christ shining upon a person. The new day of the new creation which is a regenerate person in Christ has dawned and Christ Himself is the Light who shines on His people. “The glory of Yahweh has risen upon you…Yahweh will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you” (Isaiah 60.1b, 2b).
Paul seems to present a three-fold progression from darkness to light:
- Exposure (v.11): Their sin(s) are revealed to them either through conversation with or conduct of Christians. They are found out.
- Disclosure (v.13): A crisis of judgment occurs – either they avoid the light (because they love evil) or they allow their deeds to be made manifest (John 3.19-21). But if they disclose their sins to God…
- Erasure (v.14): The light erases the darkness. They come to the serenity and tranquility of being light. So darkness is transformed into light by Christ (who is Himself the Light).
Special Study—What Is Paul Quoting in Ephesians 5.14?
One option is to view this as a statement from Christ which was unrecorded but still in the memory of the early church. In this way, it is compared to Acts 20.35 where we find “the words of the Lord Jesus” who “Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” If this is the case, the introductory preface is better rendered, “Therefore He says, etc.”
Most scholars believe that Isaiah 60.1 is in view, though other Old Testament passages are cited as well (Isaiah 9.2; 26.19; 52.1). However, there is not an exact match with any OT text.
So what is Paul quoting? Foulkes says, “The most likely explanation is that we have here another little fragment of an early Christian hymn” (155). Patzia goes further and says “it may have been used by the church at a baptismal service as part of a hymn that was recited or sung” (262). If it is a hymn, Isaiah 60.1 (et al) surely inspired it.
Life from the Pulpit 