Ephesians 5:8-14 (ESV)

For at one time, you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰ and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. ¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Someone asked me just the other day, what do you do when the lights go out?  I said, complain.  When we are suddenly in the dark, we stumble around, until we find a source of light.  In chapter 2 of Ephesians, Saint Paul “writes You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, . . .   separated from Christ . . . having no hope and without God in the world” (cf. 1-12).  Here he says, “at one time you were darkness” (8a).  The Ten Commandments reveal that we are sinful and unclean.  In the verses prior to our text Paul makes it clear that because of sin there is sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking (cf.3-4).  Because of our sinful nature we ignore, even despise, God’s Word and do not worship Him. Because of sin, we use God’s name to condemn others or justify ourselves; disrupting or destroying relationships with others.  In Verse 6 of this chapter, St. Paul makes it clear, “because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sins of disobedience.”

“But” says Saint Paul, “now you are [children of] the light in the Lord” (8b).  That little word “now” tells us the Holy Spirit has made a change in your nature.  Becoming “children of light” is not something we do, like flipping a switch on the wall, and the light comes on.  Through God’s living and active Word, the Holy Spirit calls you to faith, enlightening the eyes of your heart, awakening you to live under the salvation of the cross.  Paul says as “children of light” we must “try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (10).   That is seeking out “all that is good and right and true” (9).  That is knowing God, His nature, His attitude, and His disposition toward both good and evil people.  

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).  By the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have been bought and brought from death and darkness to life and light.  The flesh, the world, and the devil want you to walk in darkness, but Christ makes you walk in light.  Once you were unaware of sin, but now you can see your own sin.  You were unconscious of God’s desire, now you know what is well-pleasing to Him.  Now we are God’s children.  God grant you His Holy Spirit that you might daily be who you are, God’s child of light.  And as a child of light then a lamp on a stand shining Christ’s light boldly proclaiming the mystery of the gospel as we ought to speak in dark places (cf. Ephesians 6:19-20).

825 North 1^st West

Cheyenne Wells, CO, 80810-0728

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