Living as Children of Light
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:8-10 (NIV)
Paul here gives another reason not to get involved in the wrong conduct of non-Christians. He doesn’t base it on the future (the coming judgement of God) but on the past and the present (the difference between what his readers once were and what they are now).
The whole paragraph plays on the symbolism of darkness and light, ‘darkness’ representing ignorance, error and evil, and ‘light’ representing truth and righteousness. In 4:17,18 he has portrayed the darkened understanding of pagans: ‘… the futility of their thinking … darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them …’. Formerly his readers were the same. ‘For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord’ (5:9). He doesn’t say they used to be in darkness but are now in light. He says they used to be darkness but are now light. Light expresses God’s majesty, glory (1 Timothy 6:16) and holiness. The opposite to God’s glory and holiness is darkness, the darkness the world separated from Him dwells in. Those who find life ‘in Christ’ are immediately transferred from the realm of darkness to the realm of light (Acts 26:18; Romans 13:12; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Colossians 1:13). Paul is telling his readers that because they are ‘in’ the One who is the light of the world (John 8:12), not only are they now in the light but the light is in them. They are ‘children of light’ (5:8). They received light and became light (Matthew 5:14). Because they had become ‘light in the Lord,’ they must ‘live’ (literally ‘walk’) ‘as children of light.’ Their behaviour must conform to their new identity. They must radiate the light they’ve become.
Thinking of how the Christian life grows naturally and spontaneously and not by following rules, Paul tells his readers ‘the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth’ (5:9). He is possibly following the metaphor through and likening goodness, righteousness and truth which grow by the light of Christ to a harvest ripening under the sun. ‘Goodness’ can mean ‘generosity’ but its range of meaning is probably wider here, describing what is good through and through, in character and conduct. ‘Righteousness’ carries the thought of moral uprightness and integrity. Paul has already described the ‘new man’ as being created ‘to be like God in true righteousness and holiness’ (4:24). ‘Truth’ comes from two words; the first means ‘not’ and the second ‘to forget, to escape notice.’ Together the new word means ‘unconcealed, openly manifest’ which is what truth is.
‘And find out what pleases the Lord’ (5:10). Because 5:9 is parenthetical, this related back to verse 8, living ‘as children of light.’ In daily life they had to find and live out God’s will, ‘finding out’ by doing. ‘Find out’ is from a verb that sometimes meant ‘approving’ (Romans 14:22; 1 Corinthians 16:3) but mainly ‘proving’ for oneself. It involved careful thought and investigation. Romans 12:2 parallels Paul’s thought here ‘Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.’ In the next part of Romans 12:2, ‘his good, pleasing and perfect will’ the word for ‘pleasing’ is the same as in our Ephesians 5:10 scripture, ‘‘And find out what pleases the Lord.’
Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you – goodness, righteousness and truth. In this revelation-light, you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord Ephesians 5:8-10 (the Passion Translation)