Ephesians 5:8-14 have the theme of once in darkness and now in light. One could divide the letter to the Ephesians into two distinct, yet related, halves. The first three chapters contain the author’s sustained reflection on the implications of Christ’s death for the relationship between Gentiles and those who stand in the tradition of Israel (which includes the author and his community). The author informs and shapes the last three chapters by the theological ideas of the opening three chapters, but they have a decidedly more ethical and practical function. (Scholars sometimes characterize the first half of Ephesians as “indicative” and the second half as “imperative.”) The present passage stands in the ethical section of the letter. This passage is part of an extended exhortation that employs the rhetorical motif of “old” vs. “new” ways of life (4:17-5:20). Paul is suggesting that human beings are not morally neutral. We are either darkness or light. Darkness creates people who live in it; light creates people who live in it. Our actions reflect our identity. Our passage will get specific about what life in the light is not but stay general as to what it is. This emphasis on rejecting a past shameful behavior and adopting a path in life acceptable to God seems aimed at Gentiles who have become part of the Christian community. Thus, having asserted in the first half of the letter that God has “broken down the dividing wall” of hostility between Gentiles and the community of faith (2:14), the author moves in the second half of the letter to spell out the ethical implications of this inclusion for the Gentile converts. They are to produce the fruit of light. It takes time for this fruit to grow to maturity. It becomes a way of life. We live in a confusing world, so it will require some discernment to learn what pleases God.
Sometimes, Christian leaders need to address believers in stark "black-and-white" terminology to re-focus on the essentials. Even the "saints" sin and need to be agitated to return to purity of doctrine and lifestyle. Certainly, the early Christian community had the same sinner/saint mix as any modern congregation. However, it may well be that the language is harsher than the actual action. If every Christian community rid itself of everyone who said frivolous things, or used vulgar language, or was greedy, or manifested no fruit or light, there would not be much of a church left in the first century or the 21st (5:3-5).
Exhortation to holiness is always a two-edged sword. When humbly inner-directed, the self-evaluation calls one back to basic truths about Christian faith and fellowship. When, however, the call to holiness becomes a self-righteous proclamation used to divide who is in from who is out, then there is a very real danger of leading the Christian over the edge of joyful proclamation toward fear-based judgment. What is certain is that claiming to be part of the children of light necessitates living as if one really believed it. Fruit is, after all, what fruit does.
Paul begins with the basic principle that describes the transformed life. 8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Interestingly, he does not say they are “in light” but that they are light. Formerly, they were darkness, not “in darkness.”[1] This distinction, though subtle, reveals an important aspect of the thought in this epistle. It stresses the integral link between action and identity. Most importantly, the Ephesians are light “in the Lord,” illustrating that their identity as light arises from their being in the Lord. Consequently, they are to behave accordingly. The author introduces a light vs. darkness dualism to illustrate the "that was then -- this is now" character of a Christian's new life. The implication here is weighty. A human is not a morally neutral being who happens to reside "in" a particular locus: first “in" the darkness before Christ came, and then "in" the light after Christ. The author describes people as being of either one element or another. Before Christ, there was only darkness. After Christ, some become children of light, others not. The author develops the caption in verse 8a in successive steps.
First, in verse 8b-9, light creates people who behave as creatures of light and witness to it. Live [περιπατεῖτε] as children of light. The verb used in 2:10 is the same verb used at the end of 5:8, in which Paul tells the Ephesians to live as children of light. The verb, often translated as live, means to walk, denoting a way of life. Ephesian Christians are children of light. The image of believers as children occurs first in 1:5 as those whom God has adopted through Jesus Christ. As adopted children, they are the beloved children of 5:1 whom Paul urges to imitate God. Thus, the phrase “children of light” continues Paul’s familial imagery, reminding his hearers to remember their new status as beloved and adopted children. They are no longer children tossed around by different doctrines or deceitful words (4:14); they have obtained a new status as children of God, i.e., children of light. This present status now guides their behavior. — 9 For the fruit of the light, suggesting a sense of spiritual natural selection at work. Christ is the variable factor that allows some to be fruitful. The fruit of goodness relates to the good works for which God created the Ephesians. God prepared these good works in advance that they might live and walk in them in the present. Good trees, after all, bear good fruit. Likewise, bad trees bear bad fruit (Matthew 7:17-20). He stresses that fruit of light is found in all that is good (ἀγαθωσύνῃ) and right (δικαιοσύνῃ) and true (ἀληθείᾳ). The apostle characterizes “light fruit” in verse 9 as all goodness, righteousness, and truth. The Greek rendering of this verse omits a verb; thus, one must supply the verb “to be.” Previously, in 2:10, Paul writes that “we are what [God] made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” What type of fruit should the Ephesians produce as children of light? Fruit manifests one’s elemental being. The contrast between past and present is typical of the realized eschatology of Ephesians. The new being reflects itself in the new conduct of the saints. The text is specific about what life in the light is not. It stays general as to the quality of life in the light as good, right, and true.
To do what is good and right and true is not so much adhering to a check list of do’s and don’ts as it is learning how to behave in a way that copies Christ’s love and peace and justice. Think of it this way. When a loving parent cares for a sick child, the parent does not just perform a duty or fulfill an obligation. The parent is not simply thinking of what the parent is required to do in this situation. Motivated by love, the parent goes beyond obligation and does the maximum for the good of the child. The parent seeks the most competent doctor, consults other parents, and obtains the most effective medicines. The reason is the motivation of love, not obligation.[2] The goal of all this work is complete transparency — transparency to the light of God.
In the fourth century there was a monk named Telemachus who lived in a remote village. He spent most of his time in prayer and tending his garden. One day, he thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome. He immediately went. He arrived at a time of a great festival. He followed the crowds to the Coliseum. The gladiators stood before the emperor and said, "We who are about to die salute you." It was then he realized that these men were about to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowd. Telemachus pushed his way through the crowd and went into the arena. He went rushing forward to the gladiators and said, "In the name of Christ, stop." The crowd thought it was part of the show and laughed. But when they realized it was not part of the show, they were angry. As he was pleading with the gladiators, one of them plunged a sword into his body. His dying words were, "In the name of Christ, stop." It was then that a strange thing happened. In the upper parts of the Coliseum a man made his way to the exit. Slowly, the rest of the crowd made their way to the exit. The year was 391, the last year gladiators fought to the death in the Coliseum. All because someone was willing to do what was pleasing to the Lord and expose the darkness.[3]
Think of the difference between the diamond in the ruff and the diamond that has been polished, the impurities gone. It becomes transparent to the light. In her book Night on the Flint River, Roberta Bondi sets out on a canoe trip near Atlanta, along with a colleague named Pam and a mutual friend named Jeff. They intend for the trip to last for the afternoon, but the outing quickly turns into a disaster — the water level is high, and the riverbed is littered with dead trees. Jeff tears the ligaments in his knee and can barely walk, and when night falls, they are completely lost. They leave the river and begin to hike through a wilderness so dark that they cannot even see their own hands. Through this ordeal, the colleague of Pam remains optimistic. Roberta writes that “Pam’s love carved out for me a space in the wilderness in which it was safe to breathe ... [and accept] what I thought was my own impending death.” She discovers that “an ordinary human being” such as Pam “never ceases to be the tattered image of God.” Pam is “completely transparent to God” for Roberta, so that for a little while she “can see God truly through that human being.”
This is the goal of all our cutting and polishing — becoming transparent to the light of God. When we focus on what is good and right and true, we turn from “diamonds in the rough” into beautiful, brilliant gems. Our compassion, patience, and love create a channel for the light of the Lord to shine through us.
You have nothing to lose but darkness, roughness and impurity. As you cut away what Paul calls “the unfruitful works of darkness” (v. 11), you will find yourself getting ever clearer about what a Christian life looks like. In fact, Saint Augustine went so far as to sum up the moral laws of Christianity in one short and provocative phrase, “Love, and do as you please.” Thomas a Kempis put it this way:
“Love is a great thing, greatest of all goods, because it alone renders light every burden and bears without distinction every misfortune. Because it carries a burden without feeling it, and renders sweet and pleasing every bitterness .... Love feels no burden, values no labors, would like to do more than it can do, without excusing itself with impossibility, because it believes that all is lawful and possible for it to do. In fact, it is ready to do anything, and it performs and affects many things in which he who does not love, faints and succumbs.”[4]
Live in light. Do the right, good, and true thing.
Second, in verses 10-12, life in the light conforms to the will of the Lord, rejecting works of darkness. 10 Try to find out (δοκιμάζοντες, to examine, test or discern). As children of the light, the readers need to discern as they live in love and as imitators of God (5:1). They are to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. That which is good, right, and true brings pleasure to the Lord. The mood of verse 10 is not entirely clear and open to interpretation. It may be a sarcastic, plaintive cry, as is made by a parent to recalcitrant children: "Would you please try to find out what is pleasing to God!" On the other hand, it may be a pastoral exhortation to have discipline in the practice of faithful living that will lead to the discovery of deeper ways to please God. The believer patterns her or his life after Jesus, who was the perfect sacrifice of love and became the "fragrant offering" which was pleasing to God (5:2).
Learning to do the will of the Lord, learning what is pleasing to the Lord, is not simply a theoretical matter. We can think of it as a practical skill we need to learn to be a disciple of Jesus. Think of it as something like practicing a musical instrument. The point is not simply to know the notes on the page. Personally, I found that difficult enough to do. Rather, the point is to play the notes on the page with interpretation, passion, intensity, and beauty. The point is to play the song so that it becomes a part of you. If you do what is pleasing to the Lord, the point is not just memorizing a Bible passage. The point is that the reality of what God wants us to do becomes part of who we are. We learn to do what is pleasing to the Lord by doing what is pleasing to the Lord. In rehearsing a piano song or a guitar song, when you get it the first time you are not done rehearsing. In fact, you are not done after the 20th time or the 100th time. You are working until it is ingrained in you and it becomes a part of you. And this is what the apostle Paul is talking about: Children of light practice the Father’s pleasure in such a way that it becomes a part of them.[5]
11 Take no part in the unfruitful, for part of the discernment process is to separate oneself from the works of darkness. Paul characterizes these works as unfruitful and, although he does not provide a list of these works here, he does relate in previous verses what they entail. Such works include following the course of the world, the passions of the flesh, and the desires of body and mind (2:1-3). Such works include sensuality, impurity, deceitful desires, falsehood, anger, thievery, corrupting talk, bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, malice, sexual immorality, coveting, filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking, and idolatry (4:17-22, 25 -5:5). He makes it clear that those who are darkness, who do things in secret, are fruitless. One's status vis-ˆ-vis Jesus produces either fruitfulness or barrenness. Hence, there is a product associated with belief. Thus, refusing to participate in works of darkness, but instead they are to expose (ἐλέγχετε) them. Such exposure occurs in other texts to refer to divine condemnation. The ungodly will face a reckoning of their sins (Wisdom 4:20. The Messiah will denounce their ungodliness and wickedness, displaying them before them their contemptuous dealings, bringing them alive before the judgment seat and reproving them before destroying them (II Esdras 12:32-33). Here, such exposure involves confronting sinners with their sin, thereby convicting them and convincing them of righteousness. Thus, if one does not reprove the neighbor one will incur guilt upon oneself (Leviticus 19:17 LXX). One should not quickly condemn neighbors for what one has heard about them, but rather, engage in conversation so that if true, they will not repeat (Sirach 19:13-17). Prophecy in the church has the potential of reproving and calling into account outsiders, disclosing the secrets of their hearts in a way that leads them to worship God (I Corinthians 14:24-25). Paul does not specify how this exposure should be carried out, but the verb seems to imply bold confrontation and, if needed, active opposition.[6] 12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly. Interestingly, although believers are not to speak of the works of darkness (5:3, 12), they are to expose them.[7] The text lifts up a final note of redemption. In community, Christ calls us to reprove one another, to discipline, to correct, in order to restore relationships. Being "exposed" in this way is a faithful expression of trust in grace. Therefore, faithful living is about being open, not closeted. A believer should not keep secrets or do secret things that imply shame. A believer who "exposes" another's sin should not treat the wrongdoer with contempt or as gossip fodder; this, too, is shameful. Rather, since the light of Christ reveals itself in truth telling, then Christians need to be truthful. When people are honest with self and others, speaking the truth in love, then the light shines in power. It is a wake-up call, as the three-lined hymn which ends verse 14 declares.
Here is one way to reflect upon a text like this. It does not take long in life before most of us realize that hanging around certain people tends to bring us down. We learn the difference between those who inspire us to be better people and those who bring out the worst in us. We slowly realize that this means certain types of people get us in a bad place. Life is too short to stay in relationships like that. I have noticed this trait expanding with Twitter and Facebook. People freely post divisive and hateful things they would never say in person. Sadly, some people are getting that way. They are just as rude in person as they are online. Unless we develop certain internal strengths, we may have to distance ourselves from them as much as we can. We can unfriend and unfollow if the issue is online. Such distancing is more difficult if we are thinking of family, co-workers and neighbors. It would be nice if such people came with a warning label. I came across an article that listed ten toxic types of people to avoid. Such persons have toxic arrogance, victimhood, control, envy, lies, negativity, greed, judgmentalism, gossip, and lack of character. They suggest that if you have such persons in your life, do wait until tomorrow to clear your life of them. If you cannot do that physically, stay as distant and guarded as you can.[8] Considering those with whom you hang out and their effect upon your life is one of the many traits of wisdom.
Paul invites us to consider saying “No.” The advice that most preachers get is not to go negative in their preaching. Certainly, in the United Methodist Church, most of us do not like to be negative in our preaching. Many of us have heard hurtful things said from the pulpit. Some of the hurt was intentional, but most probably was not. With almost every “No” we can think of exceptions. We will likely think of ways we have transgressed in our lives.
Yet, if we pause for a bit, “No” is an important word in many settings. I invite you to reflect for a moment about the many contexts in our lives when we appreciate negativity. Parents are frequently negative. They protect them by telling them not to cross a busy street, touch a hot stove, talk to strangers, and even not to ride a bike without a helmet. The office is negative. You are not to post offensive posters, make sexual advances, use inappropriate language, offer or receive bribes, and so on. Schools have rules like not running in the hallway, no bullying, no religious proselytizing, no prayers, no plagiarizing, and so on. If you work for any level of government, you probably have a long list of do and do not.
Yet, in the church, the vision many people of preaching and teaching is that everything is to be sweetness and light. In particular, the preacher is to be positive. For me to come clean here, I am among those preachers who do not like to go negative. You see, my thought has been that most of us throughout the week have probably had enough negative to face throughout the week. I would rather lift people up with faith, hope, and love. I still think such themes out to be our focus as preachers.
Yet, the Bible has many places where it says “No” to the old life in order to embrace the new life of the people of God. For example, Paul was not shy about saying no to sexual promiscuity, impurity, obscenities, greed, and darkness. Such a “No” may seem harsh. Yet, I invite you to reflect upon the “No” Paul offers, especially when he considers the old way of life or offers a list of vices or works of the flesh. Do such negatives apply to today? Although Paul ranges wide in the negatives, many of them have to do with sexuality. Among the quite real issues sexually today is the availability of pornography. Such availability is harming marriages, dating, and pastors.
If we take our Bibles seriously, we cannot avoid negative preaching. The Bible does say “No,” and we as preachers need to share it with our congregations. You see, such negativity may save a life, a family, a marriage, or the calling of a pastor.[9]
Third, verses 13-14a show the revelatory power of light is transforming not just informative. Verse 14a shows revelation by the light produces light even where nothing else appeared to prevail but darkness and its works. However, this has been a difficult text. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says in Isaiah 60:1-2,[10] “Sleeper, awake! The notion of awakening became important under the influence of pietism and Methodism. Awakening places that which befalls humanity in its vocation and therefore its illumination in the light of the resurrection. Awakening also stresses the Word that calls humanity like the word that raised the daughter of Jairus and raised Lazarus. Awakening here also clearly refers to Christians who need awakening.[11] Rise from the dead. He directs the readers to wake up and to rise from the dead — acts that are possible only because of God’s proleptic act in Christ Jesus. God has already raised them up and seated them together with Christ, and now the hymn reminds them and directs them. It reminds them that in this new life they are no longer dead and no longer walking in darkness and secrecy. Furthermore, the hymn directs them (the verbs “awake” and “rise” are imperatives) to respond to God’s act on their behalf. And Christ will shine on you.”[12] Within the context of Ephesians, one can find direct connections between Christ’s resurrection and glorification and the new life the readers have already received (Ephesians 2:4-6). It is as Christ “shines upon” them that they become “light” and gain the strength to “live as children of light” (v. 8). To state it in terms of recent Christian tradition, the risen Christ enables the turn to a new manner of life that. In the previous verses, Paul has emphasized believers as light. The last line of the hymn, however, “Christ will shine on you,” corresponds to his statement of 5:8, “For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.” In both instances, the apostle affirms that the believers’ source is Christ. Christ shines on them, enabling them to be light and to walk as children of light. Those who were dead, buried in darkness and secrecy, now shine through the one who is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named” (1:21).
[1] (Margaret MacDonald, Sacra Pagina, v. 17, ed. Daniel J. Harrington [Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2000], 314).
[2] —Thomas Williams, “What does love have to do with it?” Regnum ChristiWeb Site, regnumchristi.org.Retrieved September 2, 2004.
[3] (Leadership, Fall 1986, from Chuck Colson, Loving God).
[4] Thomas à Kempis in The Imitation of Christ.
[5] —Inspired by the reflections of Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III. “The new walk (3): Children of light.” July 9, 2006, fpcjackson.org. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
[6] (Sacra Pagina, 315; Perkins, 437)
[7] (Pheme Perkins, New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, v. 11, ed. Leander Keck [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000], 437).
[8] --Lolly Daskal, "10 toxic people you should avoid like the plague," inc.com. October 20, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
[9] --For more about pastors and porn, see: Morgan Lee, "Here's how 770 pastors describe their struggle with porn," christianitytoday.com, January 26, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
[10] The writer makes some changes. These changes certainly go beyond simply variations caused by imperfect memory and move into the area of interpretative paraphrase. The reference to these verses from Isaiah appears to arise from the fact that it shares the sharp contrast between light and darkness. Nevertheless, there are in the Isaiah passage no references to either resurrection or to the Messiah. Rather, the parallelism in those verses links “light” with “the glory of the LORD” as a kind of metonymy (the use of an attribute of a thing to refer to the thing itself) for the God of Israel. Following a well-established pattern in New Testament texts, the author links the word “rise” with the concept of resurrection (“rise from the dead”). From there, one takes a short step to identifying the one who has risen directly with the Christ whom God has raised from the dead. It is now Christ who “shines” or brings light upon others and in the process joins them with his own resurrection.
[11] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.2] 511-2.
[12] A few early manuscripts read, “Christ will touch you” rather than “Christ will shine upon you.” This reading may have been influenced by an early Christian legend that Adam was buried beneath the site of Jesus’ cross, and when his blood fell upon the grave Adam himself was resurrected (for the connection between Adam, Christ and resurrection, see also 1 Corinthians 15:22, 45).
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