Lesson 12: Walk in the Light (Ephesians 5:3-14)
Parallel to Ephesians 4:17-19, Paul reminds the gentiles that they no longer participate in their past practices, the way of the nations. This is the case because they have been taught by the Jewish Messiah and live in harmony with the ethics of the God of Israel. They are now part of the commonwealth of Israel and have together become one body in the Messiah. Therefore, they are to imitate God just as Israel’s Messiah imitated God. This section, consequently, draws a contrast between walking in the darkness as people alienated from God and walking in the light as people who are the children of light, the children of God.
Like the previous section (Ephesians 4:25-5:2), the imperatives (nine in this brief section) mark out the contrast. They are: don’t let it be named (5:3); know this (5:5); do not be deceived (5:6) ; do not become (5:7); walk as light (5:8); don’t take part in (5:11); reprove (5:11); awake (5:14); raise up (5:14). In effect,
- negatively,
- don’t be known for evil,
- don’t be deceived about evil,
- don’t become evil,
- don’t take part in the darkness.
- positively,
- know the truth about the darkness,
- walk as children of light,
- expose the darkness,
- awake from the darkness,
- rise from the dead in the light of Christ.
What does it mean to live in the darkness? Ephesians 5:3-4 succinctly describes this. It ranges from sexual immorality to inappropriate mouths with greed squeezed in between those two. Believers should not be known for these behaviors. Rather, “thanksgiving” should fill their lives and mouths. Among believers, followers of the Jewish Messiah, thanksgiving is the atmosphere of our language rather than “obscene, silly, and vulgar” talk. In our text, not only is sexual immorality and greed (which is a form of idolatry) that highlighted but how believers talk.
This is how these gentile believers used to walk–they were once immersed in darkness. This darkness is filled with empty, meaningless words that seek to deceive so that one will immerse themselves in the darkness. “Let no one deceive you” is a warning that those who live in darkness will seek to convince the children of light that their way is more satisfying, enriching, or enjoyable.
What does it mean to live in the light? It involves discerning between light and darkness, and to find out what is pleasing to God. Walking in the light means resistance to the darkness so that we do not participate in its unfruitful activities. The deceivers cannot deliver on their promises about the darkness. In contrast, the light exposes the darkness and discerns what is good, right, and true.
When the light appears in the darkness, it exposes what is hidden in the dark. The light shines on evil, and we see evil for it really is. Everything becomes visible in the light. Evil is exposed as anti-human, anti-Christ, and anti-God. Only in the light may we become what God has created us to be because we are children of light living in the reign of and reigning with the Messiah.
The children of light know there is no inheritance in the kingdom of God for those walk in darkness, and we also know that the wrath of God comes upon the disobedient. The deceivers promise power, wealth, health, and satisfaction, but ultimately their path is one of destruction and death. It does not end well.
However, among the children of light, there is life, light, and resurrection. In Christ, the light of God shines on us, and we rise from the dead with Christ, and we awake to walk in the light as children of light. Paul’s language probably comes from an early Christian hymn, but it may be inspired by Isaiah 26:19 and Isaiah 60:1-2. The hopeful promise that God will raise the dead and shine the light for the renewal of Israel is inaugurated in the body of the Messiah. In the one body, we are made alive with Christ though we once dead in our sins, and we have the future of hope of resurrection from death itself. This means the role for the Christian community in their culture, just like it was for Israel among the nations, to shine a light into the darkness. Israel, the Messiah, and the church are to be a light to the nations so that the way of God is revealed and practiced by the community of God (cf. “light to the nations” in Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; Luke 2:32; and Acts 13:47.
So, the people of God no longer live in conformity to the world and its values are conformed to the image of God. We are a newly created people who embody the light of God in the world by imitating God and the Messiah. The church, then, ought to stand in strong contrast between light and darkness (or, as in Ephesians 4:17-5:2 between “old” and “new” or in Ephesians 5:15-17 between wise and foolish).