Ephesians 5:8 – Light in the Lord

Ephesians 5:8-10

^“8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord” (NKJV).

This is a great passage. It’s each of our BC (Before Christ) and our AC (After Christ) conditions. There are two environments in which we live our lives. We are in either of two positions—darkness or light. In each twenty-four hour period we are physically in darkness when the earth has turned us away from the sun and light when the sun shines on us. We see both conditions every day. That’s the physical.

However, in the spiritual, we are in either darkness or light. In fact, the verse says we were darkness. We not only walked in darkness, we were darkness. Wherever we went we took darkness with us. Whoever we talked with, we talked darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Have you ever been in absolute darkness, maybe in a cavern when they turned all the lights out? You could not see anything. You were for all intents blind. That is the spiritual condition of everyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Lord and savior. They might be a “nice” person, but they are darkness.

Conversely, once you accept Jesus and are born again, you become light. If you were in the cavern in total darkness and they turned on a tiny light, it lights up the whole cavern. Light dispels darkness. You have been made light. You are light in the Lord. No longer are you darkness, but light.

Light allows us to see something. Spiritual light allows us to see the goodness, righteousness, and truth of God which is now in us. The light is within us because Jesus is within us. We aren’t just reflections of light like the moon. We are light. We are children of light.

So Paul says because we are light, we should walk as children of light. We should allow that light to shine. Jesus isn’t putting us under a bushel, but on a candlestick holder for all the world to see.