Ephesians: Light

Shine!

⁸ 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. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ¹⁴ This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:8-14 (NIV)

In the Greco-Roman culture of the recipients of Paul’s letter, the ideas of light and darkness would have evoked a strong sense of good and evil. When Paul tells his listeners that they “were” darkness, they would have understood him to mean that their previous life as pagans had been characterized by moral corruption, ignorance, chaos, and separation from God. To become “children of light” would have been a radical transformation in their very identity. It would have been like waking up from spiritual death to a completely different kind of life. Today we are likely to miss the profound nature of the change Paul is describing. We tend to be focused on our own individual perspective. We see it as a call to live “better” lives, to just work harder, to avoid personal sin.

This radical transformation; the adoption of a new life; becoming a new person is how the Bible generally characterizes the change in one who becomes a believer. Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that he must be born anōthen (from above, or perhaps again). It’s a change your life, not change your mind kind of thing. Paul says this same thing in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “the old is gone, the new is here.”

Applying the principle of radical transformation involves understanding the ways we allow our lives to be shaped by darkness. This is more than simply failing to be good moral people. It’s the deep allegiance to personal fulfillment that is woven into the fabric of our culture. We think first of our own comfort, gain, and protection. Living as children of light requires the same profound change in life that Paul is describing. We are new people indeed, just waking up!