Ephesians 5:8-14. (NIV)
8For 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) 10and find out what pleases the Lord. 11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus said that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). Here, Paul tells us to live as children of light and to expose the deeds of darkness. It is shameful to even mention the things that the disobedient do in secret, yet we are told to expose those shameful things to the light; that is, to goodness, to righteousness, and to the truth. This is the fruit of the light, while the darkness, in contrast, has no fruit (v. 11).
Light doesn’t specifically do anything to make objects visible; they are visible simply because the light exists in the place where those objects are. In the same way, if I live out God’s goodness, God’s righteousness, and God’s truth, the result will be to make the world around me visible.
And once again, as so often before in this letter, this comes out of my identity. Once I was darkness, but now I am light in the Lord (v. 8). If my life reflects the truth of who God says that I am, the exposure of the deeds of darkness will happen as a natural result.
