WALKING AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 27, 2023 under 2023 |

Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message from August 27, 2023 from Ephesians 5:8-14

Theme: As those who have been delivered from darkness through Christ, we must now conduct ourselves in this world as children of light.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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We’ve been looking together at Ephesians 5; and at a section of that chapter in which the apostle Paul describes our ‘walk’ in this world as believers. Our ‘walk’ is Paul’s symbolic figure of speech for our daily conduct throughout the course of our everyday life. It’s a way of describing how our faith in Jesus Christ is to show itself in real-life practical action.

First, in verses 1-2, he taught us that our daily walk should be characterized by love. Then, in verses 3-7, he taught us that it should be characterized by purity. And this morning, we come to a third way that our walk should be characterized; and that is by ‘light’. Our feet should walk in paths of moral and spiritual ‘light’. In verses 8-14, he wrote;

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light” (vv. 8-14).

* * * * * * * * * *

We’re living in times today that are—in many respects—truly dark. They may not be the darkest days of all time; but they’re certainly among the darkest of our nation’s history. We’re dealing with things today that we have never seen before. It sometimes feels like a steam-roller of unbelief and immorality that is rolling over everything around us—threatening to crush everything we’ve ever known in the past.

And while there may be lots of explanations for why this is happening today, and what may have led to it all; I suspect that a part of it may be because we—as followers of Jesus Christ—have not ‘walked as children of light’ in this world in the way that we should.

You see; when our Savior Jesus Christ came into this world long ago, He came bearing life from God to us. And that life was ‘the light’ of all humanity. It says in John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:1-5).

When we heard the message of the gospel about His work on the cross for us, and we believed and placed our faith in Him, we were raised from spiritual death. We experienced life. That life is ‘the light of men’. There is no other. It alone is the light that saves fallen humanity from the consequences of sin, from spiritual darkness, and from eternal judgment.

And once we’ve received life through Him—and have been delivered from darkness into His light—we ourselves become bearers of that light. We don’t create the light, of course. We simply bear it and shine it. Just like the moon doesn’t produce a light of its own but rather reflects the light of the sun, so we’re left in this world to reflect the light of God’s Son Jesus Christ. We are—right now—the light of the world. There is no other light than His light; and there are no other bearers of Jesus’ life-giving light on this earth than us. We have been left on this earth in order to—for as long as we live upon it—shine forth that life-giving light of Jesus to others.

In His Sermon on The Mount, our Lord and Master Jesus made this very plain. He said;

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

And might it be that—to some degree—our culture has fallen into the condition it has fallen into, and the people around us are living in the kind of spiritual darkness that they’re living in, because we have not been behaving in this world as what we are? Might it be because—for whatever reasons—we’ve grown timid, or afraid, or even intimidated into hiding the very light that we’ve been left here to reflect?

Well; this morning’s passage is a call for us to let that light shine. In it, the Holy Spirit—speaking through the apostle Paul—urges us to take courage and behave like what the Lord Jesus made us to be. It teaches us that, as those who have been delivered from darkness through Christ, we must now conduct ourselves in this world as children of light.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; as I have studied this passage, I have grown to greatly appreciate it. In it, we’re not only urged to rise up and be what we are; but it also tells us how we are to do so. Notice first that it tells us that we’re to walk as children of light by …

1. EMBRACING THE ROLE WE HAVE IN THIS WORLD.

Paul begins in verse 8 by saying, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” And do you notice that he doesn’t say that we were once ‘living in’ darkness, or that we are now ‘living in’ light? The way he worded things is very significant. He told us that we once ‘were’ darkness; but now we ‘are’ light in the Lord. Our entire identity has been transformed.

Paul described what we once were in Ephesians 4:17-19. He used the phrase “Gentiles” to describe unbelieving people, and wrote;

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness (Ephesians 4:17-19).

Now; that’s the way we used to live. When he says, we should ‘no longer walk’ that way, he means to say that we once did so. And the reason we were characterized by those works of darkness was because we were darkness. We had no life of God in us. We had no relationship with His Son—who is the Light. But God—by grace—opened our eyes, and gave us the faith to believe, and we were delivered from the darkness. As Paul puts it in Colossians 1:13-14;

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

So, we were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. He has given us life; and that life is the light of men. And as we walk in this world today, we’re now to reflect that light. We’re now ‘the light of the world’. We’re God’s appointed ‘life-transmitters’; and He has given that job to no one else but us. We have been adopted by God as His own sons and daughters by faith, and are inheritors of the eternal life that is in His Son.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we must “walk as children of light”. We must know who we now are—knowing what role it is that God has given to us; and now live accordingly! Let’s no longer hide what we are! Through God’s help, let’s be what we are!

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; what does it mean that we are to walk as “children” of light? The word “children” implies that there’s a father. A child is like his or her father. That’s what this means. In verse 1, Paul urged us to “be imitators of God as dear children”; and so, when it comes to walking as “children of light”, it means that we’re to walk in the kind of paths that reflect our heavenly Father’s character—the very paths that Jesus our Savior walked in obedience to the Father.

So then; Paul goes on to explain to us that we’re to walk as children of the light by …

2. WALKING FAITHFULLY IN PATHS OF LIGHT.

In verses 9-10, he tells us that we should walk as children of light “(for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”

Now; in some translations of verse 9—such as the one I’m using—it says “the fruit of the Spirit”. And in other translations, it has it as “the fruit of the light”. According to the best copies of the original Greek text, it should be read, “the fruit of the light”. In other words, the things that Paul goes on to mention are the “fruit” or the “produce” of living in the light that Jesus has brought to us. A life of walking “in the light” will be characterized by these three things.

First, Paul mentioned “goodness”. This would speak of how we treat other people. If we’re walking in the light, we’ll produce ‘goodness’. We’ll never be rude or cruel to other people; but instead will do what is truly good, kind, compassionate, or beneficial to them. That’s how the Lord Jesus walked during His life on earth. Then, Paul mentioned “righteousness”. This would speak of how we conduct ourselves before God. If we’re walking in the light, we will stay on paths of righteousness—as God our Father defines it. We won’t do wrong. We won’t practice sin. Instead, we’ll seek to obey our Father’s commandments and instructions. That too is how the Lord Jesus walked. And finally, Paul mentioned “truth”. And this would speak of our devotion to the revealed truth of the Bible. If we’re walking in the light, then we won’t believe and proclaim things that are untrue or that defy His word; but we’ll stay true to and faithfully proclaim what the God of the Bible has declared. That too is how our Lord Jesus walked.

And dear brothers and sisters; if we’re going to walk in the light as we should, then these three things absolutely must go together. They’re like the three legs of a stool. Take one leg away, and the stool falls. We can’t walk in the light if we’re trying to be “good” while denying righteousness and truth. We can’t walk in righteousness if we’re being cruel and unkind to others, or manufacturing a ‘truth’ of our own. We can’t walk in truth if we are denying the demands of righteousness out of a confused desire to be kind. If we are walking in the light, then all three of these qualities—goodness, righteousness, and truth—will be showing themselves in perfect conformity and union with one another; because our Father is the perfect expression of all three.

And do you notice what Paul also said in verse 10? We’re to do this with the sincere commitment of “finding out what is acceptable to the Lord”. That’s to be our priority. Not everything that this world demands that we do—not every place that it tells us to put our feet—is pleasing to the Lord. And so; we must make the decision that we’ll put our feet where our Lord says to put them—searching the scriptures diligently and seeking what pleases Him.

I think that Romans 12:1-2 is helpful here. In it—after telling us about all that God has done to redeem us through Jesus—Paul wrote;

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).

So then; if we’re walking in the light, we’ll be walking through this world along the paths of light—always maintaining goodness, righteousness, and truth—always asking ourselves in each new situation, “What is pleasing to my Lord Jesus Christ?”

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; if that was all that we had to do, it probably wouldn’t require much courage of us. But there’s more that we’re to do—and to do it does requires courage from the Holy Spirit. Paul goes on to show us that, in order to walk in the light as we should, we must be …

3. AVOIDING AND EXPOSING WORKS OF DARKNESS.

In verses 11-13, Paul writes, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.”

In this passage, Paul calls the works of darkness “unfruitful”. He means more than that they just don’t produce anything. He means that they don’t produce anything good and, in fact, only produce what is bad. And think of what it means to “have no fellowship” with such things. It obviously means that we must keep ourselves distinct from them and not join in with others in ‘doing’ them. But it means even more. It also means that we’re not to even do anything that gives the slightest hint of approval of them; or that in any way helps to advance them in the lives of others. We’re not to put ourselves into ‘partnership’ with those who practice these things. But there’s even more still. We’re not only to avoid them; but we’re also to even “expose” them.

Now; I believe we need to be very careful how we understand this. It doesn’t mean that we’re to become rude, or disrespectful, or insulting, or harsh, or nasty, or brutish, or cruel to the people of this world. We should always remember that, in doing what Paul tells us to do here, we’re to do it in a manner that’s in keeping with all goodness, righteousness, and truth. But just think for a moment of what ‘light’ does. I don’t understand all the physics of how light works. But I do know that ‘light’—however it does what it does—makes things visible and plain. And that’s what we’re to do with respect to the shameful works of darkness. We’re to point to the revealed word of God, shine the light of God’s truth on those works, and show them for what they really are.

This, I suspect, is the thing that we’ve been neglecting in our role as ‘the light of the world’. Because of fear of what we might lose, or a fear of who we might offend, or fear of the relationships we may harm, or even because of the fear of the punishment we might receive, we’ve hesitated to shine the light of God’s word on today’s works of darkness. We have even gone so far as to go along with the demands of the world, and slipped into actually ‘celebrating’ these things, so that we won’t get into trouble.

And so; as ‘children of light’, here’s what we should do instead. Whenever we’re called upon to “partner” with the unfruitful works of darkness—whenever we’re told that we must give approval to them in some way, or declare what we’ll do to support them and celebrate them—we must say ‘no’. But there’s more. We must also go on to plainly explain why we must say ‘no’. In careful, calm, reasonable words, we must say: “I cannot do what you are asking me to do because I am a follower of Jesus. In the Bible, it says”—and then state clearly what the word of God says about that behavior or practice. Shine the light of scripture upon that thing and expose it for what God says it is. And then say something like this: “Therefore I will not give approval to or celebrate something that my Savior died on the cross to deliver people from.” You may ask, “How can we expose them if it’s shameful to even speak of them?” Well; we expose them when we speak of them by saying what God’s word says about them.

When we do that as followers of Jesus, we are essentially ‘clicking on’ the light switch and revealing the truth of things. That’s what Paul means when he says, “But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.” And let’s be clear about it: In the times in which we’re living, it will most likely cost us a lot to do that. We can be as gracious and Christ-like as we can be; and yet, it still may end up costing us some of our friendships, or some of our family relations, or a job opportunity or an advancement, or … sometimes not too far away … even our liberty or our life. But we need to be less concerned about what might happen to us if we shine the light in this world, than about what it would be like to have our Lord ask us, “Why did you hide that light when I commanded you to shine it?” We might lose something temporary; but we’ll gain something eternal.

We should remember what the apostle Paul once wrote to the Corinthian believers … who themselves also lived in a very dark and ungodly time;

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”

Therefore

“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
“I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

* * * * * * * * * * *

Now; it can only be by embracing the role we have in this world as ‘the light’; and by walking faithfully in the paths of light, and by obediently avoiding and exposing the works of darkness—that is by being a truly separate and godly people—that we can be doing the final thing Paul mentions. Walking as children of light in this world would make it possible for us to be …

4. INVITING OTHERS TO ENTER INTO THE LIGHT (v. 14).

In verse 14, Paul writes, “Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, / Arise from the dead, /And Christ will give you light” (v. 14).

Now; where in the Bible does it say those words? It’s not really clear. It sounds very much like it could be taken from what it says in Isaiah 60:1-3, where it says to the people of Israel;

Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising (Isaiah 60:1-3).

In the context of his letter—from wherever it may have been that Paul drew his words—he wasn’t quoting them to unbelievers. He addressed them to those who belong to Jesus and who are to walk as “children of light”. He spoke them to us; and through these words, called us to set aside the deeds of darkness, to separate ourselves from them, and to become His instruments of shining the light before the lost and needy people of this world. And by our doing so, the unbelieving people of the world will learn about Jesus—who Himself is the Light.

Dear brothers and sisters; we’re the light of the world. We need to be walking faithfully as “children of light” because there’s no other way for unbelieving people to know about the light than by us. But it’s not that we’re to just go around ‘shining light’ in order to expose sin as an end in and of itself. We’re to shine forth the light in order to extend the invitation to those who are in the darkness to come into the light and be saved! As Paul puts it in Philippians 2:14-16;

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain (Philippians 2:14-16).

* * * * * * * * * *

So; dear brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re the light of the world. We’re the only reflection of the light that has been given to this world. And so we must walk faithfully in our time as “children of light”. We must embrace our role, walk in paths of light, avoid and expose the darkness, and—the whole time long—invite others to trust the Savior and come into the light.

That’s hard work. It’s intimidating work. In fact, it’s humanly impossible work. But we have the Light Himself to help us—if we keep ourselves in close fellowship with Him, and make sure we are following along in the light after Him. As the apostle John put it;

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:6-7).

So; let’s walk in the light as children of the light. Let’s confess our sins and failures, and let Him cleanse us fully of them—so the light can shine clearly. And let’s do so in this world without fear. Let’s open our hearts to Jesus fully, invite Him into every situation with us, and shine His light in this world as He has commanded us.

AE