Ephesians 5:8-14
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.”
You Are Light in the Darkness
If I told you to make a list of things that are complete opposites, I’d be willing to bet that for most of us, light and darkness would be near the top of the list. Light and darkness are things that we have been experiencing our entire lives. We left the darkness of our mother’s wombs for the light of the delivery room. We plugged in our night-lights as children so that we wouldn’t have to go to bed in total darkness. Every room we enter, we flick on the light switch. Every time we blink, we go so quickly from darkness to light that we hardly notice. Light and darkness are nearly universal concepts, to which most everyone can relate.
So it’s not surprising to learn that virtually all religions have made use of this imagery. The yin and the yang is the famous symbol of Chinese Daoism, with its black and white counterparts forming a perfectly balanced circle of light and darkness. Hindus celebrate a festival of light called Diwali. Jews light candles during Hanukkah, their festival of light. But most importantly, the Holy Bible speaks of light and darkness all over the place. On the first day of creation, God said, “Let there be light,” and it was so. Darkness was the 9th of the 10 plagues that God inflicted on Egypt. The Lord Jesus calls himself the Light of the world, and he himself will be the Light that shines forever in the heavenly city of God.
This brings us to our sermon text for this morning, where Paul picks up on this light-dark imagery and applies it first to the Ephesian congregation, but also to all Christians and to us here this morning. The Ephesian Christians are largely converts from the pagan religion of the Roman Empire. They had lived in spiritual blindness, but through Paul’s preaching, they had seen the light of Christ and believed. He says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” He’s saying to all Christians: not only have you seen the light of Christ, but now you actually are light. It’s who you are now: your identity is light.
However, before telling the Ephesians about this new identity, Paul reminds them of something else: “You were once darkness.” This is true for all of us, for all people of all time. By nature, human beings are children of darkness. We were all conceived and born in sin. Some of us lived many years in the darkness, doing whatever we pleased without any regard for God. Blindness was our spiritual condition; our hearts were totally blackened by sin, lacking even a glimmer of light. We were totally helpless, groping around in the dark, unable to find a path to God. But even worse, as darkness, we were the complete opposite of light. We hated the true God and were his enemies. We fought to snuff out and extinguish his light, to rebel against Jesus and the knowledge of him that shines from the Scriptures. Yes, the sinful world is dark, and we were once a part of it: separated from God and opposed to his light.
But then came our transformation. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” There was a complete and total change in us, from one extreme to the other. Darkness became light. Blindness became sight. God’s enemies became God’s children. But how? How could such a drastic transformation take place?
Notice that Paul doesn’t just say, “You are light.” No, he adds, “You are light in the Lord.” You aren’t light on your own; this wasn’t a self-transformation. Darkness cannot choose to start shining. A candle cannot spontaneously burst into flame. The blind man in our Gospel reading didn’t choose to start seeing. You are only light because you are in the Lord, connected to the Light of the world himself. Jesus has transformed you from darkness to light. Jesus, who created light in the beginning with his powerful word. Jesus, who brought light and hope to all in Israel who heard his preaching and teaching. Jesus, who took all our darkness on himself and destroyed it on the cross. Jesus, who burst out of the tomb 3 days later in glorious light, proclaiming total victory over all the forces of darkness. Jesus is Light, and Jesus has made you light. Because of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection, you are no longer darkness, no longer trapped in sin. You have been transformed through Jesus!
He has sent the Holy Spirit out into our dark hearts to “call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify” us, to create a burning faith in us and to fan its flames through the gospel. We don’t have to try and produce our own light. We simply reflect the light of Christ. On the pages of our Bibles, in the bread and wine of the Supper, we come face to face with Jesus. The brightness of the gospel fills our whole being as we come in contact with the very Light of the world. We are not just standing in the light: we have seen the light and have become light through faith in Christ.
But light does not have a static existence. No, light is always moving, always radiating out from its original source. So it is with us, dear Christians. We have been made lights by Christ so that we may also become lights for Christ, that he may beam his light into the world through us. You are a bright, burning light, so let it shine! But what does that mean? How do we let our light shine? First, Paul tells the Ephesians to “live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” You can let your light shine when you produce the fruits of faith. Do what is good and right and true, Paul says. It is good and right to help our neighbors, to serve one another in love. It is good and right to worship the true God. Our whole life should be filled with goodness and righteousness and truth, to the point that others notice us, like a lamp shining in a dark room, like a beacon in the night.
But letting your light shine isn’t just about what you do – it’s also about what you don’t do. Paul says, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.” The deeds of darkness are the sinful ways of the world. They were the things we used to do, the sins that ruled our lives before coming to faith, before becoming light. Now that we have been transformed, we must leave them behind. The deeds of darkness are fruitless. Sin has no benefit. It only brings harm, as it leads us farther away from Christ and threaten to extinguish his light in our hearts. And so, Paul says, “Have nothing to do with [the deeds of darkness].” Stay away from sin! Don’t go back to the darkness! Be light, radiant and bright, refusing to be dimmed by any sin.
But there’s more we can do as light. Paul gives a second way to let your light shine: instead of joining in the deeds of darkness, we expose them. We shine our light out into dark places to reveal what is hidden. Verse 12 says, “It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible.” Perhaps you’ve noticed that a lot of sins take place in literal darkness. Thieves and robbers usually strike at night under the cover of darkness. Bars and clubs are dimly lit as patrons over-indulge on drugs or alcohol. A computer or phone screen may be the only light in a dark room as people post harmful words on the internet or view disgusting images late at night. Sin likes to hide in darkness, where nobody can see it or judge it. But as the light, it is our job to expose sin. In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus proclaims that he has come into the world “for judgment.” While he was here on earth, he didn’t just ignore sin or turn a blind eye but confronted it head-on. He even rebuked the Pharisees for their sin of pride and self-righteousness, hidden in their hearts from the view of others. Likewise, Christians are called to expose sin in the world around us. We must call out sin for what it truly is: pure evil darkness. We expose it out of love for the truth, but we also do it out of love for the sinner. We shine our light on their dark deeds in the hope that they will see the light and turn towards it in repentance.
And that is the third way we let our light shine. We produce the good fruits of faith, we expose the deeds of darkness, so that we illuminate those who are still in darkness with the gospel message. As I mentioned at the start, people around the world are looking for light in their dark lives, and too often they are looking in the wrong places, in false religions and philosophies. As we live out our Christian lives of faith, others will see that we’re different. When we expose the sinful deeds of others, we pray that they realize the fruitlessness of their way of life and look for something better. That’s when we shine the light of the gospel on them. Verse 14 gives us words to shout into the darkness that surrounds us: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” In other words, repent! Leave behind your old ways and find forgiveness in Christ. Step out of the darkness and into the light!
And so, we carry this message of repentance out of those church doors and into the world. We let our light shine boldly for all to see. We all know people who are still living in darkness, helplessly stuck in their fruitless ways. Remember that you were once there with them, but Christ transformed you into light. Be the light that shines on them and point them to that same saving light that shone on you. Christ alone is our Light in this dark world. Never lose sight of him. Amen.