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. (11) And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. (12) For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. (13) But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. (14) Therefore He says: “Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” (15) See then, that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
The apostle Paul write the letter to the Ephesians. In our verses today Paul is addressing the faithful living in the pagan culture at Ephesus to remind them who and what they have become in Christ. Paul writes that we – the faithful – used to be darkness as souls spiritually dead. And now we are light in Christ; not IN light BUT light. This is all about transformation in faith.
A person reborn in faith in Christ Jesus becomes a pattern for Christian living; how the faithful are to behave in Christ. Our sins are remembered no more. What is meant by light is knowledge and intellectual assent to Gods truth in contrast to the darkness which is spiritual blindness to the word of God which is the gospel. Those without faith are in ignorance of the darkness and Intellectual darkness yields works of darkness
When we are redeemed in Christ, we are fully redeemed. We become Gods children who are light – there is no middle ground. As such Paul is telling us to be who we are, not what we were – we didn’t just live in darkness, we were darkness. This world is filled with those who cannot see God’s truth – who don’t want to see it. In the bulletin at a Catholic Church I attended yesterday an article encouraged the faithful to offer up their suffering for others – as if our actions can assist the completed work of Christ. The article urged the reader to use suffering to make reparation to God for sin – for ourselves and others; or to offer our suffering for the souls in Purgatory. What this article offered was a trifecta of bad theology. We can add nothing to the Lord’s perfect sacrifice. What the article should have said was we are to walk as children of light – live a holy (separate) life in this world and that will expose the darkness in contrast.