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.”

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the apostle Paul and our verses today are guiding principles of how the faithful are to relate to and live in a morally dark world. Believers are to minimize merely cultural differences but warned not to downplay biblical truth. The theme is light – or life and knowledge versus darkness or spiritual death. Notice in verse 8 we are not just walking in light but we, as believers, ARE light. There has been a profound. change in us – a transformation – in our belief in the sufficiency of Christ and our new position in faith. Our hearts have been changed and as children of the light we walk in goodness and conformity to God’s word. We are people of truth with nothing to hide. The faithful are not being conformed to this world but are but living as good men/women acceptable to the Lord. This is not accomplished by feelings but by understanding God’s word – He speaks to us in the Bible.

As children of light we are not living holy (separate) lives to please others or to look good or out of selfish motives but to please God in our new personal relationship with God to whom we have direct access in Christ. There needs to be obvious differences in how we now live that will expose the darkness of sin. We need to be different in attitude, words and behaviors. In short we must be attractive to unbelievers and witnesses to the gospel. The result is peace with God and really nothing else much matters.

Verse 14 is probably an early Christian hymn about unbelievers being exposed to Christ and eternal truth. It’s important to remember that we were children of the darkness also; we were spiritually dead but now we walk in light because we are light in the Lord.