Daylight Discipleship Text: Ephesians 5:8-14
Introduction: A Tale of Two Realities
The Christian faith is not a set of helpful tips for self-improvement. It is not a minor adjustment to your lifestyle, like adding a vitamin to your morning routine. The Christian faith is a radical, total, ontological transfer from one kingdom to another. It is a translation from one reality to a completely different one. The Apostle Paul, in our text today, does not mince words. He does not say you were in darkness. He says you were darkness. And now, you are light in the Lord. This is not a change of scenery; it is a change of being.
We live in a culture that is pathologically committed to blurring every meaningful distinction. They want to blur the distinction between male and female, between good and evil, between truth and lies, and ultimately, between light and darkness. Our world is a great, gray, foggy mush of relativism, where every man does what is right in his own eyes, provided his eyes are sufficiently dim. They want the benefits of the light, things like justice and reason, but they refuse to acknowledge the source of the light. They want to live in the twilight, where they can pretend that their shadows are not really there.
But the gospel does not offer us twilight. It offers us high noon. It yanks us out of the musty basement of our sin and sets us blinking in the full glare of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul's exhortation here is therefore not complicated, though it is profoundly difficult. He is telling us to live in accordance with our new reality. Stop acting like you are still in the dark. You have been made children of light, so for goodness' sake, walk like it. This passage is a call to daylight discipleship, a summons to live lives that are utterly exposed, transparent, and fruitful under the bright sun of God's pleasure.
This is a command to live an examined life, but not one examined by the fickle standards of the age. It is a life examined by the Lord, tested by His Word, and found pleasing to Him. And this life is not a retreat from the world. It is a direct confrontation with it. We are not to hide our light, but to use it as a weapon, to expose the unfruitful works of darkness for the pathetic, shameful things they are.
The Text
"for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of that light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them. For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, 'Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.'"
(Ephesians 5:8-14 LSB)
Your New Identity (v. 8)
Paul begins with the foundational reality, the great indicative upon which all the imperatives rest.
"for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8)
Notice the starkness of the contrast. He does not say you were in a dark place, or that you were stumbling around in the dark. He says you were darkness. Your very nature, your essence, was defined by darkness. This is the biblical diagnosis of the unregenerate man. He is not merely sick; he is dead (Eph. 2:1). He is not just confused; he is darkness itself. His mind is darkened, his heart is darkened, and his deeds are dark. Darkness was your native element.
But now, the great reversal. "But now you are light in the Lord." Again, the identity is total. You are not just holding a candle; you are light. This is not something you achieved. It is a new identity gifted to you "in the Lord." It is a union with Christ, who is the light of the world (John 8:12). Because you are in Him, His nature has become your nature. God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness at the creation, has performed that same miracle in your heart (2 Cor. 4:6). He spoke "Let there be light" into the chaotic void of your soul, and there was light.
From this new reality flows the command: "walk as children of light." Live out what you are. Your behavior must catch up to your being. If you are a child of the light, then your family resemblance should be obvious. You should look like your Father, who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). This is not a call to try harder to be good. It is a call to live out the new identity that has been given to you by grace. Don't live a lie. Don't act like you still belong to the kingdom of darkness when you have been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.
The Fruit of Your New Identity (v. 9-10)
If we are light, then our lives will naturally produce something. Light is not inert; it is active, and it produces fruit.
"(for the fruit of that light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:9-10 LSB)
Here Paul gives us a parenthesis that defines the produce of this new life. Some manuscripts have "fruit of the Spirit," and the concepts are certainly intertwined, but "fruit of the light" fits the context perfectly. This fruit is threefold: goodness, righteousness, and truth. Goodness refers to moral excellence and generosity, a character that reflects the goodness of God. Righteousness is conformity to God's standards, living in a way that is just and upright before Him and before men. Truth means living without hypocrisy, being a person of integrity, whose words and deeds align with reality as God defines it.
These are not abstract virtues. They are the tangible evidence of regeneration. If your life is not characterized by a growing harvest of goodness, righteousness, and truth, you have every reason to question whether you are in the light at all. A light that produces nothing is not light.
And how do we cultivate this fruit? By "trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." The Christian life is a process of discernment. It is an education in the tastes of our Heavenly Father. We are to be constantly testing, proving, and discovering what it is that brings Him delight. This is done through the diligent study of His Word, through prayer, and through fellowship with other saints who are on the same quest. The will of God is not a hidden mystery; it is revealed. Our task is to learn it and to love it, to align our desires with His. What does God like? He likes goodness, righteousness, and truth. He likes it when His children look like Him.
Your Duty to the Darkness (v. 11-13)
Having established our new identity and its fruit, Paul turns to our relationship with the darkness we left behind.
"And do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them. For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light." (Ephesians 5:11-13 LSB)
The first command is negative: "do not participate." The Greek word for participate is where we get our word "fellowship." We are to have no fellowship, no partnership, no common cause with the works of darkness. Notice he calls them "unfruitful." This is a direct contrast to the "fruit of the light." The works of darkness produce nothing of value. They lead to decay, shame, and death. They are a spiritual dead end. So the first duty is separation. We must refuse to join in.
But our duty does not end with passive non-participation. We have an active, offensive duty: "but instead even expose them." The word for expose means to rebuke, to convict, to show something for what it truly is. Light, by its very nature, exposes darkness. When you turn on a light in a filthy room, you don't have to shout at the filth. The light itself is the rebuke. Our lives of goodness, righteousness, and truth are to be a standing rebuke to the world. And sometimes, this means using words. It means calling sin, sin. It means pointing out that the emperor of our secular age has no clothes.
Paul anticipates an objection. Some of these sins are so vile that "it is disgraceful even to speak" of them. And he agrees. We are not to be prurient or obsessed with cataloging the sordid details of depravity. But this is not a gag order. The solution is not to be silent, but to bring the light. "But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light." When you shine the light of God's truth on these secret deeds, they are revealed for what they are: shameful, empty, and corrupt. The light doesn't become dirty by shining on the filth; the filth is judged and exposed by the light. And here is the marvelous power of the gospel: "for everything that becomes visible is light." This means that the very act of exposure has a potentially redemptive effect. When a person's sin is exposed by the gospel, and they repent, they themselves are transformed from darkness into light.
The Great Awakening (v. 14)
Paul concludes this section by quoting what was likely an early Christian hymn, a baptismal chant that summarizes the entire gospel reality he has been describing.
"For this reason it says, 'Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.'" (Ephesians 5:14 LSB)
This is the gospel call in poetic form. The "sleeper" is the one who is dead in trespasses and sins, the one who is darkness. He is spiritually comatose, oblivious to his own condition and to the reality of God. The command to "Awake" and "arise from the dead" is a summons to resurrection. This is not something a dead man can do on his own, any more than Lazarus could untie his own grave clothes. This is a divine command that carries with it the power to accomplish what it demands. When God speaks to the dead, they live.
This is what happened to you at your conversion. You were asleep in the tomb of your sin. You were dead. And God, through the preaching of the gospel, spoke this word to your heart. He said, "Awake!" and you awoke. He said, "Arise!" and you arose. This is the miracle of regeneration. It is a resurrection.
And what is the result of this awakening? "And Christ will shine on you." This is the dawning of the new day. Christ, the sun of righteousness, rises with healing in His wings and floods your life with His light. He becomes your light, your life, your all. To be a Christian is to have been awakened from the dead and to now live perpetually in the shining radiance of Jesus Christ. He is the one who illuminates your path, who produces His fruit in you, and who makes you a beacon of light in a dark world.
Conclusion: Live in the Light
The implications of this passage are stark and unavoidable. You are either darkness or you are light. You are either dead or you are alive. There is no middle ground, no respectable twilight. If you are in Christ, you have been fundamentally and irrevocably changed. You are light in the Lord.
Therefore, your entire life must be a process of walking this out. It means cultivating the fruit of light: goodness, righteousness, and truth. It means diligently seeking to please the Lord in all things. It means a radical break with the unfruitful works of darkness. And it means embracing your role as an agent of exposure, shining the clear, clean light of the gospel into the dark corners of our world.
This is not a call to a grim, joyless legalism. It is a call to joy. Children of the light love the light. It is our native element now. We are to walk in the light as He is in the light, and when we do, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. The Christian life is a life lived out in the open, under the warm and loving gaze of our Father.
So, awake. If you are still sleeping in your sins, hear the command of God and arise from the dead. Christ stands ready to shine on you. And if you have been awakened, then walk. Walk as a child of the day. Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Live in the light.