Most of us are probably familiar with the advertising for Motel 6 that ends with the advertising tagline, “We’ll leave the light on for you.” The image that those ads are trying to create is that Motel 6 is a place of hospitality, refreshment and rest for weary travelers. As we continue in our journey through Ephesians, Paul is sharing a similar message with those who are followers of Jesus Christ. He is encouraging his readers to leave their lights on so that they can be a source of hospitality, refreshment and rest for a world that is in darkness.
But before we look at our passage in Ephesians, we need to provide the proper context by journeying all the way back to creation and beginning with the first four verses in the Bible:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:1-4 (NIV)
In just a moment, as we continue on our journey through Ephesians, we’ll find that Paul is going to use the same imagery of darkness and light that goes all the way back to the beginning of our world. The world began with the physical separation of light and darkness and Paul is going to use that same picture to describe the spiritual separation between the sons of God and the sons of disobedience.
There is one more crucial piece of information that we need to discuss before we get to our passage this morning. It is essential that we have a proper understanding of the concept of darkness. Most dictionary definitions reflect the physicist’s view of darkness:
darkness = absence of light
In other words, darkness is not the presence of anything. It is inert, sterile, and barren. On the other hand, light is active, powerful and dynamic. Those are important concepts that will help us to understand our passage from Ephesians this morning. Let’s read our passage out loud together.
Therefore do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
Ephesians 5:7-10 (NIV)
In this passage, Paul describes three principles that will help us to leave our lights on. Each of the three principles contains two aspects – something we must do and something we must avoid.
HOW TO LEAVE THE LIGHT ON:
1. Respect, but don’t resemble
Therefore do not be partners with them.
As always, when we see the word “therefore”, we need to understand what it’s there for. In this case, Paul is very clearly looking back to the immediately preceding verses where he describes the consequences of living a lifestyle that is characterized by immorality, impurity and covetousness. And Paul warns his readers that they are not to be partners with those who engage in such a lifestyle.
The word translated “partners” in this verse is only used one other place in the entire New Testament. Not surprisingly, that other use was earlier in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:
This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:6 (NIV)
The word translated “sharers together” in that passage is the very same word that is translated “partners” here in chapter 5. The word literally means “joint participants.” So Paul’s main point here seems to be that followers of Jesus Christ are not to participate in the same immorality, impurity and covetousness that characterize the darkness of their culture.
I don’t think any of us would disagree with that premise. But just how far are we to carry that? There are many believers that carry this principle to such an extreme that they isolate themselves completely from unbelievers. They work with other Christians. All of their friends and acquaintances are Christians. And they often try to isolate their kids from the world by either home-schooling or sending them to Christian schools. (As an aside, let me say that there are many legitimate reasons to home school and/or send you children to Christian schools, but I’m speaking here about those who do it merely for the purpose of isolation.)
But that seems to fly in the face of the principle of being in the world, but not of the world that Jesus so eloquently expressed in his prayer in John 17. In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul also makes it clear that he is not advocating isolationism here in Ephesians:
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
1 Corinthians 5:9, 10 (NIV)
As we will see even more clearly in a few moments, when we become followers of Jesus Christ, God leaves us here on this earth for the very purpose of being light in the midst of darkness. And that is impossible if we have no contact and interaction with unbelievers. So Paul is not encouraging his readers to withdraw and isolate themselves from the people in the culture around them. Peter also gives believers some similar advice:
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...
1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)
Peter is obviously writing here about how believers are to interact with unbelievers. We are to treat them with respect and be prepared to share the gospel message with them. Peter is implying here that others will ask us about our faith because they will be around us enough to be influenced by our light shining in the midst of darkness.
But we also need to be careful not to carry things to the other extreme and become just like the darkness. Paul confirms that principle very clearly in another of his letters:
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV)
We are to interact with those who are unbelievers, but we are obviously not to conform to their behavior. We are not to join in with them.
So the key is to find a balance. And that balance to respect, and not isolate ourselves from the world, while at the same time refusing to resemble the world around us in our thoughts and actions.
As I’ve shared with you before, one of the main reasons that I continue to officiate is because that gives me the opportunity to interact with unbelievers. As a pastor, it’s really easy for me to get isolated from the word because most of the people I deal with are believers. For the most part, the lives of most of the officials I work with do not give any evidence at all that they are followers of Jesus Christ. So I try to employ this principle of respecting them, but not resembling them. And because of that, God has given me the opportunity to minister in the lives of several of these fellow officials.
2. Recall, but don’t recur
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)...
This is not the first time in his letter where Paul has reminded his readers of what they were before becoming Christ-followers. For instance, back in chapter 2, he reminded them of how they were dead in transgressions and sins before the work of God in their lives. And here, Paul reminds them that they were once darkness.
There are a couple of very interesting observations that we can make about Paul’s reminder. First, in the original language, the words “you were” are in what is known as the emphatic position. Paul does that to emphasize the point that their darkness is in the past. Even though they were darkness, they no longer are in that state.
It is also instructive to note that Paul does not write that they were “in darkness”, as we might expect, but rather that they “were darkness”. In other words, they were the very essence of darkness. This seems to go back to our definition of darkness. Paul is claiming that they were darkness because there was no light in their lives.
But all that has changed for his readers now. Even though they were once darkness, now they are “light in the Lord”. They have been transformed from darkness to light, not by anything that they have done, but rather by God’s work in their lives, which is characterized by them being “in Christ.” We’ve seen Paul use that phrase, or its equivalents like “in Him” throughout his letter. And because they are in Christ, they are now light. The words of Jesus Himself help us to understand how that occurs:
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 8:12 (NIV)
When we choose to follow Jesus Christ, he is continually present in our lives and because we have Him, we become light. I am not merely enlightened - I am light because the light of the world lives in me.
Although Paul is certainly not someone who dwelled in the past, his letter indicates that there is great value on us recalling what we were before Jesus became the Lord of our lives. If nothing else, it makes us appreciate and be grateful for that fact that God did something that we could never do for ourselves by transforming us from darkness to light.
At the same time, Paul also warns against reverting back to that darkness. Since we are now light, we are to live our lives in a manner that is consistent with that light. And when we do that, our lives will bear fruit that is consistent with light. If we are truly children of light, then our lives ought to be characterized by goodness, righteousness and truth.
Jesus also spoke about the importance of producing fruit that is consistent with who we are in Him:
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Matthew 7:16-20 (NIV)
Jesus is really clear that our character will be revealed by the fruit we produce. If we are darkness, we will produce fruit that is consistent with the absence of God in our lives. If we are light, our lives will reflect that and will produce goodness, righteousness and truth.
When we view our passage for this morning in its larger context in this section of Ephesians, Paul is very clearly warning his readers not to allow their old way of life to recur. Once we experience what it is like to live in the light, we should not ever want to go back to the darkness.
On May 22, Harrison Ford will hit the big screen in the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones saga. I don’t know about you, but the idea of a 65 year old man playing the part of an action hero seems a bit of a stretch – but I’ll probably go watch it anyway. I don’t know the plot of this new movie, but if it’s anything like the previous movies or like the similar National Treasure movies, it is quite possible that at some point Indiana Jones and his lovely female assistant will enter into a dark cave in search of treasure.
And once they enter into that cave, the secret door will shut or there will be a cave in that keeps them from escaping. And eventually their torches will go out. For some reason, even though we live in the 21st century, they will still use torches. And as they search for a way out of the utter darkness, they will eventually discover a faint sliver of light. And they will follow that faint sliver of light until it leads them out of that cave. But because there is still something they want inside that cave, they will enter back into that darkness again. And since this is only a movie and not the real world, everything will end well. Harrison Ford and his lovely female assistant will get the treasure and live happily ever after.
But in real life, once we’ve made our way into the light through Jesus Christ, any attempt to go back into the darkness to try and retrieve something that we left behind there never has a happy ending. That’s why Paul so adamantly warns his readers time after time not to go back to the darkness.
Recalling our darkness is healthy if it leads us to being thankful for what God has done for us, by we can never allow it to recur.
3. Reveal, but don’t revile
...and find out what pleases the Lord.
This is a very difficult phrase to translate into English and therefore most of our English translations struggle to accurately communicate what Paul is trying to express to his readers. Kenneth Wuest, a well-known Greek scholar gives us an accurate, literal translation:
...putting to the test and then approving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
(Wuest)
This is very similar to the way Paul uses this very same word in this familiar passage from Romans 12:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 (NIV)
The idea in both passages is that when we live our lives in a way that is consistent with Gods’ plan that we put to the test and prove that His ways do in fact produce the results that He promises. Of all the translations that I looked at this week, the Phillips translation comes closest to expressing Paul’s thoughts:
...let your lives be living proofs of the things which please God.
(Phillips)
Perhaps Paul’s writing was influenced by these words of Jesus that were part of His Sermon on the Mount:
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)
The idea here is that if we live our lives in a manner that is consistent with the light of Jesus that is in our lives, it will cause other people to look at our lives, and give glory to God. Our purpose in living as children of light is not to bring attention to ourselves, but rather to give praise to the One who has transformed us from darkness to light. In other words, when we produce the fruit of the light, we actually reveal God through our lives.
Beginning in the middle of chapter 4, Paul has spent a lot of time writing to Christ-followers and exhorting them to take off their old way of life and put on the new way of life that is consistent with who they are in Jesus. But I’m struck by the fact that not even one time does Paul instruct his readers to try and impose this same way of life on those who are not believers. He never encourages them to go out into the world and condemn and revile those who are still darkness and who live their lives in a way that produces fruit that corresponds to that darkness.
In fact, although I can’t completely rule out the possibility that it is there somewhere, I cannot find even one instance in the New Testament where unbelievers are either commanded or expected to live their lives in a way that is consistent with being a child of light. And though there are plenty of warnings about the consequences of an immoral lifestyle, I cannot find any place where unbelievers are condemned and reviled for their lifestyle.
About the only place where I see people being condemned for their lifestyle is the way Jesus confronted the religious leaders of His day. And even there, it seems that Jesus was so hard on them primarily because of how they were leading others astray. That is consistent with how the New Testament writers confront very directly and forcefully sin within the body. But when Jesus dealt with the people who were darkness, like the woman caught in adultery, or the woman at the well, he didn’t condone their sin, but he didn’t condemn and revile them personally either.
Since darkness is the absence of light, the way that we overcome the darkness is not by cursing the darkness. We can’t get rid of darkness by condemning it because there is nothing there in the first place. The only way to overcome darkness is by allowing the light of Jesus that is in us shine in the midst of that darkness.
I have some rather interesting interactions with some of my fellow officials at times. By now, at least the ones who have been around for a while know I’m a pastor. And it would be very easy for me to criticize many of these officials for the language that they commonly use or some of the things that they talk about or some of the activities they engage in. But I’ve made a conscious effort not to do that. I’ve just tried to live my life in their presence in a way that is consistent with the light of Jesus that is in my life. And it’s been really interesting to watch and see some of the reactions. I’ve had people catch themselves engaging in obscenity and coarse joking and stop and apologize to me. But even more encouraging is the fact that when a few of these officials who have gone through some difficult times in their lives or have had moral dilemmas to deal with, they have called me to discuss those issues. I’m convinced that if I had been judgmental and condemning, those people would never have felt comfortable coming to me in those situations.
Obviously, as followers of Jesus, we can never condone sin. And both Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and the rest of the New Testament make it clear that we are not to tolerate open, consistent and unrepentant sin within the body. But when we’re dealing with those outside the body, we need to let our light shine in order to reveal God and avoid reviling those who live lives that are consistent with the darkness they live in.
This message this morning is primarily for those of you who have made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. But if you’re still in darkness this morning, I want to encourage you to let Jesus, the light of the world, transform you from darkness to light.
But for those of us who have already made that decision, I want to challenge us to make sure that we say to the rest of the world by our actions, “We’ll leave the light on for you.”
• Let’s respect those in darkness without resembling them
• Let’s recall the darkness we once experienced, without letting it recur.
• Let’s reveal God by the way we live our lives, but avoid reviling those still in darkness.
