The Blessed Effects of God’s Saving Grace (4:1–6:20)
Examples of pure living
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 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
When Paul says, “You were once darkness,” he is using a figure of speech called a metaphor. Notice what the figure of speech does for Paul’s line of thought. Formerly the Ephesians were spiritually in the dark regarding God’s will for them. But when Paul says, “[They] were once darkness,” he is taking it a step further. Not only were they misled and under the influence of wicked paganism, they themselves were a bad influence. They were the darkness that misled others to practice and even enjoy gross immorality and wickedness.
Understanding Paul’s metaphor about darkness makes the parallel metaphor regarding light all the more striking. The Ephesians were not only enlightened by knowing Christ; they themselves have become light. Not only were they influenced by his gospel, but they themselves are now the influence that builds up their brothers in the church and wins new converts.
Remember Christ’s declaration to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13,14). He didn’t say, “You really should be the salt of the earth” or “Strive to become the light of the world.” He said, “You are the light of the world.” Because God’s people are light, Paul can urge, “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.” This sentence has two slight complications in it. First, NIV translators have put part of this verse into parentheses. This is helpful because it indicates that Paul is telling us in advance what he means by a life that “pleases the Lord” (verse 10).
In another respect, however, the NIV translators have not been quite so helpful. Their rendering “find out what pleases the Lord” could be misleading. This could give the impression that there is considerable unclarity as to what pleases the Lord, and it is our task to discover it. Actually, the Greek verb in this phrase might better be translated “approve” or “put your stamp of approval on.” The sense of the sentence would then be: Live as children of light and put your stamp of approval on what pleases God. What pleases God is the fruit that light produces, namely, goodness, righteousness, and truth.
By virtue of their being light, God’s people are both a positive influence toward those things that please God and also a strong deterrent against those things that do not please God, namely, the fruitless “deeds of darkness.”
Just like light, darkness also bears “fruit,” all those wicked and worthless things Paul has been warning against. Because those things bring no lasting good or blessing, Paul labels them as “fruitless,” or useless.
He therefore bids the Ephesians to have nothing to do with such deeds. They are not merely to avoid them, though; they are also to take positive and decisive steps against them. As light discloses what is hidden under the cover of darkness, so they are to expose the sinful deeds of darkness for what they really are, dangerous and negative influences that are to be rooted out.