Ephesians Devotionals
Bob Morris
Be Children of Light (Ephesians 5:11-14)
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible – and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:
Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
In the last devotional we were talking of the fruit of the light, which is goodness, righteousness and truth. In contrast, Paul now speaks of the deeds of darkness, which are fruitless. Children of darkness can only destroy what others have built.
It was interesting to observe the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In the five years they were in power, they built no roads, dams, hydro-electric plants, factories or any infrastructure for the country. The only obvious new construction was mosques. They destroyed villages, historic Buddhist statues, media, businesses, universities and schools. But deeds of darkness are all activities that hurt and destroy rather than bless and build up. These we are to expose.
How are we to expose deeds of darkness? Not by attacking all those who are darkness, or even mention what their secret sins are. A mission agency some years ago published a publicity piece that began, “The Lord of the Harvest has given __________ the task of disciplining the nations” where they meant discipling the nations.
Only one reader caught the typo and he commented waggishly, “Congratulations on your calling to be a scourge of the nations”. That is not how we expose fruitless deeds of darkness. Rather, we let our light shine. We demonstrate the genuine article, the fruit of light. The only way to distinguish different subtle shades of colour is to view them under direct sunlight.
I understand that when bank tellers are trained to recognize counterfeit bills, their training consists of day after day handling genuine bills, until the very texture and look of the genuine article is impressed on them. Then they will recognize any variety of counterfeit. In the same way, we expose darkness by living as children of light. In another place Paul wrote, “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone….Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12: 17, 21). The world can still recognize the genuine article when they see it.
Even more than exposure is promised. Objects illuminated by the light can themselves be transformed into light. “Everything that is illuminated becomes a light” (13b). When we live as children of light we do not just have the somewhat negative effect of exposing wickedness; we have the hope of actually changing darkness into light. My wife recently bought some solar lamps to mark a pathway at the cottage. At first we thought they didn’t work. Then we realized they weren’t exposed to direct sunlight long enough during the day. Once they were, they gave off light themselves.
As we live amongst people of other faiths or no faith, and live out the gospel in our daily lives, we have this confidence, that the Light of the world himself will transform them into points of light in a dark world.
Paul closes with an apt quote, but we don’t know its source. Paul seems to assume his readers are familiar with it, so it may well come from an early Christian hymn. Clearly, light transforms was a common theme in the church.
Shine on us, Lord Jesus, and give us the eternal life and light that illuminates this dark world and even transforms it.
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