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Ephesians 5:1-21 presents a practical and fine aspect of Christ: the light with love for the believers’ walk. In the New Testament, light and love, like reality (truth) and grace, are a pair. Light is the source of reality, and love is the source of grace. Hence, light and love form a pair as the source of reality and grace; reality and grace form a pair as the issue of light and love. When light shines out, it becomes truth; when love is expressed, it becomes grace.
The Gospel of John reveals that when Christ came, grace and reality came with Him (1:17); grace came from divine love, and reality came from divine light. The first Epistle of John goes on to reveal that when we receive Christ, fellowship with Him, and live by grace and reality, He brings us into the fellowship with the Father; in the Father’s presence we touch His love as the source of grace and His light as the source of truth.
Love and light are actually God Himself; they are God’s being, His essence (1 John 4:8; 1:5). Grace and reality come out of God the Father, but love and light are God the Father. First, we believe in the Lord Jesus and receive grace and truth. Then by enjoying grace and truth, we are brought back to the source of grace and truth, God the Father as love and light. By staying in the fellowship with God as love and light, we become beloved children of God walking in love and light. We who seek Christ and love God should be children of light walking in love and light. Because both love and light are God, to be children of light walking in love and light is to be children of God walking in God.
In Ephesians 4:17-32 we see Christ as the reality and grace for the living of the new man, whereas in 5:1-21 we see Christ as the light with love for the believers’ walk. Christ as the light shines on the believers, and the issue of this shining is the truth, the reality. The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind because they do not have the shining of the light (4:17-18), but we the believers have the divine light, which is God Himself, shining over us and even making us light (5:8).
In 5:13-14 we see that Christ is the light shining on the believers. “All things which are reproved are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes manifest is light. Therefore He says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” The Greek word rendered “reproved” in verse 13 may also be rendered “exposed” or “uncovered.” If we are being exposed or rebuked, we should simply receive the exposure, the rebuke. If we do this, we will be blessed. We will be aroused from sleep, and Christ will shine on us. Every rebuke is the shining of Christ. Whenever we are rebuked, we should say, “Lord, I worship You for Your shining. This rebuke is Your shining, and I receive it.” To receive a rebuke is to walk in light. This means that if we are not willing to accept a rebuke, we are walking in darkness. If we are truly walking in the light, we will be able to profit from any kind of rebuking.
Christ is light to the believers; Christ shines upon them and enlightens them. According to verse 14, the sleeping one who needs the exposing mentioned in verse 13 is also a dead one. He needs to awake from sleep and arise from the dead. When we expose or reprove anyone who is sleeping and in the darkness of death, Christ will shine on him. Our exposing or reproving in light is Christ’s shining.
Christ is the light making the believers light to walk as children of light in love. We the children of light should walk in love.
In verse 8 Paul says, “You were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” We were once not only dark but darkness itself. Now we are not only the children of light but light itself (Matt. 5:14). As light is God, so darkness is Satan. We were darkness because we were one with Satan. Now we are light because we are one with God in the Lord.
In Ephesians 5:8 Paul exhorts us to “walk as children of light.” As God is light, so we, the children of God, are also the children of light. Because we are now light in the Lord and the children of God, we should walk as children of light.
It is rather difficult to point out the difference between truth and light. In our experience we may often realize God as truth to us, as our reality, but sometimes when we enter into God’s presence, we sense that we are in the light. At such times, we are not only experiencing reality, but we are in the light itself. Thus, the experience of light is deeper than the experience of truth.
After commanding us to walk as children of light, Paul inserts in verse 9 a parenthetical statement regarding the fruit of the light: “The fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light; righteousness is the way or the procedure by which the fruit of the light is produced; and truth is the reality, the real expression (God Himself), of the fruit of the light. The fruit of the light must be good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression, that God may be expressed as the reality of our daily walk.
It is significant that in speaking of the fruit of the light, Paul mentions only three things: goodness, righteousness, and truth. The reason he mentions only three things is that the fruit of the light in goodness, righteousness, and truth is related to the Triune God. Goodness refers to the nature of the fruit of light. The Lord Jesus once indicated that the only one who is good is God Himself (Matt. 19:17). Hence, goodness here denotes God the Father. God the Father as goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light. Notice that here Paul speaks not of the work of the light nor of the conduct of the light but of the fruit of the light. Fruit is a matter of life with its nature. The nature of the fruit of the light is God the Father.
Righteousness denotes the way or the procedure of the fruit of the light. Righteousness is the procedure by which the fruit of the light is produced. In the Godhead, the Son, Christ, is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). He came to earth to produce certain things according to God’s procedure, which is always righteous. Righteousness is God’s way, God’s procedure. Christ came to accomplish God’s purpose according to His righteous procedure (Rom. 5:17-18, 21). Therefore, the second aspect, the way or procedure, of the fruit of the light refers to God the Son.
Truth is the expression of the fruit of the light. This fruit must be real; that is, it must be the expression of God, the shining of the hidden light. No doubt, this truth refers to the Spirit of reality, the third of the Divine Trinity (John 14:17). Therefore, the Father as the goodness, the Son as the righteousness, and the Spirit as the truth, the reality, are all related to the fruit of the light.
Ephesians 5:9 is the definition of walking as children of light. If we walk as the children of light, we will bear the fruit described in verse 9. The fruit we bear by walking as the children of the light must be in goodness, in righteousness, and in truth. The proof that we are walking as children of light is seen in the bearing of such fruit.
In verse 2 Paul issues a commandment: “Walk in love.” As grace and reality (truth) are the basic elements in 4:17-32, so love (5:2, 25) and light (vv. 8-9, 13) are the basic elements in the apostle’s exhortation in 5:1-33. As previously mentioned, grace is the expression of love, and love is the source of grace. Truth is the revelation of light, and light is the origin of truth. God is love and light (1 John 4:8; 1:5). When God is expressed and revealed in the Lord Jesus, His love becomes grace and His light becomes truth. After we have, in the Lord Jesus, received God as grace and realized Him as truth, we come to Him and enjoy His love and light. Love and light are deeper than grace and truth. Hence, the apostle first took grace and truth as the basic elements for his exhortation, and then love and light. This implies that he wanted our daily life to grow deeper, to progress from the outward elements to the inward.
Love is the inner substance of God, whereas light is the expressed element of God. The inward love of God in sensible, and the outward light of God is visible. Our walk in love should be constituted of both the loving substance and the shining element of God. These should be the inner source of our walk. We should live not only according to truth and by grace but also in love and under light. Walking in love and light is deeper and more tender than living according to truth and by grace.
In Ephesians 5:2 Paul tells us to walk in love. The first seven verses of this chapter cover the matter of love. If we walk in love, we will keep ourselves from uncleanness. To walk in love is to walk in intimacy with God. We should have an intimate relationship with the Father. As those who have received grace, we may come in the Son to contact the Father. In the Father’s presence we not only enjoy grace, the expression of love, but we also enjoy love itself. We experience this love in a very intimate way. Because we enjoy the love of God in such an intimate way, we do not want to do anything that displeases the Father. The Father hates fornication, uncleanness, and lust. If we walk in love, we will stay away from such things. Because we love the Father, we will not do anything to grieve His heart. What a tender, delicate, intimate walk this is! This is not simply living by grace; it is walking in love. We should always remember that we are children of God enjoying His love. We are saints separated unto Him and saturated with Him. Therefore, in our daily walk we would always take care of the Father’s feeling, for we live intimately in His tender love.
Paul commands us to walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor (v. 2). Here Paul sets forth Christ as the example for our living. In chapter 5 Christ Himself is our example, since in this chapter love expressed by Christ to us (vv. 2, 25) and light shined by Christ upon us (v. 14) are taken as the basic elements. Here Christ, who loved us and gave Himself up for us, is the example of walking in love.
Paul says that Christ “gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor” (v. 2). In the Bible there is a difference between an offering and a sacrifice. An offering is for fellowship with God, whereas a sacrifice is for redemption from sin. Christ gave Himself up for us as both an offering, that we might have fellowship with God, and a sacrifice, that He might redeem us from sin.
In loving us, Christ gave Himself up for us. This was for us, but it was a sweet-smelling savor to God. In following His example, our walk in love should be not only something for others but also a sweet-smelling savor to God.
Christ is our pattern for us to live a life in love and in light. By ourselves we could not love others as Christ loved us. We can love as He loved because He is our life. We have Him as our life and as our person (Col. 3:4; 2 Cor. 2:10). We have a person in us who loved us, and now by this person, in this person, and with this person, we can love as He loved. We can take Christ as our pattern to walk and work in love and light.
In Ephesians 5 Paul speaks of walking in love and light and of living by being filled in spirit. Thus, in chapter 5 there are three crucial words: love, light, and spirit. Love and light are covered in the first fourteen verses. The next section of this chapter deals with the mingled spirit. In particular, verses 18 through 20 reveal that it is through our being filled with God in our spirit that Christ shines on us and makes us light.
In verse 18 Paul says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit.” To be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body, whereas to be filled in our regenerated spirit is to be filled with Christ (1:23) unto the fullness of God (3:19). To be drunk with wine in the body causes us to become dissolute, but to be filled in our spirit with Christ, with the fullness of God, causes us to overflow with Christ in speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks to God (5:19-20). Day by day we need to be filled in our spirit with the riches of Christ.
To be filled in spirit (v. 18) is to be filled in our regenerated spirit, our human spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. Our spirit should not be empty; rather, it should be filled with the riches of Christ unto all the fullness of God (3:19). If our spirit is filled with the riches of Christ, we will have no problems in our Christian life.
Verses 19 through 20 are related to the matter of being filled in spirit in verse 18. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are not only for singing and psalming but also for speaking to one another. Such speaking, singing, and psalming are not only the outflow of being filled in spirit but also the way to be filled in spirit. Psalms are long poems, hymns are shorter poems, and spiritual songs are poems that are shorter still. All are needed in order for us to be filled with the Lord and to overflow with Him in our Christian life.
Verse 20 goes on to say, “Giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father.” We should give thanks to God the Father not only at good times but at all times, and not only for good things but for all things. Even in bad times we should give thanks to God our Father for the bad things. This verse tells us to give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reality of the name of the Lord is His person. To be in the Lord’s name is to be in His person, in Himself. This implies that we should be one with the Lord in giving thanks to God.
Being filled in spirit implies the divine dispensing of the processed Triune God into our being. We can be the children of light walking in love and light only by the Father’s dispensing Himself in the Son as the Spirit into our spirit. When the Triune God in Christ is dispensed into us, we will become in reality the children of God, who is light. Then as children of light, we will not only live by grace and truth; we will also live directly in God, who is love and light. Therefore, the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity constitutes us children of light walking in God as love and light.
Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity we need to be filled in our spirit with the Spirit as the divine wine. According to verse 18, we should not be drunk with wine; instead, we should be filled in spirit. We should be filled with God, even “drunk” with Him. God’s love is better than wine (S. S. 1:2). We should drink God’s love, soak in His love, and bathe in His love. We need to be those who are permeated and saturated with God’s love and even “drunk” with His love.
As children of light walking in love and light, we should be beside ourselves with the enjoyment of Christ. When we are drunk with God as our love and light, we will truly be children of light walking in love and light. As those who have been born of God and have become the children of God, we should daily be filled, saturated, and permeated with God through the dispensing of the Triune God into our being. We can be “drunk” with God only by opening ourselves to the divine dispensing. We should let Him as the living water flood us, saturate us, permeate us, and even carry us away (John 7:37-39). When our spirit is filled with the Triune God who has been dispensed into us, we will be drunk with Him not in our body but in our spirit, not in our outer man but in our inner man. If we are drunk with God through His dispensing, we will rejoice and exult, possessing the real enjoyment of the processed Triune God in our daily life, and we will become children of light filled with the Triune God and walking in love and light.
