In this message we come to Eph. 5:1-14. This portion of Ephesians covers the matter of living in love and light, the fourth item of a walk worthy of God’s calling.
Verse 1 says, “Become therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” Paul’s word here is an imperative, a command. He commands us to become imitators of God. What a glorious fact that since we are His beloved children, we can be imitators of God! As the children of God, we have His life and nature. We imitate God, not by our natural life, but by His divine life. It is by our Father’s life that we, His children, can be perfect as He is (Matt. 5:48).
According to the New Testament, the believers in Christ are children of God. As God’s children, we have God’s life. John 1:13 says that we have been born of God. To be born of God is to have the life of God. Furthermore, 2 Peter 1:4 says that we are partakers of the divine nature. Because we have the divine life and the divine nature, we can be imitators of God. Imitating God in this way is much different from training a monkey to imitate a man. A monkey does not have human life or human nature. But we have the divine life and the divine nature. Therefore, we can be imitators of God.
In verse 2 Paul issues another commandment: “Walk in love.” As grace and truth are the basic elements in Eph. 4:17-32, so love (Eph. 5:2, 25) and light (Eph. 5:8, 9, 13) are the basic elements in the apostle’s exhortation in Eph. 5:1-33. 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 firstly takes grace and truth as the basic elements for exhortation and then love and light. This implies that he wants our daily life to grow deeper, from the outward elements to the inward.
Love is the substance of God within, whereas light is the element of God expressed. It is possible to sense the love of God inwardly, and it is possible to see the light of God shining out. Our walk in love should be constituted of both the loving substance and the shining element of God. This should be the inner source of our walk. It is deeper than grace and truth.
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” (5:2). In 4:32 the apostle presents God as the pattern for our daily walk. Here he sets forth Christ as the example for our living. There it is God in Christ as our pattern since, in that section, God’s grace and truth expressed in the life of Jesus are taken as the basic elements. According to 4:32, we are to forgive others as God in Christ has forgiven us. This means that God is the pattern of forgiveness. But in chapter five Christ Himself is our example since, in this section, 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.” 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 both as an offering to have fellowship with God and as a sacrifice to redeem us from sin.
In loving us Christ gave Himself up for us. It was for us, but it was a sweet-smelling savor to God. In following His example, our walk in love should not only be something for others, but also a sweet-smelling savor to God.
In verses 3 and 4 Paul lists certain things not fitting for saints: “But fornication and all uncleanness or unbridled greedy lust, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; and filthiness and foolish talking or coarse jesting, which are not becoming, but rather giving of thanks.” Nothing is more damaging to mankind than fornication. Unbridled greedy lust is a lust full of greed and uncontrolled. Such evil things should not even be named among us, as is fitting for saints, for persons separated unto God and saturated with God, living a life according to God’s holy nature.
Instead of foolish talking or coarse jesting, there should be the giving of thanks. To give thanks to God is to speak God as truth, whereas foolish talking or coarse jesting is to speak the Devil as falsehood.
Verse 5 says, “For this you know, knowing that every fornicator or unclean person or person of unbridled greedy lust, who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” The Greek word rendered know is oida and signifies subjective knowledge, whereas the Greek word rendered knowing is ginosko and signifies objective knowledge. What Paul speaks in verse 5 we are to know both subjectively and objectively. We must realize that no fornicator or unclean person or person of unbridled greedy lust has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. In the eyes of God, a person of unbridled greedy lust is actually an idolater, one who worships idols.
In this verse Paul speaks of the kingdom of Christ and of God. The kingdom of Christ is the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6; Matt. 16:28); it is also the kingdom of God (Matt. 13:41, 43). The believers have been regenerated into the kingdom of God (John 3:5) and are, in the church life, living in the kingdom of God today (Rom. 14:17). Not all believers will participate in the millennium; only the overcoming ones will. The unclean, defeated ones will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God in the coming age.
According to John 3, all those who are regenerated are in the kingdom of God. Romans 14:17 also indicates that in the church life we are in the kingdom of God today. However, the millennium will be the kingdom in a way that is more practical than what we are experiencing in the church today. Only in the millennium does the kingdom of Christ also become the kingdom of God. Therefore, the term the kingdom of Christ and of God refers not to the kingdom today in the church life, but to the manifestation of the kingdom in the coming millennium. Today all believers are in the kingdom of God, but not all of them will have an inheritance in the coming millennial kingdom. Both the defeated ones and the overcoming ones may be in the church as the kingdom of God. But only the overcoming ones will inherit the kingdom during the millennium. The fornicators, the unclean persons, and those of unbridled greedy lust will have no share in the reign of Christ in the millennium.
Verse 6 continues, “Let no one deceive you with vain words, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.” The wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience mainly because of the three evil things spoken of in verse 3. The sons of disobedience are the unbelievers. We, the believers, are beloved children of God. Nevertheless, some of God’s children behave as if they were sons of disobedience. Therefore, the wrath of God will come upon them. For this reason, in verse 7 Paul tells us, “Do not become partakers together with them.” We should be good imitators of God and not be partakers of any unclean thing.
In verse 8 Paul says, “For you were once darkness, but 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 the Devil. We were darkness because we were one with the Devil. Now we are light because we are one with God in the Lord.
In this verse 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, we should walk as children of light.
In verse 2 Paul tells us to walk in love, and in verse 8 he tells us to walk as children of light. The first seven verses of this chapter cover the matter of love. If we walk in love, we shall keep ourselves from uncleanness. To walk in love is to walk in intimacy with God. An intimate relationship between a daughter and mother may illustrate what it means to walk in love. Certain young women enjoy an intimate love with their mothers. They love whatever their mothers love. Because of the love they have for their mothers, they are not willing to do anything opposed to their mothers’ feeling. Rather, they walk in intimate love toward their mothers. In the same principle, we 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 shall stay away from such things. Because we love the Father, we shall not do anything to grieve His heart. What a tender, delicate 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.
The difference between love and grace can be illustrated by the relationship between a mother and her child. Sometimes a child may want something from the mother. However, at other times the child simply wants to enjoy the mother’s loving embrace. Receiving something from the mother which expresses the mother’s love is grace. But resting in the loving embrace of the mother is an illustration of love. In the same principle, we have received grace, the expression of the Father’s love. But as we go to the Father in fellowship, we enter into His love, which is the source of grace.
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 get 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 very light itself. Thus, the experience of light is deeper than the experience of truth.
We should not simply be according to truth and by grace, but in love and under light. Walking in love and in light is deeper and more tender than living according to truth and by grace.
After commanding us to walk as children of light, Paul inserts in verse 9 a parenthetical statement regarding the fruit of the light, saying that “the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light; righteousness is the way or the procedure to produce the fruit of the light; and the truth is the reality, the real expression of the fruit of the light. This expression is God Himself. The fruit of the light must be good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression so 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. He does not speak of holiness, kindness, or humility. The reason he mentions just 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.
We have pointed out that the 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. 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. Therefore, the second aspect of the fruit of the light refers to God the Son.
The 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 Triune God. 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.
Verse 9 is the definition of walking as children of light. If we walk as the children of light, we shall 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.
Verse 10 says, “Proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord.” This phrase is related to verse 8. We should not walk foolishly or blindly or ignorantly. Rather, we should walk as children of light, proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord.
In verse 11 Paul says, “And do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose them.” The unfruitful works of darkness are vanity, whereas the fruit of the light is truth, reality. Just as Paul commands us to walk as children of light, he also commands us not to participate in the unfruitful works of darkness.
In verse 11 Paul commands us to expose the unfruitful works of darkness. In verse 13 he says, “But all things which are exposed are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes manifest is light.” The Greek word rendered exposed may also be rendered reprove or rebuke.
It is a very difficult matter to expose or rebuke someone. Most people reject a rebuke and feel enmity toward the one who rebukes them. There is an element in the fallen human nature that rejects rebuking, reproving, or exposing. Therefore, if possible, we should not expose or rebuke anyone. However, there are times when rebuking is necessary. At such times, the one who does the rebuking must be sure that he himself is very clean. He is like a surgeon who must cleanse himself of all germs before performing surgery. If you have not been purified, you are not qualified to operate on someone by rebuking or exposing him, for the germs in you will cause the other to be contaminated. The reason most rebukes are not successful is that those who give the rebuke are not pure. Therefore, immediately after the “surgery” infection sets in. Before we can reprove or expose someone, we must be purified, or even sterilized. We must be clean in our thought, motive, feeling, and intention. We must be pure in our heart and in our spirit. This is one aspect of the matter of reproving.
Another aspect concerns the one who receives the reproof or the rebuke. If you are being rebuked by someone, you should not try to discern whether or not the one rebuking you is pure. Simply receive the rebuke, the exposure. If you do this, you will be blessed. You will be aroused from sleep, and Christ will shine on you. Every rebuke, whether pure or impure, clean or unclean, 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 shall be able to profit from any kind of rebuking.
In verse 14 Paul says, “Wherefore He says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall shine on you.” The sleeping one who needs the exposing mentioned in verses 11 and 13 is also a dead one. He needs to awake from sleep and arise from death. 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.
