Over ten years ago, I had quite the privilege of going out to the great state of Wyoming and visiting the woman who would one day become my beautiful wife. While we were out there, I had the opportunity to see something I had never seen on this side of the country. As you know, it is a very sparse state. There is more land there than there are people, and that gives you an opportunity you don’t find in very densely populated places.
Back here, we have something called light pollution. Light pollution is when the street lights and the house lights and the lights from the cars all create a glow in the atmosphere that dims what you can see of the stars and the sky. You may not even know this is happening, but when you look up at night, even if you live out in the county, the light pollution from the city of Danville is preventing you from seeing the full night sky. When I walked out into their backyard, they turned off all the floodlights outside. I looked up and I could see the Milky Way, unfiltered and unhindered. I could see the glowing lights of space like I had never seen them back here. It literally took my breath away. And I’ll tell you, I have never been able to look at the night sky back here the same way since.
What we don’t realize is that we have a lot of fake light back here—the shining, shimmering lights of civilization that help us see what’s going on down here, but dim our ability to see what’s going on up there.
But what’s amazing is that there is one light in the night sky that you can see even if you are standing in the middle of New York City. You may not be able to see any other star, but you can see the moon. Why? Because the moon, unlike all the other distant stars, is reflecting the light of our very own sun. The light of the sun is so bright and so powerful that when it bounces off the moon and comes back down to the earth, even the brightest city lights cannot stop you from seeing it. Isn’t that amazing? God is good. He’s the best scientist you’ll ever meet.
We as Christians live in a world full of fake light—light designed to look bright and to shimmer and to draw us in. If you go to big cities, you will walk down streets full of neon lights, billboard lights, and glowing screens trying to get you to buy any and everything. It looks bright, but you don’t even realize how much it is dimming the glorious light of heaven. But as Christians, God has designed us to reflect a light, even in a society that doesn’t realize how dim it truly is.
The God Who Dwells in Unapproachable Light
In 1 Timothy 6:16, Paul is giving praise to God, and this is what he says:
God, who alone hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
Paul describes God as the One dwelling in the light—so radiant, so glorious, so bright, that no man can approach it. We cannot even begin to step into the full light of God’s glory, because it would zap us. That is how great the light of God is. And that is the God you and I are called to imitate.
Back at the beginning of this chapter in Ephesians, Paul says, “Be ye therefore followers”—a word that can be translated “imitators”—of God. We have been called to imitate God, to bear His image in the world. As believers, we have been given a unique calling to let the character of God shine out into the world. We’ve been talking about the different ways we do that. We bear God’s image by walking in love. We bear God’s image by walking in purity, avoiding the dirtiness and filthiness of this world that our society has so normalized. Now Paul tells us that if we are to be imitators of God, if we are to bear His image, we must also walk in the light.
The theme of dark and light occurs frequently throughout the Bible. If you remember our study of John, he often returned to that parallel between light and darkness—the light coming into the world and shining into the darkness, and the darkness could not comprehend it or overcome it. The dark could not contain it as the light of Jesus Christ shined into the world. I think God loves this illustration because it helps us see the difference between the two ways we can walk through this world. When we walk according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, we are living in darkness. Our path is unclear. Our acts are acts of darkness. Our lifestyle is darkness.
If you talk to any unbeliever, they can put on a smile for you, and they may have moments of happiness, but if they will be honest with you, there is a darkness that lives in their soul day by day. There is an emptiness they are always trying to fill. I can say that with confidence because I was there. I did all the Christian things, but in my heart there was a darkness, and no amount of pleasure, no amount of satisfaction, no amount of success, no amount of pats on the back could make that darkness go away. It wasn’t until the light of Jesus Christ shined into my soul that I felt that darkness lifting and fading away.
Our God dwells in light, and His way is a way full of light. That’s why the psalmist said, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Y’all are awake this morning—that’s good. A light unto my path. God’s ways are a way of light. Amen. And so if we are going to be imitators of God, we must walk in the light, because God is in the light.
Once Darkness, Now Light
To call us into this light, Paul reminds us of the position we used to be in before we encountered it. In verse 8, he says, “For ye were sometimes darkness.” Now, “sometimes” is a King James word—it means “once.” For once you were darkness. That’s an important point, because he’s not saying you once were in darkness. That would give us the idea that we were okay, but we were surrounded by darkness, and the darkness was external to us. What he is saying is that before you encountered the light of Christ, you were darkness. The darkness was not just outside of you, influencing you. The darkness was in you.
That’s why James says that when we are tempted, we shouldn’t blame the devil or blame somebody else. When you are tempted, you are tempted of your own flesh. You don’t need anybody else to make you sin. You don’t need anybody else to make you walk in darkness. You will do that by yourself. The monks in previous centuries of Christian history entered monastic life because they thought, “If I can separate myself from the wickedness of society, it will help me walk the way I should.” And Martin Luther was one of the many who came out of that and said, in essence, “Guess what? I thought I could get away from the darkness, and I found out the darkness was already inside of me. I couldn’t escape it by getting away from the world.”
So Paul is reminding us there was a time when we were darkness. Our life was darkness. The things we thought were dark thoughts, the things we felt were dark feelings, our actions were dark actions. We lived the way the world lived and thought the way the world thought. But he gives us good news: “But now are ye light in the Lord.”
Just like that moon, there is a glory that has shined on me and has now caused me to shine—to display the glory of the One who created me and gave me life. The moon doesn’t put off any light of its own. If the sun is not shining on it, the moon is useless on a dark night. In a new moon, you can’t see what’s on the other side of the street. But in a full moon, it looks like somebody has put a spotlight on your backyard, because the light and glory of the sun is shining on that moon. In the same way, the light of Christ has shined upon us, and now we are light in Christ. And so Paul says: walk as children of light. If we are going to be imitators of God and children of God, we have to walk in the light of the Lord.
Now, that sounds real spiritual, doesn’t it? That sounds real good. But I hope you’re already asking the question I’m getting ready to answer: How do I walk in the light? What does that mean? I believe Paul gives us three effects that will come out of our lives when we walk in the light of the Lord. I’m not going to tell a lie from the pulpit and say “quickly,” but I will give these to you in an appropriate amount of time, and then we’ll go home.
First: You Will Bear the Fruit of Light
When you walk in the light, the first thing you will notice is that you bear the fruit of light. In verse 9, Paul says, “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” This is one of those manuscript debates theologians have, because some of the oldest manuscripts we have actually say “the fruit of the light,” which would make sense in the context of this passage. But whether it is rendered Spirit or light, the truth remains the same: when you are walking in the light of the Lord, illuminated by His Holy Spirit, you are going to bear fruit that is appropriate to the light.
In times past, we bore the fruit of darkness. Our actions and words and behaviors and feelings reflected what we saw in the world around us. But now that we are in Christ and His light has shined into us, a different kind of fruit needs to be growing and bearing in our lives. He says that fruit is to be in all goodness—and by the way, goodness is one of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. The actions and words and behaviors of your life should be characterized as good. Isn’t it interesting that even unbelievers can do a pretty good job of telling you the difference between good and bad? A lot of times the question isn’t whether something is good or bad. The question is whether they want to do it badly enough to overlook it. Even our society has developed laws that say, “That’s good, that’s bad, so do this and don’t do that.” So he is telling us as believers that the actions and words and attitudes of our lives should be characterized by goodness: doing that which is good and rejecting that which is bad.
Not only goodness, but righteousness. Righteousness refers to that which is in God’s law, that which is right, that which goes along with good judgment. If you were put on trial and had to answer for the rightness of the actions and words of your life, would you be found innocent or guilty? Those who walk in the light will walk in righteousness. If our lifestyle and actions were put on trial, an honest court would be able to find us innocent of any charges. That is to be the lifestyle of believers.
And then he says truth. Here’s the thing: while we do recognize some things as good and some things as bad, everybody has their own sense of morality. Some people will say, “Well, yes, it’s certainly bad to kill someone, but I just don’t see what the big deal is with fill in the blank.” I think we all have our pet sins that at some point in our lives we have tried to excuse or allow to be a part of our lives. But Paul is saying goodness and righteousness are not to be subjective. We are to get that truth from God’s truth. We are to let this Book determine the goodness and the rightness in which we live.
He sums it all up in verse 10: “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.” That is, determining or testing what is acceptable. If you’re asking, “How do I walk in goodness? How do I walk in righteousness? How do I walk in truth?” here is the ultimate test: Would this be pleasing to the Lord, or would God be displeased with this? Someone asked me when I was younger, “If you would not feel comfortable doing it with Jesus in the room, you probably shouldn’t be comfortable doing it at all.” That is the test. Would this be pleasing to the Lord if I tried to give it to Him as a gift? Your conscience will tell you pretty quickly what the right answer is.
I do want to make this point clear. Bearing the fruit of the light doesn’t just mean we stop lying and cheating and stealing and getting drunk. It’s not just about those big, gross, external sins. Bearing the fruit of the light has just as much to do with the position of our heart. It means we trade our bitterness for gentleness and grace. We trade our anger and our quickness to snap and react for humility and patience. We trade those behaviors that come naturally to our flesh for the things God declares to be good: gentleness, meekness, patience, love. Those fruits are to be the characteristics of our lives. Our life is not just a list of things we don’t do. Our life is to be characterized by goodness and righteousness and a spirit that reflects the glory of the God who created us.
Second: You Will Expose the Fruit of Darkness
As we begin to bear that fruit of the light, it is going to get noticed by those around us. We are not only to bear the fruit of light; we are also going to expose the fruit of darkness. Look at what Paul says in verses 11 through 13: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Again, that doesn’t mean we go to a monastery and separate ourselves from the darkness of this world, because you will not get away from it no matter where you go. What he’s saying is, do not partake in the works of darkness. Do not get in on the sin and the wickedness and the darkness of this world. You are to be separate from engagement in those things.
Part of walking in the light means we are reflecting the character that naturally belongs to God and shining it out into the world. But as we do that, the light of our life is going to begin to expose the darkness of this world.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m having company over and there’s a room in the house I am just not prepared to clean, what am I going to do? I’m going to turn off the light and close the door. I’m going to make sure that is the darkest room in the house, because I do not want my company seeing the mess that has accumulated in there. Now, I know y’all probably don’t have a room like that. We’ve got four kids, so things happen. But nonetheless, you hide the things you don’t want people to see by making it dark and closing it off.
The very same thing happens in the human soul. When there are things we don’t want other people to see, we try to hide them, wrap them up, tuck them away. We make sure that is the darkest spot in our soul, so that sometimes even we can’t see what’s there. But what happens when light starts to shine in? You start to see the things you didn’t want anyone to see. And Paul says part of walking in the light is not only ensuring that our life reflects the light of the Savior, but letting that light shine out into the world. And we know the world is in darkness. So when our light starts to shine out, the darkness of this world starts to get illuminated, and you can begin to see it for what it is.
As believers, when we go out into a dark world with the glory of God reflecting on our souls and coming out of us into the world, there is going to be a natural effect. That light is going to start making visible things that people did not want to be visible. Sins become clearer when we are not walking in those sins. Bad attitudes become more visible when you are around somebody with a good attitude. That’s why we say, “Kill ’em with kindness.” When somebody’s bitterness and anger and frustration come out at you and you don’t return the same bitterness and frustration, the Bible says you heap burning coals upon their head. You make it clear that what they’re doing is not the best way.
Now, this is not to be done in a way that is self-righteous or ungracious. Understand, there is a way to call out darkness that puts you in the spotlight. There are a lot of people who have mastered the art of making themselves look good by making everybody else look bad. That’s not what Paul is talking about. What he’s saying is that when you focus on your light shining bright, you are naturally going to start exposing the wickedness of the world. And that is supposed to happen. We are the light of the world. We are a city set on a hill. We are the salt of the earth, and we are supposed to get down into the wounds of sin and cause some burning. We are supposed to shine light on the things that are dark and make them visible.
You, as a Christian, are called to make the darkness of this world clear. Sometimes that will happen through your words. There are times you have to confront sin that you see, and that’s not fun. In fact, it’s one of the most uncomfortable things we have to do. But God is present in it, and He will help you if you are doing it in love. But, folks, sometimes all you have to do is walk into a room, and the light of your countenance starts to make people uncomfortable. We are to expose the fruit of darkness.
Third: You Will Lead Others into the Light
Here’s the last key. We are not to expose that darkness just for the sake of making others feel bad or making ourselves look good. We expose that darkness so that others will step into the light as well. Notice how Paul brings this section to a close in verse 14:
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
This quotation doesn’t come from any one specific Scripture. It’s a mixing of several Old Testament passages—Isaiah 60:1–2 and Isaiah 26:19, among them—and it’s believed that Paul is quoting a hymn from the early church that they would sing together in worship. But the reason he’s quoting it is this: our light shining out is not just to make others feel bad, and it’s not just to make us look good. The reason we shine our light is that others will be awakened to the light—that they will awaken from their sleep and from their darkness, that they will arise from the dead as we have risen from the dead, and that the light of Christ will shine out of us into them and bring them into the light of Jesus Christ.
I’ve got good news for you this morning: God wants to use you to bring the people you love out of darkness and into light. He wants to use you to change the lives of the people around you. Have you considered that? God didn’t just save you to get you out of hell. He saved you to make you useful for His kingdom. He has given you His life so that you will glorify Him, but also so that you might be able to guide others into the light of Jesus Christ. We are called to bear the image of God, and that means walking in a light that is visible to this world, that exposes the darkness of it, and that gives people light to come down the path of Jesus Christ and experience that light for themselves.
Is Your Light Bright Enough?
That begs the question, and I want to ask it of you this morning: Is your light shining before men in such a way that it will guide them to the light of Jesus Christ? Is your light bright enough that someone could follow the path of it to the cross? Is the light of Jesus Christ shining brightly in your life? Are you daily bearing the fruit of His light? When’s the last time someone stopped you and said, “I don’t know what it is, but there’s something different about you”? Your Bible says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your Father in heaven and glorify him.” That’s an invitation. That’s an opportunity.
You may be sitting here this morning saying, “Justin, I don’t like the answer I have to that question. I think my light’s been a little too dim. I think I’m falling short of shining a light that will light the way for others. What do I do?” Well, first you ask the Lord the question: Lord, is the light in me? Am I in the light? Have I seen the light? Or have I just been practicing religion all this time? It may be that today is the day God wants to shine the light of Jesus Christ into your heart for the very first time. Or it may be that you just need to get on your knees and say, “Father, I want to shine Your light. I need Your light for my life. I’ve got people I love, people I care about, who need to see Your light shining in me. Lord, would You shine Your light into my soul and help me reflect it for those around me?”
Folks, I’m telling you this morning, He will answer that prayer. But the question is, will you pray it? Will you be used to shine the light in a dark world?
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