Distinction is clearly made between Paul’s readers and those whom they should “know with certainty” will not have “an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (vs. 5, see yesterday’s reading). Christians do have this inheritance, that is, eternal life, so therefore should not share in the activities and life style of the lost. That lifestyle is best described as darkness, Paul says. They were formerly darkness personified, but now they are a light source in the world. Using this strong metaphor, he says they were not “in the darkness,” nor that they are like darkness, but they were darkness. That is what they used to be, but they aren’t that now.

Believers, however, are described as Light in the Lord. Notice the apostle doesn’t say the Ephesian believers are “in” the Light, nor that they are like light, but that they are light. This light of course is sourced in the Lord; it is reflective rather than original. Paul is simply echoing what Jesus had taught His disciples, “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14).

This contrast is a repeated theme in Paul’s letter (see Ephesians 2:1–3 and 4:17–24). Believers and unbelievers are in two completely separate camps, as different as light and darkness, day and night. And the goal of the two kinds of life is stark. For believers, it means walking as children of the Light, not just resting on our status as believers. Paul pictures, as he does elsewhere (see Gal 5:22-23), the Christian life as a fruit-bearing tree. Here the fruit is depicted as “goodness and righteousness and truth,” the opposite of the Gentile kind of living. The Christian has as his goal, or should have, the desire to please God. While the accomplishing of this in perfect form may be elusive, the desire (“trying to learn”) has the sense of “determining to learn,” not a half-hearted effort in the least. This is absent from the non-believer, who lives to please himself.

Pleasing God is the ultimate endeavor of the Christian, and it involves obedience, worship and praise. Indeed, when a human desires these things for himself, we understand this to be sinful self-centeredness. But when God desires these, it is only fitting, for He is in fact the center of the universe! It pleases Him greatly when we walk as children of the light.