Yes, you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; and you are to walk as a child of light. In other words, you are to live in the light, live in “all that is good, and right and true” (verse 9). This is our response to the gospel, to the grace God has given us.
Question 7. Please take a moment and write out Ephesians 5:11, putting your name in the sentence:
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We are to have absolutely nothing to do with the unfruitful deeds of darkness. We are to walk in the light, destroying all our previous dark hiding spots and boarding them up so we can’t enter again. We are to live in transparency and openness, hiding nothing.
Also, we are to “expose” the deeds done in darkness. We are to bring them into the light. The reason we are to do this is because sin is like a fungus: it thrives in the darkness but completely withers in the sun.
Let me share with you several ways I have taken this passage to heart and applied it in my life, to prompt your thinking along these lines:
When I would travel, I began bringing home my hotel room receipts to show my wife. I wanted her to see that I had not purchased pornography, to live transparently.
I did not use my computer in any room where the door was closed. I sat with my computer screen in view of the family. I made sure it was “open and exposed” to anyone who wanted to see. I wanted to be transparent, and live in the light.
My pastor taught me that a Christian man will lead his wife in love and purity, not sit around and wait for her to lead and suggest things that he should do.
Question 8. As you consider walking in the light, exposing the darkness to the light, what are some things you think would help you to accomplish this?
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As you consider ways to come into the light, notice this truth about light and darkness: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5 ESV). Light is more powerful than darkness. If you walk in the light, as Jesus is in the light, darkness will not overcome you. Purity overcomes lust just as light overcomes darkness, and Jesus overcame Satan. There is so much hope for you as you begin to “walk as a child of light.”
Remember, Jesus Christ has come into our darkness to rescue us, redeem us, forgive our sins, and qualify us to share an eternal inheritance. God has translated us into the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Light.
Therefore, let us now have nothing to do with our previous deeds of darkness, instead let’s expose them. Let’s now walk in the Light with Jesus, living transparently and openly, and with nothing to hide.
1 Peter 2:9 ESV But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.