As children of God, we need to walk as children of light, live in the light, and have the fruit of the light, which is good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression, so that God may be expressed in our daily walk.
As believers in Christ we are children of God, those who are not only born of our parents to be men but also born of God to be God-men, sons of God, bona fide children of God. As such ones, as children of God, we should walk in love and light.
Because we are children of God, we have the divine life and the divine nature in us, and when we live according to the divine nature, we spontaneously live in love and light.
Love is not something of ourselves – love is of God, it is the inner substance of God; light is also not of ourselves – it is of God, for light is the expressed element of God.
Our daily walk as children of God should be in love and light, that is, we need to express the loving substance of God and the shining element of God.
The love of Christ – which is Christ Himself – is immeasurable, for this love is Christ Himself; Christ is love, and since He’s immeasurable, His love is knowledge-surpassing, yet we can know it by experiencing it.
When we know the love of Christ by experiencing it, we will realize that love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and for us to do anything in the church life, for when we are and do things in the love of Christ, we build up the Body in love.
Praise the Lord, the Body of Christ builds itself up in love, and we can live and walk in love because God is love and His divine life and nature is in us, making us able to walk in love!
Furthermore, we were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord; therefore, we should walk as children of light. Once we were in darkness and we were part of darkness, for our father was the devil; now we are children of God, and He is light – so we are children of light, even light itself.
As God is light, so we as His children are children of light; even more, we are light itself, because we are one with God in the Lord.
In John 8:12 the Lord said that He is the light of the world, and in Matt. 5:14 He said that we are the light of the world; He in us makes us the light of the world.
Just as a city situated on a mountain cannot remain hidden, so we as the light of the world cannot and should not remain hidden but let the Lord in us shine forth, and we should walk in the light, live in the light, and have the fruit of the light!
When we Live and Walk in the Light, we are Outside of the Realm of Right and Wrong
Many times believers and unbelievers alike consider things, make decisions, and do certain things based on, “Is this right, or is this wrong? Is this good, or is this evil?” If you think about it, what’s wrong with choosing to do the right thing vs choosing to do the wrong thing?
Here we need to see what it means for us as children of light to walk in the light. As children of God, we are children of light, and our walk should be as children of light – we should walk in the light.
What does it mean to walk in the light? It is not easy to explain what it is to walk in the light, for it is by default that we choose good vs bad, right vs wrong, good vs evil. What the Bible tells us, however, is not to consider whether something is right or wrong, good or bad, but to walk in the light.
To walk in the light is outside of the realm of right and wrong, good and evil. Being in the realm of good and evil is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as seen in the garden of Eden.
We need to live, walk, and behave in the light; whatever we do, whatever we say, and wherever we go, we should simply be in the light.
If we are in the light, we will see our sins, for God’s light shines on us, and we will confess our sins; then, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin, and we are maintained in the fellowship of life (1 John 1:7, 9).
But if we don’t walk in the light, we do not have fellowship with one another, and we can say whatever we want to say about ourselves or others – we are not in the light.
When we are in the light, we spontaneously act and behave in a certain way; however, when we are in darkness, we need to try to discern things, guess what’s going on, and grope for a way to do things.
If we are in the light, we clearly see the way before us, we see God’s will for us, and we simply go on with the Lord. But if we are in darkness, we grope to find the best way, we do our best to “discern” people and situations, and we guess what is going on. Oh Lord Jesus!
When we are in the light, there’s no need for us to grope, guess, or discern – light shows all things, light dispels any darkness, and light brings in life and the fellowship of life! When we are in the light, we are outside of the realm of right and wrong.
If we see or discern the problems in the church doesn’t mean that we are in the light, so we see things clearly; rather, we may be completely in darkness, and we “guess” something based on what we feel in darkness.
When we are in the light we’re outside of the realm of right and wrong, good and evil. When others ask us questions, we need to be one with the Lord to not enter into the realm of right and wrong, but walk in the light and bring others in the light.
When we are in the light, we walk in the light, and we become God’s expression as light.
Lord Jesus, we want to live and walk in the light day by day. Keep us out of the realm of right and wrong. We simply want to walk in the light, apply the precious blood of Christ to be washed from every sin, and have fellowship with the saints. Save us from trying to “discern others’ problems” or “guess others’ situation”. May we be in the light, live as children of the light, and bring others into the Lord’s light so that the blood may cleanse us, we may have fellowship with others, and the Body of Christ may be built up!
When we Walk in the Light we Bear the Fruit of the Light: Goodness, Righteousness, and Truth
After Paul commands us to walk as children of light, he inserts a parenthetical statement regarding the fruit of light, saying that “the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.”
When we walk in the light, we bear the fruit of the light, which is goodness, righteousness, and truth; goodness is the nature of this fruit, righteousness is the procedure or way to produce the fruit, and truth is the reality, the real expression of the fruit of the light.
When we walk in the light, we express God; when we walk in the light, our expression is God’s expression in our daily living, and this is the fruit of the light. 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.
Why did Paul mention only these three matters – goodness, righteousness, and truth – when he spoke of the fruit of the light? He could have mentioned joy, meekness, holiness, humility, and many other Christian virtues, but he spoke only of these three.
The reason is simple: these three relate to the Triune God.
Goodness refers to the nature of the fruit of light; the Lord Jesus said that the only One who is good is God Himself (Matt. 19:17). Goodness denotes God the Father, and God the Father as goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light.
Righteousness relates to the way or procedure by which the fruit of the light is produced; the Son – Christ – is our righteousness, and He came to earth to produce certain things according to God’s procedure, which is always righteous.
Christ came to accomplish God’s purpose according to His righteous procedure, and He became our righteousness. Righteousness therefore refers to God the Son.
Truth refers to 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. Truth refers to God the Spirit, who today is the Spirit of reality, coming to guide us into all the reality. Wow!
So the fruit of light is nothing else but the Triune God being expressed as goodness (the Father in His nature), righteousness (the Son in His work and ways), and truth (the Spirit in His work).
The Father as the goodness, the Son as the righteousness, and the Spirit as the truth are all related to the fruit of light.
Paul says that our walk as children of light produces the fruit of light; he doesn’t say “the work of light” or “the behavior of light” but “the fruit of the light”. Fruit is a matter of life; a tree bears fruit according to its life and nature.
We have the fruit of light because we have a certain life and nature in us.
Because we have the Triune God in us, we are children of light, and we produce the fruit of light, which is not what we can do for God but God Himself being expressed through us as goodness, righteousness, and truth. We need to bring this before the Lord and ask Him,
Lord Jesus, may we as children of light bear the fruit of light in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Work Yourself into us more every day, Lord, and cause us to walk according to the divine nature which is in us, so that our fruit may be good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression. Amen, Lord, may the Triune God be expressed as the reality of our daily walk! May the spontaneous fruit of our living in the light be full of goodness, righteousness, and truth, so that we may express our Triune God in our daily life!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 50 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 5, Knowing the Significance of Loving the Lord, Loving the Lord Jesus Christ in Incorruptibility, and Walking in Love and Light.
- Hymns on this topic:
# By Thy love we are Thy children, / Abba Father calling Thee; / Light disperses all our darkness, / Till, like Him, Thy Son, we see. / O what grace! O what truth! / Love is seen and light is shown! / We would praise Thee never-ceasing, / Thou by love and light art known! (Hymns #13)
# Walk in the light, and sin abhorred / Shall ne’er defile again; / The blood of Jesus Christ the Lord / Shall cleanse from every stain. (Hymns #658)
# Thy Spirit with our spirit, Lord, / The witness ever bears / That we the Father’s children are / And of God’s glory heirs. / Tis in our spirit we may walk / And follow Thee alway, / While, as the Spirit, Thou dost lead / And light impart each day. (Hymns #745)
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