we are now light in the Lord, so therefore let us walk as children of light, bearing the fruit of the light

It is so easy to “miss it” when you come to a verse that you have read so many times, and it is quoted by others so often. This morning I enjoyed these two simple verses in Ephesians 5:8-9,

For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth).

These verses brings out the precious and basic truth that we were once not only IN DARKNESS, but we were actually DARKNESS itself when we were apart/away from God. And now, since we met the Lord as the Great Light of Life and He lives in us, we are not only IN THE LIGHT, but we are actually LIGHT itself in the Lord! How precious!

We are light itself, and we are children of light – walking in the light, being under the shining of the light daily, being filled with light, and even being light to the ones around us(see the verse saying, You are the light of the world). Hallelujah, what a great truth about what we are: we are light itself, we are children of light!

But then the verse goes on and says – walk as children of light(for the fruit of light …). What is “the fruit of light” here, in this context? Since God in Christ is light, the fruit of light cannot be something different than God Himself shining out, right?

Well, I was so helped from the life-study of Ephesians to see that there is a nature, there is a way/procedure, and there is the expression – of the fruit of the light. The fruit of the light is God being expressed through us in a particular way, shining in us and through us in our walking in the light every day:

• Goodness – the fruit of the light consists in all goodness – here goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light. What is goodness? Who is good? According to the Lord Jesus (Matt. 19:17), only God is good. Goodness here then denotes God the Father – God is the nature of the fruit of the light;
• Righteousness – the fruit of the light consists in all…. righteousness – the way / the procedure of the fruit of the light is righteousness. From among the Three the Godhead, it is Christ who is our righteousness. Righteousness is God’s way of dealing with things and His way of doing things, His procedure. The procedure / the way of the fruit of the light is Christ as righteousness.
• Truth – the fruit of light consists in all… truth – or reality. The reality of the fruit of the light is the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of truth. How do we walk in the light? Not by trying to do this or obeying some rules, but rather by us exercising our spirit to walk in the spirit(which is mingled with The Spirit).

Wow, in such a simple verse we see that in His shining on us God mingles Himself with us, the entire Triune God mingles Himself with the tripartite man, so that He may be lived out / expressed through us!

Walking as children of the light now is not something we “have to do” in a legalistic way – it is something we automatically and spontaneously live out as we exercise our spirit! God as goodness itself, Christ as our righteousness, and the Spirit of reality become everything to us in the light, and the Triune God is being mingled with us as we walk in the light daily.

The result is that there is a fruit: God lives in man, God is expressed in man, and the Triune God is being lived out in humanity!

O, Lord, Amen for Your Word! We want to see the deeper significance of the truth in the Bible! Even to see that Your intention is to work Himself into us by shining in us – to mingle Yourself with us so that You might live in us and be expressed through us!