Ephesians 5:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” This happened to you, he says, not because of your virtue, but by the grace of God. That is, you too were once worthy of the same things, but no longer.

Further, the soul that has received the luminous word of truth itself becomes light and hears from Paul: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”

When the soul is permeated by the Gospel word, it is called light according to faith, and likewise according to works. “Let your light so shine,” says the Lord, “before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:16).

It is necessary that one who has received the light of faith should also do the works of light. The soul of the faithful must not only be light; he must also shine before men by his works.

Therefore the Savior says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:16).

And here is something marvelous: the light that comes from God is simple, but its rays are diverse, not in nature, of course, but in operation.

The enlightening teaching of God is sent to every faithful soul, according to what is said: “Let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us” (Ps 89:17), so that our works may be set right before Him.

This brightness is one in itself, but by manifesting itself in us it produces many brightnesses: the brightness of almsgiving, the brightness of chastity, the brightness of hospitality, and the brightness of love.

With God the brightness is one. In us it seems to sparkle and shimmer in varied hues, illumining one with the gift of prophecy, kindling in another the fire of apostleship, and granting another the radiance of martyrdom.

There the brightness is one, but in us there are many, as it is said: “With You is dominion in the day of Your power, in the brightnesses of Your saints” (Ps 109:3).

"For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." If it is possible for darkness to be turned into light, then there is no nature that perishes and cannot receive salvation, as some heretics suppose.

Therefore let us ask those who invent this: are all the ungodly darkness, or not?

Some of them, although they are called darkness because of malice, are now, having turned toward what is better, called light in the Lord.

As the righteous are the light of the world, so the ungodly will consequently be called darkness.

Indeed, since the righteous are light, they will see light in light. Since the unrighteous are darkness, they are a people sitting in darkness and seeing nothing.

We see their division and difference from one another by their fruits. Everyone who does evil hates the light and, by not coming to the light, is dark and is a son of night and darkness.

But he who labors for the truth and comes to the light is light and a son of day and light (Jn 3:20-21).

Those who shine and those who are dark are recognized by the light or darkness of the heart.

To this you will say: "Is it not said of the righteous, 'But now they are light in the Lord,' to distinguish them from those who are light, but not light in the Lord?"

But concerning the Ephesians, who had reached a high degree of knowledge, it is written quite rightly that they are light in the Lord.

Still, the darkness itself is not turned into light, nor is light changed into darkness. Rather, those who deserved the name of virtue or vice are named from what they are.

If they turn from one to the other, they will receive as their portion either the name of light or the name of darkness, according to the qualities they possess.

"Walk as children of light." If God is light, and in Him there is no darkness, then the sons of light are sons of God.

Likewise, if Christ is the true light, then His sons, to whom He says, "My children, yet a little while I am with you" (Jn 13:33), are sons of the true light.

From this it follows that the sons of God the Father are the same as the sons of Jesus Christ.

You were formerly darkened, he says, by the darkness of unbelief and idolatry. But now you have been enlightened by the light of faith and by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore walk not as darkened people, but as enlightened ones.

The man darkened by the sensible darkness in the air falls into precipices and abysses. The man darkened by the noetic darkness of unbelief falls into lawlessness and unrighteousness.

Likewise, the man enlightened by material light in the air walks on his path without stumbling. The man enlightened by the noetic light of grace walks on the path of virtue without sinning.

“Walk, therefore,” he says, that is, perform good works, “as children of light,” that is, as those enlightened by faith and grace.

What, then, does it mean to walk as children of light? It means to walk in goodness, righteousness, and truth.

When these dwell in us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, they drive out all the passions. For they are active powers, not passive qualities. By them, in general, the state of dispassion and purity is defined.

Goodness embraces all love. Righteousness embraces every righteousness, allowing nothing unrighteous, not only in deed and word, but even in thought.

Since one cannot live rightly and lovingly without knowledge of the truth, one may also understand this as the knowledge of truth. This grace-filled knowledge illumines all the paths of life.

It shows what must be done, and how, in each case, so that one may act in a way pleasing to God. Yet there is nothing unfitting in accepting here, with Chrysostom, that this points to the taste of true good in the Lord, in contrast to deceptive sensual pleasures” (Right Reverend Theophan).

At first, all who were baptized and chrismated, or who received the laying on of hands, were filled with light in a way tangible to themselves and visible to others.

For this reason the day of the Lord's Baptism, on which those being baptized gathered most of all, was called the feast of lights.

In those baptized, this was accompanied by complete inner renewal. It was a state in which they felt that sin no longer had dominion over them (Rom 6:12).

In other words, it was a state of dispassion, which they then only had to preserve.

Now we do not see this, being baptized in infancy. Yet we cannot fail to see that, among children entering self-conscious age, some have a peaceful disposition of spirit, while others have a turbulent one.

Both appear in varying degrees. This is the result of either preserving or not preserving the grace of holy Baptism and Chrismation.

In general, the present order is this: grace is given in full in the initial mysteries. Those who then receive it do so through the faith and power of the Church.

When they come of age, they accept the obligations that condition communion with grace. From that moment they become what the first Christians, and generally adult catechumens, became at the very hour of receiving the mysteries.

Another difference now is that, upon entering self-conscious age, we find passions developed in ourselves to a greater or lesser degree, despite the presence of grace.

These are wild weeds on a field not yet touched by the hand of the farmer. They also conceal the action of God's grace.

Therefore the labor of struggle with the passions always lies before us before God's grace appears in power.

When the passions are finally conquered through our own action, with the help of the same grace present within us, then the grace of the Spirit shines forth.

The one who has attained this senses it, and others too can notice it. Then the words fully apply to such a person: he was darkness and became light.

He became what one who was first baptized and received the laying on of apostolic hands became at that very hour.

There is nothing mechanical in the spiritual life. Whatever degree of spiritual illumination a person stands on, it always remains his duty to keep vigilant watch and to labor zealously.

As then, so now, for those who have received the operation of the Spirit, the indispensable law is expressed in the next verse: "Walk as children of light."

Children of light are those born anew by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of God the Father.

Children of light are children of God, worshiped in Trinity. Why? Because of the likeness to God restored by grace in our spirit.

To walk as befits children of light is to walk in likeness to God, showing in one's conduct, or life, the perfections or goodness of God.

Saint John the Theologian, who also lived in Ephesus, defines this negatively: "He who is born of God does not sin" (1 Jn 3:9).

Saint Paul himself, in the Epistle to the Romans, after explaining the power of Baptism, says: "Let sin not have dominion over you."

He also says: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body. Your old man was crucified in Baptism, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, that you should no longer be slaves to sin.

Now one thing lies before us: to walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:14, 6:12, 6:6, 6:4).

Such is the state of the dispassionate. Yet it is also the state of spiritual brightness, because of the manifestations of the Spirit's activity, or the heart's being filled with the Spirit.

Therefore, in explaining further what this walking as children of light consists in, the Apostle points to the fruits of the Spirit.