Therefore don’t be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
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Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Therefore don’t be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light. Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Parallel Translations
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Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
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Be not therfore companions with them.
Ye were once dercknes but are now light in the Lorde. Walke as chyldren of light.
For the frute of the sprete is in all goodnes rightewesnes and trueth.
Show all 3 translations
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Be not therefore companions with them.
For ye were once darkenesse, but are nowe light in the Lord: walke as children of light,
(For the fruit of the Spirit is in al goodnes, and righteousnes, and trueth)
Cross-references (63)
- John 8:12 (v8) Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have…
- 1 John 1:7 (v8) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
- John 12:46 (v8) I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness.
- Acts 26:18 (v8) to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins…
- Colossians 1:13 (v8) who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
Show all 63 cross-references
- 1 Peter 2:9-11 (v8) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Isaiah 42:6-7 (v8) “I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness. I will hold your hand. I will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light…
- Galatians 5:22-23 (v9) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things…
- Ephesians 4:18 (v8) being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of…
- 3 John 1:11 (v9) Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God.
- John 12:36 (v8) While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.” Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid…
- 1 John 3:9-10 (v9) Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. In this the…
- Isaiah 9:2 (v8) The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light has shined on those who lived in the land of the shadow of death.
- Revelation 18:4 (v7) I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t…
- Ephesians 2:2 (v8) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works…
- 1 Timothy 5:22 (v7) Lay hands hastily on no one. Don’t be a participant in other people’s sins. Keep yourself pure.
- Isaiah 2:5 (v8) House of Jacob, come, and let’s walk in the light of Yahweh.
- Isaiah 60:1-3 (v8) “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you. For, behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness…
- Jeremiah 13:16 (v8) Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light,…
- Romans 15:14 (v9) I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to…
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 (v8) seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory…
- Ephesians 5:11 (v7) Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
- Ephesians 6:14 (v9) Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
- Luke 16:8 (v8) “His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser…
- Isaiah 60:19-20 (v8) The sun will be no more your light by day; nor will the brightness of the moon give light to you, but Yahweh will be your everlasting…
- Luke 1:79 (v8) to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 (v8) But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even…
- Ephesians 6:12 (v8) For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the…
- 1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 (v8) But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. You are all children of light and children of the…
- 1 Timothy 6:11 (v9) But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.
- Titus 3:3 (v8) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
- Numbers 16:26 (v7) He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be…
- Isaiah 49:9 (v8) saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their…
- Matthew 4:16 (v8) the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, to them light has dawned.”
- John 1:4-5 (v8) In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
- John 1:9 (v8) The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
- Romans 2:19 (v8) and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v8) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- 2 Corinthians 6:14 (v8) Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with…
- Philippians 1:11 (v9) being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- 1 John 2:8-11 (v8) Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you; because the darkness is passing away and the true light already…
- Psalms 16:2-3 (v9) My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.” As for the saints who are in the earth, they are…
- Psalms 50:18 (v7) When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
- Proverbs 1:10-17 (v7) My son, if sinners entice you, don’t consent. If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent…
- Isaiah 42:16 (v8) I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before…
- Isaiah 49:6 (v8) Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of…
- Romans 1:21 (v8) Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart…
- Galatians 5:25 (v8) If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.
- 1 Peter 2:24-25 (v9) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.…
- Psalms 74:20 (v8) Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
- Proverbs 13:20 (v7) One who walks with wise men grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
- Acts 17:30 (v8) The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
- Romans 2:4 (v9) Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
- Ephesians 2:11-12 (v8) Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the…
- Ephesians 4:15 (v9) but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ,
- Ephesians 5:2 (v8) Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
- Hebrews 11:33 (v9) who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
- 1 John 2:29 (v9) If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
- Proverbs 9:6 (v7) Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”
- John 1:47 (v9) Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
- Ephesians 4:25 (v9) Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.
- Hebrews 1:8 (v9) But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom.
- Ephesians 3:6 (v7) that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv8–9 8. For ye were once darkness. The precepts which…
8. For ye were once darkness. The precepts which immediately follow derive greater weight from the motives with which they are mingled. Having spoken of unbelievers, and warned the Ephesians not to become partakers of their crimes and their destruction, he argues still further, that they ought to differ widely from the life and conduct of those men. At the same time, in order to guard them against ingratitude to God, he refreshes their remembrance of their own past life. “You ought,” he says, “to be very different persons from what you formerly were; for out of darkness God hath made you light.” Darkness is the name here given to the whole nature of man before regeneration; for, where the brightness of God does not shine, there is nothing but fearful darkness. Light, again, is the name given to those who are enlightened by the Spirit of God; for immediately afterwards in the same sense, he calls them children of light, and draws the inference, that they ought to walk in light, because by the mercy of God they had been rescued from darkness. Observe here, we are said to be light in the Lord, because, while we are out of Christ, all is under the dominion of Satan, whom we know to be the Prince of darkness.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Because we are not so ready to anything as…
Because we are not so ready to anything as to follow evil examples, therefore the Apostle warneth the godly to remember always that the others are but as it were darkness, and that they themselves are as it were light. And therefore the others commit all villany (as men are wont in the dark) but they ought not only not to follow their examples, but also (as the property of the light is) reprove their darkness, and to walk so (having Christ that true light going before them) as it becometh wise men.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
Ver. 7. Be not ye therefore partakers] Lest by infection of their sin ye come under infliction of their punishment. We are accountable as well for sins of communion as of commission; and he knew what he said, that prayed, From mine other men’s sins, good Lord, deliver me. Evil men endanger good men as weeds the corn, as bad humours the blood, or an infected house the neighbourhood. And when an overflowing storm sweeps away the wicked, the tail of it may dash their best neighbours, Zec 9:3. Hamath lay near to Damascus in place, and therefore partook with it in punishment.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–9 With those children of disobedience, who continue in the…
With those children of disobedience, who continue in the forementioned sins: see Job 34:8; Psa 50:18.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv8–9 Here the Ephesians are put in mind of the…
Here the Ephesians are put in mind of the darkness and blindness of their heathen state, before the light of the gospel came among them; they were not only dark, very much in the dark, but darkness itself: he next acquaints them with their happy condition, by entertaining of the gospel of Christ; they therefore became light in the Lord, they were savingly enlightened by the word and Spirit of God; and accordingly he urges them to walk answerably to their Christian profession, Walk as children of the light.
Note here, 1. That the state which every soul is in by nature, and before conversion, is a state of spiritual darkness; like men in the dark, they go they know not whither, they do they know not what, they stumble and fall they know not how and when.
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Note, 2. That all those whom God calls effectually out of the darkness and ignorance of their natural and unregenerate state, he doth enlighten them by his word and Holy Spirit.
Note, 3. That such as are so called and enlightened, ought to walk suitably to their privilege, and answerably to their high and honourable profession. Walk as children of light; that is, holy, humbly, cheerfully, thankfully, before God; exemplarily and unblamably before the world.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Be not ye therefore partakers with them. In their…
Be not ye therefore partakers with them. In their sins, and acts of disobedience; by keeping needless company with them; by abetting and encouraging sinful practices; by conniving at them, and not reproving for them; or by committing the same things.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them. In their sins, and acts of disobedience; by keeping needless company with them; by abetting and encouraging sinful practices; by conniving at them, and not reproving for them; or by committing the same things.
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Ephesians 5:8
eph 5:8
eph 5:8
eph 5:8For ye were sometimes darkness,.... Not only dark, but darkness itself; exceeding blind, dark, and ignorant, respecting spiritual things; so the Gentiles were wont to be called by the Jews, "darkness" (k) itself; of this darkness; see Gill on Eph 4:18.
But now are ye light in the Lord; either in, or by the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of men, from whom all spiritual light comes; or by the Lord the Spirit, by whom the eyes of their understandings were enlightened, to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, in heart and life; the insufficiency of their own righteousness and moral virtues, to justify them before God; and the true and right way of righteousness, life and salvation by Christ; and to have some light into the several doctrines of the Gospel, and even a glimpse of the invisible glories and realities of another world: and this light is so great, that they are not only said to be enlightened, but to be light itself; and this they have not of, and from themselves, but the Lord; and therefore should
walk as children of light; not in sins, which are works of darkness, but in faith, truth, and holiness.
(k) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 1. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv8–9 Ye were once darkness - Total blindness and ignorance.…
Ye were once darkness - Total blindness and ignorance. Walk as children of light - Suitably to your present knowledge.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. Be not ye therefore partakers with them]…
Verse 7. Be not ye therefore partakers with them] Do not act as your fellow citizens do; nor suffer their philosophy, to it in vain words, κενοις λογοις, with empty and illusive doctrines, to lead you astray from the path of truth.
That there was much need for such directions and cautions to the people of Ephesus has been often remarked. It appears, from Athenaeus, that these people were addicted to luxury, effeminacy c. He tells us that the famous Aspasia, who was herself of the Socratic sect, brought a vast number of beautiful women into Greece, and by their means filled the country with prostitutes, και επληθυνεν απο των ταυτης ἑταιριδων ἡ Ελλας, lib. xiii. cap. 25. Ibid. cap. 31, he observes that the Ephesians had dedicated temples εταιρα αφροδιτη, to the prostitute Venus and again, cap. 32, he quotes from Demosthenes, in Orat. contra Neaeram: τας μεν ἑταιρας ἡδονης ἑνεκα εχομεν, τας δε παλλακας της καθ' ἡμεραν παλλακειας, τας δε γυναικας του παιδοποιεισθαι γνησιως, και των ενδον φυλακα πιστην εχειν· "We have whores for our pleasure, harlots for daily use, and wives for the procreation of legitimate children, and for the faithful preservation of our property." Through the whole of this 13th book of Athenaeus the reader will see the most melancholy proofs of the most abominable practices among the Greeks, and the high estimation in which public prostitutes were held; the greatest lawgivers and the wisest philosophers among the Greeks supported this system both by their authority and example. Is it not in reference to their teaching and laws that the apostle says: Let no man deceive you with vain words?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v8 Eph 5:8-10. For ye were sometimes — That is,…
Eph 5:8-10. For ye were sometimes — That is, once; darkness — In a state of total blindness and ignorance, without any light of instruction without, or divine grace within, and therefore had some excuse for living such unrighteous and profane lives: but now ye are light in the Lord — Enlightened by the divine word and Spirit, and brought to the saving knowledge of God and Christ, and of divine things in general; and consequently such vicious practices as you formerly pursued would be utterly inexcusable in you now. You are now under an indispensable obligation to walk as children of light — That is, in a manner suitable to your present knowledge. For, &c. — As if he had said, Such walking is the proper, natural result of your illumination and spiritual condition; the fruit of the Spirit is in — Consists in; all goodness, righteousness, and truth — That is, the Spirit works these graces in those persons in whom he dwells, graces quite opposite to the sins spoken of Eph 4:25, &c. By goodness we are to understand an inclination and endeavour to perform all good offices to our fellow-creatures, especially to the children of God: by righteousness, justice, and fair dealing toward all men: and by truth, freedom from hypocrisy, dissimulation, guile, and deceit. Some MSS., together with the Syriac and Vulgate versions, read here, But the fruit of the light, &c., which Estius, Grotius, Mill, and Bengelius, think the true reading, because there is no mention made of the Spirit, either in what goes before, or in what follows. The common reading they suppose hath been taken from Gal 5:22. Proving — Δοκιμαζοντες, making trial of, proving by experience, or approving; what is acceptable — Ευαρεστον, well-pleasing; to the Lord — And how happy they are who in all things are governed by his will.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Be not ye therefore partakers with them - Since…
Be not ye therefore partakers with them - Since these things displease God and expose to his wrath, avoid them.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Be ye not, therefore, partakers with them: do not…
Be ye not, therefore, partakers with them: do not imitate their wickedness, or the wrath of the Almighty will likewise fall on you. (Estius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Here fellowship with wicked workers is forbidden; in Eph…
Here fellowship with wicked workers is forbidden; in Eph 5:11, with their wicked works.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. Be—Rather, become. Note, Eph_4:32.
7. Be—Rather, become. Note, Eph_4:32.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. Be not] Lit., Become not. Nolite fieri (Latin…
7. Be not] Lit., Become not. Nolite fieri (Latin versions).
partakers] in disobedience, and so in the coming wrath.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv8–9 (8) Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye…
(8) Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.—This expression is unique, and far more emphatic than the more common phrases of “being,” or “walking,” “in darkness” and “in light.” (See Rom_2:9; Col_1:2; 1Th_5:4; 1Jn_1:6-7; 1Jn_2:9-10.) For here the outward element of light or darkness is said to pervade the inner nature of the soul. (1) Christ is the “true Light,” the “Sun of Righteousness” (Joh_1:4-9; Joh_3:19; Joh_8:12; Joh_9:5; Joh_12:46). His servants are sometimes mere secondary lights (or “candles”) (Luk_11:33-34; Luk_11:36; Joh_5:35; 2Pe_1:19), kindled from His rays; sometimes, like the moon or planets, they are said, as reflecting His light, or as having His light in them (Joh_12:35), to be actually “the light of the world” (Mat_5:14), which, however, shines as a mere reflected light, so that “men glorify” not it, but “the Father which is in heaven” (Mat_5:16). They thus become light, but only “in the Lord:” that is, as being made one with Him. (2) So, on the other hand, they who walk in darkness are said to be themselves darkness—new sources, so to speak, of the darkness which hates and quenches light, both to themselves and to others. “The light” which is in them “becomes darkness;” “and how great is that darkness!” (Mat_6:23.) As there is a natural delight in giving light, so the reprobate state is distinguished by a horrible pleasure in spreading the cloud of delusion, sin, or unbelief, by which to hide God from man.
Walk as children of light.—So our Lord teaches, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become children of light” (Joh_12:36; comp. 1Th_5:5). “Children of light” are they who not only love the light, but also manifest the likeness of the one true Light, “the Father of Lights” (Jas_1:17), being His children in Jesus Christ.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Be not ye therefore partakers with them. If you…
Be not ye therefore partakers with them. If you are partakers of their sins, you must be of their punishments too. Refuse all partnership, therefore. Your natural instincts recoil from partnership in punishment; let your spiritual instincts recoil from partnership in sin.
Separation from evil.
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The apostle counsels believers not to be partakers with sinners. That is, in their sins, not their punishment. We are here taught
I THAT IT IS POSSIBLE FOR BELIEVERS TO PARTAKE OF THE SINS OF OTHERS. They may do so by conniving at them, by not checking or punishing them, by not mourning over them, as well as by actually committing them. It is a dishonor to God, a lure to others, a mischief to ourselves, to stand in the way of transgressors.
II THAT BELIEVERS OUGHT TO MAINTAIN A VERY SEPARATE WALK IN THE WORLD. They who have named the name of Christ ought to depart from iniquity. (2Ti_2:19) The cry to them ever is," Come out from among them, and be ye separate". (2Co_6:17) There is no common standing-room for Christ and Belial in the Church. This does not countenance our separation from society; for Jesus, who was" separate from sinners," was always in society that he might win stoners to God. Our walk is yet to be as separate as it is to be circumspect, that we may stand apart from the plagues that will descend upon a doomed world. T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
Eph_5:7
Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
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Fellowship with evil doers
I. Illustrate this fellowship in wickedness.
1. Not to oppose, in many cases, is to embolden transgressors, and to be partakers with them.
2. We have more direct fellowship with the wicked when we encourage them by our example.
3. They who provoke and incite others to evil works have fellowship with them.
(1) This may be done by the propagation of licentious opinions, which confound the difference between virtue and vice.
(2) This may also be effected by direct persuasions and enticements.
4. They who explicitly consent to, and actually join with sinners in their evil works, have fellowship with them.
5. To comfort and uphold sinners in their wickedness is to have fellowship with them.
6. There are some who rejoice in iniquity when they have lent no hand to accomplish it.
II. Apply the apostles arguments.
1. One argument is taken from the superior light which Christians enjoy.
2. Another argument is taken from the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which believers are the subjects.
3. The apostle teaches us that the works of darkness are unfruitful.
4. This is a shameful fellowship.
5. If we have fellowship with sinners in their works we must share with them in their punishment. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
The children of God should not be partakers with others in their sins
The marrow of this truth lies in knowing how and in what ways we may be in danger to be partakers of other mens sins.
1. By practising the like evils. The apostle seems especially to intend this. Commit not the like sins; act not like the children of disobedience. If ye be imitators of them, you are in some sense partakers with them; and so the Lord may justly punish you for them.
2. By concurring. And this in divers ways.
(1) By contriving. When sin is contrived, there is concurrence of the head, though not of the hand. Thus David was guilty of Uriahs death, though Joab was the actor, and the Ammonites the executioners (2Sa_11:15). Thus Rebekah of Jacobs dissembling. She contrived it, to defeat Esau, though he was the actor. And if he smarted for it in so many hardships after, she had her share in his chastisement. Whoever effect what thou plottest, though thy hand be not in it, though theft be not seen therein, the Lord, who is the searcher of hearts, will charge the sin upon thy soul.
(2) By consenting. Where there is consent to sin, there is a concurrence of the will, though not of the outward man. This consent is always guilty, whether it be free, so Saul was guilty of Stephens death (Act_8:1); or whether it be extorted, so Pilate was guilty of Christs death, though the Jews seemed to overrule him thereto; or whether it be tacit,, and showed no way but by silence.
(3) By inclination. Where there is an inclination to an unlawful act, there is a concurrence of the heart, though the outward man act not.
(4) By rejoicing. When a man is glad that an unlawful act is done by others, he concurs in affection, though not in action. Thus was Ahab guilty of Naboths blood.
(5) By sentence and vote. Thus Saul was guilty of Christians death (Act_26:10).
(6) By assisting. He that contributes anything to the promoting of sin, though he be not the principal actor of it, brings the guilt thereof upon his soul. Thus was Saul also guilty of Stephens death (Act_7:58). He did not cast stones at Stephen; so far as the relation acquaints us, he only kept the clothes of those that stoned him. Yet, promoting this sin but thus far, he made himself guilty of it.
(7) By communicating in the pleasures or profits of sin. Thus panders are guilty of whoredom, and receivers are guilty of theft.
3. By occasioning the sins of others. When we give others occasion to sin, and that may be done many ways.
(1) By evil example. One sin of an exemplary person may occasion many. When magistrates, or ministers, or parents, or masters of families, or anyone eminent in the account of others, makes bold with that which is evil, it is a pregnant sin, has many in the bowels of it. One sin may this way bring along with it the guilt of many thousands.
(2) By the offensive use of things indifferent. Is it not better not to go so high, than to endanger the ruin of others by following thee?
(3) By scandalous sins, either in judgment or practice; for these are not only abominable in themselves, and the occasions of sin in others by example, but also in a more dangerous and dreadful way, by strengthening the hands of sinners, and opening their mouths to blaspheme.
(4) By provoking. He that says or does that which provokes another to sin is at least the occasion of it. Hence the apostle advises so often to beware of this (Gal_5:26; Eph_6:4).
(5) By ensnaring. Those whose garb, gestures, words, are as snares, may justly be accounted occasions of sin, and so guilty of those iniquities wherein they ensnare others.
(6) By leading others into temptations. Thus was Eve guilty, not only of her own, but of her husbands sin (Gen_3:6).
(7) By showing opportunities to sin. Thus Judas was guilty of crucifying Christ by showing the Jews an opportunity to apprehend and crucify Him.
(8) By affording matter of sin to others, that which they know or suspect will be sinfully abused, hereby occasion their sin, and partake in their guilt:
(9) By not removing the occasions of sin. When costly apparel becomes an occasion of pride, or delicate fare an occasion of intemperance, etc. Those that have power, magistrates, parents, should reduce them to necessaries, who abuse superfluities, else they are in danger of a participation in others guilt. I might exemplify this in many particulars.
(10) By authorising. When those are put into such place and office, as they are not fit, not qualified for, those that are instrumental in calling them thereto are accessory to their sinful miscarriages in the managing thereof.
4. By causing. He that is the cause of anothers sin, partakes thereof, not only as an accessory, but many times as a principal. Now, one may be the cause of anothers sin many ways.
(1) By commanding.
(2) By threatening.
(3) By counselling and persuading.
(4) By alluring.
(5) By deriding.
(6) By boasting of sin.
(7) By hiring others to sin.
(8) By countenancing the sins of others.
He that is a countenencer of others sins, is a partaker of other mens sin; and that sometimes of sins past, sometimes of future sins. Now, ye may countenance the sins of others, and so be accessory to them, many ways.
(1) By defending them.
(2) By justifying others sins.
(3) By extenuating of others sins.
(4) By commending.
(5) By conniving.
(6) By company.
(7) By rejoicing.
6. By not hindering sin. He that hinders not others from sinning is in danger thereby to partake of their sins. He that hinders not others from doing evil, does the evil himself; is guilty of, accessory to it.
(1) By not punishing, censuring, correcting, in State, Church, families.
(2) By not complaining of sin. He that has not power to punish sin may complain of it to those that have power; and he that complains not is in danger to be accessory to the sin which he conceals. I confess there are many temptations to keep men from the practice of this duty. It is counted odious to be an accuser; and so it is, when it proceeds from spite, malice, and revenge, and not from tenderness to the glory of God and thy brothers soul; but against the temptations which may hinder thee from complaining of others sins, set the danger of sin to him, to thee, and the command of God; see how strictly and punctually He enjoins it without respect of persons and relations, how near and dear soever (Deu_13:6; Deu_13:8).
(3) By not reproving or admonishing sinners. He that rebukes not, nor does not admonish, according to the quality of those who are guilty, makes himself guilty with them (Lev_19:17). To reprove another is a thankless office, and carnal men take it as an expression of hatred; but see how the Lord judges of it: He that rebukes not his brother does hate him in his heart.
(4) By not mourning for it. He that mourns not for the sins of others is in danger to partake of them. Mourning is a means to hinder the increase of sin; he that bewails not the sins of others does not what he can to hinder them, and so may be accessory to them.
(5) By not praying against the sins of others. Prayer is a sovereign means to hinder sin. He that prays not against it is accessory to it, by not endeavouring to hinder it.
(6) By not affording means whereby sin may be hindered. He that denies others the means requisite to the avoiding of sin, when it is his duty to afford them, is accessory to the sins of others by not hindering them; e.g., as we say, he that denies a man food, without which death cannot be prevented, is accessory to his death.
(7) By not applying severe providences for the hindering of sin. The Lord sometimes speaks from heaven against sin by remarkable acts of providence. (D. Clarkson, B. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v7 Chapter 23
Chapter 23
THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT
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Eph_5:7-14
The contrast between the Christian and heathen way of life is now, finally, to be set forth under St. Pauls familiar figure of the light and the darkness. He bids his Gentile readers not to be "jointpartakers with them"-with the sons of disobedience upon whom Gods wrath is coming (Eph_5:6) -for he has hailed them already, in Eph_3:6, as "joint-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." "Once" indeed they shared in the lot of the disobedient; but for them the darkness has past, and the true light now shineth.
In wrath or promise, in hope of life eternal or in the fearful looking for of judgment they, and we, must partake. This future participation depends upon present character. "Do not," the apostle entreats, "cast in your lot again with the unclean and covetous. Their ways you have renounced, and their doom you have exchanged for the heritage of the saints. Let no vain words deceive you into supposing that you may keep your new inheritance, and yet return to your old sins. Show yourselves worthy of your calling. Walk as children of the light, and you will possess the eternal kingdom." Each man carries with him into the next state of being the entail of his past life. That heritage depends on his own choice; yet not upon his individual will working by itself, but on the grace and will of God working with him, as that grace is accepted or rejected. He has light: he must walk in it; and he will reach the realm of light. Thus the apostle, in Eph_5:7-8, concludes his warning against relapse into heathen sin.
Eph_5:9-10 delineate the character of the children of the light: Eph_5:11-14 set forth their influence upon the surrounding darkness. Into these two divisions the exposition of this paragraph naturally falls.
I. "The fruit of the light" (not of the Spirit) is the true text of Eph_5:9, as it stands in the older Greek copies, Versions, and Fathers. Calvin showed his judgment and independence in preferring this reading to that of the received Greek text. Similarly Bengel, and most of the later critics. The sentence is parenthetical, and contains a singular and instructive figure. It is one of those sparks from the anvil, in which great writers not unfrequently give us their finest utterances, -sentences that get a peculiar point from the eagerness with which they are struck off in the heat and clash of thought, as the mind reaches forward to some thought lying beyond. The clause is an epitome, in five words, of Christian virtue, whose qualities, origin, and method are all defined. It sums up exquisitely the moral teaching of the epistle. Gal_5:22-23 (the fruit of the Spirit) and Php_4:8 (Whatsoever things are true, etc.) are parallel to this passage, as Pauline definitions, equally perfect, of the virtues of a Christian man. This has the advantage of the others in brevity and epigrammatic point.
"You are light in the Lord," the apostle said; "walk as children of the light." But his readers might ask: "What does this mean? It is poetry: let us have it translated into plain prose. How shall we walk as children of the light? Show us the path."-"I will tell you," the apostle answers: "the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Walk in these ways; let your life bear this fruit; and you will be true children of the light of God. So living, you will find out what it is that pleases God, and how joyful a thing it is to please Him (Eph_5:10). Your life wilt then be free from all complicity with the works of darkness. It will shine with a brightness clear and penetrating, that will put to shame the works of darkness and transform the darkness itself. It will speak with a voice that all must hear, bidding them awake from the sleep of sin to see in Christ their light of life." Such is the setting in which this delightful definition stands.
But it is more than a definition. While this sentence declares what Christian virtue is, it signifies also whence it comes, how it is generated and maintained. It asserts the connection that exists between Christian character and Christian faith. The fruit cannot be grown without the tree, any more than the tree can grow soundly without yielding its proper fruit.
Right is the fruit of light.
The principle that religion is the basis of moral virtue is one that many moralists disputed in St. Pauls time; and it has fallen into some discredit in our own. In philosophical theory, and to a large extent in popular maxim and belief, it is assumed that faith and morals, character and creed, are not only distinct, but independent things, and that there is no necessary connection between the two. Christians are themselves to blame for this fallacy, through the discrepancy not seldom visible between their creed and life. Our narrowness of view and the harshness of our ethical judgments have helped to foster this grave error.
Great Christian teachers have spoken of the virtues of the heathen as "splendid sins." But Christ and His Apostles never said so. He said: "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold." And they said: "In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of Him." The Christian creed has no jealousy in regard to human excellence. "Whatsoever things are true and honourable and just and pure," wherever and in whomsoever they arc found, our faith honours and delights in them, and accepts them to the utmost of their worth. But then it claims them all for its own, -as the fruit of the one "true light which lighteth every man," Wherever this fruit appears, we know that that light has been, though its ways are past finding out. Through secret crevices, by subtle refractions and multiplied reflections, the true light reaches many a life lying far outside its visible course.
All goodness has one source; for, said Jesus, "there is none good but one, that is God." The channels may be tortuous, obstructed and obscure: the stream is always one. There is nothing more touching, and nothing more encouraging to our faith in Gods universal love and His will that all men should be saved, than to see, as we do sometimes under conditions most adverse and in spots the most unlikely, features of moral beauty and Christlike goodness appearing like springs in the desert or flowers blooming in Alpine snows, -signs of the universal light,
"Which yet in the absolutest drench of dark Neer wants its witness, some stray beauty-beam To the despair of hell!"
The action of Gods grace in Christ is by no means limited to the sphere of its recognised working. All the more earnestly on this account do we vindicate this grace against those who deny its necessity or the permanence of its moral influence. The fruit, in the main, they approve. But they would cut down the plant from which it came; they seek to quench the light under which it grew. They are like men who should take you to some lofty tree that has flourished for ages rooted in the rock, and who should say: "See how wide its branches and how stout its stem, how firmly it stands upon its native soil! Let us cut it loose from those dark and ugly roots-that mysterious theology, those superstitions of the past. The human mind has outgrown them. Virtue can support itself on its own proper basis. It is time to assert the dignity of man, and to proclaim the independence of morality." If these men have their way, and if European society renounces the authority of God, how quickly will that tree of the Lords planting, the vast growth of Christian virtue and beneficence, wither to its topmost bough; and the next storm will bring it to the ground, with all its stately strength and summer beauty. Unbelief in God lays the axe at the root of human society. Our life-the life of individuals, of families and nations-is rooted in the unseen and hid with Christ in God. Thence it draws its vitality and virtue, through those spiritual fibres by which we are linked to God and lay hold on eternal life. Since Christ Jesus our forerunner entered the heavenly places the anchor of human hope has been cast within the veil; if that anchor drags, there is no other that will hold. The rocks are plain to see on which our richly freighted ship of life will founder. Without the religion of Jesus Christ our civilisation is not worth a hundred years purchase.
Moral effects do not follow upon their causes as rapidly as physical effects: they follow as certainly. We live largely upon the accumulated ethical capital of our forefathers. When that is spent, we are left to our intrinsic poverty of soul, to our faithlessness and feebleness. The scepticism of one generation bears fruit in the immorality of the next, or the next after that; the unbelief and cynicism of the teacher in the vice of his disciple. Such fruit of blasting and mildew the decay of faith has never failed to bear.
The corresponding truth will be at once acknowledged. There is no real religion without: virtue. If the godly man is not a good man, if he is not a sincere and pure-hearted man, "that mans religion is vain": no matter what his professions or his emotions, no matter what his services to the Church. He is one of those to whom-Jesus Christ will say: "I know you not; depart from me, all ye that work iniquity." There is a flaw in him somewhere, a rift within the lute that spoils all its music. "A good tree cannot. bring forth corrupt fruit."
In Christs garden there forms in clustered beauty and perfectness the ripe growth of virtue, which in the sunshine of His love and under the freshening breath of His Spirit sends forth its spices and "yieldeth its fruit every month." In it there abide goodness, righteousness, truth- these three; and who shall say which of them is greatest?
I. Goodness stands first, as the most visible, and obvious form of Christian excellence, -that which every one looks for in a religious man, and which every one admires when it is to be seen. Righteousness, regarded by itself, is not so readily appreciated. There is something austere and forbidding in it. "For a righteous man scarcely would one die"-you respect, even revere him; but you do not love him: "but for the good man peradventure, one would even dare to die." Christian goodness is the sanctification of the heart and its affections, renewed and governed by the love of God in Christ. It is, notwithstanding, but seldom inculcated in the New Testament; because it is referred to its spring and principle in love. Goodness is love embodied. "Now love us He loved us, and bent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." This is the faith that makes good men, -the best the world has ever known, the best that it holds now. Vanity, selfishness, evil temper and desire are shamed-and burnt out of the soul by the holy fire of the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. In the warm, tender light of the cross the heart is softened and cleansed, and expanded to the widest charity, it becomes the home of all generous instincts and pure affections. So "the fruit of the light is in all goodness."
II. And righteousness.
This second and central definition applies a searching test to all spurious forms of goodness, superficial or sentimental, -to the goodness of mere good manners, or good nature. The principle of righteousness, fully understood, includes everything in moral worth, and is often used to denote in one word the entire fruit of Gods grace in man. For righteousness is the sanctification of the conscience. It is loyalty to Gods holy and perfect law. It is no mere outward keeping of formal rules, such as the legal righteousness of Judaism, no submission to necessity or calculation of advantages: it is a love of the law in a mans inmost spirit; it is the quality of a heart one with that law, reconciled to it as it is reconciled to God Himself in Jesus Christ.
At the bottom, therefore, righteousness and goodness are one. Each is the counterface and complement of the other. Righteousness is to goodness as the strong backbone of principle, the firm hand and the vigorous grasp of duty, the steadfast foot that plants itself on the eternal ground of the right and true and stands against a worlds assault. Goodness without righteousness is a weak and fitful sentiment: righteousness without goodness is a dead formality. He cannot love God or his neighbour truly, who does not love Gods law; and he knows nothing aright of that law, who does not know that it is the law of love.
This also, this above all is "the fruit of the light." Two watchwords we have from the lips of Jesus, two mottoes of His own life and mission, -the one given at the end, the other at the beginning of His course: "Greater love hath none than this, that one lay down his life for his friends"; and, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." By a double flame was He consumed a sacrifice upon the cross, -by the passion of His zeal for Gods righteousness, and by the passion of His pity for mankind. In that twofold light we see light, and become "light in the Lord." Therefore the fruit of the light, the moral product of a true faith in the gospel, is in all goodness and righteousness.
There is a danger of merging the latter in the former of these attributes. Evangelical piety is credited with an excess of the sentimental and emotional disposition, cultivated at the expense of the more sterling elements of character. High principle, scrupulous honour, stern fidelity to duty are no less essential to the image of Christ in the soul than are warm feeling and zealous devotion to his service, Jesus Christ the righteous, as His apostles loved to call Him, is the pattern of a manly faith, up to which we must grow in all things. "He is the propitiation for our sins." Never was there an act of such unswerving integrity and absolute loyalty to the law of right as the sacrifice of Calvary. God forbid that we should magnify love at the expense of law, or make good feeling a substitute for duty.
III. Truth comes last in this enumeration, for it signifies the inward reality and depth of the other two.
Truth does not mean veracity alone, the mere truth of the lips. Heathen honesty goes as far as this. Men of the world expect as much from each other, and brand the liar with their contempt. Truth of words requires a reality behind itself. The acted falsehood is excluded, the hinted and intended lie no less than that expressly uttered. Beyond all this is the truth of the man that God requires-speech, action, thought, all consistent, harmonious, and transparent, with the. light of Gods truth shining through them. Truth is the harmony of the inward and the outward, the correspondence of what the man is in himself with that which he appears and wishes to appear to be.
Now, it is only Children of the light, only men thoroughly good and upright, who can, in this strict sense, be men of truth. So long as any malice or iniquity is left in our nature, we have something to conceal. We cannot afford to he sincere. We are compelled to pay, by very shame, the degrading tribute which vice renders to virtue, the homage of hypocrisy. But find a man whose intellect, whose heart and will, tried at whatever point, ring sound and true, in whom there is no affectation, no make-believe, no pretence or exaggeration, no discrepancy, no discord in the music of his life and thought, "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile"-there is a saint for you, and a man of God; there is one whom you may "grapple to your soul with hooks of steel." Truth is the hall-mark of entire sanctification; it is the highest and rarest attainment of the Christian life. It is equally the charm of an innocent, unspoilt childhood, and of a ripe and purified old age. The apostle John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," is the most perfect embodiment, after his Master, of this consummating grace. In him righteousness and love were blended in the translucence of an utter simplicity and truth.
We must beware of giving a subjective and merely personal aspect to this divine quality. While truth is the unity of the outward and inward, of heart and act and word in the man, it is at the same time the agreement of the man with the reality of things as they exist in God. The former kind of truth rests upon the latter; the subjective upon the objective order. The truth of God makes us true. We magnify our own sincerity until it becomes vitiated and pretentious. In our eagerness to realise and express our own convictions, we give too little pains to form them upon a sound basis; we make a great virtue of speaking out what is in our hearts, but take small heed of what comes in to the heart, and speak out of a loose self-confidence and idolatry of our own opinions. So the Pharisees were true, who called Christ an impostor. So every careless slanderer, and scandalmonger credulous of evil, who believes the lies he propagates. "Imagination has pictured to itself a domain in which every one who enters should be compelled to speak only what he thought, and pleased itself by calling such domain the Palace of Truth. A palace of veracity, if you will; but no temple of the truth. A place where each one would be at liberty to utter his own crude unrealities, to bring forth his delusions, mistakes, half-formed, hasty judgments; where the depraved ear would reckon discord harmony, and the depraved eye mistake colour; the depraved moral taste take Herod or Tiberius for a king, and shout beneath the Redeemers cross, Himself He cannot save! A temple of the truth? Nay, only a palace echoing with veracious falsehoods, a Babel of confused sounds, in which egotism would rival egotism, and truth would be each mans own lie." In the pride of our veracity, we miss the verity of things; we are true only to our blind self, false to the light of God. "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice": so said He who was truth incarnate, making His word a law for all true men. "In all goodness and righteousness and truth," says the apostle. Let us seek them all. We are apt to become specialists in virtue, as in other departments of life. Men will endeavour even to compensate by extreme efforts in one direction for deficiencies in some other direction, which they scarcely desire to make good. So they grow out of shape, into oddities and moral malformations. There is a want of balance and of finish about a multitude of Christian lives, even of those who have long and steadily pursued the way of faith. We have sweetness without strength, and strength without gentleness, and truth spoken without love, and words of passionate zeal without accuracy and heedfulness.
All this is infinitely sad, and infinitely damaging to the cause of our religion.
"It is the little rift within the lute That by-and-by will make the music mute And ever widening slowly silence all; The little rift within the lovers lute, Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit, That rotting inward slowly moulders all."
Let us judge ourselves, that we be not judged by the Lord. Let us count no wrong a trifle. Let us never imagine that our defects in one kin will be atoned for by excellences in another. Our friends may say this, in charity, for us; it is a fatal thing when a man begins to say so to himself. "May the God of peace sanctify you fully. May your whole spirit, soul, and body in blameless integrity be preserved to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." {1Th_5:23}
I. The effect upon surrounding darkness of the light of God in Christian lives is described in Eph_5:11-14, in words which it remains for us briefly to examine.
Eph_5:12 distinguishes "the things secretly done" by the Gentiles, "of which it is a shame even to speak," from the open and manifest forms of evil in which they invite their Christian neighbours to join (Eph_5:11). Instead of doing this and having fellowship with the "unfruitful works of darkness," they must "rather reprove them." Silent absence, or abstinence is not enough. Where sin is open to rebuke, it should at all hazards be rebuked. On the other hand, St. Paul does not warrant Christians in prying into the hidden sins of the world around them and playing the moral detective. Publicity is not a remedy for all evils, but a great aggravation of some, and the surest means of disseminating them. "It is a shame"-a disgrace to our common nature, and a grievous peril to the young and innocent-to fill the public prints with the nauseous details of crime and to taint the air with its putridities.
"But all things," the apostle says-whether it be those open works of darkness, profitless of good, which expose themselves to direct conviction, or the depths of Satan that hide their infamy from the light of day-"all things being reproved by the light, are made manifest" (Eph_5:13). The fruit of the light convicts the unfruitful works of darkness. The daily life of a Christian man amongst men of the world is a perpetual reproof, that tells against secret sins of which no word is spoken, of which the reprover never guesses, as well as against open and unblushing vices.
"This is the condemnation," said Jesus, "that light is come into the world." And this condemnation every one who walks in Christs steps, and breathes His Spirit amid the corruptions of the world, is carrying on, more frequently in silence than by spoken argument. Our unconscious and spontaneous influence is the most real and effective part of it. Life is the light of men-words only are the index of the life from which they spring. Just so far as our lives touch the conscience of others and reveal the difference between darkness and light, so far do we hold forth the word of life and carry on the Holy Spirits work of convincing the world of sin. "Let your light so shine."
This manifestation leads to a transformation: "For every thing that is made manifest is light" (Eph_5:13). "You are light in the Lord," St. Paul says to his converted Gentile readers, -"you who were "once darkness," once wandering in the lusts and pleasures of the heathen around you, without hope and without God. The light of the gospel disclosed, and then dispelled the darkness of Sat former time; and so it may be with your still heathen kindred, through the light you bring to them. So it will be with the night of sin that is spread over the world. The light which shines upon sinladen and sorrowful hearts shines on them to change them into its own nature. The manifested is light: in other words, if men can be made to see the true nature of their sin, they will forsake it. If the light can but penetrate their conscience it will save them." Wherefore He saith:-
"Awake, O sleeper; and arise from out of the dead! And the Christ shall dawn upon thee!"
The speaker of this verse can be no other than God, or the Spirit of God in Scripture. The sentence is no mere quotation. It re-utters, in the style of Marys or Zechariahs song, the promise of the Old Covenant from the lips of the New. It gathers up the import of the prophecies concerning the salvation of Christ, as they sounded in the apostles ears and as he conveyed them to the world. Isa_60:1-3 supplies the basis of our passage, where the prophet awakens Zion from the sleep of the Exile and bids her shine once more in the glory of her God and show forth His light to the nations: "Arise, " he cries, "shine, for thy light is. come!" There are echoes in the verse, besides, of Isa_51:17, Isa_26:19; perhaps even of Jon_1:6 : "What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise and call upon thy God!" We seem to have here, as in Eph_4:4-6, a snatch of the earliest Christian hymns. The lines are a free paraphrase from the Old Testament, formed by weaving together Messianic passages-belonging to such a hymn as might be sung at baptisms in the Pauline Churches. Certainly those Churches did not wait until the second century to compose their hymns and spiritual songs (comp. Eph_5:19). Our Lords sublime announcement, {Joh_5:25} already verified, that "the hour had come when the dead should hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that heard should live," gave the key to the prophetic sayings which promised through Israel the light of life to all nations.
With this song on her lips the Church went forth, clad in the armour of light, strong in the joy of salvation; and darkness and the works of darkness fled before her.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. Partakers. Have no share with them in their…
7. Partakers. Have no share with them in their sins.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv8–9
EPHESIANS
WHAT CHILDREN OF LIGHT SHOULD BE
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Eph 5:8
It was our Lord who coined this great name for His disciples. Paul’s use of it is probably a reminiscence of the Master’s, and so is a hint of the existence of the same teachings as we now find in the existing Gospels, long before their day. Jesus Christ said, ‘Believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light’; and Paul gives substantially the same account of the way by which a man becomes a Son of the Light when he says, in the words preceding my text, ‘Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.’
Union with Him makes light, just as the bit of carbon will glow as long as it is in contact with the electric force, and subsides again into darkness when that is switched off. To be in Christ is to be a child of light, and to believe in Christ is to be in Him.
But the intense moral earnestness of our Apostle is indicated by the fact that on both occasions in which he uses this designation he does so, not for the purpose of heightening the sense of the honour and prerogative attached to it, but for the sake of deducing from it plain and stringent moral duties, and heightening the sense of obligation to holy living.
‘Walk as children of light.’ Be true to your truest, deepest self. Manifest what you are. Let the sweet, sacred secrets of inward communion come out in the trivialities of ordinary conduct; make of your every thought a deed, and see to it that every deed be vitalised and purified by its contact with the great truths and thoughts that lie in this name. These are various ways of putting this one all-sufficient directory of conduct.
Now, in the context, the Apostle expands this concentrated exhortation in three or four different directions, and perhaps we may best set forth its meaning if we shape our remarks by these, I venture to cast them, for the sake of emphasis, into a hortatory form.
I. Aim at an all-round productiveness of the natural fruits of the light.
The true reading is, ‘Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light’ {not spirit, as the Authorised Version reads it} ‘is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.’ Now, it is obvious that the alteration of ‘light’ instead of ‘spirit’ brings the words into connection with the preceding and the following. The reference to the ‘fruits of the spirit’ would be entirely irrelevant in this place; a reference to the ‘fruit of the light,’ as being every form of goodness and righteousness and truth, is altogether in place.
There is, then, a natural tendency in the light to blossom out into all forms and types of goodness. ‘Fruit’ suggests the idea of natural, silent, spontaneous, effortless growth. And, although that is by no means a sufficient account of the process by which bad men become good men, it is an inseparable element, in all true moral renovation, that it be the natural outcome and manifestation of an inward principle; otherwise it is mere hypocritical adornment, or superficial appearance. If we are to do good we must first of all be good. If from us there are to come righteousness and truth, and all other graces of character, there must, first of all, be the radical change which is involved in passing from separateness in the darkness to union with Jesus Christ in the light. The Apostle’s theory of moral renovation is that you must begin with the implantation in the spirit of the source of all moral goodness-viz. Jesus Christ-brought into the heart by the uniting power of humble faith. And then there will be lodged in our being a vital power, of which the natural outcome will be all manner of fair and pure things. Effort is needed, as I shall have to say; but prior to effort there must be union with Jesus Christ.
This wide, general commandment of our text is sufficiently definite, thinks Paul; for if the light be in you it will naturally effloresce into all forms of beauty. Light is the condition of fruitfulness. Everywhere the vital germ is only acted upon by the light. No sunshine, no flowers; darkness produces thin, etiolated, whitened, and feeble shoots at the best. Let the light blaze in, and the blanched feebleness becomes vigorous and unfolds itself. How much more will light be the condition of fruitfulness when the very light itself is the seed from which all fruit is developed.
But, still further, mark how there must be an all-round completeness in order that we shall fairly set forth the glory and power of the light of which our faith makes us children and partakers. The fruit ‘is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.’ These three aspects-the good, the right, the true-may not be a scientific, ethical classification, but they give a sufficiently plain and practical distinction. Goodness, in which the prevailing idea is beneficence and the kindlier virtues; righteousness, which refers to the sterner graces of justice; truth, in which the prevalent idea is conformity in action with facts and the conditions of man’s life and entire sincerity-these three do cover, with sufficient completeness, the whole ground of possible human excellence. But the Apostle widens them still further by that little word all.
We all tend to cultivate those virtues which are in accordance with our natural dispositions, or are made most easy to us by our circumstances. And there is nothing in which we more need to seek comprehensiveness than in the effort to educate ourselves into, and to educe from ourselves, kinds of goodness and forms of excellence which are not naturally in accordance with our dispositions, or facilitated by our circumstances. The tree planted in the shrubbery will grow all lopsided; the bushes on the edge of the cliff will be shorn away on the windward side by the teeth of the south-western gale, and will lean over northwards, on the side of least resistance. And so we all are apt to content ourselves with doing the good things that are easiest for us, or that fit into our temperament and character. Jesus Christ would have us to be all-round men, and would that we should seek to aim after and possess the kinds of excellence that are least cognate to our characters. Are you strong, and do you pride yourself upon your firmness? Cultivate gentleness. Are you amiable, and pride yourself, perhaps, upon your sympathetic tenderness? Try to get a little iron and quinine into your constitution. Seek to be the man that you are least likely to be, and aim at a comprehensive development of ‘all righteousness and goodness and truth.’
Further, remember that this all-round completeness is not attained as the result of an effortless growth. True, these things are the fruits of the light, but also true, they are the prizes of struggle and the trophies of warfare. No man will ever attain to the comprehensive moral excellence which it is in his own power to win; no Christian will ever be as all-round a good man as he has the opportunities of being, unless he makes it his business, day by day, to aim after the conscious increase of gifts that he possesses, and the conscious appropriation and possession of those of which he is still lacking. ‘Nothing of itself will come,’ or very little. True, the light will shine out in variously tinted ray if it be in a man, as surely as from the seed come the blade and the ear and the full corn in the ear, but you will not have nor keep the light which thus will unfold itself unless you put forth appropriate effort. Christ comes into our hearts, but we have to bring Him there. Christ dwells in our hearts, but we have to work into our nature, and work out in action, the gifts that He bestows. They will advance but little in the divine life who trust to the natural unfolding of the supernatural life within them, and do not help its unfolding by their own resolute activity. ‘Walk as children of the light.’ There is your duty, for ‘the fruit of the light is all righteousness.’ One might have supposed that the commandments would be, ‘Be passive as children of the light, for the light will grow.’ But the Apostle binds together, as always, the two things, the divine working and the human effort at reception, retention, and application of that divine work, just as he does in the great classical passage, ‘Work out your own salvation, for it is God that worketh in you.’
II. Secondly, the general exhortation of my text widens out itself into this-test all things by Christ’s approval of them.
‘Proving what is well pleasing unto the Lord.’ That, according to the natural construction of the Greek, is the main way by which the Apostle conceives that his general commandment of ‘walking as children of the light’ is to be carried out. You do it if, step by step, and moment by moment, and to every action of life, you apply this standard-Does Christ like it? Does it please Him? When that test is rigidly applied, then, and only then, will you walk as becomes the children of the light.
So, then, there is a standard-not what men approve, not what my conscience, partially illuminated, may say is permissible, not what is recognised as allowable by the common maxims of the world round about us, but Christ’s approval. How different the hard, stern, and often unwelcome prescriptions of law and rigidity of some standards of right become when they are changed into that which pleases the Divine Lord and Lover! Surely it is something blessed that the hard, cold, and to such a large extent powerless conceptions of duty or obligation shall be changed into pleasing Jesus Christ; and that so our hearts shall be enlisted in the service of our consciences, and love shall be glad to do the Beloved’s will. There are many ways by which the burden of life’s obligations is lightened to the Christian. I do not know that any of them is more precious than the fact that law is changed into His will, and that we seek to do what is right because it pleases the Master. There is the standard.
It will be easy for us to come to the right appreciation of individual actions when we are living in the light. Union with Jesus Christ will make us quick to discern His will. We have a conscience;-well, that needs educating and enlightening, and very often correcting. We have the Word of God;-well, that needs explanation, and needs to be brought close to our hearts. If we have Christ dwelling in us, in the measure in which we are in sympathy with Him, we shall be gifted with clear eyes, not indeed to discern the expedient-that belongs to another region altogether-but we shall be gifted with very clear eyes to discern right from wrong, and there will be an instinctive recoil from the evil, and an instinctive attachment of ourselves to the good. If we are in the Lord we shall easily be able to prove what is acceptable and well-pleasing to Him.
We shall never walk as the children of the light, unless we have the habit of referring everything, trifles and great things, to His arbitrament, and seeking in them all to do what is pleasing in His sight. The smallest deed may be brought under the operation of the largest principles. Gravitation influences the microscopic grain of sand as well as planets and sun. There is nothing so small but you can bring it into this category-it either pleases or displeases Jesus Christ. And the faults into which Christian men fall and in which they continue are very largely owing to their carelessness in applying this standard to the small things of their daily lives. The sleepy Custom House officers let the contraband article in because it seems to be of small bulk. There are old stories about how strong castles were taken by armed men hidden in an innocent-looking cart of forage. Do you keep up a rigid inspection at the frontier, and see to it that everything vindicates its right to enter because it is pleasing to Jesus Christ.
III. Thirdly, we have here another expansion of the general command, and that is-keep well separate from the darkness.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.’ Now, your time will not allow me to dwell, as I had hoped to do, upon the considerations to be suggested here. The very briefest possible mention of them is all that I can afford.
‘The unfruitful works of darkness’;-well, then, the darkness has its works, but though they be works they are not worth calling fruit. That is to say, nothing except the conduct which flows from union with Jesus Christ so corresponds to the man’s nature and relations, or has any such permanence about it as to entitle it to be called fruit. Other acts may be ‘works’ but Paul will not dishonour the great word ‘fruit’ by applying it to such rubbish as these, and so he brands them as ‘unfruitful works of darkness.’
Keep well clear of them, says the Apostle. He is not talking here about the relations between Christians and others, but about the relations between Christian men and the works of darkness. Only, of course, in order to avoid fellowship with the works you will sometimes have to keep yourselves well separate from their doers. Much association with such men is forced upon us by circumstances, and much is the imperative duty of Christian beneficence and charity. But I venture to express the strong and growing conviction that there are few exhortations that the secularised Church of this generation needs more than this commandment of my text: ‘Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness’ ‘What communion hath light with darkness?’ Ah! we see plenty of it, unnatural as it is, in the so-called Church of to-day. ‘What concord hath Christ with Belial? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate.’
And, brethren, remember, a part of the separation is that your light shall be a constant condemnation of the darkness. ‘But rather reprove them,’ says my text; that is a work that devolves upon all Christians. It is to be done, no doubt, by the silent condemnation of evil which ever comes from the quiet doing of good. As an old preacher has it, ‘The presence of a saint hinders the devil of elbow-room for doing his tricks.’ The old legend told us that the fire-darting Apollo shot his radiant arrows against the pythons and ‘dragons of the slime.’ The sons of light have the same office-by their light of life to make the darkness aware of itself, and ashamed of itself; and to change it into light.
But silent reproving is not all our duty. The Christian Church has wofully fallen beneath its duty, not only in regard to its complicity with the social crimes of each generation, but in regard to its cowardly silence towards them; especially when they flaunt and boast themselves in high places. What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to war? What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to impurity? What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to drunkenness? What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to the social vices that are honeycombing society and this city to-day? If you are the sons of light, walk as the sons of light, and have ‘no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness’; but set the trumpet to your lips, and ‘declare unto My people their transgressions, and to the house of Israel their sin.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v9 (See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
righteousness
(See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v8 For you were once darkness
For you were once darkness
Just as one cannot see in the dark, so people who love to sin lack spiritual understanding. (See: Metaphor)
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but now you are light in the Lord
Just as one can see in the light, so people whom God has saved understand how to please God. (See: Metaphor)
Walk as children of light
Walking on a path is a metaphor for how a person lives his life. AT: "Live as people who understand what the Lord wants them to do" (See: Metaphor)
the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth
"Fruit" here is a metaphor for "result" or "outcome." AT: "the result of living in the light is good work, right living, and truthful behavior" (See: Metaphor)
Do not associate with the unfruitful works of darkness
Paul speaks of the useless, sinful things that unbelievers do as if they are evil deeds people do in the dark so no one will see them. AT: "Do not do useless, sinful things with unbelievers" (See: Metaphor)
unfruitful works
actions that do nothing good, useful, or profitable. Paul is comparing evil actions to an unhealthy tree that produces nothing good. (See: Metaphor)
expose them
Speaking against the works of darkness is spoken of as bringing them out into the light so that people can see them. AT: "bring them out into the light" or "uncover them" or "show and tell people how wrong these actions are" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
darkness
light
good
righteous
true
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7–9 5:7 Don’t participate: Cp. 2 Cor 6:14–7:1.
5:7 Don’t participate: Cp. 2 Cor 6:14–7:1.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.