In You Dawns the Future (Ephesians 5:7-14)
In You Dawns the Future
Ephesians 5:7-14
Introduction
The church is the dawning of a new age.
Originally, the world was created as a world of light, a world in which goodness and righteousness and truth was commonplace and the world was dominated by joy, understanding, and fruitfulness. Light was the first of God’s words, named by him specifically, not by man. But when sin entered the world darkness fell upon man, and he slipped into a hopeless night of sin and misery.
Because of sin, we became “darkened in our understanding” (Eph 4:18). Romans 1:21 says that, because we have suppressed the truth about God, our minds become futile and our hearts become darkened. We are subjected to the “domain of darkness” (Col 1:13) over which Saran was the chief, the head of what Ephesians 6:12 calls “the rulers…authorities…the cosmic powers over this present darkness…spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Indeed, it is the case as Isaiah 60:2 says, “darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.” We, as 1 John says, walked in darkness, and as our passage says, “You were darkness.”
But then Christ dawns like the morning light. Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” What is the light? Matthew quotes Isaiah 9 in Chapter 4 of his Gospel, linking his ministry in Galilee to the fulfillment of these words. Zechariah, in Luke 1:76 and following, holding his baby boy in his arms, says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Christ comes to accomplish salvation for us, and when he does it is the dawning of a new day. John says the same thing in John 1:4–5, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” And that light has not just shone generally in the world but has shone in our hearts as well. 2 Corinthians 4:6 says that “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:13 says, “he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” 1 Peter 2:9 says something similar: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We live our lives in the brilliant and shining light of Christ’s new day of salvation because we belong to the world of light which he rules, and which we anticipate inhabiting one day. Revelation 22:5 – “night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.”
Yet at present the darkness is still being defeated. Turn to 1 John 2:8: “At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” Those are progressives. They are in process. While the day of salvation begins to dawn, the long night of the times of ignorance are slowly passing away. Though we belong to a new age, we still live in the midst of the old age. Which is why Paul exhorts the church in Eph 5:8, “Walk as children of light.” To say it most concisely, in you dawns the future. As Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16).
Now, to be clear, in light of the postmillennial resurgence of late, I must qualify. When we say the future dawns in you, we do not mean that it is our responsibility to build the future kingdom here on earth through political and cultural mechanisms. It is not as though we are an army of political advocates or cultural warriors placed in the USA to legislate Christianity. What we do mean is that you are the sign, the signal, the pointer, or the model of the future age in the present. While we do speak out against the sins of our present age, while we do function as the mechanism through which the Spirit convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, we are to do these for spiritual purposes with spiritual methods—not political ones, not military ones, not cultural ones.
I’m often up before the sunrise these days, but sadly I don’t get a chance to watch the dawn. Our back windows face the east, and sunlight pours through them in the mornings during the summer. And over the trees you can see the gradual victory of the day over the night. As you watch the sunrise, there is a moment where it is not yet day, but it is very clear that the day is coming. And that is the church—the church is the bright horizon of a dawning new age of light. Day has not yet fully arrived, but it is here.
If we are to exhibit that, if we are to shine that light, if we truly are (as we have said so many times) the miniature model of the future, then we must demonstrate that in the way that we live. We have already been talking about that in one way or another, but now it comes into direct focus. We are to imitate God, to walk in love as Christ loved us, and put away all kinds of sexual immorality, precisely because that world is headed for destruction. 5:5-6 (read). Picture the church and the world as two ships—the world’s ship is sinking, and the church’s ship is unsinkable. Who in their right mind would jump off the unsinkable ship in order to stand on the mast of a scuttled schooner? That’s the logic—the world is sinking down into death and judgment, and you have been rescued from that watery grave. Don’t jump ship!
Our distinction from the darkness of this world, then, serves as a powerful form of evangelism—demonstrating through our fellowship and through our daily, personal lives that the old world and all those in it are judged and that the new world of light is here, and that all those who would save themselves from the coming wrath may flee to Jesus. But we cannot hold out that hope if we look more like darkness than light—if we walk in ignorance and sin rather than knowledge and righteousness. This text highlights that reality. So, Paul gives us three commands that the new age might be clear for all to see in us.
I. Do Not Share in Their Unrighteous Deeds (vv 7-8a)
How does the new age dawn in us? First, we refuse to share in the unrighteous deeds of the world of darkness, because we have been transformed into light. In other words, we don’t have a share in that world. Therefore, we are not to “become partners” with the sons of disobedience.
Now, of course, this doesn’t mean that we cloister ourselves off from the world and no longer have any interaction with them. Paul says that if that was our goal, “you would need to go out of the world!” (1 Cor 5:10). Sadly, this is what many Christians today are advocating: completely withdraw from society and create a Christian enclave where we only buy and sell with Christians and only Christians can teach our children and only Christians should do our plumbing and paint our houses. If only something like that existed or could exist! That is why Jesus prayed, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”
Paul’s point is rather to point toward sin. Do not share in the unfruitful works of darkness, or you will prove darkness yourself. Matthew Henry: “If we share with others in their sin, we must expect to share with them in their plagues.” The one who hangs around the contagious people constantly is more likely to catch the illness. When the great hailstones fell on Egypt, it was only in Goshen that the Israelites were safe. If they were to go to Egypt, they would have died with the Egyptians. So with us in a spiritual sense—if we have fellowship with the world in its sinful behaviors, we can expect nothing but to share in their judgment. That might be temporal judgment, as some of the Corinthians who had died because they persisted in sin but still went to heaven. That might be eternal judgment, demonstrating that though you were part of the visible church that your heart was never changed and therefore you will not enter the kingdom of God.
Numbers 16:26 – “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.” Proverbs 1:10-17 – If sinners entice you, do not consent.
Notice how Paul’s point centers on identity, who you are. V8: “at one time [used to be] you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Here Paul’s point is that we should not partner with the world in its sinful activities because we are not who we once were. We are light, children of light, bearing the fruit of light. But that is not who we once were. We all were born into darkness and bore the unfruitful works of darkness.
If we have come out of the darkness, then everything about us is now different in comparison to what we once were:
· We belong to a different world. As we already read, we have been transferred from the domain of darkness into one of light. Eph 2:2 says (literally) that we followed the “age of this world.” We were citizens in a country condemned to failure. But we have been brought out of the age of this world into a future which is not this world but a new one. Eph 2:7 speaks of “coming ages” which are dominated not by sin and death and darkness but by God’s immeasurable riches of grace in kindness in Christ.
· We have a different future. We are headed to a place which is different than we used to. We used to be headed towards Eph 5:6 “the wrath of God,” of being cast out eternally from the kingdom of God. But now we are destined for a world of light, the inheritance of the kingdom of God, to a future of praise and glory and honor.
· We have a different master. Satan rules the old world. He is the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (2:2). He is the devil who schemes from his position of power in the old world in order to destroy the church. Set over that world are “rulers…authorities…cosmic powers over this present darkness…spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). But that ruler has been defeated, crushed, and disarmed. Jesus has been raised above all those rulers, and all things have been put under his feet (Eph 2:21-22).
· We have a different standard. We don’t operate by the same rules we did before. Before we followed the world, took our cues from its desires and lusts and passions. We followed our senses and did whatever felt good. But now, we have a new master, and a new law, and we do the works which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
If we are no longer part of that world, why then would we participate in it as though we still belonged to it? And that’s Paul’s point. Don’t become partners with them. You used to be partners with them in their sins, but now you are light in the Lord, so don’t partner with them in their disobedience.
Transition: That is the negative side of things. But, as we all know, Christian holiness is not simply the absence of unrighteousness, but the presence of righteousness. It is not the absence of darkness but the presence of light. Thus, Paul continues and commands us to…
II. Walk as Children of Light (vv 8b-10)
How does the new age dawn in us? Not only do we refuse to participate/share in the darkness of the old world, but we also walk in the light because we are light in the Lord. In other words, live a lifestyle characterized by the world of light.
The fruit of light: gardening. We have a garden, and half of it is in the shade. The shaded plants bear significantly less fruit than the sunned plants. And what this is saying is to be like those sunned plants—place yourself in the sunshine of his truth and love, and you will bear much fruit.
What is that fruit?
All goodness. Wholesome, beautiful, attractive, pleasing. Goodness is easy to point out and hard to define. Good food is fresh, colorful, fragrant, flavorful. A good wife is beautiful, witty, smart, gentile, quiet. A good house is sturdy, lasting, has character, built with good materials, well laid out. A good lawn is green and soft and full and thick. A good church is loving and patient and gentle and welcoming and truthful and diligent and persistent.
But fundamentally it is a positive moral quality. Romans 15:14 describes goodness as being “filled with all knowledge and able to instruct others.” In other places it describes a resolve for goodness, or generosity. It’s a broad umbrella term which encompasses anything that is positive, particularly in the moral realm.
All righteousness. Righteousness is that which conforms to God’s standard, God’s law. Conformity to God’s person is the fundamental idea of righteousness. Thus, the fruit of light is not only good, pleasing, wholesome, and attractive, but it is also driven by truth, standards, reality, and uprightness. We need both. You can’t have someone defining goodness on their own terms—we’re not good at that. God’s righteousness defines goodness for us. In other words, his righteousness is a good righteousness, and his goodness is a righteous goodness.
Thus, to bear the fruit of the light is to conform ourselves to God’s standards. The reality is that there is one standard—God’s. Within that standard, God allows a lot of freedom for us, but where he does speak, or where he does give a principle for living, he expects us to diligently apply it.
All truthfulness. The idea of truthfulness is integrity. A man of integrity is truthful in his whole life. What you see is what you get, and what you get is exactly what you want. Again, this is the natural outflow of the first two. If you have someone who is full of goodness, and whose goodness is full of righteousness, then that is someone who has integrity.
Integrity is integration of the whole person. It is the integration of someone’s words with their practices with their desires with their thoughts with their relationships. Therefore, a person of integrity doesn’t lie, he doesn’t defraud, cheat, or steal. He gives his word and keeps it. He lives on the basis of principle rather than convenience. He has the courage to stand up for his convictions, even when it costs. He keeps his conscience clear at all costs. He manages his life in such a way that keeps his life consistent with all these. Therefore integrity brings great honor and dignity. It leads us into closer communion with the Lord. It promotes our truth speaking in the church and our evangelism outside of it. We must be men and women of integrity because we are children of light.
But goodness, righteousness, and truthfulness cannot remain abstract, unattached ideas. They must collide with daily life. That meeting requires great skill. Which is why Paul then adds v10: try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual. While the Bible sufficiently speaks to all the issues of life, most of the time it does not directly address the issues we face. And even when it does, it very rarely gives us a step-by-step process to follow. Thus, to please the Lord, we must not only be holy in our habits, but also discerning in our duties. We must practice the skill of asking, “What would please the Lord in this situation?” “What direction should we go that would bring honor to the Lord?” That is discernment—testing all possible options to discern which one makes the Lord maximally happy with us.
Transition: Now, what happens when we live like this? We do not partner with the sons of disobedience in their sin. We walk as children of the light and bear the fruit of light in goodness and righteousness and truthfulness, even as we discern the Lord’s will in every situation. What happens when we do that? In brief, we…
III. Expose the Unfruitful Works of Darkness (vv 11-14)
How does the new age dawn in us? Not only do we refuse to share in the darkness of the world, and not only do we walk as children of light, but we the expose unfruitful works of darkness.
Now, the first question we should ask is, “Who’s dark deeds are being exposed here?” There are essentially two options. On the one hand, Paul could be saying that we should expose the unfruitful works of darkness that remain in believers. In other words, Paul could be talking about our corporate sanctification project here, implying the kinds of practices present in texts like Matthew 18 or 1 Corinthians 5. In that case, we are to expose our own sins and the sins of one another within the church in order to expunge any remaining portion of the old world from our midst. And this is certainly true.
Yet, because of Paul’s continual emphasis on the church in God’s program of redemption, I can’t help but arrive at a different conclusion. I believe Paul here is referring to the evangelistic posture of the church through its corporate life of holiness. And thus the dark works that we are to expose are the dark works of the world. As Matthew Henry so ably put it, “The light of God’s word, and the exemplification of it in a Christian conversation [lifestyle], are proper means to convince sinners of their sin and wickedness.” In other words, through our walk of unity, through our mutual ministry to one another in building one another up, through our personal lives of holiness, and through our walk in love toward one another, we shine as lights in the world. But light has an illuminating effect on darkness. In the light of a true, holy, healthy church’s conduct, the darkness and sin of the world appears for what it is. Therefore, don’t take part in their deeds, but instead, through a life of holiness, shed light on what their deeds really are.
If you are light, then it would only make sense that the light coming from you would illuminate everything around you, which means that you will be able to see sin for what it is. Which is why Paul calls us to expose the works of darkness rather than to participate in them. It is inevitable that darkness will be exposed in us, and inevitable that we will expose darkness in the lives of others.
But Sin does not want to be found out. Few people sin openly. When we sin, we want to do it alone. We want to do it in the dark. We want to do it in private. As 5:12 says, we want to do it “in secret.” All sins are cryptic. They are secret, elusive, hard to pin down, not easily being acknowledged, often kept secret. John 3:20: “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
Sometimes this literally happens. Nobody commits adultery on a stage. Usually you don’t gossip in the open. Anger comes out at home more than at church. Public spaces have a quelling effect on sin. For the sake of self-preservation and to preserve our image we tamp down our vices when we are with others. But wait until we are alone, in secret, unobserved by human eyes, and we quickly plunge ourselves into those sins.
But sometimes this happens more personally. We may not commit adultery, but we imagine what it would be like if we did. We never speak angry words, but anger seethes internally and builds up the pressure cooker of bitterness. We might not steal, but we imagine what our lives might be like if we had what they had. These are all done in the secret person of the heart. Jerry Bridges called those respectable sins.
The effect of a holy church is that it presents these hidden sins for what they are. The holiness of the church brings conviction to the hidden sins of unbelievers. When they step into the light of the church, its behavior and its message scrutinize them, examines them carefully. It sheds light on them so it appears what they are. Through our preaching of truth, and through our corporate life in the light, we become the lightbulb that illuminates a roomful of sin that was previously hidden. It exposes sin and convicts the world.
People avoid church because of this. When they come to church, they see the lives of others who are walking with Christ and that sheds light on their sin, and that makes them uncomfortable. Churches oriented toward numerical growth stumble here. If your goal is to grow as quickly and as easily as possible, then you are going to remove every cause of discomfort, which means that you will not expose sin so sinners might not be uncomfortable, which means you’re going to discourage lives of holiness. But if you do that, the church becomes a beacon of darkness, a place where sin can hide in plain sight, a haven of cryptic unrighteousness. But Paul says “expose” the unfruitful works of darkness.
This is a great part of our evangelistic witness. 1 Pet 2:12, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” They see the contrast between their deeds and your deeds, and they are brought to saving faith.
If we don’t do this, then the lost world will never see the need for salvation. That’s what v13 means. It’s the obvious reality that you can’t see something until you shine light on it. How can the world repent if we don’t show them a better way?
But the peculiar thing about this light is that it doesn’t just illuminate sin—it transforms darkness into light. That’s v14. Light is transformative. When spiritual light shines on darkness, the darkness dissipates. In a certain sense, darkness becomes light. Which brings us full circle back to v8: “for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord.” Think back. How did that happen? Was it not because someone in your life let the light of their life shine? And through their life it exposed your unfruitful works that you would have liked to keep hidden? And did that not then lead you to repent and trust in Christ? “Anything that becomes visible is light.”
Conclusion
To end, I want to sound the same appeal which Paul does in v14: “Awake, o sleeper, and arise form the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” If any of you are asleep, wake up. You are asleep. You are lying unconscious in a dark room not knowing the danger that creeps up on you. So wake up, and look around! See the light in the church! See the holiness and the unity! See the maturity! See the work of the Lord. See the holiness and the love. The light shines brightly here! Let it have its effect on your soul!
Perhaps you feel exposed. Vulnerable. Uneasy. Perhaps that is not a bad thing. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is shedding light on your unfruitful works of darkness. Perhaps the dawning of the new age in the church is shedding just enough light for you to see that you are walking a path toward death. Awake!
And don’t just awake, but arise from the dead. See! Look at what Jesus did when he rose up from the grave! Look at how he rules his people with an everlasting love. Look at how the Jesus who is seated at the right hand of God condescends to weak sinners to remake them into his image. Look at how kind the conquering Christ is to all those who come to him and ask for forgiveness. Perhaps God, because he is rich in mercy, and because he loves you with a great love, even while you are dead in your trespasses, will make you alive together with Christ Jesus. Arise from the dead.
And Christ will shine on you. He will make you understand him, and yourself, and the world. He will make you holy. He will comfort you. He will help you. He will refresh you with joy and peace and rewards and everlasting glory world without end. How can you resist such kindness? Who would not want to live in the light?
One final word: Church, you are the dawning of a new age. So walk in this world as to let your light shine before men, and let them come to your Father when they see your good deeds.