A second issue of being filled in our spirit with the processed Triune God and letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly is that we live a life that matches the wife of Christ (Eph. 5:22-25) in love and light. As grace and truth are the basic elements in Ephesians 4:17-32, so love (5:2, 25) and light (5:8-9, 13-14) are the basic elements in 5:1-33. Grace is the expression of love, and love is the source of grace. Truth is the revelation of light, and light is the origin of truth. God is love and light (1 John 4:8; 1:5). When
God is expressed and revealed in the Lord Jesus, His love becomes grace and His light becomes truth. After we have, in the Lord Jesus, received God as grace and realize Him as truth, we come to Him and enjoy His love and light. Love and light are deeper than grace and truth. Hence, Paul first takes grace and truth as the basic elements of a life that matches the new man and then love and light as the elements of a life that matches the wife of Christ. This implies that in our daily living we should grow deeper, from the outward elements to the inward.
Love is the substance of God within, whereas light is the element of God expressed. It is possible to sense the love of God inwardly and to see the light of God shining out. Our walk in love should be constituted of both the loving substance of God and the shining element of God. This should be the inner source of our walk.
In Ephesians 5:2 Paul says, “Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.” In 4:32 Paul presents God as the pattern for our daily walk, and in 5:2 he sets forth Christ as the example for our living. In 4:32 it is God in Christ as our pattern because, in that section, God’s grace and truth expressed in the life of Jesus are taken as the basic elements. According to 4:32, we are to forgive others as God in Christ has forgiven us. This means that God is the pattern of forgiveness. But in chapter five Christ Himself is our example because, in this section, love expressed by Christ to us (v. 25) and light shined by Christ upon us (v. 14) are taken as the basic elements. Here Christ, who loved us and gave Himself up for us, is the example of walking in love.
In Ephesians 5:8 Paul goes on to say, “You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” We were once not only dark but darkness itself. Now we are not only the children of light but light itself (Matt. 5:14). As light is God, so darkness is the Devil. We were darkness because we were one with the Devil. Now we are light because we are one with God in the Lord.
In 5:2 Paul tells us to walk in love, and in 5:8 he tells us to walk as children of light. As God is light, so we, the children of God, are also the children of light. Because we are now light in the Lord, we should walk as children of light. We should not simply be according to truth and by grace but also in love and under light. Walking in love and in light is deeper and more tender than living according to truth and by grace.
In our experience we may often realize God as truth to us, as our reality. But sometimes when we get into God’s presence, we sense that we are in the light. At such times, we are not only experiencing reality, but we are the very light itself. Thus, the experience of light is deeper than the experience of truth.
After charging us to walk as children of light, Paul in 5:9 inserts a parenthetical statement about the fruit of the light, saying that “the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light; righteousness is the way or the procedure to produce the fruit of the light; and the truth is the reality, the real expression, of the fruit of the light. This expression is God Himself. The fruit of the light must be good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression so that God may be expressed as the reality of our daily walk.
It is significant that in speaking of the fruit of the light Paul mentions only three things: goodness, righteousness, and truth. The reason he mentions just three things is that the fruit of the light in goodness, righteousness, and truth is related to the Triune God.
Goodness refers to the nature of the fruit of life. The Lord Jesus once indicated that the only One who was good is God Himself (Matt. 19:17). Hence, goodness here denotes God the Father. God the Father as goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light.
Righteousness is the procedure by which the fruit of the light is produced. In the Godhead, the Son, Christ, is our righteousness. He came to earth to produce certain things according to God’s procedure, which is always righteous. Righteousness is God’s way, God’s procedure. Christ came to accomplish God’s purpose according to His righteous procedure. Therefore, the second aspect of the fruit of the light refers to God the Son.
The truth is the expression of the fruit of the light. This fruit must be real; that is, it must be the expression of God, the shining of the hidden light. No doubt, this truth refers to the Spirit of reality, the third of the Triune God. Therefore, the Father as the goodness, the Son as the righteousness, and the Spirit as the truth, the reality, are all related to the fruit of the light.
Ephesians 5:9 is the definition of walking as children of light. If we walk as the children of light, we shall bear the fruit described in this verse. The fruit we bear by walking as the children of light must be in goodness, righteousness, and truth. The proof that we are walking as children of light is seen in the bearing of such fruit.
First we receive God in Christ as grace and realize God in Christ as truth. Then we come to enjoy God as love and light. Love and light are inward elements, whereas grace and truth are outward elements. Love is the inner substance of God that can be sensed, and light is the expressed element of God that can be seen. Both love and light are to be the inner source of our daily walk as believers.
We need to be deeply impressed that the church life according to God’s desire must be in love and light, both of which are elements of God Himself. In the substance of God we have love and light. The goal of the book of Ephesians is to bring us into God’s inner substance to know Him as love and light. Here, by being filled in spirit with the Spirit and by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we are to live in intimate fellowship as we enjoy light in its shining and love in its sweetness.
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