Ephesians 5 opens with these words: “Become therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love...” (vv. 1-2). Then in the following verses Paul goes on to say that we need to walk as children of light (vv. 2-14) who understand the will of the Lord (vv. 15-17). In chapter four we saw two striking matters—grace and truth. In chapter five there are also two striking matters—love and light. Verse 2 says that we should walk in love, and verse 8 says that we should walk as children of light. In the divine reality grace and truth are a pair, and love and light also are a pair.
In his Gospel, the Apostle John emphasized grace and truth. He said that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). But in his first Epistle John does not emphasize grace and truth; instead, he emphasizes love and light. In 4:8 he says that God is love and in 1:5 that God is light. He does not say that God has love or light; he says that God is love and light. Love and light, therefore, are actually God Himself. They are God’s being, His essence.
Although the Bible tells us that God is love and light, there is no verse which says that God is grace. Rather, we are told that grace and truth came (John 1:17). The word “came” is significant in what it indicates. This word indicates that grace has a source, that grace came from somewhere. When Christ was incarnated, He came with grace and truth. We know, of course, that the source of the Lord Jesus was God, for He came from God the Father. No doubt, grace and truth also came from God the Father. Therefore, God is the source of grace and truth. God the Father is love and light. Love is the source of grace, and light is the source of truth.
This understanding is confirmed by 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” In this verse the love of God is the source, the grace of Christ is what proceeds from that source, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the transmission, that which passes on this grace to us. Likewise, love is a source, and grace is the outcome. Light is a source, and truth is the outcome. Grace and truth come out of God the Father, but love and light are God the Father. Once we receive grace and truth, we may go back to God to contact Him and have fellowship with Him. When we go back to God in this way, we reach love and light. This means we touch the source of grace and truth. First we believe in the Lord Jesus and receive grace and truth. Then by enjoying grace and truth we are brought back to the source of grace and truth, God the Father as love and light. By staying in such a fellowship we become a beloved child of God walking in love.
What is revealed in chapter five concerning love and light is deeper than what is revealed in chapter four concerning grace and truth. In chapter four we walk in grace, but in chapter five we walk in love. By walking in love we become a child of light, not just a person of truth. It is in this way that we can become an imitator of God, the One who is love and light. This is a great advancement and progression, an advancement from grace to love and from truth to light. We who seek Christ and love God should be children of light walking in love. Because both light and love are God, this means we are children of God walking in God. To be children of light walking in love actually means that we are children of God walking in God.
How can we be the children of light walking in love? This is possible only by the Father dispensing Himself into us in the Son through the Spirit. When the Triune God is dispensed into us, we become in a practical way the children of God, who is light. Then as children of light, not only do we live by grace, but we live directly in God, who is light and love. Therefore, the dispensing of the Divine Trinity constitutes us children of light walking in love, or we may say children of God walking in God.
Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity we all need to be filled in our spirit with the Spirit as the divine wine (v. 18). If we are filled in our spirit in this way, then we shall speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (v. 19a), we shall be singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord (v. 19b), and we shall be giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God and the Father (v. 20). When we have the Triune God dispensed into us thoroughly to make us children of light walking in love, we shall be able to declare, “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.” We shall praise Him with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Psalms are long poems, hymns are of medium length, and spiritual songs are short verses.
According to verse 18, we should not be drunk with wine, but we should be filled in spirit. We should be filled with God, even “drunk” with Him, not drunk with wine. God’s love is better than wine. Song of Songs 1:2 says, “Thy love is better than wine.” We do not care to drink wine, but we desire to drink God’s love, which is better than wine. We want to soak in His love, to bathe in it. We want to be those who are permeated and saturated with God’s love and even drunk with His love.
One who is a child of light, walking in love, will be beside himself with God. This means that a child of light should be drunk with God. A proper Christian is one who is beside himself with the enjoyment of the Lord. If you are always silent, you are not a typical Christian. A typical Christian should be drunk with the love of the Lord. We all need to be drunk with God as our love and light. Then we shall truly be children of light walking in love.
If we are drunk with God and walk in Him as love and light, we shall have genuine holiness. Real holiness is not a matter of following certain regulations. True holiness is the very God whose children we are and in whom we walk. Hallelujah, we have been born of God, and we are children of light walking in love! We should go on to be filled with God, saturated and permeated with Him, and soaked in Him. This is the dispensing of the Triune God into our being.
A real Christian is one who experiences such a dispensing, and the aggregate of all such Christians is the church. The church should be composed of those who are drunk with God, composed of those who are children of light walking daily, hourly, and even moment by moment in love. This is the proper church life. The proper church life is not composed of people who are sober in a natural way. On the contrary, the church is a group of people who are drunk with God. However, although these believers are drunk with the Lord, they are not foolish. Instead, they are wise.
If we are drunk with God through His dispensing, we shall be happy, and we shall rejoice and exult. In this way we shall have the real enjoyment of the processed God in His Divine Trinity in our daily life.