You Are Light Now

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”

Ephesians 5:8 · NKJV

Paul does not say you were in darkness and now you are in light, though that is true enough. He says you were darkness, and now you are light.

That is an identity sentence, not a behavior sentence. Something about what you are changed. And the phrase in the Lord tells you where the change came from. The light is what being joined to Him made true, not a quality you generated.

This shows up in how we read our worst moments. When you lose your temper with your spouse or say the thing you swore you would never say again, the voice inside goes further than saying you acted in the dark. It says you are dark, that this is who you really are and the light was an act. Paul will not let that stand. The failure is real, and it may call for a hard apology. But it did not undo what the Lord made you. You are light that stumbled, not darkness that got caught.

Only after that does Paul say, walk as children of light. Paul never asks anyone to walk their way into being light. He tells you what you are, and then invites you to live like it. Identity first, every time.

You are light in the Lord. Walk today as what you already are.

Go deeper: You Have Forgotten Who You Are →