Ephesians 5:2

Ephesians 5:2 , Ephesians 5:8

I. "Walk in love." Here we have a command founded upon a reason: "Walk in love, as Christ hath loved us." Yes, of all forces love is the most powerful as a force to act upon others. Pure, disinterested love is all but irresistible, all but, not quite; for if it were quite irresistible, then the world had been converted long ago. I think St. Augustine was right when he said that the most wonderful thing he knew was that God could love man so much, and man could love God so little. It looks sometimes as if God had never loved the world, as if Jesus had never died for the world, as if there were no such thing as love at all.

II. But then we come to the other command: "Walk as children of light." Now light, of course, is put for knowledge, as darkness is put for ignorance. Well, the light shows us what otherwise could not be seen; it reveals to us what otherwise were unknown. Now the one who walks as a child of light sees the things that it is needful for him to behold, if he too would avoid the perils, would escape the evils, of the journey, and direct his way aright towards the everlasting home. But then, again, remember that the light shines. It falls on others. The child of light not only walks wisely and safely, but he shines; he is a reflected light, not like the sun, which shines with its own inherent intrinsic light, but like the planets, which shine with borrowed light. It is Christ shining on them and in them which makes Christian people to walk as children of light.

Bishop Walsham How, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiii., p. 161.

Reference: Ephesians 5:4. A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church,p. 296.