Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Ephesians 5:8

ἦτε γάρ ποτε σκότος. St Paul has come back now to the broad contrast between the New and the Old with which he started in Ephesians 4:17. Just as he contrasted their present with their former position in point of spiritual privilege (Ephesians 2:12), so here he points the contrast from the side of moral responsibility. The figure that he employs is that of light and darkness. It is a figure of frequent occurrence in Isaiah, especially in the later Chapter s, where the world both Jewish and Gentile is described as lying in darkness, and Jehovah (Isaiah 60:19) and the Servant (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6) and Zion (Isaiah 60:2) are in various ways sources of light. The figure had passed into general currency, the Pharisees regarding themselves as in a special sense called to be the light of those in darkness (Romans 2:19). Hence the bitter irony of our Lord’s description of them as ‘blind guides’ and His warning Matthew 6:23; Luke 11:35. At the same time He claims the figure of light for Himself (John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:46), and for His disciples (Matthew 5:14), and describes the condition of men apart from Him as darkness (John 12:35; John 12:46) and the force opposed to Him as ‘the power of the darkness’ (Luke 22:53). In the same way the figures are applied in direct dependence on Isaiah in Luke 1:79; Luke 2:32; Matthew 4:16. The figure is first found in connexion with St Paul at the critical moment in the evangelization of Antioch in Pisidia, Acts 13:47, where Isaiah 49:6 is boldly claimed as supplying decisive guidance to Paul and Barnabas in turning to the Gentiles. How fundamental the thought was in St Paul’s conception of his office is clear from Acts 26:18. From this point of view he speaks of the world apart from Christ as ‘this darkness’ (Ephesians 6:12, cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14). The men belonging to it are ‘darkened in mind’ (Ephesians 4:18), blinded by the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), and do the works of darkness (Romans 13:12; Ephesians 5:11). For this darkness is a dominion (Colossians 1:13; cf. Acts 26:18) and spiritual powers of evil exercise authority within it (Ephesians 6:12). The deliverance effected by the Gospel is a transference of men to a new allegiance in the kingdom of the Son of His Love, which is another name for the inheritance of the Saints in light. It is the work of God Himself (Colossians 1:13) and is strictly parallel to the original creation of light out of (physical) darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6). It is effected as God Himself shines in our hearts to enable us to see His Glory in the face of Christ. The result is a moral transformation. Christians become sons of light (1 Thessalonians 5:5; cf. John 12:36). They put on the armour of light (Romans 13:12). They become themselves luminaries, spreading light and life in the world (Philippians 2:15; cf. Matthew 5:14). Bearing these passages in mind the sequence of thought here can be followed without difficulty.

νῦν δὲ φῶς ἐν κυρίῳ. In union with and in loving obedience to their Lord they had become luminous. Cf. Matthew 5:14; John 8:12; Revelation 21:11.

ὡς τέκνα φωτὸς περιπατεῖτε. Cf. Luke 16:8; John 12:36; 1 Thessalonians 5:5 and note on Ephesians 2:3. They were moulded and transformed by the light that shines from Him into its own likeness, and the consequence must be seen in their daily life.

περιπατεῖτε. This picks up Ephesians 4:17; Ephesians 5:2 and is picked up in Ephesians 5:15; John 12:35 supplies an interesting parallel emphasizing as John 9:4; John 11:9 the fact that the possession of the light is a call to work.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Ephesians 5:8

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