Introduction
Nothing is worse than when you are sound asleep in a pitch-dark room, and someone suddenly turns on the lights or opens the window. You go from resting in the darkness to what feels like a violation of your peace. Yet, when this happens, it’s usually because someone is waking us up for a reason. It's time to greet the day. There are things that need to be done, and sleeping in the dark isn’t going to cut it. Today, Paul throws on the light and tries to wake us up.

Today’s Scripture
Ephesians 5:8-14 (New Living Translation)

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

Explanation and Reflection
Paul turns on the lights here for the Christians at Ephesus and for us because...

1. Light doesn’t coexist with darkness
   Paul says, “Once you were full of darkness.” That phrase is in the past tense. Anyone who has been following Christ for a long time and passionately pursuing Him sees less darkness in their lives. The more we chase the light, the less darkness there can be. This doesn’t mean that any Christian is perfect. We still struggle with some darkness in our lives and go through darker seasons. However, there should be more light over the long haul as a result of pursuing Christ in our lives.
2. Light ultimately brings out our best
   This passage highlights the evil of darkness living in us. Darkness is associated with terms like “worthless deeds, evil, shameful, and secret,” while light is related to terms like “good, right, true, and visible.” Which set of characteristics do you want to be tethered to? What kind of person do you want to be? When the light lives in us, it illuminates the beauty in us that God has created.
3. Light enables deep, critical work
   One attribute of light is that when it lives in us, we “carefully determine what pleases the Lord.” In other words, we critically examine our lives in a healthy pursuit of honoring God in thought and action. We pass everything through the filter: "Am I living as Jesus would live if He were in my situation?”
4. Light exposes evil
   You need to be prepared for the fact that if the light is in you, it exposes evil in people and places. The text says, “their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible.” The goal here isn’t to “get” us to be the “shame sheriff.” What Paul is pointing out is the fact that light reveals the evil that lives in darkness, and darkness hates that. When we live distinctly from the world, our light reveals others' sins. This becomes a violation of their morality, privacy, and beliefs. There is usually a backlash from this violation.
5. Light wakes us up
   Paul ends this discussion of light and darkness by citing a hymn from the early church's worship: “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” Paul leans into this same language about sleeping and being awake in 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8: “So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing the confidence of our salvation as our helmet.”Too many people in the church today are asleep because they would rather linger in the dark night of our culture. When the day has come, and the light is bright, we would rather recede into our bedrooms, sleeping in with the shades down. Christ compels us to open up the windows, let in the light, and wake up.

The benefits of living in the light are too great to continue living in darkness. We need to wake up and welcome the opportunity to serve the Lord of light by being in the light.

Question of the Day
Here's a question for you to think about and apply:
In what ways are you living in the light by reflecting the character of God in your life? In what ways are you living in darkness, and how can you move into the light?