Children of Light (4th Sunday of Lent)

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In the first half of his letter to the Ephesians (chs. 1-3), St. Paul talks about how God has predestined believers for salvation, how He brought believers from spiritual death to life through Christ Jesus, and how the Gentiles who formerly did not know God have been incorporated into His Church. The second half of the letter (chs. 4-6), he switches from talking about the theology of salvation to practical Christian living, encouraging believers to live lives that reflect their new identity in Christ.

One of the terms Paul uses in today’s reading to describe believers is “Children of Light.” Believers have Christ as the light of the world (John 8:12), and thus do not walk in darkness as those who do not know Christ do. As Jesus Himself declares:

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:19-21)

In light of this reality, believers are expected to live a certain way that is different from the rest of society. In the rest of chapters 5-6, Paul gives general guidelines on how to conduct one’s affairs (5:15-21). After this, he gives instructions to wives and husbands (5:22-33), parents and children (6:1-4), and masters and slaves (6:5-9). Finally, he encourages believers to put on the Armour of God, in order to resist the attacks of the Enemy (6:10-17), and to pray unceasingly (6:18-20). All these instructions are meant to explain how to “live as children of the light.”

As believers, we should rejoice that we no longer walk in darkness, and should live in such a way that our lives reflect the reality of how Christ has transformed us.

J. Luis Dizon