Walk Like You Know Who You Are

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. (Ephesians 5:8-10)

There is a difference between knowing something and walking in it. The church knows many things. We know the Scriptures. We know the doctrines. We know the vocabulary. But in Ephesians 5, Paul was not talking about knowing. He was talking about walking. We are to walk as children of light. Paul told believers they were once darkness. He did not say just in a dark place, rather he wrote that before we had Christ, we were “sometimes darkness.” That is not about your behavior. That is about your nature before Christ. Without God, a man is not just lost. He is full of darkness, led by it, and produces it through his actions, attracting more of it.

But then Paul wrote that there was a shift. He wrote that now believers are light in the Lord. They are not trying to be or working toward it – they are. That is the present tense. That is positional. If you are born again, light is not something you pursue or gain; it is something you already are. The question is whether you are walking in it. The fruit of the Spirit comes from that light. Goodness, righteousness, and truth - these are not things you create or earn. They are what you produce when you walk in alignment with who you already are in Christ. When a light bulb is connected to the power source, it does not have to try to give light. That is just what it does. Then he said believers are to be proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. The word "proving" there means allowing. You allow the will of God to be seen in your life by walking in the light you already carry. You are not trying to convince God of anything. You are demonstrating through your walk what the light of God looks like, lived out in a human being.

Practical Application

This is not about perfection. It is about direction. Stop walking like the old man. Stop making decisions in darkness. Stop talking like someone who does not know who they are. You are light. Walk like it.

1 Peter 2:9; Acts 26:18