You may have heard the phrase “It has come to light.” That phrase often suggests that you are about to hear bad news. Whether it is a matter of moral or criminal behavior, you never want to hear those words. That is especially true if you’ve had some dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. If you’re in his files or visited his island, you might be in trouble. Look at what happened to the guy formerly known as Prince Andrew. Not only did he lose his title and place in the line of succession, but he was arrested for making the monarchy look bad. So, when the light shines in the darkness, it usually brings to light the bad things done under the cover of darkness.
Our reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent from Ephesians 5 talks about leaving behind darkness and walking in the light. This letter addresses a number of practical questions about what it means to live the Christian life in the context of a pagan culture, which embraced ethical and moral conduct that differed greatly from the teachings of Judaism and Christianity. The recipients of this letter were mostly recent converts who, according to Paul, had been living in darkness before their conversion. Now that these Gentile believers had left behind the world of darkness, they should embody the light of Christ that is expressed in what is good, right, and true. According to Paul, the light of Christ shines into the world, revealing the “unfruitful works of darkness” that followers of Jesus should avoid.
This contrast between darkness and light is a theme that runs through the Bible from beginning to end. It starts with the opening verses of Genesis. In the first act of creation, while the Spirit of God swept across the waters, God said, “Let there be light.” When God spoke these words, God separated the light from the darkness, creating the first day and the first night. God pronounced the emergence of light from the darkness to be good (Gen. 1:1-5). Then at the very end, in the Book of Revelation, we read that “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23).
Isaiah offered an important word about the contrasting reality of light and darkness that fits with the message we find in Ephesians 5:
Doom to you who call evil good
and good evil,
Who put darkness in place of light
and light in place of darkness,
Who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
In a world where the darkness of night was rather scary, it’s understandable that people would view the light of day as a good thing. After all, things that go “bump in the night” can frighten us. Besides, we all know that criminals like to operate under the cover of darkness. The same is true of the rats and cockroaches. So, at least in the movies and TV shows, when people turn on the light switch, whether in a dark and dank basement or the backyard, things that live in the darkness suddenly scurry away.
This dualism between light and darkness also appears in several places in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John. In the prologue to his Gospel, John picks up on the imagery from Genesis 1, and reveals that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and in him there is life that is the “light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:1-5). Later in John 8, Jesus tells his disciples: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). Then when Jesus responded to his followers questions about why he had decided to go to Jerusalem, where he might be killed, he told his disciples: “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them” (Jn 9:9-10). Of course, it was under the cover of darkness that Jesus’ enemies came to arrest him. But, as John promised in the prologue, the darkness would not overcome the light because God had the last word in the resurrection. This is an important word because it gives us hope that evil will not have the last word. Things may seem rather dark at the moment, but morning will come, and with it a new day will begin.
Now, even though darkness won’t ultimately overcome the light, that doesn’t mean darkness is powerless. This is why Paul told the Ephesian converts to “walk as children of light” by doing what is good, right, and true. We hear something similar in his letter to the church in Rome, where Paul told the believers that the time of their salvation was close at hand, since “the hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep. Now our salvation is nearer than when we first had faith. The night is almost over, and the day is near. So let’s get rid of the actions that belong to the darkness and put on the weapons of light. Let’s behave appropriately as people who live in the day, not in partying and getting drunk, not in sleeping around and obscene behavior, not in fighting and obsession” (Rom. 13:11-13 CEB).
The message that we hear throughout Paul’s letters and elsewhere, including the Gospels, is one of grace and mercy. However, Jesus, Paul, and James all emphasized the need to behave in accord with the will of God. For the writers of the New Testament who addressed largely Gentile Christians, this was an important message. Conversion in that context meant leaving behind their old life and entering a new life. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!” (2 Cor 5:17 NRSVUE). Paul had good reasons for addressing the behaviors of these new converts. We see this concern present in his first letter to the Corinthian church, where members of that community seemed quite adept at falling back into old habits that reflected the darkness.
When we come to the Ephesian letter, Paul advised them to separate themselves from anything that could cause them to fall back into their old ways. That’s understandable because the gravitational pull of old friendships and lifestyles can be strong. That was true then, and it’s true today. Peer pressure can be a powerful force, for good and for ill.
So, what word might Paul want to share with us? Is it possible that we could find ourselves living in darkness? We might like to think that, since we live in a supposedly Christian-dominated nation, we can avoid such things, but there are plenty of voices out there inviting us to embrace the darkness. Sometimes those voices cover themselves in religious language, even though their messages are quite different from what Jesus taught his disciples. St. Augustine offered a helpful word here about the relationship of love and how we read the Bible that I think applies: “So if it seems to you that you have understood the divine scriptures, or any part of them, in such a way that by this understanding you do not build up this twin love of God and neighbor, then you have not yet understood them.” [Teaching Christianity, NCP, I:36, p. 129].
So, we hear Paul remind us that when the light shines in the darkness, the light will expose the deeds of darkness. Ultimately, the light will prevail because darkness will not overcome the light that is God’s glory. We embody this light when we love God and our neighbors.
Our reading ends with what appears to be an early hymn that paraphrases a passage from Isaiah 60. The word we hear from Isaiah is:
1 Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord
has risen upon you.
2 For darkness shall cover the earth
and thick darkness the peoples,
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
3 Nations shall come to your light
and kings to the brightness
of your dawn.
This early hymn paraphrases Isaiah and adds the call to wake up from our sleep, rise from the dead, so that Christ will shine upon us.
So let us wake up and walk in the light and do what is good, right, and true, because a new day has begun, and Jesus has shown us the way forward. As my friend Allan Bevere puts it:
Paul’s words encourage the Ephesian church to embrace the full implications of their identity, to live visibly as those who have been rescued from darkness, and to participate actively in God’s work of bringing light to a world still in shadow. [Preachers Lectionary Notes]
In my view, the way to do this is by following Jesus’ instructions to love God and our neighbors, whomever they are and wherever they may be found.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Tyrone Township, MI
Lent 4A
March 15, 2026
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