Fruits Of Light

Five things we need to know. Very practical. Number one, the contrast. The contrast of children of light. And it’s a very simple, beautiful contrast, verse eight. For ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of light. That’s not something extraordinary. We aren’t shocked that he asked us to walk as children of light when he just said, that’s what we are. He’s just saying, be who you are. And I’ve told you this before, the Christian life is simply becoming what you are. That’s what it is.

Living up to your identity, being who you are. So he says, this is the contrast. You were that, you are this. Live like what you are, not like what you were. Secondly, and this kind of builds on that, they are ruled by Satan. They are ruled by the Prince of darkness. They are literally dominated by him. It isn’t just that they do his deeds, being his children. And by the way, that’s the whole point in the text here. If you’re the child of Satan, you will do the deeds of Satan. If you’re the child of God, you’ll do the deeds of God.

They not only do the thing he wants, but they literally are ruled and dominated by Satan. It is hard for people to realize that, but you remember that in Colossians 1 it says that you were taken out of the kingdom of darkness. It’s a kingdom, it has a hierarchy, and it has a ruler, and it’s Satan, and he is the one calling the shots. People say, oh, I don’t want to become a Christian. I’ll give up my freedom, the freedom of running around in a cave in pitch blackness trying to find a way out.

That’s the only freedom. And that’s no freedom at all. That’s no freedom at all. You don’t give up freedom to become a Christian. You are victimized by the rule of Satan. Without Jesus Christ, Satan calls the shots in your life. The kingdom of darkness is ruled by the king of darkness, and he rules the life of those who are the darkness. Now let’s look at it from God’s side for the last two things. You do the works of Satan under the rule of Satan. Thirdly, which means you come under the penalty of God.

The penalty of wrath, that’s a third characteristic of one who is darkness. God’s penalty of wrath comes upon them. In Romans chapter 1, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. In other words, the wrath of God is going to come on sin. And it talks about, verse 21, the people it’s going to fall on are those whose foolish heart was darkened, those who are the fools, you see, those who exchanged the truth for a lie, those who didn’t want to retain God in their knowledge, and went over to ignorance, and who did all kinds of evil things.

Those are the ones. In John, chapter 12, verse 35, our Lord had just presented himself as the light, and he said, you’d better respond to the light while you have the light, because a little while you won’t have the light, and darkness will come upon you, and you have the light, he says in verse 36 of John 12, believe in the light that you may be the sons of light. He gave them a message, but they didn’t believe. It says in the next verse, they believed not. And then he said, well then this is what Isaiah says, he’s blinded their eyes, hardened their heart, they should not see with their eyes, or understand with their heart, be converted, and I should heal them.

In other words, where you say to yourself, I will not believe, God then says judicially, you cannot believe, you come under divine judgment. Which finally leads to the fact that people who do the deeds of Satan, under the dominion of Satan, come under the wrath of God, which, fourth and finally, leads to an eternal place of darkness. That’s the fourth characteristic of these people. The first one, they are placed into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Well that’s the story of the darkness. They do the deeds of darkness, under the dominion of the prince of darkness.

It results in coming under God’s judgment on darkness, which is an eternal hell, which is outer darkness. You want darkness? You can have it forever. And we will once that, we will once that. But look at verse 8, now we’re light, you see. This is the taking this tremendous contrast, and by the way, this is Jermaine to his whole thought here. He is trying to show you the absolute contrast. That’s why he picks light and darkness. They are the absolute opposites. We were that, but now we’re light. And there’s a big difference.

We don’t do the works of Satan, we do the works of God, right? We are his workmanship, created by Christ Jesus under good works. We are not under the rule of Satan, we are under the lordship of Jesus Christ. We are not under God’s wrath, we are under the promise of being participants in the kingdom of light. We will not go into a place of darkness, we will go to a place of light. And the Bible says there is no lamp there, for the lamb is the light of it, see? The history is absolutely the opposite.

Those who are darkness do the works of Satan under the power of Satan, fall under the judgment of God, and end up in eternal darkness. Those who are the light do the deeds of light under the Prince of Light, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they become inheritors of the kingdom of light. And finally, an eternal heaven of light. See the difference? He’s showing you how opposite these are, and he’s saying, look, if you’re a Christian beloved, and you’re here in the kingdom of light, then live as a child of light.

Do you see the point? What would you have to do with that whole dominion over there? That realm is gone, it’s past, it’s over. So live like children of light, not children of wrath, not children of disobedience, not children of the devil. He goes a step further, point number two. He’s given the contrast of the children of light, now he gives the characteristics. You say, all right, Paul, I’m with you. Boy, if I’m not in that kingdom, I shouldn’t mess with it. But what are the characteristics of children of light? Oh, that’s easy, he says in verse 9.

For the fruit of light, best manuscripts say light, not the spirit. For the fruit of light, that’s what he’s talking about, is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? You don’t need some great Bible teacher to unscramble that mystery. Goodness, righteousness, truth, those are the marks of those who walk in light. You say, well, I’m a Christian, what should characterize my life? Goodness, righteousness, truth. Hmm, that’s terrific. You know, there were a lot of people, and still are, who claim to be in the light.

Oh yes, we’re in the light, we made a decision for Christ, we’ve been born again. Oh, I’ve been going to church for years. I’m very religious, very religious. I’ve given a lot of money to the church. I’ve been in a certain denomination since I was baptized, christened, confirmed, or who knows what. Oh yes, I remember when I received an award for learning the Bible. You know, people have all that stuff. I’m a church member. But you know what the real test is? You see, the children of light are made manifest by the fruit of light.

The children of light are made manifest by the fruit of light. There needs to be some fruit, that’s what he’s saying here. And he says, the fruit is this. Look at it. Goodness, first of all. You know what I think? I think this is just a beautiful picture of how you relate to other people. There’s a word in the Greek, kalos, which means good. It’s translated good. It means free from defects, and beautiful. Like that’s a good painting, or that’s a good jar you made. That’s a good tapestry. It’s free from defects.

Good. Then there’s the word kristos, which means useful. That’s good for digging a hole. Hey, that’s good for holding that thing together. It’s useful. But then there’s agathos. Agathos is a beautiful word. You’re great aunt. Maybe her name was Agatha. That’s where it comes from. Agathos. You know what it means? It means overall moral excellence. And one lexicon says especially active in behalf of others. It isn’t just free from defects. It isn’t just useful for certain things. It’s just good. And it touches everybody in that same way, with a very positive moral excellent effect.

And that’s the word he uses here. This is what Paul meant in 1st Thessalonians 5.15 when he said, just do good to everybody. And I think this is the first element of the fruit of light, and that is that it touches other people with goodness. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of fruits of light. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.