Ephesians 5:8a

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord."

I have often read and quoted this verse, and when I have I almost always unconsciously insert the word "in" after the word "once" and before the word "darkness", and also after the word "are" and before the word "light". So the verse would read in my mind as, "For you were once IN darkness, but now you are IN light in the Lord." While that is a true statement, it's not what God said or Paul wrote. This is called eisigesis, and diminishes Truth when handling the Holy Writ. It's a fact that I was once in darkness, and it's also a fact that I am now in light. But there's so much more because there's a big difference between being in something verses actually being something. I am sometimes in sin, but I am not sin (as the Gnostics once believed, and some still believe today). Or in the physical realm, I can be in my house or in my bed, but I am neither of those objects. But when it comes to matters about my spiritual condition before a God that's full of light, it's really that definite..., it's a matter of black and white, night and day, darkness and light. And not only was I/am I in those spheres, I was/am actually them, as if there's no distinction between me and that state. I was darkness. When looking into a pitch black environment with no light whatsoever, I couldn't be found or seen because I was that darkness. I was invisible, as if I never existed. But now, because of God's great mercy and love (cf. Ephesians 2:4) I am part and parcel to light, illuminating beings that are hid in darkness. Charles Spurgeon once wrote, "Enlightened by His pure celestial ray, we are no more darkness but light in the Lord. As fire, He both purges us from dross, and sets our consecrated nature on a blaze." In a sense, I'm now fire, I'm heat, and I'm light. What influence and affect that wields and yields! Darkness possesses none of it, even though I view it from a distance with fear as if it had power over me. Not any longer! Praise be to God!

Today I live as light, humbly walking to and fro casting illumination so intense it creates shadows behind everything it brightens. This happens as I not only am light but walk in the light (cf. I John 1:7). The fiery gospel of grace is a lamp that enlightens my paths and serves as a beacon on my head.