Walking in the Light: What the Bible Actually Says About Living in a Dark Culture
You have probably prayed some version of this: Lord, I will not do that again. And then you did. At The Vine Church in Fairfield we worked through Ephesians 5, and the reason that prayer keeps failing turns out to be a matter of which direction you are facing.
Watch the full message from Pastor Amos Sikele — preached Sunday, July 12, 2026 at The Vine Church in Fairfield, CA.
The short version
- Paul never promises the darkness will lift. He shows you how to walk through it — light does not stop the storm, it shows you where to go.
- Ephesians 5:8 does not say you were walking in darkness. It says you were darkness — and are now light in the Lord. The identity changed first.
- Galatians 5:16 puts the order the opposite way round from how most of us live: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
- Lust takes; love gives. That single test settles most questions about what you are actually doing in a relationship.
- “Awake thou that sleepest” is written to Christians. You can attend, sing, serve, and take notes while spiritually asleep.
What Ephesians 5 actually says
Paul is writing to saints — people already in Christ — in a city saturated with the temple of Artemis and everything that came with it. He opens not with a rule but with a family resemblance.
“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”
The word behind “followers” carries the sense of imitation. Children copy their parents without being told to, and Paul says that if we are God’s children there should be a resemblance — we imitate our Father, not the appetites of the culture. And he refuses to leave love undefined: Christ’s love cost him something. That rules out the version our culture sells, where love means what you make me feel.
Then comes the sentence the whole message turns on.
“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.”
Read that carefully. Paul does not say you were walking in darkness; he says you were darkness. He does not say you found some light; he says you are light in the Lord. This is not self-improvement with a Christian label on it. The identity came first, and the walking follows from it — which is also why verse 5 is describing what God’s people look like, not setting terms for whether you get to be one.
He does not say clean yourself up so you can become a saint. He says you are God’s people — so live like God’s people.
Walk in the Spirit — do not walk backwards away from sin
Here is where most of us read it wrong, and it explains a lot of exhausted Christians. Paul’s companion sentence in Galatians puts the order plainly.
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
Notice what it does not say. It is not “stop walking in the flesh and then you will walk in the Spirit.” But that is exactly how most of us try to live: I will not do that again, I will not look at that again, I will not say that again. Picture walking to a friend’s house by stepping out your own front door and then walking backwards the whole way, eyes fixed on your house. Your destination is their home; your attention never leaves yours. That is what fighting sin head-on actually looks like, and it is why it fails on repeat.
Draw near to his Spirit and the old man starts losing by default. That is the promise — not that you will white-knuckle your way free.
The same logic runs under Paul’s pivot from sacrificial love straight into sexual sin, greed, and coarse joking. It is not a random list. Lust is a strong wrong desire — for a body, yes, but equally for money, control, or reputation — and it always reduces a person to what they can provide for you. Love recognises that same person as made in the image of God.
Lust takes. Love gives. Ask which one you are doing, and the question usually answers itself.
What this means Monday through Saturday
The wrong instinct is to build an island of light offshore, sail over occasionally to warn people about the dark, and retreat. That is not the assignment. God has not called us out of the world, only to not be of it — Jesus ate with sinners and Pharisees both. The other failure is quieter: sit in a dark room long enough and your eyes adjust, and so does your life.
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”
That is addressed to Christians, because Christians can be asleep. You can attend, sing, serve, and take notes while nothing in you is actually responding to God. You know the language and the routines; you are present but not awake. And the light you refuse to walk in now is the light that will expose you later — God is patient, but a good Father eventually brings correction, and that is a far harder way to meet the same truth.
“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;”
Circumspectly means watchfully — nobody drifts into maturity by accident. If you do not choose a direction, your phone will shape your attention, advertising your desires, outrage your emotions, and busyness your schedule. Redeeming the time is not squeezing more output into a day; it is seizing the openings God puts in front of you. Children do not stay children. Doors do not stay open. If God prompts you to encourage someone, do it now.
And run every decision through a better question than “is this allowed?” Ask whether it pleases him — before you click, before you spend, before you take the opportunity. If you cannot tell what pleases God, that is not a gap in the information. It is a gap in the relationship, and it closes the same way it does with anyone you love: time spent, faithfully, over years.
Whatever fills you will eventually lead you. That is why Paul’s command is not “try harder” but “be filled with the Spirit.”
What darkness must I leave, and where must I obey the Spirit?
One thing to carry into this week
Take the sin you have been fighting by staring at it, and change what you are facing. Instead of another promise not to do it, spend that time asking for the Spirit to fill you — and act on the first prompting he gives you, this week, before the door closes.
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Questions about this message
- What does it mean to walk in the light in Ephesians 5?
- It means living out an identity you already have rather than earning one. Paul says you were darkness and are now light in the Lord, so walking as children of light expresses that change — goodness, righteousness, and truth showing up in ordinary places: how you handle money, how you speak to your spouse, how you respond to criticism, how you behave when nobody is watching. The message before this one works the same logic as a change of clothes — see The Wardrobe Change in Ephesians 4.
- What does Galatians 5:16 mean by “walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”?
- The order is the point. The verse does not say stop sinning and then you will walk with God; it says walk with God and the sinning loses its grip. Most of us invert it and spend our lives staring at the thing we are trying not to do, which keeps our whole attention on the flesh. Nearness to Christ deals with sin by default in a way that willpower never manages.
- Does Ephesians 5:5 mean a Christian can lose their salvation?
- No. Paul is writing to saints — people already in Christ — so the verse is describing what characterises those outside the kingdom, not setting conditions for staying inside it. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. The point is that a life defined by these patterns is not what God’s people look like, so stop living that way.
- How should Christians live in a culture that keeps getting darker?
- Not by retreating to a safe Christian island and shouting across the water, and not by letting your eyes adjust until your life matches the room. Paul assumes the darkness stays and tells believers to walk through it as light — like a buoy marking the harbour rather than a lamp that ends the storm. The rest of this series works that out room by room, starting with the home — see The Blueprint at Home in Ephesians 5.
- Where can I watch the Walking in the Light sermon?
- The full message is embedded on this page, and you can also watch Walking in the Light on YouTube or browse every past message on The Vine Church’s YouTube channel. We gather Sundays at 11am at 600 Gregory Ln in Fairfield, CA — join us in person, watch the Sunday live stream, or see what else is coming up at The Vine.
Join us this Sunday
The Vine Church gathers Sundays at 11am at 600 Gregory Ln in Fairfield, CA — in person or on the live stream — with midweek groups on Wednesdays at 6:30pm.