Y’all Are Light

Once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord.   Ephesians 5:8

In the English language we use the same word you when we’re referring to individuals or groups, except in the South, where the distinction is preserved by the delightful expression y’all. When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, he addressed them as a group: “Y’all were full of darkness, but now y’all have light from the Lord.”

The problem was not just that these believers had been in darkness, but that darkness had been in them. The problem is in our nature as well as our environment. Sin darkens our minds, diminishes our capacity for feeling, and disables our wills so that we cannot get free from evil by the exercise of choice. Sin put out the light in us, and our greatest problem is not the darkness around us, but the darkness within us.

But now through the gospel, a remarkable change has taken place in the lives of Christian believers. Paul says, “Now you have light from the Lord.” It is not just that God has brought us into the light; he brought the light into us! What had happened to these believers was more than a change of environment, it was a change of nature, and of course that is our greatest need.

God puts his light within his people so that we may shine in a dark world. So when Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, he says, “Y’all have light from the Lord.” Jesus taught the same truth to the disciples: “Y’all are the light of the world” (see Matthew 5:14). It was not just that the disciples had seen the light; Christ put his light within them.

Christ is the light of the world, and when we get connected to him through faith, his life flows into us and we will shine. Jesus said, “Put your trust in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of the light” (John 12:36). If the life of Christ is in you, you will shine.

For further reading, see Matthew 5