For ye were sometimes darkness

Ephesians{5:8} For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light{5:9} (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) {5:10} Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
You were sometimes darkness.
We're all sinners. We all embraced darkness to some extent. Some more than others. But you know what. Whether you are or were in darkness just a little while, or whether you were in darkness for years and years, the darkness is just as black, no sin is gray, it doesn't exist in varying shades going from black to white. We are in darkness or in light.
Think about it. If I am darkness for a half an hour, and you are darkness for a minute, we are both the same in that we were darkness.
Sin is like that. We tend to place degrees on sin. Big sin, little sin, acceptable sin, unacceptable sin, sins that skirt the line between acceptable and unacceptable.
Does it really matter?
Sin's darkness in us condemns us whether we are in darkness for many years or just a day. Whether our sin was as dark as murder or just a murderous thought. It's all darkness, all sin.
For ye were sometimes darkness.
The darkness that we are doesn't have to be overwhelming, it could be something as simple as a single bad act, if that bad act is horrific enough it can weigh as heavily upon you as a million bad acts, or maybe a lot of little sins we think don't way heavy are heavier than a lot of giant sins. Sin is sin is sin...is sin.
Satan wants us to be darkness, children of darkness, he wants us to love darkness rather than light. We look at blatent sinners and can't understand how they can love being children of darkness and yet we don't realize the sins we cling to, though different, fill us with darkness too.
We have to be light in the Lord. Children of light.
We were all sometimes darkness. All of us. But asking Jesus to be our Savior, asking Jesus to forgive us we are asking Him to make us children of light, his children. We need to walk as children of light. The darkness will try to drag us down every opportunity it gets. The darkness will tell us that we'll never be *good* enough to be children of light. We have to cling to Jesus and His righteousness, He is the light and if we cling to Him trusting in Him to save us from the darkness we are His children.
Sin is a horrible, horrible thing. Sin separates us from God. God made a way for us to be forgiven. We can't forgive ourselves, we can't save ourselves, we have to cling to the One who can save us and become His children.
Satan would have our sinfulness weigh us down and steal all hope from us. Satan will try to convince us that we're too sinful to ever be saved. Satan will bring to mind all the evil we've ever done when we were 'sometimes darkness', and he doesn't want us to be light in the Lord. Satan will try hard as he can to convince us that its impossible to be light in the Lord, to walk as children of light. We have to admit that we were sometimes darkness, admit it, don't deny it not even to ourselves, don't try to excuse it away, we have to recognize that the dark we were, and the dark that still tries to drag us down is a darkness that the light of Christ can destroy. The power of Christ to turn darkness to light is found in the sacrfice He made for us. He died because of the hold the dark has on us. He died to bring light to us. His light, not ours. We are only light IN the Lord, not of ourselves. We can only hope to be light in the LORD. We can't be light of ourselves, we can't. We can recognize that the dark would only have us embrace the dark, that the dark hates the light, and choose to be light in the Lord, through His grace, not because we are light of ourselves, we'll never be LIGHT enough of ourselves, NEVER. Only in Christ are we children of light. If we hope to walk in the light all on our own we're going to be very disappointed, very, very disappointed.
Ephesians{5:8} For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light{5:9} (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) {5:10} Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and all righteousness and truth!
Walking in the light of the Lord, being children of light we will produce fruit from that walk- that fruit is from the Spirit who comes to us from Christ and enables us to be His children to walk in that light, and the fruit is recognized in all goodness, all righteousness, and all truth. Proving what is acceptable to the Lord.
Glory be to God that we don't have to live in darkness, that we don't have to be dark, that we can choose to be children of light in Christ. We have to walk as we are children of light, no matter how much Satan beats at us trying to wear us down, to depress us, to get us down into the dumps so far we don't think we can ever climb out. Satan will tell us we CAN'T walk as children of light, that we're not good enough, we're not LIGHT enough, and you know what...
... he's right.
WE can't, not on our own. Thank God for Jesus Christ our Savior, we don't have to try to walk as children of light on our own, we can't. When Satan tries to convince us the dark is better, that we can't be children of light we have to cling to Jesus, cling to our Lord, trust in our Lord and walk AS children of light anyway, no matter what Satan is doing to discourage us. We have to admit we are no good, that yes, we've done horrible things, that we've walk in the dark but no longer. Through Christ we are going to walk as children of light in Christ, not alone, not of our own accord, our sins are forgiven and Christ is our Lord and Savior through Him and only through Him will the Spirit dwell in us and the fruit of the Spirit exist.
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”- Isaiah 1:18