NOTES for Eph 5:8-10

How can we know what is pleasing to God? How should we act so as not to be guilty before Him? These questions are not simple, and, most importantly, they are far from idle, since a practical answer to them determines a great deal in our life. In Ephesians, the apostle Paul uses a remarkable verb, translated into Russian as "test." It really does mean "to test, examine, find out the truth about something." This verb was used when checking the fitness of recruits for military service (in those times there was no medical board, and they tested the ability to throw a spear and the like). Thus the apostle calls us to walk as children of light, testing our actions "for fitness," testing whether they will be pleasing before the face of the Almighty.

In the Greek text all these words make up one sentence, and this is important. Testing must be based on criteria, and therefore the apostle names the main criterion: the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Thus, what is pleasing to God is what can be called the fruits of the action of the Holy Spirit in our life. First of all, this is all goodness (beneficence in the Synodal translation), truth (righteousness), and truthfulness. Perhaps with these close words the apostle is trying to convey something that words cannot contain. Modern language denotes this with the rather vague term "good." It is precisely what we call good, its growth and, therefore, the diminishing of evil, that becomes for the apostle Paul the criterion by which our actions and life itself are pleasing to God.