🛡️WEB · Ephesians 5:13
What does Ephesians 5:13 mean?
"But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light."
— Ephesians 5:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.
But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Explanation
Ephesians 5:13 comes in the middle of Paul's exhortation to the believers in Ephesus about how to live as "children of light" rather than participants in "the unfruitful works of darkness" (v. 11). In simple terms, the verse is saying that light has a revealing power—when something is exposed to light, it becomes visible and understood for what it truly is. Darkness hides things; light uncovers them. Paul's logic is straightforward: whatever makes something visible or
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