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potatoes, sugar, etc.  Now this carbon is obtained by plants, not from the soil
but from the air.  Carbon assimilation, called also photosynthesis (`placing
together by light'), is the work of the green chlorophyll in the leaves, and is
entirely dependent upon the action of sunlight.  If a patch of black be put upon
a leaf in the morning and the leaf be examined under a microscope at night, it
will be found that the exposed cells of the leaf are full of starch grains,
whereas cells beneath the black patch are empty.
It is scientific to the last degree to teach that on the first day of
creation God should say, `Light be and light was'.  It is the fuller truth to
see in this statement of Genesis a type of the gospel:
`For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in
our hearts, to give the light ... of the glorious gospel' (2 Cor. 4:6,4).
Not only does light produce fruit, but darkness has its unfruitful works.
We have all seen the varied coloured toadstools that, like the mushroom, do not
depend upon light.  No one, however, has seen a green toadstool or mushroom!
Such have no power of using sunlight, they are vegetable parasites living upon
others, or saprophytes living upon the decaying tissue of dead plants.  Such are
nature's pictures of the unfruitful works of darkness.  Darkness, death and
unfruitfulness are all in the passage before us:
`Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light' (Eph. 5:14).
The third walk is called `circumspect'.  Akribos is possibly derived from
eis akron benai --'going up to the summit' of a hill, and generally carries with
it the thought of accuracy and exactness, e.g.:
Akribeia
`Taught according to the perfect manner' (Acts 22:3).
Akribestatos  `The straitest sect' (Acts 26:5).
Akribesteros  `The way of God more perfectly' (accurately) (Acts 18:26).
Josephus speaks of the Pharisees as:
`The sect ... which are supposed to excel others in the accurate knowledge
of the laws of their country' (Life of Flavius Josephus,
Section 38).
There can be no doubt from the above usage of the word what Paul intends
to teach in Ephesians 5:15.  Grace does not mean laxity or lack of diligence.
The same word that describes the zeal for accuracy of the formalist under the
law, describes that consecrated zeal which moved Aquila and Priscilla in their
endeavours to lead Apollos into the fuller light, and should characterize those
of us who have received such a calling as is revealed in Ephesians.  The pathway
for the saint leads through dark and slippery places.  Uncleanness and
defilement lie all around, and while there is the blessed provision in Christ
for uncleanness contracted in the pilgrim way, we are solemnly warned of the
danger of voluntarily entering into any of these things from which redemption
has set us free.  We have been delivered from the authority of darkness
and have been translated into the kingdom of His dear Son.  We are therefore
enjoined to walk accurately, remembering the pit from which we have been
delivered.
This is the last of the seven occurrences of the word `walk' in Ephesians.
The first in the practical section says `walk worthy'; the last says `walk
accurately'.  The first says `with all lowliness'; the last `with wisdom'.  Once
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