Ephesians 5:8 brings us into a right perspective when we are around unbelievers. They live in, walk in, and interact through darkness. It says, “For you once were darkness…” I think of Titus 3:3. 

It says, ‘For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” Why then are we surprised when unbelievers lash out? It is their modus operandi. They know no different.

Ephesians 2:2 says, “In which you once walked…” When we remember what we once were, we are empowered to interact through grace ~ following the Holy Spirit ~ resisting our flesh’s prompting. We are not the Lord’s light bearers when we react in our flesh.

1 John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” 1 John 2:6 is our template. It says, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” What we are eternally is our standing which will never change.