And because the night is the time of darkness, and the day of light, he therefore hereby describes their present state:
1. Positively: Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; which is a Hebraism: Ye are partakers of a spiritual light, and this light is not the darker light of nature, or the light of prophecy, which the Jews had, compared to a lamp, 2 Peter 1:19; but ye are children of the day, as the time of the gospel is called day, Romans 13:12 2 Corinthians 6:2.
2. Negatively: We are not of the night, nor of darkness; your state is exceedingly different from other Gentiles, and from what it once was, as the light is from darkness, and day from night: not as if there was no ignorance remaining in them, for the best men see but through a glass, darkly, 1 Corinthians 13:12; but the apostle compares them with their former estate when they were Gentiles, and with the Jews under the law; and with respect to their state in Christ, they were not children of the night, or, as to their state, of the night, but children of light, and of the day.