Ephesians 5:10

δοκιμάζοντες τί ἐστιν εὐάρεστον τῷ Κυρίῳ : proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord. The exhortation given in Ephesians 5:8, interrupted by the enforcement introduced in Ephesians 5:9, is now continued and explained. The participial sentence defines the walk which was enjoined in respect of the way in which it is to be made good. It is a walk which is to be taken up and carried out in the light of a constant trial of what pleases the Lord. The verb δοκιμάζειν here has its primary sense of proving, testing (cf. Romans 12:2), rather than its secondary sense of approving (cf. Romans 14:22; 1 Corinthians 16:3, etc.). Here, therefore, the δοκιμάζοντες expresses the idea of the careful trial, “the activity and experimental energy” (Ell.), necessary to the walk. The answer of the conscience (Romans 14:23), or conformity to the Gospel (Romans 1:16; Philippians 1:27), is given elsewhere as the test of the Christian walk. Here its correspondence with what is pleasing to God is given as its final proof and its most distinctive characteristic. εὐάρεστον is better rendered on the whole “well-pleasing” (RV), especially when Colossians 1:10 is compared, than “acceptable” (AV).