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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Theophylact of Ohrid
But you, he says, do not associate with them. Then he reminds them of their former wickedness, saying: consider what you were and what you have become, namely: from darkness, light. Before, both in teaching and in life, you were truly darkness, but now you are light, because you have come to know God and perform the works of light. But this happened to you not through your own virtue, but "in the Lord," that is, by divine grace. Therefore, you should have no fellowship with the sons of disobedience, upon whom wrath is coming. …
Clement of Alexandria
As, then, those who have shaken off sleep forthwith become all awake within; or rather, as those who try to remove a film that is over the eyes, do not supply to them from without the light which they do not possess, but removing the obstacle from the eyes, leave the pupil free; thus also we who are baptized, having wiped off the sins which obscure the light of the Divine Spirit, have the eye of the spirit free, unimpeded, and full of light, by which alone we contemplate the Divine, the Holy Spirit flowing down to us from above. …
Desert Fathers
A hermit said, 'When the donkey's eyes are covered it walks round the mill-wheel. If you uncover its eyes, it will not go on walking in the circle. So if the devil succeeds in covering a man's eyes, he leads him into every kind of sin. But if the man's eyes are uncovered, he can more easily escape.'
Western Saints
Jerome
The darkness is being turned into light. There is not, as some heretics argue, a nature so alienated that it cannot receive salvation.… Those who receive salvation—the righteous—are "the light of the world." Those who refuse, the unrighteous, are in consequence called darkness.… The difference and distance between one and the other is clearly seen by their own fruits.
Gregory the Dialogist
Hence also the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day rightly went before the people journeying through the desert. For in fire there is terror, but in cloud there is the gentle comfort of vision; and day is taken as the life of the just, and night as the life of the sinner. …
Thomas Aquinas
Previously the Apostle had banned carnal sins by threatening punishment and rejecting a fallacy (5:6). Here he gives the reason; it is taken from their situation. Thus he remarks you were heretofore darkness blinded by ignorance and error. "Having their understanding darkened" (Eph. 4:18). "They have not known nor have they understood; they walk on in darkness" (Ps. 81:5). The darkness also comes from sin: "The way of the wicked is darksome; they know not where they fall" (Prov. 4:19). …
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