Eph 5:10-14, 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
This is finding the will of God (the permissive or general and the perfect will of God). To find God’s permissive will is to look at what is accepted and rejected in His word, for example the 10 commandments provide the guidelines. God’s perfect will is displayed in the permissive will, what God has perfectly aligned for you over someone else.
Paul in many instances was accustomed to first mention the negative followed by the positive. For the sake of godly marriages, in the following two verses he instructs us of what to put off Eph 5:11-13, “11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” And put on the light Eph 5:14 “Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” This is God’s will.
God is more about crowning faithfulness than success. It is in faithfulness that character, patience, endurance, humility etc are built.
Rom 13:12-14, “12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”