Walk Wisely Ephesians 5:15-21
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: The idea of last week was that you are to avoid being deceived by those who would want to derail you from walking or behaving properly as a child of God. Paul said that you must not partake in the things that the sons of disobedience preach or do because that will bring with it the wrath of God. That was the way you used to walk, that is the way of darkness. That is the way to walk no longer. Now is the time to do goodness and righteousness and truth because these are the things of the light. Not only are you to longer walk in darkness you are to expose the things of the darkness in your life and others. You are to expose everything to the light and allow that light to awaken those who sleep in the darkness.
This is where today’s passage picks up.
Ephesians 5:15–21 (NASB95)
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Transitional Sentence: As a child of God you must walk wisely and understand the will of God.
So this is where the letter continues, another therefore. Another call to act in a manner befitting a child of God.
a. This call is that you walk wisely. Remember this word walk conveys the idea of how you act. There is a whole lot of ugly out there. In the past the ugliness always seemed more evident. Things such as theft. Theft was the taking of money and possessions. Now people are out to steal your identity. They want to take advantage of you without you ever even knowing. This requires a level of wisdom that wasn’t necessary a few years ago.
The dangers that you face are still the same as always but there are so many other possibilities now. If you don’t walk wisely you could be tripped up. As you walk along as a child of God your actions should glorify Christ Jesus. Unwise actions or actions not befitting a child of God could shine a damaging light on Christ and someone could be driven away from Christ instead of drawn to Him. Jesus Himself told His disciples when He sent them out to preach the gospel:
16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.
If you are as shrewd as a serpent you will not be tripped up by the shrewdness of the serpents out to get you and if you are as innocent as a dove you will show the kindness and love that Christ Jesus showed to all.
It’s hard to always walk wisely but you must.
b. Because each of you has a certain amount of time in this life. Here Paul is saying that each child of God must make the most of it! The idea is that we are to redeem the time, essentially to buy it back for good. As a good Christian you must steward over your time just as you would steward over the money or goods that God has provided you in this life. You can horde the money and possessions or give them away generously. You can do the same with your time, you can horde it or you can use it generously for God’s glory.
If your attitude about time management is poor then wasting time is easy. But if you consider time as a commodity provided to you by God to complete the good works that He has prearranged for you then you will use it wisely. So redeem the time well.
If you have a hard time stewarding your time well here are a few strategies that might help you use time more wisely.
Set clear goals -
Prioritize tasks -
Create a schedule -
Create a to do list -
Minimize distractions -
Avoid multitasking -
Know your peak productivity times -
These things are tools that can help you use your time well. Using the time you have wisely and not foolishly.
c. Yes that is right. Wisely, not foolishly. Time used foolishly is wasted away in activities that cause you to sin. Time used foolishly brings you to ruin. Your walk and testimony are tarnished.
This is not how God would have you walk.
But to know how to truly walk you must understand the will of God.
2. But what is the will of God?
The basic idea is that the will is the power of an individual to make conscious, deliberate choices or to act in a deliberate manner. The Greek philosophers viewed the will as a faculty in the mind, closely associated with but not identical to reason. The will was seen as the disposition of the mind to action, preferably in accordance with reason. Today, the will tends to be understood not so much as a separate mental faculty but as the whole person behaving in specific ways for the purpose of bringing about some state of affairs. In this understanding, the will not only inaugurates an act but also continues through it.
An easier way to define will is — a fixed and persistent intent or purpose.
So what does God’s will have to do with you? There are three aspects of God’s will. Each one working in all of creation and your life. There is God’s Sovereign will (decretive), His Revealed (preceptive) will and his dispositional will.
a. Let’s begin with His Sovereign or decretive will. This aspect of God’s will is decretive because it involves God’s decrees but it is also hidden because we are usually unaware of what will be until what He decrees has come about.
Have you ever seen things happen in your life that you can only say it was God’s will that it happened? That would be God’s sovereign will working in your life. I would have to say that me standing here was the will of God.
Ephesians 1:11 is an example about God’s sovereign will.
11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
All things will work out according to His plan and decree.
This sovereign will is split in two. The two parts are is efficacious will and His permissive will. His efficacious will are the actions that He takes directly to contribute to the fulfillment of His desires. His permissive will are the actions that He allows, or permits to happen to contribute to the fulfillment of His desires. Generally when good things happen it is God’s efficacious will and when bad things happen it is God’s permissive will. God permits bad things to happen to bring about His desires.
b. Next is His revealed or preceptive will. This aspect of His will is not hidden from us. It is revealed in the Holy Scriptures for all to learn and follow. His precepts are plainly stated. Micah 6:8 is a great example.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
His preceptive will is what God wants you to do or not to do. Two good examples are Ephesians 4:15 and Ephesians 5:18:
15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
We are obligated to obey God’s revealed or preceptive will or not. Disobey if you like but there are consequences to disobedience.
c. And then there is His dispositional will. His dispositional will is what pleases or displeases Him. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says:
3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. This is His disposition toward the lost. But not all are saved. So there is a difference between God’s dispositional will and His sovereign will.
And so Paul is calling on all those who are children of God to understand what is God’s will for each of His children. Learn what God’s will is. Learn what is revealed in the scriptures about how we are to live. Beginning with God’s will for each one of you is to not get drunk.
So what’s the deal? Why would Paul just out of the blue tell them not to get drunk. But rather to be filled with the Spirit.
Well, Ephesus was a center of pagan worship and ritual. The Ephesian culture worshiped Baccus, the god of wine and drunken orgies. They believed that to commune with their god and to be led by him, they had to be drunk. In this drunken state, they could determine the will of their god and determine how best to serve and obey him.
So the old way for many in the church of Ephesus was to be drunk in order to know their pagan god.
But this is not so with Christ. Paul was telling the Ephesians how to commune with the God of heaven, how to live for him, how to serve and obey him, and how to determine His will. It would have been natural for Paul to draw the contrast between how the god of Ephesus is served and how the God of heaven is served. With the God of heaven, you do not get drunk with wine. Rather, you are filled with the Spirit. Being drunk with wine leads to the sexual sins and immorality of darkness described in the first four chapters of the letter. So by being filled with the Spirit, you can determine God’s will and serve him faithfully in moral living. “Be filled” in this verse (plarao) is not the same word as the one used in the Book of Acts (pimplemi), nor are the consequences the same.
This filling, is best understood, as a command for the believer to yield himself to the illuminating, convicting, and empowering work of the Holy Spirit. As he works in our hearts through his Word, our lives are brought into conformity with the will of God. And so, we are to worship in a different way. We don’t get drunk we sing our praises to God and lift Him up.
So speak and sing praises to your God.
3. Speaking to one another using Psalms, hymns and Spiritual songs is how you should worship God. But what are these three types of songs?
a. Psalms — a sacred song used to praise God.
Hymns — a musical composition with words of a religious nature praising God.
Spiritual Songs - “ode,” is the general, and generic word for “song,” of which “psalms and hymns” are specific varieties. It includes all lyric poetry, but is limited by the word “spiritual” to songs inspired by the Holy Spirit and employed in the joyful and devotional expression of the spiritual life. While songs, like psalms and hymns, were used in public worship and praise, they were more intended for, and suited to, personal, private and social use; as, in family worship, at meals, in the agápai “love-feasts”, in meetings for prayer and religious intercourse and from house to house.
So the Spiritual songs are to come from the heart, from a heart filled with the Holy Spirit; from a heart being illuminated, convicted, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
b. And that heart should always Give thanks to God. Thankfulness is a wonderful thing. But is it possible to always be thankful?
Sure it is, if. If you put all of those attitudes like bitterness, anger, wrath, sexual immorality away from you and actually allow the Holy Sprit to fill you. But is that always easy? Bitterness can hang on tight. Have you ever tried being bitter or angry and thankful at the same time? Thankfulness always seems to lose. The ugly in your heart always wins. But if all of those attitudes are kept out of your heart then being thankful is much easier.
And when you are thankful there is only one person who deserves the credit, “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” No one else deserves the credit. So always give thanks to the Lord Jesus.
c. And as we speak, make music and give thanks to God we are to be subject to one another.
So to be submissive you must be or become inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others or showing such inclination.
How many of you like to be submissive to others? It’s hard some times. Submissiveness requires humility, and humility gets in the way of pride. Everyone of you is in multiple sets of relationships. Boss - employee, Husband - wife, child - parent or a friendship. You might be the boss or the employee, the parent or the child or an equal within a friendship relationship. No matter which side of the relationship there must be submission. Paul’s point is that those in authority are to be submissive to the needs of those under him and those in submission are to be subject to the authority of the one over him.
Exit: And so today's passage ends with the command to be subject to one another. This command is defined more completely next week. When Paul provides three examples of relationships in which believers are to be subject to one another: husband-wife, parent-child, and master-slave.
So Paul has provided us with four verbs in this passage; speak, make music, give thanks and to submit. These verb participles modify the command “be filled” from verse 18. This is describing the person who is filled with the Holy Spirit. The first two modifiers suggest the importance of music and Scripture in being filled with the Spirit. An attitude of thankfulness is a third characteristic of being filled with the Spirit. Finally, an attitude of mutual submission among believers is a characteristic of being filled with the Spirit.
Paul desires the church in Ephesus and each of you to understand what the will of the Lord is and how to discern it. For the Ephesians before Christ it was to get drunk and have orgies so they might hear their god Baccus and know his will. But that changed after Christ Jesus.
Now, God’s will for you is to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you may know what is good and pleasing to God.
Begin pleasing God and knowing His will for your life by accepting Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior and then submitting your life to His authority.
Pray!!