Ephesians 5.15b-The Believer Must Conduct Their Life in a Wise Manner
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday June 6, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:15b-The Believer Must Conduct Their Life in a Wise Manner
Lesson # 351
Ephesians 5:15, Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of paying careful attention to the manner in which each and every one of you make it your habit of conducting your lives. Each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to not make it your habit of conducting your lives in an unwise manner. On the contrary, each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives in a wise manner. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 5:15 is composed of the following:
(1) command: Blepete akribōs pōs peripateite (Βλέπετε ἀκριβῶς πῶς περιπατεῖτε), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of paying careful attention to the manner in which each and every one of you make it your habit of conducting your lives” (Lecturer’s translation)
(2) elliptical prohibition mē hōs asophoi (μὴ ὡς ἄσοφοι), “Each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to not make it your habit of conducting your lives in an unwise manner.” (Lecturer’s translation)
(3) elliptical adversative command: allʼ hōs sophoi (ἀλλʼ ὡς σοφοί), “On the contrary, each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives in a wise manner.” (Lecturer’s translation)
Now, as we noted, the command, which begins Ephesians 5:15 is followed by an elliptical prohibition and an elliptical command.
Together, they define the indirect question, which addresses how the believer must conduct themselves as children of God.
The prohibition required that the recipients of this letter continue to not make it habit their habit of conducting their lives in an unwise manner.
The command required that they continue to make it their habit of conducting their lives in a wise manner.
The prohibition and the command present an obvious comparison.
The elliptical command presents a strong emphatic contrast between the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia conducting their lives in an unwise manner and that of doing so in a wise manner.
To conduct oneself in a wise manner would be to obey the apostle Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching as communicated in this epistle.
Specifically, it would require obeying the various exhortations, commands, and prohibitions contained in the contents of Ephesians 4:1-5:14. To conduct oneself in an unwise manner is obviously failing to obey this teaching.
The concept of wisdom is mentioned three times thus far in Ephesians.
Up to this point in our study of Ephesians, Paul has employed the noun sophia (σοφία) three times. In each instance, the word means “wisdom.”
The first time it appears is in Ephesians 1:8 where it refers to the function or the exercise of God the Father’s transcendent wisdom, which is based upon His omniscience and is His unique ability to devise a perfect plan to accomplish His goal to glorify Himself.
The word speaks of the function or exercise of God’s ability to perfectly execute His plan of salvation and as a result glorify Himself.
The Father’s wisdom is transcendent because it is beyond both angelic and human comprehension.
Ephesians 1:3 The God, namely the Father of the Lord ruling over us, who is Jesus Christ, is worthy of praise. Namely, because He is the one who has blessed each and every one of us by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 4 For He chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before creation in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. 5 He did this by predestinating each and every one of us for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will. 6 This was for the purpose of praising His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on each and every one of us because of the one who is divinely loved. 7 Because of whom, each one of us are experiencing that which is the redemption through His blood, namely the forgiveness of our transgressions according to His infinite grace. 8 This He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is absolute and divine in nature. (Lecturer’s translation)
The wisdom of God was manifested in eternity through the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father which provided eternal salvation for all of sinful humanity.
The wisdom of God is also expressed through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which presents God’s provision of eternal salvation for the entire human race through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, after I myself heard about the faith among each and every one of you in the one and only Lord Jesus as well as you are practicing divine-love, which is on behalf of each and every one of the saints, 16 I never permit myself to cease regularly expressing thanks to the one and only God because of each and every one of you. I do this while disciplining myself to make it my practice of remembering each and every one of you during my prayers. 17 I make it a habit of occupying myself with praying that God, that is, the glorious Father of the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit, who is Jesus Christ, would cause each and every one of you to receive divine wisdom, specifically, divine revelatory wisdom provided by the one and only Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of Himself. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:1 For this reason, I myself, Paul, the prisoner owned by and under the authority of the one and only Christ who is Jesus for the benefit of each and every one of you as a corporate unit, who are Gentiles—2 if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that each and every one of you as a corporate unit have surely heard about the stewardship, which is unique to the grace, which originates from the one and only God, which was given to me for the benefit of all of you as a corporate unit without exception. (Of course, every one of you have in fact heard about it.) 3 Namely that, the mystery was made known for the benefit of myself as revelation as I wrote beforehand in a concise manner. 4 Concerning which, that is, by each one of you making it your habit of hearing read publicly, all of you will for your own benefit become able to comprehend my insight into this incomparable mystery, which is produced by your unique union and identification with Christ. 5 This mystery was by no means made known to members of the human race in previous generations as it has now been revealed through the personal agency of His holy apostles as well as prophets by means of the omnipotence of the Spirit. 6 Namely, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs as well as fellow members of the body likewise fellow partakers of the promise because of justification by faith in and union and identification with Christ Jesus by means of the proclamation of the gospel. 7 I assumed the position and responsibility of serving this gospel according to the gift originating from the one and only God’s grace, which was given to me according to the activity produced by the exercise of His power. 8 To me, the less than least of all the saints, this grace was given in order to proclaim for my benefit to the Gentiles the unfathomable wealth brought about by this justification by faith in and union and identification with Christ. 9 Specifically, in order to cause everyone to be enlightened as to what constitutes this unique dispensation, which is a mystery, which has been hidden from previous ages because of God’s will, who has caused each and every animate and inanimate object to be created. 10 Consequently, the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of the will of God (the Father) was made known to the sovereign rulers and governmental authorities in the heavenlies through the members of the church. (Lecturer’s translation)
Now, in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, the apostle Paul condemns the wisdom of the cosmic system, teaching that the wisdom of God as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ is superior and has made foolish the wisdom of the cosmic system.
In 1 Corinthians 1:17-31, Paul attacks the self-confidence of the Greeks, who boast of their human wisdom, which is cosmic viewpoint (1 Co. 1:29; cf. 1 Co. 3:21).
He rejects human wisdom and boasts in the wisdom he received from the Lord through the Spirit.
James 3:17 describes wisdom as being pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
