Eph 5:15-21

Walk Wisely

Ephesians 5:15–16 “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

= Latin: (around) + (look)Circumspectlycircumspect

Walk carefully, with precision — pay attention to where you're stepping

Growing up with dogs → sweep the yard before soccer

Miss a pile = ruined afternoon

Step in one = you learn FAST to look around

World = not sterile; dangers, deceptions, traps everywhere

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

The Warning: Don't Redirect the Gaze

Flesh wants to look — at everyone else's messhorizontally

You catalog others' failures → walk right into your own

That's not circumspection — that's pride in a discernment costume

Matthew 7:3–5 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Discernment says: that's wrong, I won't go there

Comparison says: at least I'm not as bad as them

→ Walking toward the SAME ditch, slower, feeling righteous the whole way

— Pharisee: circumspect about the tax collector, zero about himself Luke 18:9-14

Tax collector went home justified. Pharisee didn't.

This call is PERSONAL — your walk, not everyone else's

Relief: you are NOT responsible for everyone else's footing

Redeem the Time

= buy back; marketplace word Exagorazō

Colossians 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.”

Time = , not kairoschronos

Chronos = counting minutes

Kairos = the appointed opportunity, the open door

Don't count how much time you have — make the time COUNT

Window to reach people is NOT infinite

"The days are evil" — enemy gets every day you sleepwalk

Every moment spent inspecting others = a kairos moment gone

You don't have time to be everybody's yard inspector. You have ground to cover.

Walk carefully → become TRUSTWORTHY, someone people want to walk with

Will of The Lord

Ephesians 5:17–18 “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,”

Ephesus = major religious, commercial, cultural hub

Dominant religion: worship of (Dionysus)Bacchus

Cult belief: get drunk → dissolve your mind → commune with the god → know his will

Drunkenness wasn't a side effect of worship — it WAS the worship

Paul's contrast here is NOT generic — it's a direct theological confrontation

Some claim: Jesus + wine, resurrection = copied from Dionysus mythology

Doesn't survive scrutiny:

Gospel accounts draw from (Passover, Isaiah 53, Psalms)Hebrew scriptures

Dionysus accounts post-date Moses

Character of the stories is : inverted

Dionysus = chaos, excess, self-dissolution

Jesus = order, sacrifice, self-giving

One says: lose yourself to find the divine

Other says: → find life deny yourself

Paul isn't borrowing from Bacchus — he's dismantling him

(asōtia) = recklessness, wastefulness — a life drained for nothingDissipation

Romans 13:13–14 “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

People reach for the bottle looking for:

Relief → get a hangover

Peace → get fog

Joy → get dependency

These are REAL needs. The problem is the counterfeit.

Spirit gives: Real relief, REAL peace, REAL joy

One is fake. The other is the source

Greek: present passive imperative — plēroō

Not a one-time event → continuous, ongoing yieldedness

Why continuous? → Because we leak.

Car analogy: you don't call the dealer angry it's out of gas a week later

One baptism. Many fillings.

Before work / hard conversations / temptation → "Lord, fill me"

≠ (the Acts word for miraculous filling) plēroōpimplēmi

Not primarily about tongues/signs

About being by the Spirit dailydirected, influenced, governed

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Spirit-filled life and Word-saturated life = two sides of the same coin

Can't claim Spirit-filling with biblical illiteracy

Can't claim to study the Word while shutting out the Spirit

Glass on a table — you don't know what's in it until someone bumps it

Whatever fills it, spills out — can't fake it at the moment of impact

Life = full of bumps

Filled with bitterness → bitterness spills

Filled with the Spirit → spillsfruit

Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Don't be under the influence of wine. Be under the influence of the Spirit.

Working of the Spirit

Four — present tense, ongoing participles

These are NOT extra commands bolted onto v.18

They are — what Spirit-filled life looks like from the outside descriptions

You don't manufacture these. You cultivate the filling. these grow. Fruit, not root.

Speaking to one another in psalms hymns and spiritual songs

Not singing — speaking to — relational, communicative

You cannot do this alone

Can sing in your car, worship in your kitchen — good!

But you can't solo → speak to one another you need the body

Isolation is not holiness — it's a slow fade

Hebrews 10:24–25 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

3 categories = variety and richness; not monotone worship

Psalms (OT), hymns (crafted theology), spiritual songs (Spirit-led expression)

When you sing with the church you're preaching to the person next to you

Words matter. Actually sing. Music is doing ministry in the room