Walk in Wisdom

Introduction

Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant humans of the last hundred years, had this to say regarding the existence of God. “Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation. What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t. This is why I’m an atheist.” Hawking, who passed away about a year and a half ago, was a genius in every sense of the word. The Englishman was diagnosed with ALS in 1963 but continued to fight the disease and learn more and more about the universe during his lifetime on this planet. With an IQ that was rumored to be in the range of 160-180, Hawking was the smartest man in nearly every room he was present in. With all of this said, though, the man could not see the need or the “evidence” for the existence of God. He chalked it up to a fairy tale. One of the smartest men in the 21st century could not understand the belief in a creator God.

Wisdom and Intelligence do not always go hand in hand, do they? Sometimes they certainly are found in the same person, however we all know people who are “smart” but not exactly “wise” or individuals who we would go to for advice. What we see in and 5 is that Paul is calling Believers to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. These people are in a city that is full of pagan religions and cults. They are in the midst of people who are living in sin and celebrating this lifestyle! We must realize that the Christians in Ephesus were certainly a small minority of their society. We might say that we are a minority in our nation, and I would agree, however the Christians in Ephesus were an even smaller minority than Christians in present day America are. Paul’s call in the second half of this letter is to live a life that is completely different than the non-Christians around them. Two weeks ago we looked at how Paul calls them to imitate God and walk in love as Christ has loved them. Last week we looked at and saw how Christians are called to walk in light. This week our message is similar in that it tells us to walk in wisdom, however this is a corporate call rather than an individual one. This is a message both for individual Christians and for the church as a whole. We must understand this and we must be ready to be a people who walk in Wisdom, are filled with the Spirit and submit to one another. Let’s see what Paul writes in .

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.

Walk in Wisdom (15-17)

In the Greek text, this whole passage of Scripture is one long sentence. With that said, it can be broken down further based on what we see in the first and second halves of this passage. Initially, Paul calls these Believers to be careful about their conduct and walk in had a friend write an article this week about the importance of training in Godliness out of . He talked about how some of the most physically fit individuals might be the most spiritually obese. Just as intellectual knowledge does not equal salvation, physical looks and accomplishments do not equate to godliness. We see in verse 15 that Paul says that these individuals must be careful about their conduct and live as wise persons, not unwise. This seems like a pretty straightforward verse from Paul, however we must consider the context by which he was writing. These Christians would have been facing many different temptations that would fall under the “unwise” category. Whether it be idolatry, lust, immorality, impurity or stealing there were many different things that the Ephesian culture said was ok that stood in open defiance to what Christ tells us is ok.

Given their situation, how could these Believers walk in wisdom? Paul was not physically there to teach them, so where could they look to? The Old Testament! You might think that the Old Testament is boring because it is full of laws, dates, names and it’s not about Jesus - but you would be dead wrong on all accounts! The Old Testament is crucial for us to understand in order to properly understand Christ and the entire New Testament. With that said, the book of Proverbs has some great things to say about those who are wise and those who are fools. tells us

Proverbs 2:1–5 NASB95

1 My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, 2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; 3 For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; 4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God.

We are to seek after wisdom, this is a theme from the Old Testament all the way to the time of Paul and one that we are to seek after today. Make your ear attentive to wisdom today and look carefully at how you walk.

How can you gain wisdom? tells us to walk with the wise in order to gain wisdom. Have you ever experienced this with a parent or a friend? I certainly have with my parents. You’re in a situation where you don’t know what to do and you ask mom and dad what they’d do or what they have done in a similar situation and believe it or not, they usually have some great advice to give! tells us to simply ask God for wisdom. Think about a person who goes to the gym because they want to lose a couple pounds but they have absolutely no idea how to use the machines and they do not have a workout plan. Obviously it’s good that they showed up to the gym, but they probably aren’t going to see any progress because they failed to make a plan. They need to observe how to use the equipment and they need to get together with someone in order to come up with a plan appropriate for what they are trying to accomplish! This is similar to how we are to walk in wisdom. You can try to do it on your own, but you probably won’t see much in the realm of results. Or, you can prayerfully seek after God and be invested in by fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and see results.

Christ tells us in that the foolish person builds his house on the sand while the wise man builds his house on the rock of His Word. That should be our story. We should not be a people who build our foundation on feelings and emotions, but rather upon the Word of God. If you’ve been watching the news lately regarding Christian leaders leaving their faith in the dust, you’d know what I’m talking about. Several prominent Christian leaders (song writers, authors and speakers) have left their faith behind because they can no longer make sense of Scripture. This is a shame and it breaks our hearts, however we know that whenever our foundation is not on the Word of God, it can waver and cave in. Church, we must make sure that we base our entire lives upon Scripture and that we are careful about our conduct and how we walk in accordance with wisdom.

Paul says that we are to make the best use of our time because the days are evil - this is a pretty pessimistic verse, but if we unpack it we see what he is trying to get across. Paul is saying that they are living in the last days and that the freedom that they enjoyed to practice their faith was coming to an end. Because of this, they needed to prioritize sharing the Gospel message with those around them. When he says that the days are evil, some scholars believe that to mean that whatever difficulties are being experienced currently will only get worse as time goes on. We must take advantage of the opportunities that we have today to share the Gospel with a lost and dying world. As we looked at last week, we are to be a light in the darkness. The greatest crime we can do is not shine that light because we don’t know how much more time we or the world around us will have. This is a responsibility for us all! You will have zero regrets when you get to heaven one day for living a life that passionately reflected the light and truth of the Gospel to the world around you. You will have regrets if you did not do this.

Paul finalizes this section of Scripture in verse 17 by saying that we should not be foolish but understand the will of God. This is something that Christians must do, is it not? We must know and do the will of God! Often times we talk about doing the will of God in our individual lives whether it be a major financial decision or which college to go to, however this call seems to be more corporate than individual, because of that this the way that we understand the Lord’s will is by understanding the Bible - His revealed will. We must understand what God has called every Believer to do - be holy, live a Christlike life, and tell others about the Gospel. As tells us, we are to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus.

So, you have a major decision coming up in your life? Lift it up to God in prayer, and investigate if this thing will lead you to being more like Christ or if it will lead you to being more like the world. The problem that we have with prayer sometimes is that sometimes the answer from God is no. Sometimes the health diagnosis is bad. Sometimes your family rejects Christ. Sometimes the job doesn’t work out how you thought it would. If our theological outlook is “name it and claim it” then we take this God not doing His job and our entire faith can be shook to its core in these situations. These are the moments where people can completely abandon Christianity. However, if your aim is to understand the will of the Lord then you also realize that sometimes the answer to your request will be no. The comfort and peace in those moments is because God causes all things to work together for our good - even “bad” things. We must realize that “good” is being more like Jesus Christ. The foolish person will turn his back on God the moment that things start to go south, the wise person understands that it is not about them! It’s all about the perfect will of God. We must seek after His will and get out of the way.

Be filled with the Spirit (18-20)

We know that life does not magically become perfect whenever you accept Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, but if someone were to come up to you and ask you what some of the benefits of being a Christian are, how would you answer? The first think you’d say is that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you have access to the Father through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross - your account is credited with righteousness because of Christ’s righteousness. One of the next things that many of you would say is that you have new relationships with other people. Not only do you now have a human family by blood, but you also have a spiritual family that you are a part of because you have been adopted into the family of God. This is good news and reason for us to rejoice! Sin separates us from God and other people, but Jesus Christ brings restoration to both of these situations. Through the cross, we have new relationships and we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. We must keep in mind that the foundation of these new relationships is the Holy Spirit. We are united in our faith and we are a family not through blood, but because we have the same Holy Spirit in our hearts.

Paul starts out this section by saying that we should not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. We have seen several examples throughout Scripture that talk about how we are to not be intoxicated with wine and how doing so is a sin, however the emphasis of this verse is not on that part, but rather the second half of the verse, be filled with the Spirit. Drinking too much wine or alcohol leads to drunkedness which is good for no one. Being filled with the Spirit, though, is helpful for both the person filled and for those around them. “Be filled with the Spirit” is literally “be filled in spirit”. The Holy Spirit is given to believers to fill them with His presence and power. Notice how Paul says that we must “be filled”. This requires action! Once the Holy Spirit is inside of you and you are “sealed”, you are certainly saved. However, you must continually be filled by the Holy Spirit. You have the ability to fill yourself with the Holy Spirit or try and do things under your own power and for yourself. The call from Paul is to be continually filled by the Holy Spirit. This is difficult, is it not?

Think of your Christian life like a road trip. The Holy Spirit acts as your car. Whenever you get a new car, it comes with a full tank of gas. This is great news! However, if you don’t fill it, you will eventually run out. You are to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to let the Holy Spirit guide you along your journey. It can be very easy for us to be going through our normal life and fail to fill ourselves up with the Holy Spirit. We might think, you know what, today I’ve got 3/4 of a tank and I don’t need to fill up. I don’t need to do my quiet time today. I don’t need to spend time in prayer because I did that 2 days ago and my tank is still kind of full. Whenever we live our life in this fashion, not only do we fail to grow our relationship with God, we also harm our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ! This is the point that Paul is making by using wine in this passage. You will be filled with something, it can either be something that draws you away from God and hurts your relationships with others, or you can be filled with the Holy Spirit and be conformed to the image of Christ and grow in your relationship with fellow Christians. Moral of the story, just pull over, get gas, and fill that tank up each and every day! The Holy Spirit is not a fluid like gasoline or the water in a baptistry, the Spirit is a subject and a person - I pray that you are filled with Him today!

If you are filled with the Spirit today, then you should do what we find in verse 19! We should speak, sing, make music and give thanks. This sounds a lot like a worship service, does it not? You might be thinking, pastor, it would be better if I did not sing because I can’t carry a tune to save my life! I would tell you that you need to get over yourself and lift up a joyful noise to the Lord because of what He has done for you. We believe that from the very earliest meetings that Christians had, music was a part of their time together. We looked at this in verse 14 last week as this is thought to have been an ancient baptismal hymn that was sung by Christians during a baptism. Praise has always been offered to God during our worship times as Christians. We see that in Revelation, worship will be going on yet again. Worship is the heartbeat of heaven, and even if you don’t like the words or the song, you have a duty to sing because of what God has done for you. Even if there is a worship song that you cannot stand, God deserves the honor and glory. Now, are there some worship songs that have bad theology? You bet there are. You might be quick to think of some contemporary artists who fall into this category, but I assure you, there are songs in the hymn book that don’t have good theology in the lyrics. The responsibility for the worship leaders in churches around the world is to pick good, God-honoring songs that are rich and solid theologically. The responsibility of the church is to make a joyful noise to the creator God and to sing to one another.

Notice, Paul says to speak to one another in these types of songs. You have a responsibility in corporate worship. We encourage one another as we sing. As a child, I could look around during worship and see people who I looked up to singing and praising God in song. As a teenager, I could look out in the congregation and see people lifting their hands up in praise even while they were going through extremely difficult situations at home or with their health. This encouraged me greatly because those around them were able to see that outside circumstances did not get to rule the day when it came time to worship God. Guess what? Outside circumstances still do not get to rule the day whenever we worship either. He is still worthy regardless of what is going on in our lives!

You might ask, why is it so important to go to church in order to worship? If it’s about making a joyful noise in my heart to the Lord then can’t I do that at home? Sure, you can. However, you cannot do what this verse tells us to do. This verse tells us that we are to sing to the Lord with everything within us and do so in the presence of others. That is what makes corporate worship such an awesome time! We go to war against the darkness in our world together each and every Sunday. Obviously the war rages on during the week as well, but on Sunday we raise our voices united as one. This goes against the American way of life, does it not? Our culture and society is very solo oriented in that they love music and songs but they generally like one voice leading the way. This is not what we see in ! We see that we are united in our song to the Lord.

We also see that we are to make melody in our heart to the Lord, not our voice. Again, even if you think you’re a bad singer, it is your duty to sing praise to the Lord.

Verse 20 tells us that we must give thanks constantly. Thanksgiving is a crucial part of corporate worship. Are you known for being a person who gives thanks or as one who complains, murmurs, spreads gossip and pouts? Ouch. Those who are filled by the Spirit are thankful people, not complaining people. Does this mean that Christians never complain, no! We looked in and saw how it is ok for us to groan and cry out to our Father. However, whenever we look at everything Christ has done for us, as we have done so far in Ephesians, the only reaction that is appropriate is one of thanksgiving, not one of complaining. We must be mindful of that in our modern culture that promotes a complaining attitude when things don’t go our way.

Put other First (21)

The 3rd and final thing mentioned in this sentence by Paul is submission. Submission is the effect of being filled by the Holy Spirit. Submission is not being a dictator. Submission is not idolizing someone or dehumanizing someone else. Submission in verse 21 and in the verses that follow is all about our spiritual community. The Holy Spirit brings about submission. This is something that is certainly not natural. John Cooper, lead singer for the Christian music group Skillet, said this in a facebook post this week, “No child is born and says I just want to love other before loving myself. I want to turn the other cheek.” That is not in our human nature, yet Paul tells us in verse 21 that we are to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ! Are you a person who submits to others? Do you put the needs of others before the needs of yourself? Or are you the person who has to have things done their way?

John Stott puts it like this: the Holy Spirit is a humble Spirit, and those who are truly filled with him always display the meekness and gentleness of Christ. It is one of their most evident characteristics that they submit to one another.

the Holy Spirit is a humble Spirit, and those who are truly filled with him always display the meekness and gentleness of Christ. It is one of their most evident characteristics that they submit to one another.

The term submit in Scripture means to “arrange under”. This is similar to soldiers in the military as they turn away their selfish ambitions and live in submission for the betterment of those around them. This is the same for Christians! Christians are to take this a step further, though. Christian leadership involves humbly serving others. Paul says that he was a slave to everyone in so that he might win some to the Lord. Christian husbands are to serve and love their wives humbly and are even called to die for them!

The reason behind all of this is to do so in the fear of Christ or out of reverence of Christ. We submit to others because Christ is the ultimate authority in our lives. You might say, “It’s my life” but if you are a child of God, your life is not your own, it’s all about Him because you are a new creation. Because we belong to Christ, we gladly submit to His rule and serve others out of compassion and thanksgiving because that is the natural response for a people who have been called out of the grave and back to life! We will look deeper into the idea of mutual submission next week.

Conclusion

There is some tension in this passage of Scripture, is there not? We see that the days are evil, yet we are to give thanks. We see that we are to look carefully in our Christian lives and guard against evil, yet we are to also be full of exultation? Finally, we see that we are to be a vigilant people that also are at peace with others and with God. How can we reconcile these things and this tension? As John Piper puts it, the glue that holds these paradoxes together is the Holy Spirit.

Four closing things about this text:

It is in the imperative mood: to be filled by the Holy Spirit is an authoritative command, not an optional proposal.

This is in the plural form: It is addressed to the entire believing community. We are all supposed to be filled with the Spirit, not just the leaders or the elders.

This is in the passive voice: The New English Bible puts it like this, “Let the Holy Spirit fill you.” This is passive. Nothing hinders the Holy Spirit from filling us. We are to obey the Word of God as tells us and to surrernder to the Holy Spirit.

This is in the present tense: In Greek there are 2 imperatives, aorist and present. An aorist imperative describes one action in the past - such as Jesus turning the water into wine. He filled these jars to wine one time. But as Paul tells us to be filled with the Spirit, this is a present imperative. This means that this is something that goes on and on. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a one time event, but it is something renewed continuously.

This is a message to anyone today who is defeated or stagnant in their walk with Christ. Be filled with the Spirit, and He will give you a new outlook on life and the fruits of the spirit. To the stagnant person, be filled with the Spirit. Thank God for what He has done for you and understand that your work is not yet done. There is so much more to come. Let’s pray