Walk Carefully

Ephesians 5:1-21

English Standard Version Chapter 5

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Pray

Intro

How carefully do you walk around your house when it’s pitch black? Maybe the power just went out or maybe you're just getting up in the middle of the night to get a drink.. Either way this is a task that requires very careful attention. You’re not going to just rush around and power through the house like a bull in a china cabinet. You are going to be extra careful because no one wants to step on any toys that get left out. Stepping on legos is no fun in broad daylight let alone in pitch black and dead silent so you can’t make any noise or you wake up the whole house.

Now I obviously know the layout of my house well, being as how I live there and all, but I’m obviously still going to tread carefully in the dark. We have this bed frame and it has these extra little legs on it right in the middle of the frame that we stub our toes on even when the lights are on so you better believe we are going to be extra careful when it’s dark.

Our Chirstian walk is much the same way. We are walking through life in a dark and fallen world, and this requires us to walk carefully. Paul tells us to not be unwise but wise. Sounds simple enough right? Well how do we do that?

Look Carefully How You Walk

We have to start by making the best possible use of our time. We have all been granted a certain amount of time on this earth, and only God knows how long that will be for each of us, but our responsibility is to make the most out of that time. Time is an opportunity, and we are merely stewards of the time God has granted to us, and you better believe that we will be held responsible for what we do with it. Scripture tells us that God will demand an account of how our time has been spent. 1 Peter 4:3-5 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

So what does it mean to make the best use of our time? this can also be translated as redeem.. (which is how its translated in Galatians 3:13 when Paul talks about how Christ REDEEMED us from the curse of the law.) So we want to redeem the time. A good definition for “redeem” is: to recover from the power of another by paying a price. In the same way we pay the price needed to take advantage of every moment we are given. We literally have to snatch up every opportunity, every moment that would otherwise be given over to darkness and we expose it to the light. Having been redeemed by his blood, we now redeem the time for him, making the most of every opportunity. We are no longer living for ourselves, but rather we are living a new life for Christ, granted to us by grace.

So what are we redeeming this time from? Well the second half of verse 16 tells us.. because the days are evil.

I don’t think there is any argument amongst Christians that the days are evil, maybe not as evil as they could be, but I don’t think the trajectory is heading in the right direction. Now I would be remiss if I didn’t at least acknowledge the victory that took place with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. and PRAISE GOD FOR THAT! That victory in the supreme court in and of itself is a step in the right direction, but that is far from the end. As Christians, we have a long road ahead of us to stop the murdering of babies. Look at all the companies that are willing to pay for their employees to travel just to get abortions. Look at all the people that are outraged that they may no longer be legally allowed to murder their babies in an abortion mill. There is definitely no doubt that the days we are currently living in are evil.

Now how do we Walk Carefully during these evil times? What does that look like for us as Christians? As Children of Light? Well we have to try and discern what is pleasing to the Lord. We can no longer partake in the unfruitful works of darkness as we once did, but just abstaining from evil isn’t enough. We have to expose it. Now if I can go back to my illustration from my intro for just a second.. We can tread around and stumble about in the darkness in the middle of the night and regardless of how careful we are, we are bound to trip or stumble on something eventually. How much better would it be to shine a flashlight in that darkness? It's obvious how much easier it is to walk around in the darkness with a flashlight, but the same thing is true for the world. As children of light we have to let our lights shine to expose the darkness.

So how do we expose darkness? Does this mean we hit the street corners with bullhorns condemning the lost? Now don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for this type of ministry and some people are truly gifted with the grace to do this effectively, but let's face it. Some of us are not! So if you’re not called to this type of ministry then what do you do? Do you join them and try to infiltrate and change them from within? Paul says absolutely not. He says take NO PART in the unfruitful works of darkness. For it is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret.

I would say that living God honoring lives, having faithful marriages, raising your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, having gracious speech, and taking every opportunity to help those around you that are in need do far more to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness than “partnering” with culture. Bryan Chapell says it like this “It is important to know and to believe that in worldly innocence there can be more power for the exposure of evil than in becoming an expert in the matters of Satan.”

Understand the Will of the Lord

Verse 17 says do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. As you read through scripture you’ll start picking up on an overarching theme, especially in the book of Proverbs. There are really only 2 paths in life: The way of the righteous or wise and the way of the wicked or of the fool. So how do we make sure we are on the path of the wise? Well first we need to know who the source of that wisdom is. We don’t want the wisdom that the world has to offer, because 1 Corinthians 3:19 says worldly wisdom is foolishness to God. So we want to walk in Godly wisdom. In order to do that we need to understand what the will of the Lord is.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 says 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: (which is a fancy word for the process we go through to be made holy) that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

It’s important to remember that this process of being made holy (or we can use the fancy word, Sanctification) is not something that will be complete until we get to Heaven. This is something that we are going to fail at at times. We are going to go through seasons of ups and downs, but it is a process that we have to participate in for the rest of our earthly lives. We continue striving toward the goal. Now with that being said It's also important to recognize that the process of sanctification is not to be confused with once and final act of Justification (justification is the fancy word to describe the act of being made righteous before God in which we have no participation in, that is solely imparted to us by God’s grace through Christ’s perfect and completed work on the cross.)

Now getting back to sanctification, we have a responsibility to Understand the will of the Lord and walk in His ways, as He has laid them out for us in Scripture. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness (or holiness) in His word. We don’t need new revelation, John Owen says it like this: “If private revelations agree with Scripture, they are needless, and if they disagree, they are false.” and we also have to be careful not to be led by our feelings or emotions. The Bible tells us that our hearts are deceitful and wicked. So the bottom line is: we have God’s perfect will for our lives revealed to us in the inspired text of Scripture! 2 Timothy 3:16-17

So in order to know and understand the Lord’s will, and walk in godly wisdom we have to read, study and meditate on His word daily, but it’s not enough to just read or know His word.. We also have to submit to it and apply it, and that is when the Spirit will start to transform our lives.

Be Filled with the Spirit

In order for the Spirit to perform His transformative work in our lives, we need to be filled with the Spirit. Verse 18 gives us the contrasting Negative positive command to not get drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit.

Being Filled with the Spirit is not something that is lightly recommended, or suggested. This is not optional, it is a command, a requirement. That being so, further supports the fact that this isn’t referring to the initial indwelling of the Spirit. That initial indwelling happens at the moment of our rebirth. Therefore it isn’t some kind of extra gift to be added to our salvation when we reach a certain level of holiness, and it’s not something only reserved for certain “special anointed believers.”

Now I’m going to continue for a moment with what I think this isn’t saying and then we’ll get to what I believe it is saying. So I don’t think this is saying that instead of being drunk with wine we are to be Drunk with the Holy Spirit which is what we see in the Charismatic movement. Nowhere in Scripture will you find a command to be drunk in the Spirit. When someone gets drunk with alcohol their senses are deadened, they start to lose control over their motor skills, they tend to lose their ability to filter what they say, and really this can all be summed up and summarized as a loss of self control. This behavior is completely contrary to the commands that we see in scripture. The Bible tells us constantly to set our minds on things above, to be of sober mind, and to have self control. You guys don’t have to flip through with me, but I’m going to read off a few verses that support this.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.”

1 Thessalonians 5:6 “So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled.”

Proverbs 25:28 “A person who does not control his temper is like a city whose wall is broken down.”

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”

So sense Paul is not telling us to stagger around, slurring our speech, laughing uncontrollably by being “drunk” with the Spirit, what is he saying? Why is Paul using this contrast? I believe Paul is conveying a message of influence and control. As Christians we are to be under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit constantly. Knowing and Understanding the will of the Lord and being in submission to it, is only possible by being under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. This being filled with the Spirit that Paul is commanding here isn’t just a one time event that just happens and boom you’re good to go. This is a regular pattern of life. You have to continue to be being filled. I’m going to borrow an illustration from John MacArthur because I think it creates the perfect picture for what this text is saying. Think about a sail boat. When you put up that sail and get a good gust of wind it’s going to carry you along for a little bit, but you are going to continually need the wind to fill your sails in order to get you to your destination. In the same way we need to continually be being filled with the Spirit until we reach our destination.

Well that’s what being filled with the Spirit is, but what will it look like when we are continually being filled with the Spirit? Well first of all when we are filled with the Spirit, our lives will exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit. In addition to that, verses 19-21 summarize what else this will look like. Now as we go through these last couple verses it’s important to realize that there is another aspect to the contrast that Paul makes in this last negative positive command. In Paul’s day the Pagans would worship their gods by getting drunk with wine and they believed this altered state of being would elevate them to a place of communion with their gods. Basically the drunker and more incapacitated they became the deeper their worship would be. Paul makes this contrast and says no that isn’t worship, that is debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit! As Christians we worship and address one another is psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We will sing and make melody to the Lord with our hearts, and we will submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is what worship looks like as we are continually being filled with the Spirit. We don’t need to be filled with wine in order to elevate ourselves to a state of worship, instead we are under the power and influence of the Spirit and our worship will look much different than Pagan worship.

Conclusion

Now if your following along, you noticed that I skipped over verse 20. I did this because I want to close with it. So in conclusion Verse 20 says: giving thanks ALWAYS and for EVERYTHING to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not an easy thing to do. Actually, I guess sometimes it’s easy right? when things are going good and the blessings are flowing. When our marriages are smooth sailing, and the kids are getting good grades and they aren’t killing each other every time you turn around. It’s really easy to thank God for all of those things. How about when that little fantasy comes to an end? When things aren’t going well. When the car broke down, when the washer and dryer goes out, when you get fired from your job, when our country seems to be falling apart at every seem. How easy is it to thank God for all of those things? Practically impossible isn’t it? In fact it is impossible. Unless you are constantly being filled with the Spirit. As Christians, when our lives are falling apart, we have joy and peace in Christ Jesus for EVERYTHING that we are experiencing, because we have an all knowing, all powerful, all sufficient perfect and holy God, that came down to live a perfect and blameless life in order that sinners like us might be saved through Him. And that brothers and sisters we have every reason to give him thanks FOR EVERYTHING!

So as we go out this week let us Walk Carefully, making the most of every opportunity that comes to us, let’s get into His word so we can know and understand His will, and let us not neglect to continue to be being filled with the Spirit!

Thank you.