Ephesians 5:11-21
Our Old Testament and New Testament readings, as well as the Psalm, all have the common thread of wisdom. Be careful then how you live.
Paul speaks much about the wisdom of the world being foolishness in the eyes of God. But here, and next week we will be spending time with Paul in Ephesus, looking at some very practical ways to live this believing life in Jesus as children of God.
Paul tells us we are to be careful how we live for the sake of others.
The wisdom that Paul has in mind is not worldly wisdom, it is particularly Christian and acted out in daily living and experience and has a particular Christian content I think.
So what does living wisely mean? Paul gives us some indicators or steps beginning in v.16, “making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”
We live life as a gift from God for he created all things for us to enjoy. From the beauty of creation to his very peace that is beyond our capacity to understand, our full life experience in Christ makes us enjoy our creator.
Paul simply says, “make the most of your time.” This life in Christ is life in all its Godly fullness of relationships and experiences and to live it simply and deeply is to make the most of our time.
What this means is that this wisdom reflects an understanding of Christian life as being lived in the “in-between time,” between the cross and Ascension and the completion of all things when Jesus returns.
The days are evil, and Jesus is coming back with the whole magnificent and terrible host of heaven! So let’s be careful how we live. This is wisdom
Now in this in-between time God is busy drawing all people to Jesus. Jesus said that his people the Church are to be the light of the world, just as he is. Making the most of our time is allowing the fruit of the Spirit to blossom and grow and glow in us.
This is how God the Holy Spirit draws all people to our Saviour Jesus. We become what we are created to be; channels of God’s love, peace, and redemption.
Paul’s next little indicator of Godly wisdom is prioritising our relationship with the Lord. In v.17, Paul says, “do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is”. If life is a gift, then God is the gift-giver, and he has given you the gift of life for a purpose.
What is that purpose? Well, we move into that purpose in different ways in different seasons of life by persevering in prayer and reading the Scriptures and sitting silently waiting on God. And also, sometimes, taking a few risks too in order to discern what God’s will for our lives might be.
When I first entered the priesthood, I wasn’t absolutely sure it was what God wanted, but I had a hunch that it might be the case. So I offered myself to the church and said, “I’m here if you want me…” It was a risk for me to do that – but through taking the risk, God’s purpose for my life became clear.
And so it is with each one of us. All of us have a destiny to be lived out. All of us have a place in the purposes of God. And the wise life is marked by the search for that place in God’s purposes.
And what happens when we find it? We shine like lights in the world, just as Jesus said we would and have been destined by God to do. Now many of you are living out God’s purpose for your life. Perhaps you are still seeking it, there is no shame in that, but the very admission of it is the first step to finding it!
We are here as a community of love, a community of friends, to support one another as we search for our own personal meaning in the wonderful over-arching loving purpose of God for his church. Paul is saying be wise, seek out God’s will in your life.
Related directly to that, Paul says, let your faith transform how you live. In v.18, he writes “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit”.
I think the principle that Paul is drawing out with this verse is that if we are developing wisdom by treating life as a gift from God and discerning his purpose for our lives, then this will inevitably impact on how we behave.
For these Christians in Ephesus, they needed to drink a little less it seems, but for you and me, it might be that or it might be something different. In reality, we all have a conscience (fully washed clean by the Holy Spirit) and we know the areas of our lives that we haven’t fully submitted to God, don’t we?
We know those behaviours we have, those thought-patterns we have developed, that really are a bit inappropriate and in contradiction to our calling as a Christian. Well, wisdom is worked out as we try to submit these aspects of our lives to God.
Finally, when we wisely do submit these aspects of our lives, we find the wonderful alternative happens, we are being “filled with the Spirit.” Just as being filled with wine carries over and can lead to a life of debauchery, so also being filled with the Spirit has its abundant effects.
In vv.19-20 a life of the Spirit results in singing and thanksgiving. “Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” suggests quantity and continual singing. Paul describes songs being sung both “to each other” (NRSV: “among yourselves”) and “to the Lord” (5:19).
This is what we do in church; we praise and thank God with one voice which “guards” us or “keeps” us in the knowledge and love of God, which is living in wisdom.
Paul, more than any other biblical writer gives us ‘lists.’ Here he has given us four little gems of wisdom about how to be wise.
First, by treating life as a gift from God. Second, by discovering our destiny; God’s purpose for our lives. Third, by allowing our faith to transform how we think and how we behave. Finally, by committing ourselves by coming to a church we trust to thanks and praise God with friends.
As we get older it’s very easy to think that life has passed us by a little bit, and we don’t matter anymore. It’s easy to think that a parish’s glory days are behind it too! This is not true, that is worldly wisdom which is foolishness to God. Godly wisdom tells me this is not true.
Please, let me pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for each and every one of us. Kindle in our hearts the spark of your purposes for us. Come dear Holy Spirit, bring this to pass in us as individuals and as a parish, that your name may be glorified in all the earth, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.