Imitators of God - Walk in Wisdom
Ephesians 5: 1, 15 - 21
Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children.
Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is. And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
This is the final post in the series of messages I began about a month ago, examining the ways Paul, in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, suggests that we should imitate God. First, we should walk in love. Second, we should walk in the light. And third, Paul’s final point in this passage is that we should walk in wisdom.
Wisdom is a topic that seems to interest many people. As I was originally working on this message, I went to a book of quotes[1] that I once owned, and discovered it had more than three full pages worth of quotes focused on wisdom.
Here are just a few examples:
Very few men are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching; for he that was only taught by himself had a fool [as] his master (Ben Johnson).
True wisdom is to know what is best worth knowing, and to do what is best worth doing (Edward Humphrey).
Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar (Wordsworth).
It is too often seen that the wiser men are about the things of this world, the less wise they are about the things of the next (John Gibson).
If you do a search for wisdom on the internet, you’ll find hundreds of sites, each one with long lists of quotes. One site I looked at had more than 5000 quotes, or at least so it said (I admit, I didn’t read them all to make sure!), all about wisdom or about what it means to be wise.
Scripture also has a great deal to say about wisdom. That word is found in 375 verses throughout Scripture in the NIV, and almost 500 times in the King James. When I searched the term in my electronic Bible reference program, I got almost 12,000 hits. The commentaries and dictionaries and writings about Scripture are full of references to wisdom.
All in all, it seems that wisdom is a fairly important, or at least a very well discussed, concept in Scripture. And in this passage, Paul admonishes us to live not as unwise but as wise.
So the obvious question that arises from this passage, the question I want to focus on in this post, is, “What does that mean?”
What does it mean to walk in wisdom?
Be Wise
On the surface, Paul’s response to this question seems rather simplistic. Paul wants us to be very careful how [we] live. I guess I have to admit that this is good advice, as far as it goes, but at heart, it really isn’t very helpful in answering our question. If you don’t know what wisdom is or how to live by it, it doesn’t really help much to hear Paul say, “Go live wisely!” which is what this phrase seems to boil down to.
I think the crux of what he is saying in verse 15 hinges on the word translated as careful. The King James renders this word as “circumspectly,” which means, “to look round about on all hands; to be very watchful and cautious, in order to avoid danger.”[2] However, Adam Clarke suggests that a more accurate translation for this Greek word is, “correctly, or consistently, or perfectly.”[3]
So, if Clarke is correct, Paul is basically saying, “Be consistent or perfect in how you live.” Another way to put that might be, “Imitate God in your daily life.”
So Paul equates Godliness in our daily lives with wise living, which, when you think of it, should not be a terribly earth shattering concept. Even the most cursory examination of the Book of Proverbs shows how closely the idea of following God is linked to being wise in God’s Word.
But what is interesting to me is how Paul extends this idea in verse 16. He tells us to live consistently, imitating God in all that we do, and taking advantage of every opportunity. That last bit, the phrase taking advantage of every opportunity is a very intriguing phrase. The commentators that I read were of two minds regarding its meaning. Some, following the NIV rendering[4], felt it means to make the most of every opportunity that God gives us. In this sense, the phrase is a metaphor taken from the world of business. Merchants would cautiously wait for the best opportunities to come along, and when they did, the merchants would spring on them. Just imagine if someone driving a very expensive car was stopped with several other cars at a stoplight, and the homeless person begging at that intersection made a beeline for that car, ignoring all the others in the hopes that someone wealthy enough to drive such a car must also have enough spare change to give to someone in need. That’s the idea behind this phrase. Thus, in a spiritual sense, we should always be on the lookout for opportunities to serve God, and when they come, we should not hesitate to take advantage of them.
That interpretation seems to make sense, though many commentators (mostly those who lived and wrote more than a century ago) followed the King James reading of the verse, which is redeeming the time. These commentators held that this translation comes closer to the meaning of the original Greek word, which is exagorazo, a word that literally means, “to ransom, to rescue from loss; to redeem.” So, these commentators argue that the phrase Paul uses in this verse (exagorazo kairos) means don’t waste time, because God gave you only so much to accomplish all that He has called you to do.
Matthew Henry expresses this idea well, I think. He says, “Time is a talent[5] given us by God, and it is misspent and lost when not employed according to his design.”[6] Or, as John Wesley puts it, “Saving all [the time] you can for the best purposes; buying every possible moment out of the hands of sin and Satan; out of the hands of sloth, ease, pleasure, worldly business.”[7]
To put this in more modern terms, these commentators suggest that Paul’s basic message in this verse is that all of the time God gives us in this world is to be used for His purposes, not for our enjoyment. And the commentators in this category even went so far as to list things that we ought to be on guard against, things that threaten to steal our time away from its true purpose; things, in other words, from which our time must be redeemed. William Burkett’s list is fairly typical of these:
Idleness – in the strictest sense of the word, this simply means “wasting time”; I’m forced to wonder how many of my habitual activities Burkett would categorize here.
Excess of sleep – that kind of speaks for itself, I think.
Inordinate adorning of the body – spending too much time worrying about our appearance; some of us may have gotten old enough as to have already given up in this area, but maybe not all of you.
Immoderate recreations – immoderate, in this sense, means too much, more than is necessary; I feel like I need to clarify that recreation is important – we need down time to relax, but the question Burkett raises here is, Are we taking more leisure time than we really need? If so, Burkett would say that we are stealing time from God’s work.[8]
He includes a few others, but I think you probably get the idea: when we spend our time on things other than God’s work, we are stealing time from God. And in this passage, Paul is calling us to redeem this time, to win back for the Lord time that is currently being stolen from Him.
I found it very interesting how these two groups of commentators differed in their opinions. The modern world is infamously known for being frenetically busy, a trend which has just gotten worse as time goes by. We moderns invented the term “workaholic”! And yet, all of the commentators who were writing in the last fifty years or so went with the idea that Paul is focused on not missing opportunities. Their attitude seemed to be something along the lines of this: We all have a lot of things going on, that’s a given. So we’ve got to be sure that, when God brings us opportunities to serve Him, that we take time to add those opportunities to what we’re already doing. The important thing is to not miss them or pass them up.
But those writing one or two hundred years ago took the other side. They counsel us to examine the things we are currently doing and to get rid of those things that are not God’s work, so that we will have all of our time available for its intended use: serving God.
Now, I don’t want to belabor this point or read too much into this, but I think it is worth saying this much. I can see the validity of both of these interpretations of this passage. But I concerns me how quickly I tend to gravitate to the modern commentators’ interpretation. It makes me wonder how much of what I “know” about Scripture really comes down to what my culture, in this modern world, has programmed me to see. I think we might be wise to take a moment and examine the ways that we habitually spend our time. How much of our day is dedicated to things that are not furthering God’s work? How much of our time might need to be redeemed?
Because no matter which reading you think seems more accurate, Paul’s reason for calling us to live wisely is fairly straightforward: because the days are evil. The evilness of the days makes God’s work that much more urgent, for there are those perishing eternally all around us. We are God’s workforce here on earth; not because He needs us but because, as His adopted children, He has chosen to give us the opportunity to work in His Kingdom. We must make sure our time is not consumed with lesser things, so that we have the ability to seize the opportunities that God brings before us.
And remember, these words were written almost 2000 years ago. As Warren Wiersbe ponders, “If the days were evil when Paul wrote this letter, what must their condition be today?”[9]
If we get nothing else from this passage, be reminded at least that God owns our time. Our time is His gift to us, and we need to use it in ways that honor Him, and in ways that accomplish His will in our lives. We need, in other words, to always seek to redeem our time, for the days are evil.
Don’t’ Be Foolish
The rest of this section seems to be a bit repetitive to me. In the first two verses, Paul tells us to walk wisely, and then, in verse 17, he tells us to not walk foolishly.
One thing that I found interesting was that Paul uses two different words here. In verse 15, the word is asophos, which is simply the negative form of sophos, “wise.” Literally asophos means “un-wise,” though many versions, such as the King James and the New Living, translate it as “fool,” which is a fair translation. But in verse 17, he uses the word aphron, which means, “mindless, stupid, ignorant, egotistic, rash, or unbelieving.” Rather a rude word, and certainly something that it would be good not to be! But it was also a word that was often connected to the worship of Bacchus, the Greek god of wine and revelry. Most followers of Bacchus, in that time period, felt that the worship of their god required throwing a big party. These parties were characterized by general drunkenness and orgies and any other kind of wild, uncontrolled behavior you can think of.
So in using this word, Paul is setting up the first of two contrasting images that fill the rest of this section. In verse 17, he tells us. do not be foolish, following after drunken revelry. But instead, we should [understand] what the Lord’s will is.
Note the contrast between foolish drunkenness, loosing control of your actions and even your ability to think, and understanding God’s will. This is not simply knowing what God wants, but understanding why He wants it, understanding His will. In other words, this points to being wise in our knowledge of God.
The second contrasting image that Paul paints comes in verse 18. We should not get drunk with wine. Here again, commentators saw clear references to the worship of Bacchus. Adam Clarke suggested that the verb meaning “to get drunk” is derived from two earlier words, the first meaning “after” and the second meaning “sacrifice.”[10] So the Greek practice of getting drunk after their worship of Bacchus was so common that their word for drunkenness is derived from this practice! And if that wasn’t enough, the word translated here as debauchery is also connected to the time of drunken revelry following the worship of Bacchus.
So in this verse, Paul seems to be making a direct prohibition of the worship of Bacchus, by choosing words that were directly connected to that kind of worship. So if any of you reading this today were thinking of starting up a cult for Bacchus worship, think again!
But seriously, the modern implications of this are fairly obvious, I think. We should not seek to satisfy ourselves with pleasure, particularly the pleasures of drunkenness, though I think any excess of pleasure with which we might be tempted to fill our time would also apply.
And in contrast to this image of seeking fulfillment in pleasure, Paul tells us we should be filled by the Spirit. Now, I recognize that this phrase is one that means many different things to different believers. And the commentators I read were very quick to try to point out exactly what kind of filling Paul is talking about here. They said that, in this verse, Paul is describing either the indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon our conversion, or a special anointing of the Spirit for a special task, or the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, in the modern charismatic sense of that phrase. That clears things up and narrows the meaning down, doesn’t it!
We could spend a fair bit of time talking about which of these interpretations Paul is most likely to be referring to, but I don’t think we really need to. Because we have verses 19 and 20. In these two verses, Paul gives a description of someone who is living the kind of Spirit-filled life he has in mind. First, they seek to edify others in their speech; they are speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think this means that every word out of their mouth has to be from Psalms or Fanny Crosby. But the heart of their communication with others focuses on spiritual truth, and their speech is permeated with the themes and words of Scripture.
Second, they have worshipful hearts; they are singing and making music in [their] hearts to the Lord. Again, I don’t think this means that they live in a worship service 24/7. Rather, this is someone who has such great joy in the Lord that they can’t contain it; this joy just keeps bubbling out of them in spontaneous praise.
And finally, they have thankful hearts; they are always giving thanks to God the Father. This is the kind of person who is so focused on Jesus that nothing can dampen their spirits. No matter what their circumstances, they have a song of thanksgiving in their hearts.
William Barclay believed that this is meant as a description of the early church. I’m not so sure I agree with that; I think it is actually a description of the ideal church. Maybe this is something close to what the first century church was like, or maybe this is simply an ideal that has never been fully realized here on earth, an ideal that probably will never be realized this side of Heaven. But just think for a moment what a church that would be! If every member was constantly full of praise, full of thanksgiving and used Scripture as their primary means of communication. A church like that could change the world!
Final Thoughts
So where does all of this leave us? What does Paul have to say about the idea of walking in wisdom? I think we can sum it up in two points. First, walking in wisdom means using your time to serve God, either by taking advantage of the opportunities that He gives you or by eliminating all the activities in your life that are not for Him, so that your time is wholly devoted to His service. And second, it means using our every interaction with others as an opportunity to point them to God and encourage them toward righteousness.
And it occurred to me that what Paul is really saying is this. In order to walk in wisdom, we need to live like Jesus lived. He is the one Paul is really describing in these two points about walking in wisdom. More than anyone else, before or since, He used every moment of His time on earth to serve God; He was always about His Father’s business. And without doubt, everyone He spoke to or interacted with was pointed to the Father.
Jesus is our perfect example of living in wisdom.
So Paul’s conclusion to this section, and really his ultimate conclusion to this entire passage, is that we should live like Jesus. Walk in wisdom, for His life embodies wisdom. Walk in the light, for He is the light of the world. And walk in love, for He is love.
As we begin to walk more like Jesus, we will become more and more, imitators of God.
[1] Since I no longer own this book, and have no idea what the title of it was, I can not properly document where I found each of the following quotes. I hope you will forgive my poor scholarship and trust that these quotes were actually said by the people to whom each is attributed.
[2] As defined by Adam Clarke in his Commentary on Ephesians 5, accessed electronically in the PowerBible CD program.
[3] Ibid
[4] Which is: making the most of every opportunity
[5] in the sense of “something of value,” as used in the parable of the talents (my note)
[6] Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, accessed electronically in the PowerBible CD program
[7] John Wesley’s Notes on the Old and New Testament, accessed electronically in the PowerBible CD program
[8] William Burkett’s New Testament commentary, accessed electronically in the PowerBible CD program
[9] Wiersbe, Warren. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament. David C. Cook publishing, 2007. P. 615, electronic edition.
[10] Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Ephesians 5, accessed electronically in the PowerBible CD program.