God's Secret Plan: File #12

In Matthew 2:8, Herod sent the Magi to Bethlehem, telling them: “Go and search diligently for the young child.” Knowing the personal interest Herod had in finding the Christ Child (regardless of his motive), we can imagine just how carefully he wanted the Magi to search. Luke, in the introduction to his gospel, tells Theophilus that he “had perfect understanding of all things from the very first.” (Luke 1:3) Considering how important setting out the gospel story was, we can imagine just how perfect or complete Luke wanted his knowledge of it to be. And the same word used in these two accounts--translated diligently in Matthew and perfect in Luke--is used by Paul in Ephesians 5:15 when he exhorts his readers: “See then that ye walk circumspectly.” Thayer gives the word these meanings: “exactly, accurately, diligently.” Paul was exhorting the Christians at Ephesus to walk, to live in this manner--not haphazard or half-hearted, but with full-awareness and carefulness. This is somewhat captured in the English word circumspect, which means to look all around, like a soldier who is fully aware of his surroundings so that no one can sneak up on him, so that nothing catches him unawares. Paul did not want the Ephesians to take a casual approach to their Christian life, but to walk circumspectly, exactly, accurately, diligently.

Paul gives three parallel phrases in this passage, showing what a Christian is and is not to be and do.

First, a Christian should not be a fool, oblivious to his surroundings and the need of the hour. In verse 15 Paul says we should not walk as fools. In verse 17 he says that we should not be (or some have it, not become) unwise (Strong defines this as meaning: “mindless, stupid, ignorant, rash”). And in verse 18 he says that we should be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess or dissipation. In other words, Paul was concerned lest an attitude of the mind or habit of the body would rob the Christian of his alertness. Foolishness, ignorance, and drunkenness must be avoided for the same reason--because they prevent us from walking circumspectly, from walking with a full awareness of our need and our danger.

Second, Paul contrasts these three negatives with two or three positives. In verse 15 he tells us to walk as wise, as those who have wisdom. In verse 17 it's implied that we should be wise (seemingly even more strongly implied in Greek than in English). And in verse 18, we are told to be filled with the Spirit. I probably don't need to belabor the point that if we are not to walk as fools then we should walk as wise. The importance of wisdom, spiritual awareness is fairly clear throughout Scripture and should be self-evident. The point to notice is how this happens.

In Job 28, the writer describes how gold and silver and precious stones can be found hidden in the earth and how man seeks and mines for them. And then he asks: “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” (v. 12) This is something man cannot find. “Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.” (v. 13) It cannot be found by going out and mining for it, and all the precious metals and jewels we can obtain cannot be used to purchase it because it is worth far more than they are. Not only can wisdom not be found by natural means but nothing found by natural means is close to equaling the value of wisdom. So that is the primary question of this passage, the question we must answer if we are to have a walk of wisdom: “Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?” (v. 20) Man does not know how to get wisdom. The animals do not know. The impersonal forces of nature do not know. Only one knows: “God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.” (v. 23) God is the source of wisdom and out of His wisdom He has ordered the whole earth. That is one of the key themes of Job--that God rules the world by wisdom and that we, not having His wisdom, obviously are in no position to judge the way He rules. But though God alone has wisdom, there is a way for man to obtain wisdom: Verse 28 gives God's words to mankind: “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Because God alone has wisdom, the only way for man to get it is from God.

All men have some wisdom because God gives some grace to all men, as He sendeth the rain upon the just and the unjust. But because wisdom is innate to God and is not to us (for in our flesh dwelleth no good thing innately) the only way we can keep and obtain more wisdom is by putting ourselves in a relationship with God. If you want to get wet, you have to get into the water. If you want light, you must walk in the light. If you want wisdom, you must fear the Lord and obey Him. (Notice that Job 28:28 places fearing God and departing from evil as parallel phrases.)

And that is why Paul says that if we want to walk as wise, we must be filled with the Spirit or keep continually filled with the Spirit. If you take one drink of alcohol, you will not be drunk for the rest of your life. If you want to remain intoxicated, you have to keep drinking more and more in order to maintain that state. And if we want to maintain a walk of wisdom, we must be continually more and more filled with wisdom and the presence of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. The whole secret plan of God as we've seen it throughout Ephesians is centered in this idea--in our becoming like God, holy and without blame before Him in love. We saw before that this is possible because of Christ's presence in our heart. But this is only possible through the agency of the Holy Spirit. That was the reason why Christ sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Though Jesus would no longer be with them physically, He would dwell in their hearts through the agency of the Holy Spirit--and not just Jesus but the Father as well. (See John 14:23) Paul prayed earlier that the Ephesians would be filled with all the fulness of God, and that is only possible through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Breath which is always sent to speak the Word. Paul began Ephesians by saying that God has given to the church all spiritual blessings. But if we individually want to make use of those blessings in our daily walk, it must be through being filled by the Holy Spirit.

We live in a dangerous world. To exist is to be in danger. I fear, therefore I am. All who will live will suffer persecution. We must walk circumspectly, we must walk in wisdom because of the dangers around us. But this is something we cannot do in our own strength. We can only do it through the power of God working in us, through being filled with all the fullness of God by the Holy Spirit. Our task is to remain in this state, to maintain our relationship with God, to keep continually filled with the Spirit.

So these are the three parallel phrases. On one hand, we are not to walk as fools, we are not to be unwise, and we are not to be drunk with wine (or anything else which will destroy our walk of wisdom). On the other hand, we are to walk as wise, be wise, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. These are really just two different ways of saying the same thing. But there is more than all that in this passage. Paul also tells us what the results of this walk of wisdom will be. If we are walking as wise men and not as fools, it will have certain practical implications.

(1) The first of these is in verse 16: “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” I think that phrase “the days are evil” can be applied to all the commands in this passage. We must be aware that we are living in war-time conditions. If sin had never entered the world, we would still be required to live a holy life--that is what God created man to do. But our life would be very different in a world without sin and temptation--so different that I don't think we can now imagine how it would work. I've read and listened to a lot of works coming out of the WWII period in America and quite frequently people make some reference to doing something “for the duration.” Because of the massive war effort America put forth during the 1940s, many things had to be put away for the time being. People realized that there were certain sacrifices that could be made--for the time being, until the war ended. Because they were living in a temporary war-time condition, they were willing to make those sacrifices--for the duration. We too are living in a war, a war about which Paul will have more to say in chapter 6. We have certain duties, certain concerns which we would not have had in an unfallen world and which we will not have in the Resurrection but which we have now--for the duration.

Because of this, because the days are evil, Paul tells us to redeem the time or, as some render it, buy back the time. Jesus tells the story of a man who found an extremely valuable and rare pearl and so he sold everything he possessed in order to buy it up. If you value something enough, you will take the trouble to get possession of it. And if we value the time we have, we will take the trouble to get possession of it and use it wisely. The NET Bible translates this phrase: “taking advantage of every opportunity.” If we are walking in wisdom, we will realize the necessity of using every opportunity we have to fulfill the plan of God.

(2) “Understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (v. 17) The Bible in Basic English paraphrases this: “Be conscious of the Lord's pleasure.” The Christian should not go through his life with oblivious disregard for the fact that he belongs to God and that the will of God is, by necessity, the guiding rule and principle for the life of man. One cannot be a Christian and practice conscious and continual rebellion against the will of God. However, it seems that too many Christians too much of the time seem to leave the will of God to the side as something which has no practical value to them. It is not thrown out--it is kept very carefully. On a shelf. A shelf of honor. But a shelf. Covered in dust. But if we are to have a walk of wisdom, we must be aware of the will of God, and make that our guide.

But how do we know, how do we understand what the will of the Lord is? First, by the revelation He has given--in conscience, in reason, and, specifically, in Scripture. If we have not tried to find out God's will through His previous revelation, there is not much good in trying to find it out some other way. Scripture is primarily a revelation of the will of the Lord. And then, along with that, is the wisdom we already discussed which comes through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

(3) “Speaking to yourselves [that is, to one another] in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart [or, from your heart] to the Lord.” (v. 19) Superficially, this seems like an odd addition to the passage. “Be very careful how you live, walk wisely, make the best of your time--and make sure you sing a lot.” This probably shouldn't be separated from (4) “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v. 20)

Together, these two things--singing to the Lord and giving thanks unto God--can be counted under the general heading of worship--and, in context, specifically corporate worship. In worship, we come into the presence of God, recognize and rejoice in who He is and what He has done.

We should never think of worship as a little extra flourish on the Christian life, as a little bonus content, as something which is just sort of thrown in for good measure. Worship is an essential part of the Christian life--in a perfect life, it would not even be a part but the whole. Though the particular expressions of worship--singing and giving thanks--are only one part of the Christian life, they are an integral and essential part. It is through worshipping God, recognizing and rejoicing in His nature, that we grow to be more like Him which, as we have seen already, is the essential point of God's secret plan. And while there is a personal aspect to that, there is also a corporate aspect, which seems to be Paul's main focus here. The church is many things, but one of the main things is a place where people together worship God. The fullest worship of God comes through the redeemed community, where two or three are gathered together in His name.

It may be significant that the particular aspect of worship mentioned here is singing and that it is placed in contrast to being drunk with wine. Singing is, for some people, a source of and expression of happiness. Many commentators think that Paul deliberately places singing the praises of God in contrast with the revelries of sin. God does not forbid the pleasures of sin because they are pleasures but because they are sinful, as evidenced by the fact that there are pleasures and celebrations within the walk of God. But the point is even a little more than that and goes back to the main theme of a walk of wisdom. A common phrase of the world suggests that people “drink to forget”--that is, that the pleasure of drunkenness (and other forms of “excess” which may not even be physical in base) lies in an escape from reality. But the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is based on the filling of the Spirit who is the Spirit of Truth--in other words, it is based on reality, rather than on an escape from reality. There is all the difference in the world between being happy because we have forgotten all our problems and being happy because we are “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

A note needs to be said on that phrase “giving thanks always for all things.” There are three ways to interpret it this. The first is the way it is translated in the KJV which is fairly simple and straightforward. Obviously giving thanks for all things does not mean that all things are good. There are many things in life which are not good, things which are bad or even evil, things which never should have existed. We cannot justify all things, we cannot accept all things, but we can give thanks for all things--for one reason and one reason only: because we know that God in His providence is working all things together for good. Things which are not in themselves good can, without ceasing to be what they are, become part of something good. Chocolate and vanilla are both extremely bitter and yet in many recipes, without losing their own essential character, they become something sweet. This may sound unrealistic and idealistic, but we, as Christians, have positive evidence--that being the crucifixion of Jesus which can truly be said to be the worst thing ever to happen in world history and also to be the best thing ever to happen in world history.

However, some translate the phrase “for all things” as “for all people.” Barnes takes this in the sense that we should be thankful for God's goodness not just to us but to all people. Thankfulness is not an isolated, individualistic concept. The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all his works, for the Father sends the rain and sunshine upon both the just and the unjust. We should be thankful not just for what God has done for us but what He has done for all people--perhaps especially since God gives blessings to so many people who never thank Him.

Finally, the words can have the sense that all people are what we are thankful for. The NET Bible translates it: “Always giving thanks to God the Father for each other.” Folliott S. Pierpont wrote: “For the joy of human love,/Brother, sister, parent, child;/Friends of on earth, and friends above;/For all gentle thought and mild;/Lord of all, to Thee we raise/This our hymn of grateful praise.”

(5) The fifth and final part of this walk of wisdom is verse 21: “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” This verse is pivotal since it is both the final verse of this section and the opening verse of the next.

As Christians, our relations to all people are governed by the fear of God--a reverence, respect, awe for God because He's, well, God.  A Turkish proverb says that every man is king of his own share. And the truth is that this a common human conception. Our natural habit is to perceive ourselves as sovereign rulers of own circle of existence. And while it is true to a small extent, we should never forget that in every second of existence, we are dependent on other people and on the whole world itself. Our bodies only come into existence through our parents and they continue to live through a constant influx of energy and matter from the created universe--and eventually, whether we like it or not, that will all come to an end. We may be rulers, but we are not sovereigns.  Every facet of our existence is contingent--dependent on other people, on the vast, impersonal universe, and ultimately on God who made all things and by whom all things consist. That is why we must submit to and obey God--not merely because God is more powerful than we are, but because we depend on Him for our existence but He depends on no one--because of who God is and who we are it is necessarily implied that we should submit to and obey Him. This is the fear of God.

That is the philosophical side of it. But there is another side. And that side is John 13:13-17 in which Jesus, after having washed His disciples' feet, spoke to them in these words: “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

Jesus, as God and as Christ, was in a position of authority over his disciples, a fact which they recognized and acknowledged--they called Him Lord and Master and he accepted the titles. And in that position of authority, what He did was put aside His position and acted the part of a servant to His own followers. And this wasn't the only time it happened--this was a concentrated example of the entire course of Jesus' life. “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:27-28, c.p. Philippians 2:7) This pattern--the Lord becoming the servant--is not an isolated thing, but was integral to the life of Jesus, to the life of His apostles, and to the life of all Christians. The key phrase for all this is “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” We are dependent on God for every facet of our existence every moment of our life--and yet God chose to take upon himself the form of a servant and minister to us and therefore, as his followers, we are to do the same to one another. Whatever sort of hierarchy and structure there is in our life, it is underscored by this principle of mutual submission.