Editor’s Note: Read the previous articles in this series below!
Be Imitators of God – Part 1
Be Imitators of God – Part 2
Imitate God
In two previous articles (see Part 1 and Part 2), we’ve explored the apostle Paul’s call in Ephesians 5 for Christians to imitate God. By placing our faith in Jesus, we’ve become children of God. As God’s children, it’s only natural for us to mimic our heavenly Father in our behavior. Paul urges us to imitate him by walking in love, purity, and wisdom. So far, in Ephesians 5:1-14, Paul has encouraged us to imitate God by walking in love and purity. Now, in Ephesians 5:15-21, he’s going to call us to imitate God by walking in wisdom.
Walk in Wisdom
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
verse 15
Paul wants us to pay close attention to how we live our daily lives. It can be very easy to get into the routine of just going through the motions. Paul is calling us to be intentional in how we live. The word for “carefully” is akribōs and “means examining with great care.” It speaks of alertness. You must be on guard and very aware of how you live your life. He wants us to be on guard to make sure we are walking in wisdom. Scripture is replete with calls to seek wisdom as you would seek gold our treasure. God is wisdom (Col 2:4) and we find wisdom by fearing him and understanding his word (see Prov 1:7, 2:6-8, 3:13-18, and James 1:5).
God promises to greatly bless us with wisdom if we ask him. We must seek to understand His word and apply it to our lives. We are to walk in wisdom all our days. Why? Paul gives two reasons—one reason is subtle, one is more obvious.
making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
verse 16
Let’s start in reverse order with the more obvious reason: because the days are evil. The general course of the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The world will mold you and your priorities if you are not intentional. You will spend your time pursuing pleasure, wealth, and man’s praise if you’re not living wisely. The second answer is more subtle. He says, “making the best use of time.” You could see that and think, “Ah, we should live wisely, because we need to have good time management. How can we make sure we’re productive?” That’s part of it, but looking at the Greek word he’s using for “time” gives us a more nuanced answer. The Greek word Paul uses for “time” is not chronos which is clock time, but kairon which speaks of a fixed, measured, or allotted season.
Yes, don’t waste your minutes and hours being unproductive, but it’s deeper than that. You have a fixed amount of time that God has allotted for your life. Are you stewarding it wisely? Are you living a life with biblical priorities? You can be good at time management and live productively on an hour-by-hour basis. However, if you don’t have the right biblical priorities, you could be still living unwisely. Are you stewarding the precious resource of your time for the things of the Lord?
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
verse 17
Paul exhorts us to understand what God’s will is. He says we would be foolish if we didn’t. As a teenager, I remember being really anxious about finding God’s will. What if I choose the wrong college? What job does God want me to have? Who should I marry? Hearing a message by John MacArthur about the will of God was very helpful. He explained how there is the revealed will of God and the unrevealed will of God. The revealed will of God is explicit in Scripture. We’re to do what He calls us to do and not do what he tells us to not do. If something is not directly called out in Scripture, is there an inference we can get from Scripture? (e.g. love your neighbor as yourself covers almost every scenario).
The unrevealed will of God consists of the details of our life that he has not chosen to tell us. When you’re a kid, you’re not automatically given a book with all the key details of your life spelled out. Here’s where you’ll go to school. Here’s who you’ll marry. Here’s how many kids you’ll have. God is sovereignly in control of all those things and every other minute detail of our lives. However, he doesn’t expect us to know all those details in advance. If we walk in wisdom according to his revealed will in Scripture, he will guide us into his unrevealed will. If Scripture is silent on something, we can use wisdom and trust God’s sovereignty in our lives to move forward in confidence.
Therefore, God’s will isn’t a hidden path or some mystery to decode. We can follow God’s will by obeying scripture, praying, using wisdom and discernment, and trusting the sovereignty of God. So, how do you understand the will of God? Know Scripture. Obedience is the key. Walking in love, purity, and wisdom will guide you to the will of God.
Don’t Get Drunk; Be Filled with the Spirit
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery,
verse 18
In contrast, drunkenness is living out of control and never God’s will for our lives. It’s the exact opposite of a careful walk. While Scripture doesn’t condemn drinking alcohol in moderation, drunkenness is always condemned in Scripture (see Prov 20:1 and 1 Cor 6:9-10). Drunkenness was also part of false worship in Ephesus. Drunken orgies were a huge part of the worship at the temple of Artemis. Paul says drunkenness is “debauchery” or “dissipation.” That Greek word means that which is unable to be saved. This speaks of the self-destruction that can so often come from alcoholism. Christians must use wisdom in whether or not they choose to consume alcohol in moderation, but they should absolutely never get drunk.
but be filled with the Spirit,
In contrast to being under the influence of alcohol, believers should be under the control of the Holy Spirit. If we say someone is filled with rage, we are saying they are under the control of anger. Being filled with the Spirit means we are submitting to the indwelling Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives. This takes the form of submitting to Scripture, praying, rejecting sin, and walking with God (Gal 5:16). Walking in the spirit is the opposite of walking in the flesh. If we do this, our speech will manifest the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Speak Spirit-Controlled Words
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
verse 19
Walking in the Spirit will result in wise and encouraging words for others and praise to God.
giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
verse 20
It will also result in thanksgiving. Paul says we should be giving thanks to God “always and for everything.” I don’t know about you, but I find it very easy to give thanks to God for the good things in my life. I can easily see those as blessings. I have a harder time giving thanks for the trials and tribulations in life. “Always and everything” covers both the perceived good and bad. Walking wisely means seeing God’s hand in the joy and pain in life and giving thanks to him for all of it.
Paul is going to close with another description of a wise walk:
submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
verse 21
Walking in wisdom will result in submitting to others. What does that mean? It means putting aside your wants and desires and making the needs of others more important than your own. It means serving others. This is the exact opposite of how the world lives. According to the wisdom of the world, you should be exerting yourself and pursuing what you want, because your hopes and dreams are the only things that matter. This is not what Paul says believers should be doing. We should love others by sacrificially serving them. Why? Out of reverence for Christ. He set the perfect example for us of how we should live, and we need to imitate him (Mark 10:42-45).
Pursuing Obedience in Christ
As Christians, we are called to imitate our Heavenly Father in love, purity, and wisdom. If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that we fall woefully short of perfectly imitating God in these areas. When we fail, we must repent of our sin, but we can have confidence that God is still our Father, because of our standing in Jesus. Christ perfectly lived out the attributes of God in love, purity, and wisdom. He succeeded in all the ways that we’ve failed, and he took the punishment for our sins. By exchanging his righteousness for our sin, we are completely forgiven by God. If we’ve placed our faith in Jesus, we can confidently pursue a life that imitates God out of love for our Heavenly Father.