Ephesians 5:15-20. In the last couple of readings Paul has been encouraging the followers of Jesus in Ephesus to do just that, follow Jesus, to be “imitators of God”. Paul has been careful to point out both the negative and the positive sides of following Jesus. The old way of seeing life and living doesn’t work and it has bad consequences. It doesn’t give purpose and meaning to life; it leaves our relationship wit God broken. That leaves us empty in this life and out side the kingdom in eternity. Letting Jesus take the punishment (separation from God; spiritual death) for our disobedience and disrespect toward God (sin) immediately restores our relationship with God (the Bible calls that restored relationship “life” (spiritual) and describes it as eternal; our fixed relationship with God is forever. We are a part of God’s forever family and have the privilege and purpose of representing God to the unsaved or lost people of the world. We do this by living like Jesus would; by being imitators of God. To do this we have the help of the Holy Spirit (see “Three or One?”).

Verse 15 starts with the word “therefore”. When you see that word you need to think about the things you have just read. The word points back to what you have just learned and what come after usually tells you what to do because of what you have just learned. God has given us a purpose, to be His ambassadors or representatives in this world, therefore we need to “walk” wisely. That doesn’t mean be careful about where you step (which we won’t even get into since two nights ago our very old cat decided to leave a couple of surprises on the floor for me that I found in the dark with my feet). “Walking” is a way of describing “living life”. Paul is saying “live wisely”. Proverbs 9:10 tells us that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” The two parts of that sentence are parallel, they express the same idea. The word translated “fear” contains the ideas of “fear, reverence, honor, and respect.” Knowing God means understanding who He is, what He has done, what He can do and what He is like. The second part of that verse calls God the “Holy One”. Although some people like to see that word “holy” (which means dedicated, separate, special) and contrast God’s purity with our rebellion we could also thing of God’s love and faithfulness and mercy that also make Him different from us.   God is amazing and we should stand in awe of Him. Part of the reality of God is that our disobedience and rebellion (sin) has a consequence, separation from God forever, for those that reject Jesus and that should make people afraid in the way we usually think of fear. As believers though that “fear” is removed, we are part of God’s forever family. WE need to be wise though and understand the whole story, we need to see all sides of God and then do something with that knowledge, we need to “walk wisely”.

In verse 16 Paul gets more specific, he tells his readers to make the most of their time because we live in evil days. The word he uses with respect to our time means to “buy back or out of”. Some translations use the word “redeem”. Other word that carry the same idea for us are “bail out” or “ransom”. The word for “evil” has in it the idea of hard work and poverty; even the idea of living day to day, like a homeless person. Part of the consequences of disobeying God was hard physical labor. God had place Adam and Eve in a fruitful garden with plenty of food, Adam was supposed to work, to till and keep the garden productive, but the work was not harsh. In Genesis 3:17-19 God changed all of that. From then on the ground would easily grow thorns and thistles, weeds, but food would require intense hard labor. That consequence was to be a lesson and reminder of our broken relationship with God, a reminder that would hopefully turn people back to God.

According to Jesus, though, the difficulty of earning a living can often distract people from God (see Mark 4:18-19). Here in Ephesians Paul is telling us to “buy our time back” from that bad or distracting perspective. We need to understand that the difficulties in life are the result of living in a world broken because of our sin and the fact that God is in the process of fixing it. But the important part of all of it is the people. God loves people and wants us back (2 Peter 3:9,15). He won’t force us back but is giving us time to “repent” or “turn around” and come back through Jesus. We need to be wise and understand why life is difficult and help people see the truth and return to God. Verse 17 says just this. In that verse Paul tells the readers, the believers in Ephesus, not to be foolish (that word means “without understanding”) but to understand what God want. As we saw in that verse from 2 Peter God wants us back.

For a lot of the world the way to deal with the difficulties of life is to drink, take drugs or find other ways to distract ourselves from reality. In Ephesians 5:18 Paul tells the believers not to ignore reality but to let the Holy Spirit teach them and move them in ways that really deal with our broken world and lives separated from God. It is interesting that the word that Paul uses to describe the results of getting drunk means “without wholeness, without salvation, without healing”. Paul implies that being filled with God’s Spirit will bring healing, wholeness and salvation.

In verses 19-20 we see what that “filling” looks like, we are filled with songs about God and what he is doing in our lives. It is interesting that the Psalms, in the Old Testament, are filled with pain and doubt and trials and suffering but they seem to always come back to the love and comfort found in who God is and what He is doing. Hymns and spiritual songs aren’t as well defined from the Bible but certainly would be similar. All three are the result of letting God’s Spirit each us and fill us with God’s truth (see John 14:26; 15:26). The filling also helps us understand that God is working out the “sin” problem in the best possible way and for that we can be thankful.

God thank you for giving us purpose. Thank you for giving us power and understanding through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your representative in the world. Help me help others see the truth about the evil in our world. Help me help others find you, fix their relationship with you through Jesus. Thank you for saving me and giving me purpose, help me make the most of my life. Help me not be distracted by the work of living as I work and live through it all.