Babysitting a three-year-old over the weekend, I was reminded that children often ask questions that take much longer to answer than they or you desire. Yet having larger questions asked and trying to answer them is often a good practice, for otherwise we would probably never give thought to answering many such daunting questions. In Ephesians 4-6, however, Paul “asks” a question that he himself turns around and answers, namely, “What does it mean to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called?” He asks that question by providing that as a heading for his exhortations in 4:1. But he has not left us to answer such a question on our own as we have, for weeks now, been looking at how we live that way by examining the texts that follow that exhortation in 4:1.

Our text this morning is no different. Paul still is fleshing out for us what it means to walk worthy of our calling. He even uses the same language, writing, “Be very careful how you walk …” in 5:15. So, again, this morning we need to be reminded as Christians that we need to give careful, thoughtful attention to how we live and not just rush through life without such care. But what should characterize how we live? It’s somewhat the same question we’ve asked for weeks, so let’s see even more of the answer from these seven verses this morning.

We should walk in wisdom (15-16)

Paul contrasts this positive exhortation with a negative one, writing in verse 15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.” Now, we all want to be wise; no one would say, “I don’t want to be wise,” but what does that mean?

By lining wisdom up with how one walks, or lives, Paul is first showing us that it is not simply knowledge (though it is not less than knowledge). Rather, it is “an understanding that works itself out in practice.”¹

Paul then tells us one thing that a wise person does: He makes the most of every opportunity because the days are evil (16).

As believers, we are not to let time pass by without snatching up every moment we have and using it wisely. Spiritual maturity does not occur simply with the passing of time, therefore we labor to maximize every opportunity we have to know God more, love God more, and be more obedient to his word.

Also, Paul adds that the days around us are evil, so by us doing nothing, this world will not stand in a place of neutrality. We need to be shining light in dark places. It is my prayer that we would line up with Jonathan Edwards who wrote, prior to age 20, “Resolved: Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I can.”² May this be our resolve as well, for it must be the resolve of one who is wise.

We should understand God’s will and not remain foolish (17)

Hearing the phrase, “God’s will” probably has a number of connotations in our mind. We no doubt instantly think of questions such as: “Whom shall I marry?,” “Where shall I work?,” and “Toward what shall I put my money?” However, Paul’s use of God’s “will” in Ephesians is deeper than that. For he tells us in Ephesians 1:7-10 that God’s will is to unite all things in Christ.

That is to say, God has a plan of redemption for his people. And just as through Adam’s sin, sin and death spread to all men, so for those who believe in Christ, they will be found in Christ whose righteousness and life will spread to them. So God’s will is to save men through faith in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, Paul tells us, “Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what he will of the Lord is” (17). That is, do not live as if you do not know God’s plan, but rather live each moment in light of what God is doing. For we are not ignorant of what God is doing, he is calling out a people to himself to redeem them in Jesus Christ.

In the past (prior to your conversion), you lived senseless and foolish lives, going about life, not knowing its purpose, goal, etc. Now, we are no longer foolish, and so we must appropriate our understanding of God’s saving plan to how we live each moment. That is surely the meaning of “understand” in Paul’s exhortation to understand God’s will. So live out what your knowledge of God’s will dictates.

This means that we must be about the work of evangelism and discipleship. It means that we cannot compromise the message that it is through Christ alone that men are saved (for God unites his people “in Christ” not another). It means that we must store up our treasures in heaven. It means we must devote our time and effort to carrying out his will. It means we must pray. It means we must serve one another. It means that we must love God with our lives and our neighbors as ourselves.

We should be filled with the Spirit and not be getting drunk with win (18-21)

Now this is a bit confusing, and we oftentimes come to a verse like this with ideas that may keep us from seeing it rightly. I think I have done this many times myself. And, therefore, today I come saying that I have changed my own understanding of this text in light of my study of it this week.

To understand Paul’s exhortation here, we need to answer two questions:

1) Is Paul saying, “Be filled with the Spirit” (i.e. the Spirit is the content with which we are filled)? Or, is he saying, “Be filled by the Spirit” (i.e. the Spirit is the means by which we are filled)?

I think the answer here is the latter. That is that Paul is telling us that we are filled “by” the Spirit, and thus that the Spirit is the means he has in mind. The reason is because of the construction of the verse.³

Therefore, Paul is saying, “Let the Spirit fill you.” However, this still leaves us not knowing what the content of the filling is or what it truly means to be filled. But if we look at Ephesians 3:19 and 4:13, I think we will see that the idea of being filled here is growing into maturity and being transformed into the likeness of Christ. To be filled with the Spirit, then, is “to let the Spirit change [you] more and more into the image of God and Christ.”⁴

2) What is the connection between drunkenness with wine and being filled by the Spirit?

In the past, I’ve simply pulled away from the text, examined what wine does, and thought, “If you get drunk you lose some control of yourself, so the contrast/parallel between wine and being filled by the Spirit is built around control.” Thus, Paul would say, “Do not be controlled by wine but be controlled by the Spirit.”

Now, I do not think this is bad theology and is in fact a good exhortation. I just don’t know if that’s what Paul is saying here. Rather, I think the parallel he’s trying to show in the text is how a person is characterized who is drunk with wine versus how a person is characterized who is being filled by the Spirit. For he says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery [or reckless living]” (18). Then he gives the outcome of being filled by the Spirit in verses 19-21, saying that such a person will be characterized by speaking to others in psalms …, by singing and making melody is his heart to the Lord, by giving thanks at all times in all things, and by submitting to authorities.

Therefore, we see the contrast of one who is drunk with wine and one who is being changed into the image of Christ. So, how do we know individuals are being transformed into Christ’s image? Such people have great love for the body (exhorting them in song), have an overflow of joy in God (making melody to him in their hearts), find great satisfaction in God (giving thanks at all times in everything), and have a right fear and understanding of God and his order (submitting to authorities).

Therefore, the final thing we need to do is to let the Spirit transform us into the likeness of Christ. In fact, this is the work of the entire Godhead. For Paul’s exhortation in 3:19 that we be filled with all the fullness of God is a prayer addressed to the Father (3:14), in 4:13, where we are to attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, it is because Christ has given gifts to the church (4:11ff.), and in our text this morning, it is the Spirit who is working toward this goal. Therefore, we are to allow God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit to do their transforming work in us of making us like Christ so that our lives may be characterized with his holiness.

But isn’t that a difficult thing to understand? How are we to let God do something in us? How do we do something that is passive? I think that it means that we must take time each day to renew our minds to what God is like and what he wants to accomplish in us, to ask God to show us what he is teaching us and how he is molding us, to ask God to continue that work in us, and to ask God for faith and peace to keep your heart humble and fashionable toward him. And as he then does his transforming work in our hearts, the overflow of our lives will be those characteristics and actions outlined in 5:19-21.

May God fill us to the fullness of his likeness that we may reflect his glory in this world. Amen.

¹ Peter O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians: The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1999), 381.
² Quoted by John Stott in The Message of Ephesians (IVP: Downers Grove, 1979), 202.
³ The Greek word translated “filled” followed by a word in the dative case is not used elsewhere in Paul’s writingis to mean “the content with which one is filled” but to mean “the means by which one is filled.” And in our example the word following “filled” is in the dative. When Paul wants to communicate the content with which one is filled, he follows “filled” with a word in the genative.
⁴ Peter O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians: The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1999), 392.

LIVING WISELY: BEING CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST