Living Right In A World Gone Wrong…Studies in Ephesians
A New Life: Walk In Wisdom
Ephesians 5:15-17
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)
The other day, I was driving our van to work, and I adjusted the volume control knob, and it fell off, and landed on the floor under my feet. Well, like any red blooded male – I looked around for it, and reached down to see if I could feel it with my hands, then I bumped it with my finger, and had to look again – because, as we all know, if I had waited till I stopped, it would have been lost forever – I had to find it NOW! It wasn’t until I felt myself slipping off the edge of the pavement on Hwy TW at 60 mph that I figured it could wait till I got to the office.
It’s not a good idea to be distracted while driving! Ninety-eight percent of the accidents reported involve a single distracted driver. When we think of distracted driving, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Yup. Cell Phones! But it’s not cell phones that are the leading cause of accidents – it’s looking at other accidents!
The largest number of accidents was caused by drivers looking at other accidents, traffic or roadside incidents. Comparatively, cell phone use ranked as the sixth highest cause. The study included data on more than 2,700 accidents involving distracted drivers between June and November 2002.
According to the study, rubbernecking accounted for 16 percent of accidents reported. This was followed by driver fatigue, which was responsible for 12 percent, looking at scenery or landmarks (10 percent), passenger or child distractions (nine percent), adjusting the radio, tape or CD player (seven percent), and cell phone use (five percent).
Distractions from inside the vehicle accounted for 62 percent of the distractions reported while distractions from outside the vehicle accounted for 35 percent, and three percent of the distractions were undetermined.
“Be careful!” These are words that are very familiar to all of us. When our children leave the house, we often say, “Be careful.” If our children are teenagers, and are driving the car, we might say, “Be careful, drive safely.” What we are saying is “Watch out! Don't do something foolish! Don’t fiddle with the radio knob while youere driving! Look out for the other guy! Watch your step!” We not only exhort our children this way, but we also exhort one another this way.
We all know how easy it is to become distracted. We also know what can happen when we are distracted. The world can be a dangerous place. We all know that. And that is why we exhort one another to be careful.
Just as it is in our earthly walk, so it is in our spiritual walk. In fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15 to be careful how you walk. Our walk with God should be one that is given great care. We need to watch what we are doing..
If you have a Kling James Bible, or a New King James Bible, it reads, “See then that you walk circumspectly…” That’s the literal translation of the Greek word that Paul used – “See it!” We would say, “Look out!” in our vernacular. “Watch your step! Be careful!” The world is full of all sorts of things that would distract us in our walk with God, but we are to pay careful attention – to keep our eyes open. In fact, Jesus said that we are to keep our eyes on Him. He said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." We are to keep our focus squarely on the Lord. To walk circumspectly means that we are aware of our surroundings – we are aware of the dangers, we are not blinded to the danger – but we keep our focus on Christ.
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise . . . (5:15)
We are called to walk in wisdom. I have long recommended reading the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds to the day of the month – 31 chapters, 31 days – and this week I was in chapters 5-11, where we are called over and over again to be wise. The wisest thing we can do is to listen to God's counsel. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” To fear God is to respect what He says, and to obey Him.
“Being careful” is simply being wise. Proverbs 14:6 says, “A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is arrogant and careless.” When we are told to “be careful” we are really being told to “be wise.” Proverbs describes a fool in vivid terms. A foolish person is the person who is careless. A foolish person always thinks he is right. He doesn't need any help. He knows what he is doing. He just plunges ahead, thinking that he has everything under control. Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.” That is precisely the fool's problem; he trusts in his own way. Proverbs 28:26 says, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered.”
Wisdom is found by seeking wise counsel. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with the wise will become wise.” We need to seek out and follow wise counsel. Listen to those around us who have made the mistakes, or traveled the path before us and have learned the lessons.
Don’t be surprised when the wisdom of God does not line up with the wisdom of this world. The world’s wisdom will tell you that you and the world around you are a cosmic accident – a coincidence of nature. The world’s wisdom will tell you that this life is all there is, so grab all you can, while you can. The world’s wisdom will tell you that there are no absolutes (the next time someone tells you that, ask them if that’s absolutely true!), so do what ever feels right to you – there’s no higher standard than you and your own personal moral code. The Bible says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God, and the wisdom of God seems like foolishness to the world. Paul wrote those words almost 2000 years ago, but they’ve never been more true than today. Don’t be a fool! At least explore the claims of God.
Beyond that, Christian – we need to be wise – we need to be circumspect – we need to be aware and educated about the world around us. When Paul defended the gospel before Roman kings, and Greek philosophers, he quoted from their writers, knew their arguments and was ready to defend the faith against it – we need to be equally wise. This week in our homework, the Gatekeepers Men’s Group listened to a recoding of Chuck Colson defending the faith before a group of skeptics at Harvard University. Now, we may never get that chance, but we should be aware of the world around us enough to know how to proclaim the truth in an intelligent manner. The world is closing in on our families and our churches, infiltrating at every opportunity with heretical teaching and new age philosophy – and we must be aware, and ready to speak the truth in love.
. . . making the most of your time, because the days are evil. (5:16)
Paul further tells us that we are to be making the most of our time. We are told to be careful because time is finite and limited. There is only so much time available to us. A wise person uses time, a foolish person wastes it.
There’s a Broadway plan, made into a movie, which I do not endorse called “Rent.” I admit that I have not seen it, and don’t plan to, but it has a song that I have heard, entitled Seasons of Love, in which we are reminded that there are 525,600 minutes in a year.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
An article was once published entitled, “If You Are 35, You Only Have 500 Days To Live.” The article went on to contend that when you subtract the time you spend sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, eating, traveling, doing chores, attending to personal hygiene, and add in the miscellaneous time stealers, in the next 36 years you will have only 500 days to spend as you wish. Think about how you spend your time. When all of the necessary things are done, how much time is left? No wonder the Psalmist advised, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.”
This week in my study of the book of Joshua, I read about two OLD guys, Joshau and Caleb. They were the only 2 people who were still alive from when Israel first approached the promised land. 12 spies were sent into the land – two brought back word that God would surely deliver the land into their hands as He had promised. Ten brought back reports of giants who would crush them – the people believed the 10, and wanted to kill the 2 – but God had other plans – over the next 40 years, the people of Israel had no home, ate manna every day, and one by one they all died, except for 2 – the spies who trusted God. They were Joshua and Caleb. In Joshua 13 & 14, we find these men and they are now old. IN fact, God says to Joshua “You are very old, and there are still large areas of land to be taken over.” Caleb, for his part, is 85 years old, and asks Joshua for permission to go and do battle in the territory that God had given him. He says, “So here I am today, eighty five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out, I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.”
I am going to be 48 years old this year, and when I’m 85, I want to be Caleb! I want to be still out doing battle for the people of God! But I have to number every day from now until then for it to happen. There’s no promise I will see 85 – but I can still make a difference with my life.
Think about it – by the time he was my age, Theodore Roosevelt had been a Colonel in the army, Secretary of the Navy, Police Commissioner of New York City, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States, and was in his second term as president!
By 48, Thomas Jefferson had been a prosperous farmer, lawyer, delegate to Congress, drafted the Declaration of Independence, served as ambassador to France, and Secretary of State.
Nearer our own times, Martin Luther King Jr., John F Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy never lived to see their 48th birthdays – but made a huge impact in our world. A wise man once said, “it’s not about the number of days in our lives, but the amount of life in our days.” We don’t know how many days we will have – but we are called to make the most of each one.
Time is limited. Time is important. To walk in wisdom means that we value time.
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (5:17)
Being wise means that we should not be foolish. And to do that we must understand what the will of the Lord is. This is the key to walking in wisdom. This is the key to making the most of your time. The wise will hear, know and obey the teachings and directions that are found in the Word of God.
If we are to make the most of the time we have available, then we must understand how to use that time as God desires it to be used. Simply put, we must know God's will. If we fail to understand what the will of the Lord is, then our time will be taken up in things which may not be important. We will find ourselves giving our time to things that are expedient, not necessarily that are important.
In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Steven Covey points out the difference between the Important and the Urgent. When I am talking to my wife, or my children, that is important – but if the phone rings, I will stop talking to them, and go answer the phone. I don’t know who the caller is, or what it’s about, but I will stop something important to do something urgent.
General Eisenhower is quoted as saying “The urgent is seldom important, and the important is seldom urgent.” We have to learn to set aside the urgent, unimportant things of life, and focus on the important – usually it has to do with investing in relationships, maturity and health. Working out at the TAG Center is important, but often gets pushed out of the way by the urgent, like a last-minute invitation to breakfast at McDonalds. The way we know what is important is to know God's will. Otherwise, your life, like mine, will be controlled by the “Tyranny of the Urgent.”
What we give our time to is what we give our lives to. It has been said that most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted.
So what is God’s will for me? It’s actually easier to determine than you might think. One day a man asked Jesus the same basic question, and Jesus’ answer was straight forward – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.” That, Jesus said, sums up the will of God for us. The will of God is summarized in our purposes for life as individuals and as a church: Worship, Discipleship, Fellowship, Ministry and Mission.
Today’s text is important to each one of us. If the world’s wisdom has left you with unanswered questions about life and values, don’t discount the validity of Christianity just because you think you’ve heard it all before – really check it out. Give the claims of Christ a wise, careful look. I think you’ll find that it makes more sense than you may have thought.
If you are a believer, consider these words. Are you walking carefully, circumspectly, aware of your surroundings? Is your walk with Christ meandering because you’ve been distracted by the world around you? Do you understand the will of God for your life? Are your priorities HIS priorities? Do you consult the Lord on how you spend your time? Understanding what the will of the Lord is can refocus your life on the things that are important, and it will put you on the path of wisdom.
Prayer.