We seem to always be in such a hurry that as a culture, we have fallen in love with shortcuts. My earliest recollection of taking shortcuts goes back to when we used to walk to school each morning. You know – 5 miles, uphill each way, through the snow – in Tucson! Actually it was more like half a mile each way, on flat ground, and if it even rained, one of the moms would drive us. But we still took a couple of shortcuts through vacant lots in order to make the walk even shorter. And, like some of you, I’ve taken a few shortcuts in my life that turned out to be anything of the sort. Today, shortcuts have taken on some new forms. All of you who use computers know that you can put short cuts on your computer desktop so that you can get to your programs and documents faster.
This week I read about a man who was in such a hurry that he experienced another kind of shortcut. This man flew into Chicago and hired a taxi to take him downtown. Since he was running late, he instructed the cab driver to get him there in a hurry. As he was riding along they came to a red light and the driver went right on through the red light. The man said, "Hey, the light was red. You’re supposed to stop." The driver said, "Yeah, I know, but my brother does it all the time."
Soon they came to a second red light and again he went right straight through. The passenger said, "You’re going to get us killed. That light was red. Why didn’t you stop?" The driver said, "Don’t worry about it. My brother does it all the time."
Then they came to a green light and he stopped. The man said, "The light is green. Now is the time to go. Why don’t you go on through?" The driver answered, "I know it’s green. But you never know when my brother may be coming through."
I think that we’re also tempted to take shortcuts in our walk with God. In our quest for the quickest, easiest and most expedient way to God, we’re often tempted to follow the latest program or fad which promises a shortcut to spirituality. But if there is one thing we’ve learned in our journey through Ephesians, it is that, because the destination is already assured for those who are followers of Jesus Christ, God leaves us here on this earth to experience the journey. And when we try to take shortcuts on that journey, we miss out on many of the experiences that God wants us to take part in. That principle is perhaps no more apparent anywhere in Ephesians than in the passage we’ll be looking at this morning.
Verse 15 of chapter 5 begins a new section of Paul’s letter that extends all the way through chapter 6, verse 9. Although we are going to focus on verses 15 through 17 this morning, it is crucial that we look at that passage in its proper context. So let’s start by reading all the way to verse 21. I’m going to read from the NKJV because it is the most literal of our English translations and that will be really helpful in allowing us to look at the structure of Paul’s writing.
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Ephesians 5:15-21 (NKJV)
Paul begins in verse 15 with a command to his readers to walk circumspectly. This is the fifth and final time that Paul will command his readers to “walk” in a manner that is consistent with their new life in Christ:
• walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (4:1)
• walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk (4:17)
• walk in love (5:2)
• walk as children of light (5:8)
If you’re using the NIV or some other translations, you will find that they use the word “live”, rather than “walk” in all five of these passages. Although the Greek word Paul uses here literally means to walk or tread around, it also came to describe the way that a person conducted themselves and lived his or her life. And there is no doubt that is how Paul is using that word here. So “live” is actually a very accurate translation. This command is in the present tense, which we all know by now indicates continuing action. So Paul is commanding his readers to keep on walking, or living, in a manner consistent with their new life in Christ.
And how are they to do that? We don’t use the word circumspectly a whole lot today, or at least I know I don’t. The word literally means “accurately”. It describes paying careful attention to a standard. One of the men in our Tuesday morning Bible study accurately compared it to walking through a minefield. We certainly wouldn’t go barging through that minefield without paying very close attention to every step we took. That is certainly not a situation in which we would want to try and take a shortcut. And what would be even better would be to go through that minefield following in the footsteps of someone who was an expert in recognizing those mines.
So how exactly are we to live in that way? Fortunately, as Paul has done throughout his letter, he doesn’t leaving us wondering about that, but rather gives us some very practical advice on how to do that. The structure of this passage is very important in understanding how we are to follow Paul’s instruction to live accurately and carefully. By diagramming this section as follows, it will be very helpful in allowing us to understand this passage better:
See then that you walk circumspectly
• not as fools but as wise
o redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
• not ... unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is
• not be drunk with wine ... but ... filled with the Spirit
o speaking...
o singing and making melody...,
o giving thanks ...
o submitting to one another...
Paul uses three sets of contrasts to amplify his command to live circumspectly, each beginning with “not” and then introducing a contrast with the word “but”. He then uses a number of participles to further clarify two of those three contrasts. This morning, we’re going to focus on the first two contrasts and then we’ll come back to the third one and it’s supporting statements over the next two weeks.
So let’s go ahead and read out loud together this morning’s passage:
Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Ephesians 5:15-17 (NIV)
In a sense, verse 15 is a pretty good summary of the last three chapters of Ephesians where Paul describes how followers of Jesus are to live out their faith in this world. We are not be flippant or cavalier or careless in the way we live our lives, but rather we are to pay close attention to make sure that we live our lives accurately in light of what we’ve already learned in Paul’s letter, as well as in the rest of Scripture. In other words, we don’t want to take any shortcuts in our spiritual journey.
HOW TO WATCH OUT FOR SHORTCUTS IN MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
Let’s look at two important principles that will help us to watch out for and avoid those shortcuts in our spiritual journey with Jesus:
1. Be wise by making the most of every opportunity
...not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil...
Paul writes that the first way that we live carefully and accurately is to not be unwise to be wise. And then he tells us exactly what he means by that in this particular context. The way that we are to be wise is by making the most of every opportunity.
I looked at a lot of commentaries this week that approached this passage as an exhortation to better time management. While managing our time properly is certainly important for the follower of Jesus, it seems to me that Paul has something else in mind here.
The word translated “making the most" in the NIV is one Greek word that comes from a root word that literally means “to redeem”. We saw earlier that is how the NKJV translates that word. It means to buy up. It is a word from the market place. Many of you are probably like me. I watch the ads for the grocery stores and when they have bargains on items I use frequently, I go to the store and buy those items in large quantities. And if I have coupons so I can get that item even cheaper, that’s even better. I know that those bargains won’t last long, so I have to take advantage of them while they are available to me. So I make the most of them and buy them up. I make the most of this limited opportunity.
The word translated “opportunity” is also an important word here. You may have noticed earlier that the NKJV translates that same word “time”. As you might suspect, Greek has several different word that it uses to describe time. The first main word is “chronos”, from which we get our English word “chronology”. It describes clock time, calendar time, or a succession of time. But the word Paul uses here is a word that describes a specific and often pre-determined period of time, or a season. It represents the best time to do something, the moment when circumstances are most suitable. So most of our English translations accurately render that word “opportunity.” Paul uses that very same word in his other letters in a very similar context:
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
Colossians 4:5 (NIV)
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Galatians 6:10 (NIV)
I don’t think any of us here would have a problem with the concept that we need to make the most of every opportunity. But Paul adds an interesting qualifier to that principle here. He writes that we are to make the most of every opportunity “because the days are evil.”
Paul seems to be holding to Jewish thought which distinguishes between two ages:
• The present, evil age
• The coming age when God’s people will experience the full measure of their salvation.
This approach is very common in Paul’s writings. In fact we’ve already seen it in chapter 2 where Paul wrote:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:1, 2 (NIV)
That is a clear reference to this current evil age in which we live and which is under the influence and dominion of the evil one. That is in clear contrast to the many places where Paul has written about the coming age and the inheritance that all of God’s children will share in.
And Paul’s approach to living in the midst of those evil days is obviously not for us to just join in and live like the rest of the world. But it is also not to isolate ourselves or to live in fear either. Instead, we are to walk carefully by making the most of the opportunities that come our way in the midst of these evil days.
What he is saying here, essentially, is that evil days create opportunities, and, therefore, understanding this, we must make the most of those opportunities. But unfortunately many of us have a much different view of those evil days. Instead of seeing opportunities, we see pressures, obstacles, and defeating circumstances,
But there is a sense in which it is the evil days that cause people to think about the futility of their lives and wonder if there isn’t something more. It is the evil days that cause people to seek out God. It is the evil days that give us opportunity to walk as light in the midst of darkness and demonstrate the abundance of the Christian life.
But far too often, we fail to take advantage of those opportunities, because we want to take the shortcuts. We don’t want to be inconvenienced or bothered. We’re not willing to move outside our comfort zone. And so, instead of making the most of those opportunities, we let them slip by.
That thought is particularly sobering for me as a pastor, because remember that Paul is writing here primarily to the body of Christ more than to just individual believers. That’s why I want to make sure that as a body we don’t ever fail to make the most of the opportunities that we have. I don’t want us to fail to buy up those times because we don’t have enough vision, or enough passion, or enough people or enough resources, or enough faith.
So if we want to watch out for those dangerous shortcuts, we must first be wise by making the most of every opportunity.
2. Be wise by understanding the Lord’s will
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
This second command in our passage is also in the present tense. It could be literally translated something like this: “stop becoming ignorant”. The word translated “foolish” describes someone who refuses to acknowledge dependence on God and thus acts foolishly. Paul is warning his readers not to return to their former state where there were ignorant of the ways of God and the senseless ways of there past.
Instead they were to become understanding of the Lord’s will. The word for “understanding” describes the active engagement of the mind in order to assemble individual facts into an organized whole. In today’s language we might describe it as “putting together the pieces of a puzzle”
In our self-focused culture, there is a tendency for us to personalize the idea of God’s will and therefore when we think of God’s will we automatically think “God’s will for my life.” We tend to think of God’s will in terms of what job I should take, where I should live, who I should marry and other personal issues. While there are some places in Scripture that describe God’s specific will for a specific person in a specific situation, the Bible much more frequently pictures the will of God as His overall plan. Paul certainly takes this approach in the first three chapters of Ephesians. In particular, look at this passage from chapter 1 where Paul describes God’s will:
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
Ephesians 1:4-10 (NIV)
God’s will, as Paul describes it, is His overall plan for redeeming a people for Himself as part of His eternal plan to one day restore His creation and bring all things back together in Jesus Christ. And I’m convinced that is what Paul is referring to here in chapter 5 when he exhorts his readers to be understanding of the Lord’s will.
As Paul pointed out in chapter 1, God has already revealed His will to all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. But it is up to us to move beyond just an intellectual understanding of that will and to come to a point that we put all the pieces together and grasp its significance and magnitude. Everything that Paul has written up to this point in this letter is an attempt to help his readers do just that.
He began, in the first three chapters, by describing the work that God had done in their lives to transform them from death to life, from darkness to light. And then, beginning in chapter 4, he has described how they are to live out their lives in a way that those lives will conform to the plan of God that he laid out in those first three chapters. That’s the only way that they can truly understand the will of the Lord.
I can remember the first year that I started to officiate high school sports. A couple of months before the season, I received a rule book and an officials’ manual that had all the rules and explained the mechanics that officials were to use. I read through those materials several times, and I could understand most of them intellectually but I was still totally confused. It wasn’t until we had some training classes where someone explained all the rules and mechanics that I began to grasp them a little better. But it has taken many years of actually putting those rules and principles into practice for me to really understand them. And even now, I’m still learning and refining my skills.
I think that’s the picture that Paul is giving his readers here. He has been giving them the manual. But now it’s up to them to put those principles into practice because that’s the only way they are really going to understand God’s plan.
If we’re going to avoid those dangerous shortcuts in life, then we need to keep God’s overall will in mind. We need to recognize that the difficulties, and trials and problems that come into our lives are just part of God’s grand plan, not just for us individually, but for all of His creation. Peter made that very same point:
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed...So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
1 Peter 4:12, 13, 19 (NIV)
We can’t control most of the circumstances that impact our lives. But we can control how we respond to them. When the pain and trials come, we can complain and look for a shortcut in order to try and extricate ourselves from that situation. Or we can seek out God and ask Him to show us how those circumstances fit into his overall plan and will and then join Him in His work. Again, that’s’ not just something that we need to do individually, but also as a body.
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in a new Jaguar. While watching for kids darting out from between parked cars, there was movement on the sidewalk that made the exec slow down.
As the car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! The exec slammed on the brakes and drove the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed the child against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"
The youth was apologetic. "Please...please, I’m sorry...I didn’t know what else to do "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It’s my brother, he rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up."
Now sobbing, the child asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me."
The driver was moved beyond words and hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a fancy kerchief and dabbed at the scrapes and cuts. A quick look over the minor injuries relieved the exec.
"Thank you," the grateful child told the stranger.
Too shook up for words, the young executive simply watched the child push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. The dent was there to remind the exec of this message:
There are times when shortcuts in our lives are a good thing. They save us time and energy. But there are certainly also those times that shortcuts get us into a lot of trouble. But when it comes to our walk with God, trying to take shortcuts almost always robs us from the joy of the journey. Those shortcuts often keep us from the experiences that God wants to use in our lives both for our own benefit as well as for the sake of His kingdom. Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!
