“What God Wants”
Ephesians 5:17
REVIEW
I. Our Wealth and Worth In Christ 1-3
II. Our Worthy Walk in Christ 4-6
A. Live in Unity 4:1-16
B. Live in Newness of life 4:17-24
C. Live in Love 4:17-24
D. Live in Purity 5:3-14
E. Live in Wisdom 5:15-6:9
Wisdom is the practical application of data or knowledge. It applies to human relationships and general life skills. Proverbs, mostly written by the wisest man that ever lived, is full of counsel on how to get along with others and please God. There is man’s way of doing things that excludes God. Then there is God’s wisdom that draws from God’s written revelation and personal direction. Ephesus was steeped in Greek culture which gave birth to numerous famous philosophers. They were saturated with man’s speculation as to how life works.
Most ideas were born out of ignorance and even defiance of God and His ways and a darkened understanding. Paul expended considerable ink describing their woeful spiritually dark condition. He urged these new children of light, shining in a dark place, to live differently because they were different. On the basis of who they were, they were not only to live in purity but in wisdom. They were to conduct themselves according to God’s way of doing things. He instructed them to carefully scrutinize their lives to make sure they were living according to God’s ways and not mans. He told them to live not as unwise but wise. Don’t think and act according to the current philosophy but according to God’s ways.
Paul elaborated this general instruction with five ways to specifically live wisely.
• Seize every opportune moment for eternal purposes (make the most of every moment).
• Understand the will of the Lord.
• Don’t zone out but tune in.
• Be continually enlightened and energized by the Holy Spirit.
• Live under submission
1. Seize every opportune moment for eternal purposes 5:15-16
Be careful how you live, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of (redeeming) the time, because the days are evil.
Use your time wisely because we only have one life in this present age to offer in His service.
Only one life twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.
2. Understand the will of the Lord 5:17
Sometimes it is difficult to understand just what someone wants or expects. Communication is difficult. Understanding each other is at times excruciating. Most conflict begins with a failure to really understand each other.There is much confusion about what God wants and expects.
Scores of books have been written about knowing the will of God. Does God want me to buy the red truck or the blue one? What College should I attend? Who should I marry? Where should I live? What career should I pursue? What is God’s will for my life?
Paul told the Ephesians in v17 to stop being foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.
He would never tell them to do something that was impossible to do so it must be possible then to really understand what the will of the Lord is.
What is God’s will? What does God want? What does God expect? Today, we will explore the subject of knowing the will of God and doing it. Let’s begin by unpacking this verse a bit more carefully.
“Therefore”
Every verse of Scripture connects to the surrounding verses in some way. There is a divine logic that unfolds as you understand those connections. This verse is connected to the previous thought in verse 16 that spells out the urgency associated with the command found in verse 17. Use time wisely because we live in evil days. Because we live in evil days, we must stop being foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. This command has a negative and positive aspect. We are to discontinue a particular way of life and practice another.
Stop that! Practice this!
In the face the evil days in which we live, we need to stop taking our clues from the culture around us and focus on what God wants. We need to understand the will of the Lord. We need to understand how God wants us to live during our remaining time in this evil age. There are three terms in this verse that warrant a closer look.
"Foolish", "understand" and "will".
"Foolish"
This term comes from a positive noun preceded by a negative. We do the same in English.
Un–wise -- A–moral -- a-typical – Un-desirable
The term originally referred to the diaphragm. It was thought that that this organ is what gave power and strength to the spirit. It came to be translated mind, or controlled reigned in emotions and thinking. When Peter tried to discourage Jesus from going to the cross, Jesus rebuked him and said, "You're not setting your mind or thinking on the things of God but on man."
This term communicates the concept of reigning in one's emotions and thinking to think logically. Adding the negative in front of that word expressed a failure to reign in one's emotions. Paul used it when he described how he used to operate as a young child. Children fail to properly reign in their thinking and emotions and act more impulsively. When Paul instructed the Ephesians to stop being foolish, he meant they should stop living their life without thinking about its relationship to eternal values. The fool denies or ignores God’s place in their lives. Paul exhorts them not to leave God out of the equation of their lives but include Him. It's similar to what he described earlier in Ephesians when he observed how everyone lived according to their unbridled lusts or desires, indulging the desires of the mind and the flesh. The use of the present tense verb with a negative urges an end to an action they were still practicing. Here again is a call to a new way of living. Engage your brain. Live circumspectly. In contrast to living according to your fleshly impulses Paul calls them to live with spiritual understanding. He told them to rather understand what the will of the Lord is.
"Understand"
The word for understand means to put together, figure out, comprehend. In contrast to failing to rein in your thinking and emotions Paul calls them to put it all together. This accurately describes our culture today. So many operate by impulses rather than clear thinking. Either that or our behavior is dictated by wrong thinking learned from our culture. Often we act on how we feel not on what we know to be true. So many make decisions based on what they feel is right rather than what God says is right. Wise living carefully scrutinizes why we do what we do. Wise living considers God's will in our decision-making.
Paul told them and us to get it together, understand, comprehend what the will of the Lord is in the matter. This kind of understanding not only knows what God wants but why.
The wise understand the relationship of God’s commands to His character and how that character plays out in life. Wise living considers what God wants first over what we feel.
In fact, the Bible tells us that the goal of God’s continual work in our renewed heart is to bring us to the point where we not only do His will but actually want to do His will.
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13
This verse is a great definition of spiritual maturity. We are becoming more mature when we actually find ourselves wanting to do God's will.
“Will”
The term "will" refers to something that is determined, or desired, or something we wish or have an inclination toward. What is God's desire and how do we know? Paul earlier taught the truth that God works all things according to the counsel of his own will. As we pull together the many Scriptures related to the will of God, the first thing that we discover is that there are at least two aspects to His will and for some, a third.
God’s Determined will
The determined will of God relates to those things that will without a doubt happen. They are things that God has absolutely determined will happen. The desired will of God relates to those things that God wants to happen but may or may not happen dependent on the response of his creatures who he has given free choice.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And it is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. JOH 6:38-39
And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What hast Thou done?' DAN 4:35
I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. JOB 42:2
The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. PRO 16:4
"Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure'… Isaiah 46:9-10
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ROM 8:28
Here you get a flavor for God's determined will.
His plan is always in agreement with His character. It is loving, wise, good, holy, just, perfect, well-pleasing. It always relates to the summing up of all things in His Son both things in heaven and on earth. Nothing is out of His control but He masterfully works all things that happen in this world to His desired end.
ILLUSTRATION
I may plan and execute a party meal. I did not superintend the growing of the ingredients, the raising of the beef, and the harvesting of the spices. I do however work all those individual ingredients into the ultimate meal.
A chemist doesn't create the elements he works them together into a useful combination.
The more unstable and volatile the elements, the greater wisdom and genius needed by the chemist.
God doesn't create evil or sin but utilizes all the events of this fallen world to bring about His ultimate plan for all of creation. Our lives, with all of their independent decisions both bad and good as well as the choices of those around us, are only a small part of a master plan woven together by an all-powerful, all wise God to bring about His perfect ends. The determined will of God can be discovered in his written revelation. Even then, it can only best be understood after it transpires in time and space.
God’s Desired or moral will
These are the things God desires would happen. He is not willing that any should perish.
It is God desired will that everyone would obey his commandments. God desires all would live in holiness and obedience. God desires faithfulness from all his creatures. Because God has allowed for free choice and the entrance of evil into His creation, there will be those who transgress the desired will of God by personal choice. God's determined will cannot be resisted or violated. God's desired will, for now, can be resisted and refused.
God's Determined will relates to those things that will most assuredly transpire. God's Desired will are those things that may or may not take place depending upon the response and individual choices of His creatures. God's desired will is known also through His written revelation. What pleases him? What does he want? All of these things can be understood from Scripture.
Some of it's absolutely clear. We saw in first Thessalonians that it is God's will we abstain from sexual immorality. I don't have to pray about whether I should commit adultery are not; the Bible makes it clear. There are many passages that talk about what pleases God and what does not. It is God's desire that we live no longer for the lust of men but the will of God. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ concerning you. All of the commands regarding attitudes, actions, thoughts, deeds are the expressed desired will of God for us.
Other aspects of what pleases God must be gathered through continual exposure to his word.
Paul prayed that the Colossians would be filled or permeated with the knowledge of God's will.
This prayer is packed with clues to what pleases God.
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. Colossians 1:9-12
God’s Individual Will
Some consider a third category called God's individual will. God’s individual will relates to specific details related to individuals. Job, career, life partner, ministry, location, colds, tragedies, successes.
It is clear from Scripture that God conveyed specific direction to specific individuals at particular periods in their life and ministry.
* Paul was called to be an apostle by the will of God.
* Paul was given specific direction concerning where he was to take the Gospel.
* Cornelius and Peter were linked by specific revelation to each one.
* Philip was directed to a Divine encounter with the Ethiopian.
* Prophets were given specific revelations necessary to the bringing about of God's determined will.
always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. ROM 1:10
so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. ROM 15:32
and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. 2CO 8:5
This was not always the case. Much prayer was raised seeking to know God's specific direction.
Decisions were often made on the basis of wisdom. "It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit."
I don't feel, as some on this issue, that we must hold an either or position. I believe that through the powerful prompting of the Holy Spirit we may be led in a particular direction.
Other times, God expects us to do the right thing based on our acquired knowledge of His desired will as communicated in His written word for any given situation we face. Other choices simply do not matter to God and He allows us to choose based on our own personal desires. We can grow and be who God wants us to be whether we decide to eat Wheaties in the morning for breakfast or Cheerios.
One camp would leave no room for specific individual direction from God. They would assert that God does not give any specific direction and that it's all up to us. The only direction God gives is that which has been directly revealed in the Scriptures. There is no specific Spirit prompting, only decisions based on biblical wisdom. God doesn't tell us what college to go to or what person to marry; it's all up to us.
The other camp postulates a very frustrating view that asserts God specifically determines every moment and aspect of our life and every decision we make happens by God's direction.
I embrace a balance between the two camps. God expect us to live a life according to the principles of wisdom revealed in the Bible but also we must be sensitive and open to any specific direction he might reveal throughout our life. My thought is that if he supplies no specific direction, then make a choice based on wisdom. Any of the commands of Scripture clearly communicate God's desire for his creatures. He desires these things because we are made in His image and thus are made to operate most efficiently according to the manufactures specifications. Knowing God's desired will for all believers is not so difficult.
It has been pretty clearly spelled out for us. Our task is not to become dull of hearing though lack of practice. Hebrews says that our senses are trained to discern good and evil through practice of the desired will of God.
The most difficult aspect of God's will for our life has to do with those things that have no specific biblical revelation. Here are some guidelines on how we might discover God's direction in those instances.
* Operate your life first by the principles of God's revealed will.
Keep a journal of things you run across in Scripture that are obviously the will of God.
Those clearly spelled our declarations provide the framework for addressing those things not specifically mentioned in the Bible.
* Focus on cultivating your relationship with God.
It is most likely in the context of a close relationship with God that you will hear any specific instruction.
It was while Peter was in prayer with God that he gave specific direction concerning Gentiles.
* Be alert and sensitive to but not completely dependent upon:
Counsel of others
Circumstances -- open closed doors, negative circumstances
Consequences
Common sense
Compulsion
Conscience
Contentment
Remember! God sometimes works through these things but so can Satan.
None of these things should ever contradict the clear direction from Scriptures.
Wisdom learned through the Scriptures is the foundational source for making all decisions in life. As our minds are permeated with His revealed wisdom, we will better discern His direction.
* Ask God for confirmation of plans and direction
* Be willing to obey if he calls.
As these things are in place, God will give specific direction as needed in our ministry for Him here on this earth.
May we be like Jesus who was all about knowing and doing the will of his father.
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. John 4:34
May that also be what drives us. May that be what sustains us. May that be what pleases us for it is God who is at work within us both to will and to do his good pleasure.
God seeks / desires those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. (John 4)
