Ephesians 5:15-21

“Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is. And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭15‬-‭21‬ ‭NET‬‬

Who did you want to be when you grew up? Not what but who. Anybody? I don’t think I really had anyone specific. Some people have an awesome sports icon or music person.

VV 1-2 of this chapter command the Ephesians to be “Imitators of God, as beloved children.” Now we all know that kids like to copy what their parents do. Little girls will slip into mom’s high heels. Kids will put on adult hats, or sit behind the steering wheel. 

But be imitators of God. Doesn’t that seem kind of far-fetched, Paul? What does this require of us? That I know God as my Father. That I can act like Him. This flows from Paul’s prayer in chapter 3 that I would be filled with the knowledge and character of God. That the immense majesty of God’s glory would strengthen me, so that I could understand His love. Because v. 2 commands me to walk in love, remembering Christ’s tremendous sacrifice. Again, imitating what’s been done for me. 

Now I want to jump down to vv. 15-17. The rest of this chapter fills in the gaps of living as God’s children in a terrible and sinful world. We are His children, though. We should be different.

We should be careful to live with a mindset of wisdom, not foolishness. There are traps and dangers lurking all around, potholes and ditches. Sinking sand. If we are not careful, always alert, we can trip, we can fall. You all know that our culture, our world, our entertainment, the philosophies and worldviews of our day are crawling with error and deceit. And lies lead to wrong behavior. Paul says, Be careful. 

Now, when he says, Make the best use of your time, is that like, “Man, I really need to wake up at 6:00 to get a healthy breakfast, to squeeze in a good solid workout before going to school/work? Get all my chores done? Buy three planners and time all my events perfectly, so that I don’t waste a second of the day?” I just don’t get the feeling that Paul is talking about my personal schedule in an entire chapter on imitating God. 

So as a child of God in a perverse world, how would I not waste an opportunity?

Discovering God’s will is always a topic of interest for people, but I think we make it more complicated than it needs to be. There are a few verses that tell us exactly what it is—we just wrestle sometimes with daily decisions that affect our personal path for years to come. That’s okay.

But v. 17 is the key. The path to understanding God’s will is not rolling dice, asking a bunch of questions, praying a gazillion prayers and not making decisions until you feel warm and bubbly, or reading the Bible until that one special verse sticks out. That’s not how the Bible works. A lot of times, God’s will is as simple as not being foolish. And that means analyzing your past, present, and future in light of strong biblical truth and realizing what’s best for your life. It’s biblical wisdom. What decisions are you going to have to make in the next six months? Are you prepared to do that carefully? Wisely? In a way that imitates God’s character and love or the philosophies and deceit of the world?

Ephesians 5:18 is tricky, because it has been misunderstood based on the preposition “by the Spirit.” I use the illustration of pouring a glass of water from a pitcher. If I represent the glass, most people would see the water as the “Holy Spirit,” in that I am to be filled with the Holy Spirit. (And the typical meaning of that is parallel to the drunkenness half of the verse—He controls me/guides me.)

But Wallace’s grammar confirms that the little preposition (see this post on the preposition) after this passive verb rarely means “content.” And when we step back to see Paul’s use of “filling” verbs in Ephesians, we gain more insight. Paul’s prayer in chapter 3 has already said we should be filled with the knowledge of God—and that verb is used with a noun of content. So the water in the glass is the knowledge of God. The character of God. Paul wants us to be filled with that. The Spirit then is the pitcher being used to fill us with the knowledge of God. This is a preposition of means. It answers how we are to be filled. (There’s one more use of “filling” in Ephesians in chapter 4. Jesus is the one “filling” all things, so one could say that Jesus is the one completing this process.) 

Paul says, I want you believer not to be drunk. Those people can’t control their bodies. They can’t control their mind. That only leads to more immorality and wickedness. But I want your mind and your being to be filled with the knowledge of God, and I want the Spirit to be the one who leads you on the path of understanding who this God is. This will lead you toward wisdom. This will lead you to be distinct from the world. This will allow you to reflect His goodness  and love in a world that doesn’t know much about either.

And then Paul gives the most perfect three point sermon. You may read vv 19-21 and think he’s just giving lots more commands on what we should do. But these are all related to the command to be filled by the Spirit. And they all give a picture of what it will look like when the Spirit is filling us with God’s character. They answer the questions, So what? Or To what end? (These are participles of result)

V. 19.  You know how you know if the Spirit is filling the individuals of our church with the character of God? We sing tremendous songs of faith to Him with all of our heart. Can you sing? Now I don’t mean, Do you have much talent? Few of us do. But when you consider how much you know of God, how much He has shown His love for you, is there a joy inside that spills out in song? Forget how it sounds. Even in times of trial and testing, a song of faith can help you recognize the goodness of God and the mercy He has extended to you.

V. 20. Being filled by the Spirit immediately results in our dropping to our knees and acknowledging that we did nothing for anything that we own, that we did nothing for our eternal life or spiritual inheritance. God deserves all praise. Are you thankful? Or is the Spirit still in the process of filling you with a much better perspective of who God is?

V. 21. The third action that results from a proper understanding of God’s character is the Spirit enables us to submit to one another. Look around. In this text I don’t see any distinctions. So what does this mean? It’s easy to look down on others, judge certain individuals for this or that, and think, “Oh, yea they’re doing that job in the church or serving in that capacity makes sense.” But how does every member submit to every other member, regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, etc?  

Because what’s our tendency? Oh, well, I’m going to look out for me, myself, and I. And, sure, I love these people. We’re all Christians. But at the end of the day, I’m still going to get what’s most important. Paul says, That’s not the character of God. That’s not wise. That’s very very foolish.

Be careful how you walk. Pray for the Spirit to fill your mind with attitudes that reflect that nature of God. So that you can sing to Him. So that you can thank Him for His many many blessings in your life. So that you can treat others as much more important that yourself.