Lesson for July 11, 2021
The Book of Ephesians
Chapter 5:15-21
“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. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
The Greek word for walk is “peripateo,” which means to walk or to walk around. It is used for literal walking in Matthew 4:18. But it is used primarily for the function of the Protocol Plan of God in the Church Age in such passages as Romans 6:4; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 5:2. It is used for the life of the carnal Christian as well in I Corinthians 3:3 and Philippians 3:18. It is used for the life of the unbeliever in Ephesians 2:2 and Colossians 3:7.
The Greek word for careful is “akribos,” which means accurately, perfectly, or exactly. Accuracy is what is needed in the Christian life. When you get away from accurate doctrine you get away from accuracy in living the Christian life. Accuracy means that you take in doctrine, that you live by doctrine, that your viewpoint in life becomes Bible doctrine. The divine viewpoint is the only accurate way to live in this life. The careful walk of the advancing believer is an accurate walk based on accurate Bible doctrine.
When the advancing believer is living by means of the Bible doctrine in their soul, then they will be learning and applying that doctrine accurately, which is called spiritual wisdom. The opposite is obviously being unwise in your life as a believer. God wants us to make the most of our time while here on earth. The way we accomplish this as believers is to study and apply Bible doctrine accurately. When a believer does this, he becomes part of the resolution of the Angelic Conflict, which continues to be intensified (days are evil).
So then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. The Greek word for foolish is “aphron,” which means unwise or ignorant. This indicates the fact that there were a number of believers in the church at Ephesus who were ignorant of accurate Bible doctrine and therefore were incapable of making the most of their time. So, this is a reference to the believer in reversionism who were wasting their time on earth. But sets up a contrast between ignorance of Bible doctrine and understanding of Bible doctrine. This separates the advancing believers from the reversionistic believers. It also separates the winner believers from the loser believers, the wise believers from the unwise, foolish believers.
The Greek word for understanding is “suniemi,” which means to gain insight into something by understanding the various aspects and uniting them into a system of learning. You gain insight into a category of doctrine by understanding all the points in that doctrine. “Sumiemi” is the highest form of understanding of any principle of the Word of God, or any point of Bible doctrine.
The Greek word for the will of the Lord “thelema,” which means will, plan, purpose, design, and even stands for the concept of His policies. We see from this verse that the way to discover God’s will is by knowing God’s Word. It takes the renewal of the mind, which means to change from Human Viewpoint Thinking to Divine Viewpoint Thinking. Since the Bible is the only source of the known will of God, whether by direct statement or by deduction from doctrine, knowledge of His will is based on our understanding of His Word. (Romans 12:1-2)
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit guides the believer based on the doctrine that he has learned, believed, and stored in his soul. Through knowledge of doctrine, we learn certain things in the Bible that we know are the will of God and certain things that are not the will of God for all believers. For everything else, we must use a combination of known factors (doctrine in our soul), divine norms and standards, and the control of the Holy Spirit. If indeed the Holy Spirit is guiding our lives, He will guide us into all truth and will empower us to execute His will. Guidance from the Holy Spirit comes only as a believer is filled with the Holy Spirit.
After salvation, believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, which is temporary and is lost when a believer commits any sin. To be filled is to be controlled by or empowered by the Holy Spirit in the same manner as a person is controlled by alcohol when he is intoxicated. We choose to allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives by allowing Him to control our thinking. This means we must have the Word of God stored in our souls. It is this doctrinal information that the Holy Spirit uses to control and guide our lives. Divine Viewpoint Thinking produces divine production.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is potential for every believer in Christ. The purpose of this filling is to empower the believer to live the Christian Way of Life. When a believer is living the Christian Way of Life, he is bringing glory and honor to Christ. All believers are immediately filled with the Holy Spirit the moment they trust Christ as their Savior. The first time we sin after salvation however, we lose the filling of the Holy Spirit, and we are out of fellowship with God. In order to restore both the filling of the Holy Spirit and our fellowship with God, we simply name our known sins to God. (I John 1:9) We are then commanded to move forward with the execution of the Christian Way of Life, which the Scripture calls “walking in the light.” (I John 1:5-10) The filling of the Holy Spirit is potential, depending on the volition (free will) of the believer. It is a command and literally means “keep on being filled with the Spirit.”
Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. When you believed in Jesus Christ God did something for you that created a permanent relationship. You are in a permanent plan, and while some may talk about it from time to time and listen to it as taught from the pulpit occasionally, they have forgotten the basic fact: Your life on earth is to be a relationship with God, and with people as His representative.
Making melody with your heart to the Lord refers to our relationship with God. When Bible doctrine becomes more real than anything in your life then God will be more real than anyone in your life. The unseen, invisible God will be more real to you than the visible scene around you. Our attitude toward God is described in terms of worship. Worship is an attitude toward God, it is a soul attitude toward God, a mental attitude toward God, not an emotional attitude. The capacity to worship comes through Bible doctrine in the soul and the expression of worship can be related singing.
Speaking to one another refers to our relationship with people. The psalms refer to that portion of the Word of God often classified as devotional, but what it really means is passages of Scripture which deal with God’s relationship with man so that man can have a relationship and fellowship with God. So “psalms” are mentioned because if you ever study the Psalms carefully, you will find that failure to have a proper relationship with others is because a person doesn’t have a proper relationship with God.
“Hymns” are songs of praise in honor of deity, of God. It can be God the Father or God the Son. You can sing about God the Holy Spirit, but He does not glorify Himself. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son and to reveal the Godhead. The tune may appeal to the emotions, but the doctrine in the lyrics should appeal to the soul. It is the perfect combination of the soul and emotion when music is doctrinal. “Spiritual songs” means a poem set to music. In other words, doctrinal lyrics set to music. “Making melody” means worship must be accompanied by true capacity for singing or playing an instrument that comes from Bible doctrine in the soul.
Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Gratitude is a matter of having the right attitude. And attitude is everything! Knowing who we are and what we have as a result of being in union with Jesus Christ should cause us to be grateful. As we grow up spiritually, our gratitude will also grow. If we understand that our lives are in God’s hands and that He will direct our paths, we can have gratitude in any circumstance of life. (Colossians 2:6-8) We must also learn to be grateful for even the hardships in life. Quite often these situations are used by God to teach us valuable lessons. They can also reveal areas of weakness with which we need to deal. How we handle these hardships can be a springboard to advance us in the Christian Way of Life by increasing our faith in God and our dependence upon God.
And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. The Greek word for subject is “hupotasso” which is
a military word meaning to rank under. God has given us all different roles (spiritual gifts) to fulfill in life. The verses that follow explain the role of believers in marriage. God has set in place the husband as the head of the household. In the church Christ is the head and we all submit to His authority. The pastor also has authority in the church as its leader. This is no way diminishes the role of the other spiritual gifts that God has assigned to various members of the church. In the fear of Christ means we have respect for Christ and His authority over us and how He has assigned the various spiritual gifts within the church. This is the principle of showing respect for the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the “Bishop and Shepherd of our souls.” (I Peter 2:25)