We continue this week with
our examination of Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus and our text for this
morning is, in effect, something of a summary of what we discussed last
week. We noted that the problems for
those 1st century Christians were not unlike the problems we face
today, and the world in which they lived was essentially the world in which we
live. There’s an old rule of thumb we
can use to determine the credibility of some of the claims we hear about a “new
morality” appropriate for Christians in the 21st century: If it’s
new it’s probably not true, and if it’s true it’s probably not new. That indeed is a central theme of our bible,
and Paul is reinforcing this notion with his warnings to the Ephesians. He
begins in v.15 by saying “Look then carefully
how you walk,”
I heard a story a while back about two nimrods
who were deer hunting in northern Wisconsin
and through some quirk of fate had managed to bag a rather large 16 point buck. After field dressing the large animal, they
started back for their camp dragging the deer with each hunter holding tightly
to one of the animal’s hind legs. But
after about ten minutes, they had moved only about 50 feet because the animal’s
large antlers kept getting snagged on the numerous small trees and dense
underbrush. Another hunter observing all
this said to our dimwitted duo, “You know, It’s none of my business, but if you
were to drag that deer from the other end, I’m sure you would find the going
easier”.
The two looked at each other
and after a moment of consultation, did indeed grab the antlers and proceeded
on their way. After they had walked a
half mile or so one of our intrepid hunters remarked, “You know, that fellow
was pretty smart—this is going a lot easier”. “Yeah, I guess,” replied his
companion, “But now we’re getting farther away from the car.”
Well, Paul’s admonition about
“walking” is, in effect, a symbol about “living”. He had been warning about immoral living and
reminding these Christians that they have put off their “old nature” and put on
the “new nature” living in Christ.
This is the process Paul is
describing as “walking”. Now there’s
nothing complicated about walking. Most
of us learned to do it by the time we were about one year old. You never take more than two steps in
walking, one leg forward and then the other. But do that again and again and
you are walking. This is an apt simile
for how to live the Christian life.
“Putting off” the old and “putting on” the new. Paul has gone into rather graphic detail
about what this means and how we are to live and conduct ourselves as servants
of Jesus Christ.
He begins our text for this
morning with one statement that says it all, “Look carefully then how you walk.”
That is the supreme thing, not WHERE you walk, but HOW you walk. This is so important. WHERE we walk is a relatively easy problem,
but HOW we are applying this principle in every moment of our living THAT is
the issue.
Many years ago, I was traveling
with my father when a dense fog enveloped us.
We had been to visit his parents a distance of some eighteen miles from
our home, and as darkness fell the fog had rolled in. We were going no more than 20 miles per hour,
but I thought it might still be too fast.
The problem was not where to drive; we wanted to stay right on that road--but
how to accomplish it, that was the issue. But my father knew something I did
not—he knew where the road was.
Hundred’s of trips to the home of my grandparents and years of driving
had taught him how to drive this road. He knew the way—He knew all the twists
and turns—He understood the hazards. Or
consider this, a man walking a tightrope—he has no concern about WHERE he is to
walk, but HOW, that is the problem.
So Paul says to us, “Look carefully how you walk.” Then he
goes on to give us a picture of what it means to be walking rightly,
accurately. We can gather this around a
single wonderful word that describes this Christian walk. The word is understandingly. . As we go on, you will see how this word
describes what he is saying.
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men
but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand
what the will of the Lord is (Eph 5:15-17)
Walk understandingly. Well, understand what? Understand the
character of life. Paul comes to grips
here with a problem that is personal and present with all of us. He is dealing with the matter of the times in
which we live and he says, “Understand
this, be wise; don’t be foolish but act as a wise man.” How? By making the
most of the time because the days are evil!
Now there is an important
principle here that many Christians seem to get backwards. We get all upset when the events in our world
seem to amplify the statement that THESE DAYS ARE EVIL. Christians, all too often, seem to adopt a
“woe is me” attitude and run for cover.
But what Paul is saying is something quite different—he is saying that
evil days create opportunities. And he
doesn’t stop there; he says understanding this we must make the most of these
opportunities which are created by evil days.
The word for “making the most” is one word that is used for redeeming, it means to buy up. It is a word from the market place.
The world seems to understand
this better than the Church. In the past
few days, the eastern US experienced that massive blackout and within minutes
entrepreneurs were selling everything from flashlights to bottled water for
exorbitant prices. I heard of one store
selling the mini maglights for $17, batteries not included.
That is the very concept Paul
is expressing here. Buy up the
opportunities which are created constantly by the evil days.
What a far cry that is from
the outlook many Christians have toward evil days! Many look at evil days as obstacles, as
defeating circumstances, as pressures which make it so much more difficult to
be a Christian. Yet, sometimes I pray in the morning, “Lord help me to not miss
so many of my opportunities today”.
Someone sent me an e-mail
this week that puts this “making the most of our time” in sharp perspective.
I may never see tomorrow; there’s no written
guarantee.
And things that happen yesterday belong to
history.
I cannot predict the future, I cannot change the past.
I have just the present moment.
I must treat it as my last.
I must use this moment wisely, for it soon will pass
away.
And be lost forever as part of yesterday.
I must exercise
compassion, Help the fallen to their feet.
Be a friend unto the friendless. Make an empty life complete.
The unkind things I do today, may never be undone.
And friendships that I fail to win, may nevermore be
won.
I may not have another chance on bended knee to pray.
And I thank God with humble heart, for giving me this
day.
Too many times in my own
life, I have made excuses to myself, frittered away opportunities, told God
just like Jeremiah, Elijah, Moses, or whoever, “These are evil days, you don’t
want me. You must mean someone
else.”
Listen, this is
important. THE WORD OF GOD SAYS YOU CAN
BE WHATEVER GOD WANTS YOU TO BE REGARDLESS OF WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON, REGARDLESS
OF WHY WE DON’T THINK WE’RE RIGHT FOR THE JOB, REGARDLESS, REGARDLESS,
REGARDLESS.
WE CANNOT BLAME WHAT OTHERS
ARE DOING, INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY,
WE CANNOT BLAME WHAT IS GOING
ON IN THE WORLD,
AS AN EXCUSE FOR NOT BEING
WHAT WE OUGHT TO BE.
This is exactly what the
apostle is saying here. We are not to be UNWISE, but WISE, making the most of
the opportunity because the situation around us, which seems to be against us,
is really making the opportunity possible.
If we were not under
pressure, how could we manifest the overcoming grace of God?
If we did not go through
trials, how could we ever show that he is sufficient for every trial?
If we are not, always needing
to make demands upon him for help, how would we know that we could never touch
bottom in the resources that are in Christ?
A little boy and his father are walking along a bumpy
road. The little boy is asserting some independence and walking without any
assistance from the father. As the road becomes even rougher, the little boy
begins reaching up and holding on to his father’s hand, but each time he
stumbles, he loses his grip and falls down.
After several of these tumbles, he says to his father, “Maybe it would
be better if you held my hand.” As they proceed
on their journey, the little boy continues to stumble, but he never falls
again.
These are evil days, rough
roads, but they create opportunities, and when we put our hand in his, he will
not let us fall. Paul not only wrote it,
he lived it.
There is much debate over
what is sin, these days. There is a lot
of equivocating, hem-hawing, and general confusion about what is right and what
is wrong. Some quarters are telling us,
the scriptures are unreliable. Some are
saying there are two sides to these issues.
One of my seminary professors responded to the issue thusly, “It may be
true there are two sides to every question, but that is not the same as saying
it doesn’t matter what we believe as Christians. For it is also true there are two sides to a
sheet of flypaper and it makes a big difference to the fly which side he
chooses.”
And it is precisely this
ambivalence in the Christian community that is creating so many exciting
opportunities. We see so many who are
experiencing an inward emptiness. This is true not only because of the
divisiveness within the churches, but also because of the materialism that
creates a spiritual void. Also, we live in a
society that has increasingly recoiled at the very mention of all things
Christian, demanding that we leave our faith at home as we venture out each
day. Paul says we live in evil days, and
the opportunities are everywhere.
F. W. Boreham reminds us of a story from the life of
St Francis of Assisi.
“Brother,” Francis said one day to one of his young associates, “let us go down
to the town and preach!”
The novice monk, delighted at being singled out to be
the companion of Francis, obeyed with alacrity.
They passed through the principal streets, turned down many of the
by-ways and alleys, made their way out to some of the suburbs, and at length returned, by a
circuitous route, to the monastery gate.
As they approached it, the young man reminded Francis of his original
intention.
“You have forgotten, Father, that we went down to the
town to preach!”
“My son,” Francis replied, “We HAVE preached. We were preaching while we were walking. We have been seen by many; our behavior has
been closely watched; it was thus that we preached our morning sermon. It is of no use, my son, to walk anywhere to
preach unless we preach everywhere we walk.”
It is the evil days that give
us opportunity to demonstrate the Christian life. Therefore, buy up the opportunities. Understand as you look at life, this is the
way life is. These difficulties do not
come in order to set us back, they come in order to advance us. Peter says, “Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial of faith which has
come upon you as though some unusual thing happened to you.” (I Pet 4:12) Oh, no, these are designed to an end.
We could NEVER demonstrate
what it is to be a Christian were it not for evil days. Don’t think for a moment that you are going
through difficult and unusual circumstances, while everyone else has it easy
and has a delightful time. Understand
this, says the apostle, this is the first important thing about living
life—walking understandingly.
There is a second aspect to
this proposition as well. Paul goes on
to say, “Do not be foolish, but
understand what the will of the Lord is.” That is, be aware of what God
wants out of every situation. Now all
too often, when one uses the phrase, “The will of the Lord,” most people,
including most Christians, understand it in terms of guidance. They think you are referring to what you
ought to do next, where you ought to live, whom you ought to marry, what job
you ought to have, how you spend your retirement years and so on.
But “guidance” is not the
major problem, or the major factor in understanding “the will of the
Lord”.
God is not half so much
interested in what you DO as what you ARE.
Once you get this BEING
straightened out, the DOING will take care of itself.
What you ARE—that is the big
thing, what you are in every situation.
This is what the apostle is talking about.
Back in v. 10, the apostle
says, “Try to learn what is pleasing to
the Lord.” That is the same thing as understanding the will of the
Lord. Or to put it another way, learn
what is pleasing to the Lord.
Well, O.K., what IS pleasing
to the Lord? Only one thing; Faith! Heb 11:6 reminds us, “Without faith it is impossible to please him.”
Faith is believing God,
believing what he says about life, believing what he says about sin, believing
what he says about people, about yourself, about the need of people, analyzing
and understanding what is going on around you in terms of what the Scripture
has revealed, that is faith, acting on that basis. This is what the apostle is talking about: Not
trying to get guidance on where to go next, or what you should do, or who you
should associate with, or whatever—but REMEMBERING that in every situation, you
are to act on what the Word of God says about it; reflect the viewpoint of God,
His analysis of what the needs are, His evaluation of what our values should
be.
When we compartmentalize the
“Will of the Lord” into what we DO rather that what we ARE, in the short run,
life becomes a little easier.
We have developed a strange dichotomy of life that
says we act one way in religious matters and quite differently in areas we
perceive “the will of the Lord” to be irrelevant.
But Paul is saying, “Not so
fast, do not be foolish, that is the way the world lives”, blindly swallowing
the evaluations and moral codes that are hammered out and propagandized by
those who care not in the slightest what the “Will of the Lord” truly may be.
They have their own agenda and it never involves an examination of the
scriptures to test the validity of their opinions.
Remember what we said earlier,
in spiritual matters—if it’s new it’s probably not true , and if it’s true,
it’s probably not new.
This word “foolish” is the
same word Paul uses in the letter to the Galatians.
“Oh foolish Galatians!
Having begun in the spirit, are you now continuing in the flesh? Did you understand that you were to begin
your Christian life by believing God in faith, but now you are going to attempt
to live it by accepting the principles of the world around you and its way of
thinking, and thus be successful? Oh you foolish Galatians! It will never
work. Do not be foolish, but understand
that in every situation, day or night, twenty-four hours a day, God expects
faith from you.” (Gal 3:1-3)
If we try to live life as a
Christian by going along with what the world thinks is right and proper, we are
not living by faith. Even though we may
be trying our hardest to work everything out with the best of intentions,
trying to analyze every situation and work for a reasonable and peaceable
solution, we are not pleasing God. We
couldn’t be wider of the mark if we tried.
THE LIFE THAT PLEASES HIM IS THE LIFE THAT BELIEVES WHAT HE SAYS AND
ACTS ON IT!
Look beyond the immediate to
the eternal things;
Look beyond the visible to
the invisible and walk in the light of that which is real. That is what the apostle is talking
about.
Be careful how you walk. Walk intelligently, understandingly. As
Christians we have immense advantages over those persons who are not truly
Christian because we know the truth, the truth as it is in Jesus, the basic,
fundamental reality of life.
The “will of the Lord” is
that at times we will be put in difficult situations and have unpleasant
circumstances in order that we might have opportunity to manifest the life of
Jesus Christ. But sometimes we worry, as
imperfect as we are how can God use us for anything beneficial?
A water bearer in India had two large pots, hung on
each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the
other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end
of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house; the cracked pot arrived
only half full. For a full two years,
this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of
water in his master’s house. Of course the perfect pot was proud of its
accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its
own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of
what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter
failure, it spoke to the water bearer.
“I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.” “Why?” asked
the bearer. “What are you ashamed of?”
“I have been able for these past two years, to deliver only half my load
because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your
master’s house. Because of my flaw, you
have to do all of this work, and you don’t get full value from your efforts,”
the pot said. The water bearer felt
sorry, and said, “As we return to the
master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the cracked pot took notice of the sun
warming the beautiful flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it
some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out
half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice there were
flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pots side? I have
always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the
path. Every day while we walked back
from the stream, you watered them. For
two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my
master’s table. Without your being just
the way you are, my master would not have this beauty to grace his house.”
Each of us has our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots. But if we will allow it, the Lord will use
our flaws to grace His Father’s table.
As we seek to minister together, and as God calls you to the tasks he
has appointed for you, don’t be afraid of your flaws. Go on boldly, knowing that
in our weakness we find his strength.
My brothers and sisters,
watch how you walk. Walk with
understanding that you may truly do the will of the Lord, not in what you do
but in what you are by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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