So, when are you going to start strength training- just kidding? It is certainly dangerous and foolish to lift heavy objects without help. Those who do strength training with weights know the value of a “spotter”, a person who supports the one doing the training and they do more than we my think. They certainly can act quickly to intervene or assist as needed. Christians do that for one another, or they should. As God works through us, He uses us to strengthen one another in the face of a world that calls us to follow a different path. And sometimes it is stronger than just a call, today we see those who want to force their opinions and feelings on Christians. In these times we need others to help us in the Christians life. We strengthen one another to live as God desires. So, ask God to help us see the need for accountability and support of others in the church.
Read Ephesians 5:8-14
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
For ye were sometimes darkness – see the Ephesians 2:11-12 notes; 1 Corinthians 6:11 note. The meaning here is, that they were themselves formerly sunk in the same ignorance and practiced the same abominations. But now are ye light in the Lord – Light is the emblem of happiness, knowledge, holiness. The meaning is, that they had been enlightened by the Lord to see the evil of these practices, and that they ought, therefore, to forsake them. Walk as children of light – see the notes on Matthew 1:1, on the use of the word “son,” or “children.” The meaning here is, that they should live as became those who had been enlightened to see the evil of sin, and the beauty of virtue and religion; compare John 12:36, where the same phrase occurs.
For the fruit of the Spirit – That is, since the Holy Spirit through the gospel produces goodness, righteousness, and truth, see that you exhibit these in your lives, and thus show that you are the children of light. On the fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23.Is in all goodness – Is seen in producing all kinds of goodness. He who is not good is not a Christian.
Proving—construed with “walk” (Eph 5:8; Ro 12:1, 2). As we prove a coin by the eye and the ear, and by using it, so by accurate and continued study, and above all by practice and experimental tri, we may prove or test “what is acceptable unto the Lord.” This is the office of “light,” of which believers are “children,” to manifest what each thing is, whether by sight or unsightly.
And have no fellowship – See the sentiment here expressed fully explained in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.The unfruitful works – The deeds of darkness that produce no “benefit” to the body or the soul. The word “unfruitful” is used here in contrast with the “fruit of the Spirit,” Ephesians 5:9. But rather reprove them – By your life, your conversation, and all your influence. This is the business of Christians. Their lives should be a standing rebuke of a sinful world, and they should be ever ready to express their disapprobation of its wickedness in every form.
The Greek order is, “For the things done in secret by them, it is a shame even to speak of.” The “for” gives his reason for “not naming” (compare Eph 5:3) in detail the works of darkness, whereas he describes definitely (Eph 5:9) “the fruit of the light” [Bengel]. “Speak of,” I think, is used here as “speaking of without reproving,” in contrast to “even reprove them.” Thus the “for” expresses this, reprove them, for to speak of them without reproving them, is a shame (Eph 5:3). Thus “works of darkness” answers to “things done in secret.”
That are reproved—rather, “when they are reproved,” namely, by you (Eph 5:11). whatsoever doth make manifest—rather, “everything that is (that is, suffers itself to be) made manifest (or ‘shone upon,’ namely, by your ‘reproving,’ Eph 5:11) is (thenceforth no longer ‘darkness,’ Eph 5:8, but) light.” The devil and the wicked will not suffer themselves to be made manifest by the light, but love darkness, though outwardly the light shines round them. Therefore, “light” has no transforming effect on them, so that they do not become light (Joh 3:19, 20). But, says the apostle, you are now the light yourselves (Eph 5:8), by bringing to light through reproof those who are in darkness, will convert them to light. Your consistent lives and faithful reproofs will be your “armor
of light” (Ro 13:12) in making an inroad on the kingdom of darkness.
He saith; either God by the prophets, of whose preaching this is the sum; it may allude in particular to Isaiah 60:1. Or, Christ by his ministers, in the preaching of the gospel, who daily calls men to arise from the death of sin by repentance, and encourages them with the promise of eternal life.
Awake thou that sleeps, and arise from the dead; the same thing in two different expressions. Sinners in some respects are said to be asleep, in others, to be dead. They are as full of dreams and vain imaginations, and as unfit for any good action, as they that are asleep are for natural; and they are as full of stench and loathsomeness as they that are dead. Here therefore they are bid to awake from sin as a sleep, and to arise from it as a death. The meaning is, that they should arise by faith and repentance out of that state of spiritual death in which they lie while in their sins.
And Christ shall give thee light; the light of peace and joy here, and eternal glory hereafter. The apostle intimates, that what is the way of Christ in the gospel should likewise be the practice of these Ephesians, whom he calls light in the Lord, viz. to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness, and awaken sleeping, dead sinners, and bring them to the light of Christ.
Read Ephesians 5:15-17
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Billy Graham was asked what he was most surprised by in life. He answered, “Its brevity.” (Christianity Today [Oct., 2006], p. 90.) Graham has lived a relatively long life, but he still feels the sting of life’s shortness.
The older you get, the more you think about using your time wisely in light of eternity. You try to evaluate what really matters. Moses must have been feeling this when he wrote Psalm 90. He had spent his first 40 years as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, living in the comfort of the palace. He spent his next 40 years as a fugitive shepherd, wandering around the Sinai Peninsula. He spent the last 40 years of his long life leading a rebellious bunch of Israelis out of slavery in Egypt, but not quite into the Promised Land.
As they were camped somewhere in the wilderness, shy of that goal, he wrote Psalm 90, reflecting on the brevity of life and the severity of God’s judgment. In verse 12 he prayed, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” He concluded the Psalm with the prayer (v. 17), “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands.” The poignant repetition of his final plea shows that even Moses was afraid that his life’s work would amount to nothing, unless God confirmed it, or [NASB margin] gave permanence to it.
Our text tells us how to walk wisely, so that we make the precious years that God allots to us count for His purpose and glory. There is a paradox in that God is the sovereign over time. He has a divine will (5:17) and He “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). And yet at the same time, He allots time to us to use responsibly to bring about His sovereign will. We must walk carefully and redeem the time that He gives us (5:15-16). To make your life count for eternity, you must give careful thought to how you spend your time.
When we think about being godly, we probably think about holiness in the moral realm. But do we think about being people of godly purpose? The fact that God is a God of purpose means that if we are to be like Him, we will be people of purpose in line with His purpose. Jesus lived to accomplish the Father’s purpose and knew that He had done so as His short life neared the end. He prayed (John 17:4), “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” Jesus knew the Father’s purpose and He lived according to it. To be like Jesus, we must follow His example by being people of godly purpose.
The apostle Paul was also a man of godly purpose. He lived to exalt Christ and to know Him (Phil. 1:20-21; 3:8-16). He purposed to preach the gospel to the lost and to disciple the saved (1 Cor. 9:24-27; Col. 1:27-28). He told Timothy to discipline himself for the purpose of godliness (1 Tim. 4:7-8; see also, 2 Tim. 3:10). As he faced execution, Paul knew that he had fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith (2 Tim. 4:7). In our text, he shows us how to walk wisely, so that we make the most of our lives in light of God’s will, His plan for the ages (5:17):
To walk wisely, you must know what God wants you to be, what dangers to avoid, and how to take advantage of the opportunities that God gives you.
Some popular TV preachers will tell you that God wants to help you fulfill your dreams. But that’s backwards, because it leaves you as the lord of your life and makes God your servant. The Bible is clear that God is the Sovereign and we are His servants. We exist to fulfill His will, not vice versa! So it is vital to know from Scripture, where does God want us to go with our lives? Much more could be said, but note these four things:
1). GOD WANTS YOU TO PLEASE AND GLORIFY HIM WITH YOUR LIFE.
(2). GOD WANTS YOU TO KNOW HIM MORE DEEPLY.
(3). GOD WANTS YOU TO BE A GODLY PERSON.
(4). GOD WANTS YOU TO PROCLAIM HIS EXCELLENCIES BYR YOUR LIFE
AND WORDS.
To accomplish this, YOU MUST DISCIPLINE YOURSELF FOR THE PURPOSE OF GODLINESS.
Read Ephesians 5:18-21
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
We need to make the most of the time God has allotted to us. We must have our priorities set correctly and keep them if we are to do what is best with our lives and not just what is good. That is the only way you can take advantage of opportunities and know they are coming from God. That is how you live in keeping with God’s will. In this passage, Paul continues on this general theme of walking in a manner worthy of our calling in Jesus Christ by living in wisdom and not foolishness, and so Paul states verses 18-21 just what we read.
1) Not a particular event: The command here to “be filled” is in the present tense, therefore it speaks of something that is continuing, not something that happened once. It is something on going. We could more accurately bring out this sense by translating: “be being filled,” “keep on being filled,” “continue being filled.” Because this is not something that happens just once, then “being filled with the Spirit” cannot be either the baptism of the Spirit or the sealing of the spirit.
2) Not the “baptism of the Spirit” – 1 Cor. 12:13. The charismatic movement has caused most of the confusion on what it means to be “filled by the spirit” by equating it with the “baptism of the spirit” and the bestowment of the charismatic gifts. Let me quickly put that idea to rest. First, every believer in Jesus Christ is baptized by the Holy Spirit. Look over 1 Cor. 12:13. This is the chapter that deals with spirit given gifts such as tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, etc. Look at 1 Cor. 12:12 & 13. It says, “2 For even as the body is one and [yet] has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”. Every person who is saved was placed into the Body of Christ by the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. All true Christians were made to drink of the one Spirit. There are no exceptions to this, and it occurs only once at salvation.
The filling of the Spirit and the Baptism of the Spirit are not the same, though a person is filled with the Spirit when they are baptized by Him. The Baptism of the Spirit inducts the person into Christ’s Body and comes as salvation; it marks that point in which the Spirit indwells the believer. Romans 8:9 makes clear the importance of this indwelling. “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” If you do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, then you are not saved.
3) This is not a “second blessing” Let me add here before I move onto the sealing of the spirit, that the filling of the spirit is not some “second blessing,” or spiritual “zap” from God that moves a person into some ecstatic state as some have claimed is evidenced by speaking in tongues or having visions. In Acts 2 we find the promise of Jesus in Acts 1:5 fulfilled. Jesus said that they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now,” and then some ten days later on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:4 says, “And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving the utterance.” I have always found it curious that those in the charismatic movement claim this as the foundation for speaking in ecstatic “unknown tongues,” yet the “unknown tongues” turn out to be languages known to those present, but not to the speakers, for the languages spoken are listed in verses 9-11.
4) Not the “sealing” of the spirit. We have already seen in Eph. 1:13,14 that were sealed with the spirit at salvation. That happens only once and it is the pledge of God’s promises to you.
5) This is not some process of progression in getting the Holy Spirit. When you get the Holy Spirit, you get Him all because He is a person, not some mystical force. You cannot get just part of a person. If you invite me to come to your house, you get all of me. I don’t send over just my mouth by itself.
6) Being filled with the Spirit is also not some stoical act of your will. The verb voice here is passive. It is something that happens to you, not something you actively acquire for yourself. Do note as well that the verb is in the command mood. Whatever being filled with the Spirit means, it is not an option for the Christian. It is something that is necessary for all Christians to do if they are to live the Christian life at all.
Then Paul finishes these verses with that we all should submit to one another in reverence to Christ.