Ephesians 5:15-21 - Part 2
Walking in the Light of the Lord
Last Sunday we began looking at this passage and we noted that Paul declares that since we have received Jesus Christ and his Spirit has united us to him that now we have the glorious privilege of walking in Christ. You are now living your life in the sphere of Christ which means that you are walking as his disciples by faith in his strength, which is the power of the Holy Spirit, and not your own. It also means that by living in union with Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit will produce the "fruit of the Spirit" in and through your life as a holy vessel so that you will walk in a manner that is consistent or comparable to the life of Christ.
As we have seen from the beginning of Paul's epistle, the life of the Christian is through and through the life of the Spirit so that the Spirit of Christ, through this union, takes all that belongs to Christ and gives it to you (cf. 1:3, 13-14, 17; 2:18, 22; 3:5, 16; 6:17-18). Your life in Christ is made full through the Spirit so that his life now defines your life (Rom. 8:1-4, 9-17). Because you are indwelt by the Spirit as the Holy Temple of God then everything that is true of Christ is now true of you because as Paul says to the Colossians, "you have died and your life in hidden in Christ . . . who is your life" (Col 3:3-4).
Paul has therefore explained that your life is the Light of the Lord Jesus and it is a life that is filled with joy and meaning in Christ (5:14 -- vv. 8-9). Therefore, as you live out your life of being awakened in the Light of Christ, Paul stresses that you are to be careful that you walk in a manner that is consistent with the Light of Christ.
Last Sunday we showed that now as we come to Eph. 5:15 Paul explains further how we are to walk as children of the Light both generally with one another in the body of Christ (cf. 4:25; vv. 15-21) and then he will show us specifically in three important areas that are part of our every day lives (each of them could be called our vocations):
1. Our vocation or calling as husbands and wives (vv. 22-33).2. Our vocation or calling as parents and children (6:1-4).3. Our vocation or calling as slaves and masters, or what we will see as having many parallels to our day-to-day employment or labor (6:5-9).
As we continue to look at our passage this morning, we will find that everything that Paul is going to say in these three important areas of our lives is grounded in 5:21 "submit to one another in the fear of Christ" which is how we fulfill 5:18 "be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Last Sunday we noted that Paul instructs on how we are to walk or how we are to become what we already are in Christ, by describing our walk consisting of three actions. Last Sunday we looked at the first two:
1. Being wise (v. 15)2. Understanding what the will of the Lord is (v. 17)Last Sunday we summed up the first two actions that describe our walk in Christ as walking in the wisdom of God, which is the person of Jesus Christ, so that we might know what the will of the Lord is, which is the center and focus of everything he has been doing throughout redemptive history: the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ (1:8-10).
It is Paul's desire, having even prayed for us, that we comprehend what God has done for us in Christ Jesus in all of its various facets and in the depths of its wisdom so that having comprehended the gospel to a greater degree then your life will be conformed more and more into his image so that you might walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
Now this Sunday, we turn our attention to the last characteristic of our walking in Christ:
3. And, being filled with the Holy Spirit (v.18), with four results (vv. 19-21):a. speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs;b. singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;c. always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
d. and being subject ton one another in the fear of Christ.In vv. 15, 17 Paul has been contrasting the way of the fool and the way of the wise. The fool is the unbeliever whose life is detached from God so that he is only able to walk about in this life in the futility of his own fallen, depraved mind. Now Paul continues this contrast with a specific example of how the fool walks: he lives his life in a drunken stupor. This makes sense if we again consider the fallen condition of the unbeliever (4:17-19, 22). When the unbeliever, who is excluded from the life of God, realizes that everything that he is living for is ultimately deceitful and therefore meaningless, then he is left with only two options: either to desensitize himself through the abuse of alcohol or narcotics, to become unaware of his pain, or ultimately suicide.
It's important to note that Paul is not speaking hear against properly making use of God's benefits in creation, namely wine, but rather the abuse of God's creation. To abuse alcohol is ultimately "dissipation" or wasteful or foolish because by Paul's measure it is a waste of the short time we have to live in service to Christ. Since time is short and the days are evil then we ought to be busy making the most of our time in denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following after Christ.
Also, to be drunk with wine is to ultimately loose control of our mind (to loose our alertness), to revert to the way of darkness, which is especially dangerous in these evil days when we are being tempted in so many ways. Rather, the wise man, who is in Christ, who walks carefully must always be "awake," "alert," and "on guard," because "your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8). Paul will tell us how we are to defend ourselves against the devil by taking up the sword of the Spirit and praying in the Spirit (Eph. 6:11-12, 17-18), but one thing we don't want to do in these days is to abuse anything that will dull our senses for even a moment less we loose control of our minds and fall into all kinds of various temptations.
Rather, as wise men who have been awakened in the Light of Christ, we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In v. 18 Paul uses what we call a "divine passive" imperative in its present tense. In other words, Paul is commanding us to yield our lives to the divine work of filling us continually. The Holy Spirit is not the content of the filling but rather the one who is filling us. Therefore, what Paul is saying is that we are to yield or give up or surrender our lives as disciples to the constant and continual transforming work of the Holy Spirit who is filling us full of Christ until we reach maturity in Him. Paul has already told us that God is working to fill us full of Christ (1:10, 17, 22-23; 2:21-22; 3:19; 4:10-13). The Holy Spirit makes use of the means of grace (preaching, baptism, Lord's Supper) and our brotherly love one for another (4:15-16) to conform us into the fullness of Christ. This work has already begun and we are to continually submit ourselves to the Spirit's work so that we might grow into the fullness of Spiritual maturity in the image of Christ.
As we continue to submit ourselves to the work of the Spirit, as he works within us through the means of grace, then we will become vessels in which the Spirit will produce the fruit of the Spirit in and through us so that our lives will be characterized by singing, thanksgiving, and submission one to another.
At first, these five results of the Spirit's filling us with Christ may sound rather foreign to our ears. As the Spirit fills us with Christ, we will speak and sing and make melody in our hearts? This can sound rather trite or even sentimental, especially in light of Paul's characterizing these days as evil. Do we really respond to the heavy trials and the deep sorrows of this life with singing and making melody in our hearts? Yes, because true Christ-centered joy is not in anyway dependent upon our present circumstances. From the beginning of the epistle, Paul has invited us to join with him in blessing and praising the God who has so richly blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (1:3, 6, 12, 14). In fact, Paul has even prayed that even in the deepest, darkest valleys of our lives that we may comprehend more and more of the powerful work of God in our lives which is rooted in Christ immeasurable love for us (1:17-19; 3:17-19).
Of the five results listed here, the first three all speak about the nature of joyful singing in Christ in Christ. We sing for two reasons: the mutual edification of one another and to praise and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. First, Paul mentions our "speaking" to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Rather than seeing these three terms as referring to three kinds of music, it is better to simply understand this as the music or songs of the New Covenant inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. We are to teach and admonish one another in the songs that remind us of what God has done for us in Christ. As Paul says to the Colossians:
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Col. 3:16).
We are to sing the story of Christ one to another to instruct, edify, and exhort one another in the good news of the gospel.
But we also sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord, which is referring specifically to Jesus Christ. To make melody "in our hearts" means to sing with our whole being. The entire person, who is being filled with Christ by the Spirit, should be offering up his entire life in the sacrifices of praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says:
As living stones, you are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ . . . that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
Secondly, not only do Spirit-filled believers sing but they also offer regular thanksgiving to God the Father in Jesus' name for the glorious riches, which have been lavished upon them. Paul tells us to "give thanks" and then attaches four modifiers to draw our attention to the fullness of God-centered thanksgiving. We are to give thanks "constantly" or "always." We are to give thanks comprehensively or for everything. We are to direct our thanks to the ultimate source and goal of all things, God the Father, and we do this "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul says to the Colossians:
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father (Col. 3:17).
Finally, Spirit-filled believers will submit one to another in the fear of Christ. This verse not only sums up what Paul is describing as the Spirit's filling of the believer with Christ but it also serves as a heading describing the nature of each of the relationships that follow.
There is much discussion about the nature of this submission, whether or not it is mutual or the submission of an inferior to his or her superior. A lot of ink has been spilt over the years to give support for one of these two positions. However, many of these discussions take place within the context of worldly authority, much like the disciples who argued among themselves about who among them would be the greatest in the kingdom of God (Matt. 20:25-28; Mk. 10:42-45; Luke 22:24-30). But Jesus answers his disciples by reminding them that "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45). Jesus is the ultimate display of submission in that he completely submitted his will to become our servant even to the point of death. It is in Christ and by the power of His Spirit that we now are enabled to submit our wills in service to one another, whether it is the wife who submits her will in order to serve her husband or if it is the husband, who like Christ, lovingly gives up his life to serve his cherished bride. Paul reminds us in Phil. 2:
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:3-8).
Now that we have been united to Jesus Christ so that all that belongs to him is now ours, the Holy Spirit is conforming us into his image so that we may grow up into full maturity in the likeness of our Lord and Savior. As we grow, we become less and less like our old image in Adam and more and more like Christ so that we take on his characteristics of humility, meekness, and gentleness and we are learning what it means to die to ourselves, take up our crosses, and radically follow wherever our Savior leads. It is in this joyful journey that we are learning to sing to encourage one another and praise the Lord Jesus Christ, to be thankful at all times to God the Father who has so richly blessed us in Christ, and to submit to one another, giving up our will in service and love to our brother and sister in Christ.
Amen. -SDG-
