I
have to cut a lot by Thursday. That’s usually the day of the week that I
realize that there is way more in the passage I’m writing a sermon on than one
sermon can handle. It’s always a little sad to cut out so much that is so
important! It reminds me of how deep God’s word is.
Here’s
a section fresh off the chopping block:
Let’s
take this section one verse at a time. First, let’s look at Ephesians 5:15.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.” When we
think of wisdom we thinking of aptly applied knowledge. Someone who is wise
understands how people and situations work and is able to discern what the best
course of action is in a given situation. I’m going to argue that wisdom in
the Bible isn’t less than this, but it is so much more.
Wisdom
has to do first and foremost with God. Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Wisdom is recognizing that God exists, the
he rules the universe. True wisdom starts there. True wisdom is knowing how to
live in God’s world.
Foolishness,
or being unwise then is also fundamentally a God-ward category. Psalm 14:1 says,
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” That means that no
matter how much you know, and how good you are at discerning how life works—if
you don’t start with the recognition that God is the one running everything,
you are ultimately a fool. You won’t figure out life because the point of life
is to live for God.
So
when Paul says here, “walk as a wise man”—he is thinking about living life
in light of God existence and everything that entails.
Photo from: flickr.com/photos/spavaai/3191732307/in/photostream/
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Bad move, Nick. If you're telling us that this is the part you cut out of your message, that suggests the rest of the message must be even better than this. Hard to imagine. You're setting the bar for Sunday awfully high!
ReplyDeleteBob R.