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Week 7 Assignment: Read pages 215-269 in MacArthur and Ephesians 5:15-20 and comment on this post.

Today we will study that last of Paul’s Five “Therefore Walk” sections: “Therefore Walk” in Wisdom (Ephesians 5:15-6:9). Here is the overall outline for the book of Ephesians:

1. Ephesians 1-3-Theological Unity

A. Trinity (1:3-14)

B. Salvation (2:1-10)

C. Church (2:11-3:12)

2. Ephesians 4-6-Practical Unity

1) “Therefore Walk” in Unity (4:1-16)

2) “Therefore Walk” not as the Unsaved (4:17-32)

3) “Therefore Walk” in Love (5:1-6)

4) “Therefore Walk” in the Light (5:7-14)

5) “Therefore Walk” in Wisdom (5:15-6:9)

In Ephesians 5:14, Paul commanded believers to “Awake you that sleep” and in 5:15, Paul commands “Walk carefully.” M. D.s call sleepwalking “somnambulism” and say this person resembles a subject in a hypnotic trance. When my wife was a teenager she would sometimes wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning, get completely dressed, and all the time she was asleep. She would leave the house and walk through her backyard, jump a little creek, to get to her bus stop. Her mother would call her back to the house. She would go back to bed and never remember her sleep walking experience.

Wikipedia documents some serious cases of sleepwalking:

• In Massachusetts, United States in 1846, Albert Tirrell was found not guilty of murder and arson, arguing that if he did do it, he was sleepwalking at the time. This was the first successful acquittal using a sleepwalking defense in American legal history.[13]

• In Ontario, Canada, Kenneth Parks was acquitted of all charges in 1987 killing of his in-laws, after evidence presented at his trial pointed to sleepwalking as the only possible explanation for his actions. He did not serve time in a mental ward because “noninsane automatism” (i.e., sleepwalking) was not legally viewed as a mental disorder in Canada.[14]

Spiritual sleep walking is even more serious. It is so serious as we saw in last week’s lesson, Paul calls for church discipline.  Now Paul tells believers how to wake up and walk carefully in wisdom.

1. First, Paul commands “Become Wise” in Ephesians 5:15.

The writer of Proverbs makes much of wisdom and says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). The beginning step, or the first step to receive wisdom is to receive Christ as Savior as Paul commended Timothy: “And that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Of course following this first step are many other necessary steps to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

2. Second, Believers can walk in wisdom by using their time wisely in Ephesians 5:16.

Since we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ (1:7) that is, bought out of the slave market of sin, we should buy up every opportunity to serve the Lord who redeemed us. In Colossians 4:5, Paul similarly says, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.” We should seize our opportunities to witness to the lost as Paul has just requested the Colossian believers to pray that he will have open doors to do while in prison (Colossians 4:3-4).

But in Ephesians 5:16, Paul emphasizes our ministry to believers who are practicing the unfruitful works of darkness. Believers walking in purity and wisdom must redeem the opportunity and wake them up by reproving (5:11, 13) them in these “evil days.”

“The great sixteenth-century reformer Philipp Melanchthon kept a record of every wasted moment and took his list to God in confession at the end of each day. It is small wonder that God used him in such great ways” (John MacArthur. Ephesians. 223).

In Psalm 90:12, Moses prayed: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Moses earlier states that a person usually lives to be threescore years and ten or even fourscore so we need wisdom to use our allotted time as effectively as possible for the Lord.

3. Now, Paul states doing the will of God is the best way to walk in wisdom in Ephesians 5:17.

A. First, Paul informs us as to what is not God’s will in 5:18a: “Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess.”

Paul could be referring to Proverbs 23:19-33 where the writer begins his warning against drunkenness by admonishing his son, “Be wise and guide your heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.” Paul agrees with the writer of Proverbs 23 that drunkenness can lead to “excess” or wasteful living as Luke used the same word to describe the prodigal son in 15:13.

So what is the alternative to drunkenness? Today a very popular alternative is drinking in moderation. After all, the moderationist, would say, “Does not Paul say in Ephesians 5:18, ‘Be not drunk with wine?” Paul did not say, “Do not occasionally drink a glass of wine.” “Even in 1 Timothy 3:3, Paul gave as a qualification for pastors, “Not a drunkard.” Then, in 5:23, Paul told Timothy to “drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your often infirmities.” Paul could not prohibit drinking wine because wine was mixed with unsafe water to make it safe. For believers today the safest approach to drinking is to totally abstain.

Three Views on Social Drinking

There are three views on social drinking which Mark Driscoll explains. I will give Driscoll’s discussion of the three views, and then my response to Driscoll’s preference. The first view is prohibitionism which holds all alcoholic consumption is prohibited in Scripture. Therefore, Jesus created and drank grape juice. Driscoll argues that since Jesus created and drank real wine so should believers today drink distilled wine. [4]

The second view on social drinking is absentionism which advocates drinking alcohol is not prohibited in Scripture but the believer should still abstain. One reason to abstain is to avoid leading a weak believer into sin. Driscoll states that Jesus drank (Mt. 11:19) undoubtedly in the presence of alcoholics. If that did not stop Jesus why should it stop believers today.[5]

Moderationism is the third view and Driscoll’s: “Alcohol itself is neutral and can be used in both good and bad ways. When used in a right and redeemed way [moderately and carefully], alcohol is a gift from God to be drunk with gladness.”[6]

After discussing the wine issue in the Bible, Norman Geisler came to a much different conclusion: “Therefore Christians ought not drink wine, beer, or other alcoholic beverages for they are actually ‘strong drink ’ and are forbidden in Scripture. Even ancient pagans did not drink what some Christians drink today.”[7]

Modern Distilled Wine is Different from Wine in the Bible

One of the reasons for coming to this conclusion that believers should not drink wine today is because modern distilled wine is not the same as the wine in the Bible. Wine in the Bible was more like purified water because the wine was diluted with water. On average for every one part of wine there were three or four parts of water mixed with the wine to purify the unsafe water. Jesus was not a teetotaler but we should be because the alcoholic content was different in the wine he drank and the wine society drinks today.

Drunkenness is clearly and repeatedly condemned in Scripture (Dt. 21:20-21; Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:19-21). Yet, pastors and deacons were not forbidden from drinking some wine (1 Tim. 3:3, 8) and the reason was because with water being unsafe, wine was used as a medicine as Paul reminds Timothy in the same Pastoral Epistle: “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your often infirmities” (1 Tim. 5:23). The same truth is found in the Old Testament that repeatedly condemned drunkenness (Hab. 2:15). Wine could, however, be used to relieve suffering. After the writer condemns leaders drinking wine and strong drink in Proverbs 31:4-5, he advices to “give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts” in verse six. We accomplish the same result today when doctors give suffering patients morphine to lessen great pain.

The Gamble of Moderation

One of the reasons believers should not drink wine today is because it may lead a weaker brother into sin. This truth is found in Romans 14:21: “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.” “A believer should ask himself, ‘Will my drinking cause anyone else to sin? Even if it would not be a problem to me, is it possible that it would cause someone else to stumble?’ The writer knows of former alcoholics who have attended church communion services in which fermented wine has been served, and just the taste of a little bit of it drove them back into alcoholism.”[8] Therefore wine should not be used in communion services today.

Another justification for abstinence is because social drinking can lead to alcoholism. Geisler stated that one out of ten social drinkers will become alcoholics.[9] Why gamble or cause someone else to gamble with alcoholism with those odds?

“Some people rank alcoholism as our second greatest health problem in America….There are about 10 million alcoholics and 20 million persons who consume an immoderate amount of alcohol. About 70% use alcohol as a beverage. As a result, alcohol contributes to 205,000 deaths each year. Life expectancy of the alcoholic is reduced by at least a decade. One-half of all traffic fatalities are the direct result of the abuse of alcohol. It is directly connected to one-half of the homicides and one-third of the suicides. It costs business alone 19 billion dollars a year. And now one out of every twelve marriages comes apart over drinking.”[10]

I have heard men justify their drinking by saying, “I am not hurting anyone but myself.” Ask the wife and children of the alcoholic if he is only hurting himself. Even if he were only harming himself instead of honoring God with his body and life, that is reason enough to quit. But the drinker is not just hurting himself, he is destroying his marriage and family. If Jesus lived today, I believe he would be a teetotaler, and so should we.

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[1] Mark Driscoll. The Radical Reformission (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 146.

[2] Ibid., 184.

[3] Ibid., 147.

[4] Ibid., 149

[5] Ibid., 150

[6] Ibid.,150.

[7] Norman Geisler. “A Christian Perspective on Wine-Drinking” Bibliotheca Sacra 139: 553 (1982): page 51.

[8] Ibid., 53.

[9] Norman Geisler. Criswell Theological Review-Volume 5, Issue 2, 2008.

[10] John Piper, Total Abstinence and Church Membership, Sunday Evening Message, October 4, 1981.

B. What is God’s will for the believer is to be Spirit Filled in Ephesians 5:18b ff

Three times Scripture compares and contrasts being controlled by wine and the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15; Acts 2:13; Ephesians 5:18) because both alter a person’s behavior. This is the eighth and final reference to the Trinity in Ephesians (1:3-14; 1:17; 2:18; 2:22; 3:4-5; 3:14-17; 4:4-6; 5:18-20). In addition to these references to the Holy Spirit, Paul mentions the “Sword of the Spirit” in 6:17. This last reference to the Holy Spirit is the key to being filled or controlled by the Spirit.

“Paul’s command to the Colossians, ‘Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you,’ was followed by a series of subsequent and dependent commands (Col. 3:16-25) that exactly paralleled those Paul gave in Ephesians 5:19-33 as being the results of the filling of the Spirit. In both cases we see that singing, giving thanks, and submissiveness follow being filled with the Spirit and letting the word of Christ dwell in us. It is therefore easy to conclude that the filling of the Spirit is not an esoteric, mystical experience bestowed on the spiritual elite through some secret formula or other such means. It is simply taking the Word of Christ (Scripture) and letting it indwell and infuse every part of our being. To be filled with God’s Spirit is to be filled with His Word. And as we are filled with God’s Word, it controls our thinking and action, and we thereby come more and more under the Spirit’s control” (MacArthur, 252).

Ephesians 5:18-21                                          Colossians 3:16-18

Filled with the Spirit 5:18                    Filled with the Word 3:16

1. Singing to the Lord 5:19                         1. Singing to the Lord 3:16

2. Thanking God 5:20                                   2. Thanking God 3:17

3. Submitting to one another 5: 21         3. Submitting to one another 3:18

Not only can a person can be controlled by alcohol but sorrow (John 16:6), fear (Luke 5:26), anger (Luke 6:11), faith (Acts 6:5), Satan (Acts 5:3), or jealousy (Acts 5:17). How much better to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and enjoy the following results.

What are the changes the Holy Spirit brings when He controls us?

1. He causes us to sing songs of worship to the Lord in Ephesians 5:19.

Johann Sabastian Bach, one of the greatest classical musicians of all time, said, “The aim of all music is the glory of God” (MacArthur, 263). Music is powerful. The music David played positively impacted troubled King Saul in 1 Samuel 16:23 so much so the evil spirit departed from King Saul. Biblical music can be powerful in the believer’s life because it allows “the Word of Christ” to “dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16).

2. He causes us to always give thanks for all things in Ephesians 5:20.

Dr. Alexander Whyte of Edinburgh was noted for finding good in all circumstance and being thankful for it. On a particularly stormy Sunday morning a member of his congregation thought to himself, the preacher will have nothing to thank God for on a wretched morning such as this. Dr. Whyte began his prayer in this manner, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.” Paul was that kind of optimistic soul, here in prison.

3. He causes us to be submissive to one another in Ephesians 5:21-6:9.

Paul next describes three relationships where each believer is submissive to the role assigned to him or her by God.

1) The Husband/Wife Relationship in Ephesians 5:22-33.

2) The Parent/Child Relationship in Ephesians 6:1-4.

3) The Employer/Employee Relationship in Ephesians 6:5-6.

The filling of the Holy Spirit produces these three important results. I like the illustration MacArthur gives: “The Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit can be compared to a glove. Until it is filled by a hand, a glove is powerless and useless. It is designed to do work, but it can do no work by itself. It works only as the hand controls and uses it. The glove’s only work is the hand’s work. It does not ask the hand to give it an assignment and then try to complete the assignment without the hand. Nor does it gloat or  brag about what it is used to do, because it knows the hand deserves all the credit. A Christian can accomplish no more without being filled with the Holy Spirit than a glove can accomplish without being filled with a hand (MacArthur, 250).

You can also read “A Thanksgiving Sermon from Ephesians 5:20″ and comment.

In my next posts I will discuss these relationships.