Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
We can’t go through the Christian life casually, just
letting life happen to us. If we do, we are bound to fall at some point or another.
We can’t live by our feelings. We have to walk by faith. And walking by faith
means following a plan which is God’s plan for us.
Satan is going to throw all sorts of things at us to try to
trip us up, and in an attempt to get us to fail. And he knows our weak points
because he has been observing us for a long while. So, we have to be armored up
all the time so that we can fight against his wicked schemes against us.
We can’t go into situations blindly thinking that this will
never happen to us, for it could. Things I never thought in a million years
that I would ever do I did in my past a long time ago. So, even if you are
walking closely with the Lord, take heed if you think you stand lest you fall.
Always expect the unexpected. Be prepared for every possibility
that you can possibly think of, because Satan has probably already thought of
them, and he is most likely just waiting for the most opportune time to try
some of them out on you when you least expect it.
Even if something has never been an issue for you in your
life so far, don’t assume that it could never be an issue. Things change. Our
circumstances change. Other people change. And we may find ourselves one day in
a situation we did not plan for because we thought it could never happen.
So, what I am saying here is that walking in wisdom involves
being proactive and not just waiting until we get into a situation which, if we
aren’t prepared for, could lead us into sin. Especially if we have a close walk
with the Lord, Satan is going to be after us.
But he isn’t just after us who are walking closely with the
Lord. He is after all those who he has been able to capture in his traps for
years but who the Lord is working on to get them to come out from under the
control of Satan over their lives. For, Satan doesn’t want to let them go.
Also, going along with not living casually is making the
best use of the time we have on this earth, because the days are evil, indeed!
If we are those who just waste time, Satan is going to go after us to trip us
up. For, he goes after people when they are not operating under the direction
of the Holy Spirit, who are not armored up, to get them to fall into his traps.
Also, if we are followers of Jesus, we should be serving the
Lord with our lives, not serving our own flesh. We should be following him
where he leads us, and we should be doing what he has called us to do. And we
should be sharing the true gospel (the whole counsel of God) with others.
Ephesians 5:18-19 ESV (Cf Col 3:16)
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart..”
This word “drunk” has to do with inebriation and
intoxication. Inebriation - To exhilarate, confuse (puzzle), or stupefy (daze)
mentally or emotionally. Intoxication - overpowering exhilaration or excitement
of the mind or emotions; to cause (someone) to lose control of his faculties or
behavior.
So, getting “drunk” doesn’t have to be just with wine. It
can be with “lust.” How many married people have “fallen in love” with someone
else and thought that they had finally found “true love”? They were drunk on
lust and on passion and desire, but it wasn’t “true love.”
Addiction is the same as being drunk. When you are addicted
to sin it has power over you and you lose all control of good judgment and you
go with your feelings and not with what makes sense. You do what feels good at
the moment regardless of the outcome, and regardless of the consequences.
For, when you are drunk (intoxicated to sin) you don’t think
rationally. You just do what comes naturally. For you are being led by the lusts
of the flesh and not by sound judgment, nor by the Lord. And so you become
self-indulgent, seeking self-pleasure, and self-gratification, rather than
following the way of holiness and true love.
For the kind of love that the Bible talks about comes from
God and it prefers what God prefers, and it chooses his choices for us. It
lives under self-control, not out-of-control. Its desire is to please the Lord
and to do what he says, and it rejects the pleasures of our sinful flesh.
So, being filled with the Spirit is living under Holy Spirit
control, not out-of-control. We follow the Spirit’s lead, not our emotions, not
our flesh, and not lustful desires. And our concern is for other believers and
their spiritual welfare rather than just thinking about how we can gratify our
flesh.
And when we care about the spiritual well being of our
brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are going to minister to their spiritual
needs in the ways that the Scriptures teach us to do. And that involves teaching
and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing and addressing one another
in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
And this isn’t about singing worship songs with a praise
band in a church service. This is about sharing songs and poems and words of
wisdom and encouragement with one another to help one another in our walks of
faith to grow in Christ to spiritual maturity, and so none of us are hardened
by sin’s deceitfulness (cf. Col 3:16; Heb 3:13).
If we are on the internet, and if we are on social media or
a Christian discussion site or a blog or other place on the internet where we
can share Christ and his gospel and where we can encourage our brothers and
sisters in Christ to walk in holiness and righteousness and to forsake sin, we
should be doing this. This is what we are called to do.
Ephesians 5:20-21 ESV
“..giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
We should always have thankful hearts and attitudes, and if
we don’t, we need to work on that. We may need reminders from time to time, but
we need to listen to those reminders and heed them and choose to be thankful
even when things aren’t going so well for us.
Also, we should always give God the praise for everything
that he does through us. If the Lord used us to encourage someone, give him the
praise. If he gave you a song or a poem to write and it blessed someone, give
him the glory. If he gave you words of wisdom to share and it helped someone,
give him the applause. Don’t take credit for yourself for what God did.
And as far as submitting to one another out of reverence for
Christ, it just means we don’t have to be first. Let others go first. Where
there is room to yield on non-essential issues, then yield. It doesn’t mean we
have to agree with everyone on every issue but that we don’t have to try to convince
everyone else that our way is right, unless biblically it is the only way.
On the essentials, don’t yield. And the essentials are what was
taught both in the Old and in the New Testaments. It is the message of the
gospel of old and of the new. We must believe in God, in Jesus Christ, and God
describes belief as obedience and unbelief as disobedience. We must turn away
from our sins and surrender to Jesus Christ to follow him in obedience to his ways.
For, if we don’t, and we continue in sin, we will die in our sins.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas
1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom
2:6-8; Matt
7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1
Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Rev 21:8, 27]
Pie Jesu
Songwriters: Andrew Lloyd-Webber
Merciful Jesus,
Pie Jesu,
Who takes away the sins of the world
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Give them rest, grant them rest
Dona eis requiem, dona eis requiem
Lamb of God
Agnus Dei,
Who takes away the sins of the world
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Grant them eternal rest
Dona eis requiem
Forever
Sempiternam
Requiem
Requiem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46wueF4OKck
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