00:00:01:13 – 00:00:27:27
Clint Loveall
Hey friends, thanks for joining us on this Tuesday. We appreciate you, giving us some time in the middle of the day as we continue here in the book of Ephesians. We’re, midway ish through the fifth chapter. A continuation today of yesterday. But I think, you know, a little bit more, I think I’d seen a little bit more of a positive direction.

00:00:27:27 – 00:01:04:52
Clint Loveall
We’re jumping in at verse 15. Read through verse 20 here. Be careful then, how you live not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand with the will of the Lord is do not get drunk with wine. This is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making music to the Lord in your heart, giving thanks to God the Father at all times, and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

00:01:04:57 – 00:01:31:12
Clint Loveall
We’ve mentioned a couple times now through Ephesians, that Paul does have these moments where he kind of almost goes into adoration or praise, and this is one of them that’s kind of ends on a high note. I think Michael is thinking about this, priest study kind of reading this text. There may be a little bit of divide among the Christian family.

00:01:31:17 – 00:01:58:26
Clint Loveall
Some people love the do not passages. Right now, don’t do this and don’t do that. And people who do that are wrong. And and then I think maybe on the other side of the fence and I’m sure there are people who are neutral, but on the other side, I feel myself drawn to the do passages. I, I think in some ways what we’re called to be is more interesting than what we’re called not to be.

00:01:58:26 – 00:02:18:14
Clint Loveall
I suppose that’s aspirational. There’s something about that that speaks to me. And I hear that in this text, you know, be careful how you live. Not not as unwise, but as wise people and make the most of the time because the days are evil, which is a phrase that’s gotten a lot of attention through the years.

00:02:18:14 – 00:02:58:25
Clint Loveall
It’s probably overstated what what Paul seems to mean is that time is short and take advantage of the time while you have it. That that’s good. Do not be foolish. Understand? With the will of the Lord is don’t do this, but instead be be this. And, this is, I think, one of those transitional places between there’s some don’t in this passage, but there’s also it’s balanced with do this instead and I, I think it, it leaves I think this is more readable and maybe more approachable than, than some of what we saw previous, which was a lot of don’t.

00:02:58:30 – 00:03:20:11
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that there is a turn here and I think it’s worth, you know, being careful as we look at it. Be careful then how you live that I’ll be careful. Remember we’re supposed to live in the light. Don’t forget these themes that we had, that there is a world which is filled with darkness. But the revelation of Christ, which we see here in verse 14.

00:03:20:11 – 00:03:44:16
Michael Gewecke
Sleeper, awake, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Well, here we are. And we see that the so what the then of how we live is not as unwise people. And this is this. It needs to be very clear when we’re talking about wisdom in this context. We’re not talking about IQ. And sometimes we get these things conflated.

00:03:44:16 – 00:04:10:37
Michael Gewecke
The idea of wisdom is not that you are a PhD that has all of the answers to technical questions. That is not a problem. That’s a wonderful gift and skill set to have. But what’s referenced here, when we start talking about wisdom in the Ephesian context, is that ultimately, wisdom sees its antonym or its opposite in the foolishness that does these things.

00:04:10:37 – 00:04:33:19
Michael Gewecke
Foolishness that gets drunk with wine. Well, why is that foolish? Because it’s debauchery and it’s not being filled with the spirit. The thing that we’re called to be as people of wisdom is to be filled with the spirit. And this is the positive move of the text. The basic idea here is that ultimately, wisdom is not just a mental idea or construct.

00:04:33:19 – 00:05:03:13
Michael Gewecke
It’s not defined by how much you can fit inside your mind. Wisdom is defined by how it gets lived out in the world. It’s it’s the things that we know the relationship we have with Jesus Christ when it is actually taking action and embodied in the lives that we actually live. That’s an essential gloss of a text like this, because otherwise we get fixated on this idea in verse 15, because the days are evil.

00:05:03:18 – 00:05:26:33
Michael Gewecke
Sorry. Verse 16, because the days are evil. And then we get hung up there and we think that all that matters is trying to navigate within the evilness and not realizing that. The real call to this text is that wisdom directly impacts the day to day living that we actually do, and that that’s what we’re to be held to account to as we’re seeking to live out the faith in concrete, invisible ways.

00:05:26:33 – 00:05:51:51
Michael Gewecke
So your point, clean as well, made that functionally, this text calls us to, do a positive. Yes. That is so great and strong and compelling that it makes all of the other things clear for what it is darkness. If you were with us last study, or in this context, as a lack of wisdom, and fundamentally we’re called to be people of wisdom.

00:05:51:55 – 00:06:15:33
Clint Loveall
And fundamentally, I think scripturally wisdom always has to do with with godliness. It’s not just understanding the world, it’s understanding what God would have us do in the world. Which is why I think Michael and I agree 100% in verse 17, don’t be foolish, but understand the will of the Lord, that the opposite of foolishness is to understand what God wants.

00:06:15:37 – 00:06:55:15
Clint Loveall
Foolishness is to chase ungodliness and wisdom is to chase godliness. And then, you know, there’s is a word about how one conducts themselves. Don’t get drunk with wine. That’s debauchery. This is not an exhaustive list that Paul’s making. He’s making contrasts. When you do this, it leads you away. Instead, be filled with the spirit. Again. And it’s interesting here that that Paul’s opposite is the idea that when people are drunk, they kind of lose themselves and they go away from themselves.

00:06:55:15 – 00:07:22:43
Clint Loveall
But to be filled with the spirit is to live into ourselves. And I think this next part is kind of interesting, Michael, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, easily missed. There. But Paul has both a word for the community that worships and the individual that, practices praise.

00:07:22:48 – 00:07:53:58
Clint Loveall
Right? So as you sing together and as you sing and make melody in your heart, in your hearts. And so, and at best, the church is always a place where the thing that we do together is also happening in individual hearts and is bigger than any one person. And then, you know, Paul gives a kind of catch all here at the end, giving thanks to God the Father at all times for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

00:07:54:03 – 00:08:07:45
Clint Loveall
For Paul, gratitude is always a very good first and last word. It is always a place to start, and it is a place to finish. As we think about what Christ has done for us. So it’s, important word to him.

00:08:07:49 – 00:08:45:27
Michael Gewecke
Notice where the command first lands in this text. It’s all the way back at the very beginning of verse 15. Be careful, then, how you live. This is a call to intentionality, to thoughtfulness, to reflection. This is deeply connected to that ancient Hebrew idea of wisdom that we saw written throughout the Psalms and the Proverbs. For instance, there’s this idea that God has made the universe and given it a kind of ordering, and that wisdom is a reflection of both understanding that ordering and then living into it.

00:08:45:32 – 00:09:27:27
Michael Gewecke
Be careful, then, how you live. I’m struck by if you jump down to verse 18 and this is to intensify your point, Clint, don’t get drunk with wine. So that’s debauchery. That word to that’s a weird word. We don’t use that frequently in in common vernacular in other scriptures that gets translated dissolute living or prodigal ness. And you get in that this sense that Christians are called to be people who live with purpose, who don’t live aimlessly, that were the kind of people who, when we show up in the world, we, going back to verse 15, are careful about how we live.

00:09:27:32 – 00:09:48:45
Michael Gewecke
There’s a fine line to walk here, and I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting that here Paul has in mind a kind of, a guide to life. I kind of this is how you’re happy and fruitful and well-ordered in everything that you do. I think that smacks of our kind of Western predisposition with efficiency and self-improvement.

00:09:48:59 – 00:10:28:06
Michael Gewecke
I do think, though, it is fair to make a case here, that there is an expectation that what God has given us is a real invitation to relationship out of darkness and into the light. And if we’re the kind of people who are willing to make transparent the fact that we are broken, we’re sinful, we need the restoration of Christ, then what we open before us is the possibility, actually, that God is able to help us measure our days, to be careful with how we live, so that when we find ourselves drinking, we don’t do so to dissolute ness, to purposelessness, to meaninglessness.

00:10:28:13 – 00:11:00:36
Michael Gewecke
Because fundamentally it’s not. And you made this point, Clint. It’s not about the stuff that we’re not supposed to do, as if those things are unto themselves, some kind of moral clarion. No, it’s rather that we’re called as people of faith to live in to the purpose fullness of Jesus Christ. And if we do that, then these other things will quickly be put in contrast, that the unimportant will shift away, it’ll drop, and what will rise to the top will be the thing that’s worth, the salt, the light.

00:11:00:36 – 00:11:22:30
Michael Gewecke
And that is ultimately the things that we should. Coming back to verse 15, be careful about to live with wisdom in these are essential terms to set us up. And I think, Clint, I’ve talked a lot. I’ll transition. This here is just to say when tomorrow we get to verse 21, we’re going to get into some really practical life stuff.

00:11:22:35 – 00:11:48:39
Michael Gewecke
And if you if you blow past 15 through 20, you’re going to lose the context of it. It’s not an all time life manual for Christians that we need to have memorized so that we don’t. We do everything perfectly right. It’s about the way that God has ordered the world, and an invitation to rest in that order, to discover wisdom and to find that there is purposefulness in our life.

00:11:48:39 – 00:11:53:42
Michael Gewecke
And that’s an amazing overarching theme we can’t lose track of.

00:11:53:47 – 00:12:21:01
Clint Loveall
I don’t think that Paul ever gets far from this idea of the faith versus the world, and I think when you look at a verse like 18, don’t get drunk for that’s debauchery. Well, behind that, what you hear Paul saying is that’s a worldly thing. That’s what people outside of the faith do. They get lost in an earthly thing and they take it too far.

00:12:21:07 – 00:12:51:30
Clint Loveall
And and again, they lose themselves. They pursue purposelessness. And the contrast for that is found in Christ be filled with the spirit. So Paul is just constantly in this letter, and I think in, in the bulk of his writings, maybe all of his writings painting this picture of God versus world. And we are in the middle choosing which voice, in which path that we take.

00:12:51:30 – 00:13:11:58
Clint Loveall
And and so here he doesn’t need an exhaustive list of don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t. Because if he gives us what we are to do, he’s not afraid of the rest. We need not worry about all the particulars. It’s not like we need a giant book. And we and we, you know, follow the column in the row and say, okay, we can get away with this much.

00:13:12:03 – 00:13:35:42
Clint Loveall
It we if you are filled with the spirit singing praise in your heart and giving thanks to God for everything at all times, you’re going to be fine. I mean, I think Paul thinks that’s the path you need to be on, and it’s just funny to me how that how often through that lens, at least it it comes up in nearly everything Paul writes.

00:13:35:47 – 00:14:04:12
Michael Gewecke
It is interesting. And maybe to some of us who have grown up in a mainline tradition, you might be surprised to know that there are Christian groups that are very, very reluctant to include song music in in worship and in other corporate Christian contexts. And I just think, Clint, it is striking here. Sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing make melody to the Lord in our hearts.

00:14:04:15 – 00:14:30:52
Michael Gewecke
There’s a kind of heartstring that music does pull for. I think a lot of people. It takes some of the words of the faith, and it embeds them inside our consciousness and in the rhythms of our life, so that you’re going about doing your stuff and you find yourself singing your favorite hymn, or you’re listening to your favorite radio station, and that song comes on that is inspirational.

00:14:30:52 – 00:15:00:27
Michael Gewecke
It’s meaningful to you, it connects to your faith and it encourages you in your day. There is a beautiful way that music, musicians, that that craft has played a substantial part of Christians and faith and are seeking, desiring to follow Christ. And I do think it is just notable, striking this, a very surface reading of the text. I confess that to you, but just there’s a recognition of the gift of music, the way that God uses it, the way it’s a part of a life lived with gratitude.

00:15:00:32 – 00:15:19:52
Michael Gewecke
It is a kind of functional yet beautiful thing that Christians have always. Some number of Christians have always found a helpful part of our following Jesus Christ, and it’s interesting that here it’s it’s listed as one of those things.

00:15:19:57 – 00:15:57:07
Clint Loveall
Where where that sends my mind, Michael, is that I think in my time in the church, at least in leadership, there have been, of hundreds, literally hundreds of memorial and funeral services. There have been. But. Less than a handful that have not used song. But I mean, our faith is a singing faith, and the power of music is also the danger in it.

00:15:57:07 – 00:16:29:12
Clint Loveall
Music has probably taught more theology than anything else. Unfortunately. It’s also probably taught more bad theology than anything else. But the people of God have always been moved to lift their voices in praise and to sing. And, you know, those of us who are not really singers, I think even we can appreciate the power of that when you celebrate someone’s life and.

00:16:29:16 – 00:16:45:54
Clint Loveall
Entrust their care of spirit to God. We do so singing we. You know how great thou art an old rugged. I mean, we we we rarely come together as Christians without some music involved.

00:16:45:59 – 00:17:11:42
Michael Gewecke
And what strikes me in that, Clint, is music can be so high art, so high skill. A person can sing and take your breath away, and it can be as simple as you singing under your breath while you do a task. And I think that entire range maybe has something to teach us about the Christian life, that it’s not just about when the faith is the communion table and the word proclaimed in a sermon.

00:17:11:49 – 00:17:35:38
Michael Gewecke
The faith isn’t just the high points. Whatever those high points are in your definition, faith is the common in the everyday. And here it literally says that making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks at all times for everything, right? There’s a ever present ness of the ways that music can invade our lives and remind us of the God who lives in and with us.

00:17:35:38 – 00:17:39:43
Michael Gewecke
By the power of the spirit. There’s a gift across the whole range, is what I mean to say.

00:17:39:46 – 00:18:00:31
Clint Loveall
Sure. And and we would hope it grows from there. But for a vast majority of at least American Christians, our understanding of the faith likely started with the words Jesus loves me. This thing, right? I mean, for the Bible tells me so. And again, you don’t want to stop there. But that’s where a whole lot of us started.

00:18:00:35 – 00:18:10:30
Clint Loveall
And, that that’s the power that music has. And, Paul seems to think that it can be helpful.

00:18:10:35 – 00:18:18:14
Michael Gewecke
I would argue we’re just getting started with the practicalities. So, definitely tune in tomorrow because we’ve got a lot more coming down the pike.

00:18:18:14 – 00:18:20:28
Clint Loveall
We got some interesting stuff coming up.

00:18:20:33 – 00:18:34:26
Michael Gewecke
If this has been helpful, give you a, like, helps others find it, maybe give it a like so that others maybe watch this before they watch the stuff. We’re going to the rest this week. And certainly we’d love to have you subscribe. So you don’t miss studies like this. We will see you next time.

00:18:34:28 – 00:18:35:06
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.