Ephesians 5:15-21 (EHV)

¹⁵ Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people. ¹⁶ Make the most of your time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ For this reason, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And do not get drunk on wine, which causes you to lose control. Instead, be filled with the Spirit ¹⁹ by speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (singing and making music with your hearts to the Lord), ²⁰ by always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ and by submitting to one another in reverence for Christ.

Dear Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit upon us so that we may live as wise people who gladly proclaim thankfulness for your grace to us through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let’s start with the good news:

God has chosen you before the foundations of the world were laid. He’s adopted you as his dearly loved children to be holy and blameless. He did this by sending his own beloved Son into this world to suffer and die for you and me so that through the shedding of his innocent blood we might be forgiven.

By his grace he joined us to our Lord Jesus Christ so that we might be one in him – being washed with the one baptism, receiving the one Spirit, and having one faith together with all the holy people of God.

He did all this without any of us deserving this gift. None of this is as a result of our own good works so that no one may boast in anything or anyone except Jesus Christ. We receive the fullness of all God’s awesome heavenly and eternal gifts by faith. We’re all at peace with God and have access to God the Father through our faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the good news!

But what difference does it make? Does this good news affect how you live at home, at work, on the farm, down the street, or at church?

Well, St Paul believes it has a huge impact and he’s been sharing what this means for your life throughout his letter. It means we live differently than everyone else who don’t believe this good news. Not because this earns us any more brownie points with God, but simply because the amazing grace of God changes us from being focussed on ourselves to being focussed on those around us.

You see, God didn’t save you or me just for your own benefit.

Now, of course he saved you because he loves you, and he saved me because he loves me, but he also loves our neighbours whether they know or trust in God or not.

This means he didn’t save you to be alone in your salvation or righteousness. He didn’t save you in order that you might rule those around you in pride or arrogance because you think you’re better than all the other sinners in the world.

He saved you so that you would serve as God’s instrument of blessing in a world darkened by selfishness, arrogance, and deception. He saved you so that you would become his willing and obedient servant who loves and gives and forgives and serves all those you’re tempted to look down on and criticise. God wants to bless everyone, and he’s chosen you to be his ambassador of grace and blessing and forgiveness to them.

This means if you’re going to be a blessing to them, you won’t blindly follow the crowd of this world in its smug self-righteousness, but you’ll you seek out the truth of your own sinfulness and idolatry so that you may repent.

Instead of lying to serve yourself, you’ll speak the truth in love so those who listen will be the ones who benefit.

Instead of being greedy to gain things for yourself, you’re content with what God has given you.

Instead of stealing or taking what’s not yours, you work and serve and share with one another.

Instead of putting people down, you build up and encourage each other.

Instead of being angry or letting unwholesome talk coming out of your mouth, you’re kind, tender-hearted and forgiving.

Instead of coveting other things or other people, you’re thankful for all the things and people God has already blessed you with.

If you truly believe the awesome generosity and grace of God toward you, your life changes, and it should be noticeable. People will know and experience grace and peace and forgiveness and encouragement and hope from you because you’re an instrument of God’s grace.

This is because you live as wise people who want to continue learning from the grace and mercy of God. Of course, if they don’t experience this from you, it could be you’re not living as wise people wanting to learn from God how to live as his holy child.

And this is where we often get into trouble.

You see, from the very beginning God, in his infinite wisdom, defined what was wise. He declared what was good and what was very good. He declared what was not good and what was forbidden.

But the first humans, who had only experienced the goodness of God, wanted to define good and evil for themselves. They succumbed to temptation and wanted to be autonomous from God. Even though they were already made in God’s image, they wanted to be like God.

Now, we might be tempted to criticise them thinking we wouldn’t do such a thing, but every generation of humanity continued this pattern of independence and autonomy from God, and it continues among us today.

A simple test to see if you do this yourself is to consider if you’ve become frustrated or angry with someone and to consider why you became frustrated or angry.

Now, it could have been for a very good reason. Perhaps they acted unjustly. But it could be because they disagreed with you, misunderstood you, didn’t listen to you, didn’t do what you wanted them to do, threatened you or your reputation, or hurt you.

Did you get frustrated or angry because you reckon you’re more intelligent, wiser or more knowledgeable than they are? Have you judged them as incorrect because they didn’t agree with your own definitions of good and evil? Is it because you wish to punish them because they challenging you and your authority?

Because we’re not getting our own way our insecurities, greed, pride and selfishness tempt us to lie, hide, deny, manipulate and put down. We try to raise ourselves and our own position above other people by putting them down. We try to bend people to our own will through manipulation and coercion.

We seek to judge and punish each other because we’ve decided for ourselves what’s good and evil. We’ve decided we’re the one everyone needs to listen to and obey. We’re the ones people need to answer to, and we decide the way they should be punished. And what makes this even more evil is we might believe that by doing so we’re actually fulfilling the will of the Lord!

In response, St Paul invites us to understand what the true will of God is and gain wisdom in doing so. As a response to gaining understanding and growing in spiritual maturity, we’ll walk in the ways of wisdom.

This is because Paul knows true wisdom comes from God, from knowing who he is, what he does for us, and how he wants us to be obedient and live under his rule. But there’s also a twist to how we receive this wisdom.

In the first reading for today we hear lady wisdom’s invitation to gain spiritual maturity and wisdom by eating and drinking what she’s prepared. She’s prepared bread and wine for us to chew on and swallow, and somehow, by doing so, we gain spiritual maturity and insight from God’s wisdom. As a result of what we receive into our own being, we walk in the light of this wisdom and live differently to everyone else.

If we were to read a little further, we would read in Proverbs 9:10 that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’, and that ‘the knowledge of the Lord is insight for us’. We learn to fear the Lord and gain insight through trusting his words to us. We learn wisdom by trusting his definitions of good and evil. As we trust his word, it enters our being and affects how we live.

Similarly, in the Gospel reading we hear another invitation to eat and drink, this time from Jesus himself. But the temptation here is to limit the meaning of what Jesus said.

You see, we hear the invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood so that we may have life in us. Since we believe the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper is his true body and blood, we might think this is what Jesus is referring to.

However, if we read more of John’s gospel account, we discover that whenever we hear a reference to the ‘flesh’ of Jesus, it’s referring to his humanity, after all, John 1:14 reads that the ‘Word became flesh and dwelt among us’.

The truth we need to ‘swallow’ here is the truth Jesus, the man who walked on earth among his people, born of Mary, is also God in human flesh. God himself became human in order to save humanity. This is often too hard for people to believe, but for those who do believe, he’s given the right to be children of God who receive the gift of life eternal in his kingdom.

In the same way, the other truth we need to ‘swallow’ is the truth Jesus (who is God in human flesh) had to suffer and die for us. He had to shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins. This is also too hard for many to believe that we actually needed God to die for us, but those who believe Jesus died for them for the forgiveness of sins receive what he promises: forgiveness, life and salvation.

Therefore, true wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord and gaining insight from God’s definitions of good and evil, which include the necessity that God himself would become human in the form of Jesus in order that he should suffer and die for us for the forgiveness of all our sins.

The connection with Holy Communion is that we receive the benefits of his humanity and death through his chosen means of grace by trusting his words as we eat and drink his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

This is the true wisdom of God we need to ‘swallow’ and accept into the centre of our being which changes us from the inside out and affects how we live.

God tells us what is true, what is good, what is evil, and how to live. Those who trust him gain wisdom and insight which affects how we live, which is why we don’t live like everyone else.

We live as gracious people. We love each other, including our enemies, because God first loved us. We forgive each other, including our enemies, because we’ve been forgiven by God. We serve each other, including our enemies, because God chose you and me to be a blessing to those around us.

This is because God chose you before the foundations of the world were laid. He’s adopted you as his dearly loved children to be holy and blameless and wise. He did this by sending his own beloved Son into this world as a human being to suffer and die for you and me so that through the shedding of his innocent blood we might be forgiven.

By his grace he joined us to our Lord Jesus Christ so that we might be one in him – being washed with the one baptism, receiving the one Spirit, and having one faith together with all the holy people of God.

He did all this without any of us deserving this gift. None of this is as a result of our own good works so that no one may boast in anything or anyone except Jesus Christ. We receive the fullness of all God’s awesome heavenly and eternal gifts by faith.

We declare the praises of God through our songs and hymns and as we share the gospel of our Lord and walk in his wise and gracious ways. This is because we’re all at peace with God and have access to God the Father through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit so that…

…the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.