EPHESIANS 5:17

The Bible says in Ephesians 5:17, “Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” This verse in the context is tied to both the verses that came before it and to the verses that follow. It is tied to the verses that came before it by the word “wherefore.” The verses that come after give more information about what is the will of the Lord.

In the verses that came immediately before this one, Ephesians 5:15-16 is on the subject of being foolish or wise based upon how we use the time that God gives to each us. “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Some people are foolish because they do not make the proper use of their time. Ephesians 5:17 gives another reason that people are foolish. It says, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” There are few things more important in life than knowing what is the will of the Lord. Jesus knew that it was important. He prayed to the Father and said, “Not my will, but thine be done.” If only people were wise enough to understand the will of the Lord for them. Then their lives would be fulfilled. Then they would accomplish the purpose for which they were put on this earth. How sad that so many people are not fulfilling the will of the Lord. It does not have to be that way. If you do not know God’s will, the wonderful truth is that you can know it, and this passage of scripture will tell you how.

Some people will ask, “What do I need to do to know and to do the will of the Lord? Do I need to sell all of my possessions and move to the other side of the world, or make some other great sacrifice?” No, not necessarily. The verses that follow here in Ephesians chapter five tell you exactly what you must do. Basically there are four things necessary to do the will of the Lord. You will see them in the rest of Ephesians chapter five. Those four things are: 1. Be filled with the Spirit. 2. Sing to the Lord. 3. Give thanks always for all things. 4. Submit yourselves one to another.

Ephesians 5:18 says, “And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” This verse is fully explained by recognizing the total context from which it is taken. One part of this context in chapter five has to do with the command to believers to not be partakers with the children of disobedience and to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. We already saw that as far as specific actions are concerned this refers to sexual immorality and human covetousness. Now we are being told that it also refers to drunkenness and therefore by inference we can say that it refers to any substance abuse. Some people look at this verse and say that it only speaks about drunkenness and therefore to drink alcohol is okay as long as one does not get drunk. That is not what this verse is teaching.

This verse is teaching that one of the problems with alcohol is that it can cause drunkenness, and the problem with drunkenness is that it has a bad effect on human behavior. When we speak of human behavior, we are talking about the works that you do. The goal is to have fruitful works, works that are produced by the Spirit. That is what verse nine says: “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” The Spirit of God works in conjunction with the will of man. If you lose control of your will through drunkenness or some other substance abuse, you will not be able to surrender your will to the Spirit, and thus you will not be filled with the Spirit; and thus you will be unwise and without understanding of the will of the Lord.

Concerning the concept of alcohol, this verse speaks of drunkenness; but there are other verses in the Bible that speak of the evils of alcohol whether drunkenness is involved or not. For example, Proverbs 20:1 says, “Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging. Whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs 23:29-31 says, “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red…” Alcohol is an addictive substance. Alcohol is harmful to the body, and the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and should not be harmed in any way. Every alcoholic, and there have been millions destroyed by alcohol, at one time thought that they would drink in moderation and that the alcohol would never control them. If they had never started to drink alcohol, not one of them would have ever become an alcoholic. Do not get drunk, and the way to make sure hat you never get drunk is to never drink alcoholic beverages.

The command is: “be filled with the Spirit.” That makes it clear that you have the choice if you are filled with the Spirit or not. You may have heard some people pray a prayer that goes something like this: “O Lord, please pour out your Spirit upon us so that we may have a revival.” You do not have to pray that prayer. God’s Spirit has already been poured out. That happened on the day of Pentecost. If you are really saved by faith in Christ, then you already have all of the Spirit that you will ever have. The question is: does the Spirit have all of you? That is what the command, “be filled with the Spirit,” is about. It is about you allowing the Spirit, whom you already have, to control you. It is your choice. He wants to control you, but are you letting Him?

The Spirit can only fill you to the degree that you are emptied of other things, especially of yourself and your own desires. The Spirit also fills you when you do the three things listed in verses 19, 20, and 21: speaking, giving thanks, and submitting. The phrase “be filled with the Spirit” speaks directly to what is going on inside of you. Ephesians 5:19 is about speaking to yourself and what you should be saying to yourself and how you should be saying it. It says, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Human beings speak to themselves. Human beings see what is going on around them, interpret those things, and then speak to themselves about them. You are in a sense creating your own reality by how you interpret things. Be careful what you say when you speak to yourself. You are telling yourself one thing or another. Make sure that you have the best thoughts possible about what you see. Make sure you have the thoughts that are the will of God. What is God’s will for you? God’s will is that you think the good thoughts that He wants you to think. God’s will is that you speak the positive things to yourself that you ought to speak. You can talk yourself right out of faith. If you do that, you will not be filled with the Spirit.

Of course, He knows everything that you are thinking. It says “making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Remember we were created in the image of God. We humans like to hear good, positive things; instead of bad, negative things. Evidently God is that way also. Remember that back in the book of Genesis God saw all that He created, and God said about all of it, “It is good.” Hopefully you are able to see the good in all that God has done and is doing, and that positive interpretation of yours is manifested by the fact that you are able to sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord. That is God’s will for you. That is a part of being filled with the Spirit. That is an important part of the life of faith: living in confidence in the good God who loves us and watches over us.

Ephesians 5:20 says, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The will of God for you is that you be a person who gives thanks to Him. The giving of thanks is very closely related to having faith, and we know how important faith is. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” If you believe that God is all-powerful, and if you believe that God loves you with His great eternal love; then you can be thankful for all things that come your way. Even the things that most humans call bad, you can be thankful for because you know that God allowed them for a reason. God’s reasons are always good reasons. He knows things that you do not know. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows how things are going to ultimately work out, and the final result of all things will be seen at the judgment, if not before. Live by faith and be thankful for all things. One interesting thing to note about this verse: in the Greek it is worded thusly: “giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God and the Father.” Notice that Christ is mentioned before God. Sometimes we think of ourselves as praying to the Father and then at the end of the prayer to say the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this verse the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned first. That is a good way to do it. In prayer feel free to mention the name of Jesus in the first part of your prayer and then pray the rest of the things that are on your heart, including thanksgiving.

Ephesians 5:21 says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord.” The word that is translated “submitting” comes from a combination of two words. One of them means “under” and the other means “to arrange” or “to put in place.” To submit means to arrange under. When you submit to someone, instead of arranging your affairs the way that you would have arranged them, you arrange your affairs under the wishes and the will of someone else. This passage was talking about knowing the will of God and being submitted to the will of God. And now Ephesians 5:21 makes it clear that believers must submit to one another. Countless problems among Christians would have never happened if only this one verse had been remembered and obeyed. It is no wonder that this verse says to submit to one another “in the fear of the Lord.” It is God’s will that you be a servant to other human beings. Instead of doing your own will, do the will of others. Then you will be doing the will of God.

Who are the individuals that you should be submitting to? – Everyone that you are around. The people that you are around the most usually are those in your own family. And so Ephesians 5:22 begins speaking about the husband-wife relationship and says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” Before Ephesians 5:22 is explained, it must be pointed out that this submitting of wives to husbands is mentioned after verse 21 says to everyone to submit to one another. Should husbands submit themselves to their wives? Yes, because everyone must submit themselves to everyone else. But just because husbands should submit themselves to their wives, does not free the wives of their responsibility of submitting to their husbands. If everyone is included in this submission to one another, then why are the wives singled out? Maybe because the wives will be the most tempted to resist that marital submission. That certainly seems to be the case in our society. Do not listen to those voices, and there are many, who encourage the women to resist the will of the man. That certainly is not God’s will. If you resist man’s will, then you are resisting God’s will at the same time, and you will not be filled with the Spirit, and you will not be doing the will of God.

Ephesians 5:23-24 gives an explanation as to why wives should be submitted to their husbands. It says, “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” The word head means that which is chief, supreme, and prominent. The Bible says that the husband is the head of the wife. Such a thing cannot be said more straightforward than that. But just in case someone does not understand, an example is given: that of Christ as the head of the church. The husband is the head of the wife in the same way that Christ is the head of the church. Any time that you have two or more people together that form a group, someone is at the head. A country has a president or a prime minister. A corporation has a CEO. An army has a four-star general. A church has the Lord Jesus Christ, and a marriage has the husband as the head. You do not have a body with two heads. You do not have a corporation with two CEOs. And you do not have a marriage with two heads. The husband is the head of the wife.

This truth does not mean that the wife is a slave. It does not mean that the husband can mistreat the wife. It does not mean that the husband is smarter or more important than the wife. If you are the head, then that brings with it responsibility. Verse 23 says that Christ is the “savior of the body.” A husband should do the same for his wife. A husband should give his life for his wife. The husband may be the head, but his decisions and his choices are all done for the sake of the wife and with the wife at heart. What will benefit the wife and what will help the wife? What will make the wife happy? That sounds like an arrangement that is a very good deal for the wife, and not a bad deal, but it will not happen unless the wife submits to the husband as the head.

Just because the husband is the head does not mean that he cannot delegate certain of his responsibilities to the wife. The wife may be better at handling finances, and therefore the husband may choose to hand the checkbook to her for her to control and to balance. But whether he chooses to delegate certain things or not, the Bible makes it very clear that the responsibility of the wife is to be subject to the husband “in every thing.” Where there is no submission, there is rebellion. Where there is rebellion, there is rebellion against God.

___________________________________________________