(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians chapter 5, similarly to much throughout St. Paul’s epistle to the church in Ephesus, he gives us much contrast in his language that he uses, much contrast between two opposites through admonitions and exhortations, through warnings as well as encouragements to stand to hold. Consider his words through the lens of the gospel that you heard, through the parable of our dear Lord Jesus, for St. Paul is speaking in his letter not to unbelievers but to believers.
Therefore he warns and encourages Christians as he warns us today as he encourages us today, though he encourages those who are part of a joyful mass celebrating as blessed guests at the Son’s wedding feast, there by grace alone, robed by gracious gift from above, from wedding garment at the Son’s wedding feast, robed with holiness and purity of Jesus the Son himself, not cast into the outer darkness but dwelling in the light of Christ as he has made us to be children of light. Therefore, in Ephesians, God is the one speaking to us. He is the one showing us that what it means to be active in our faith, faith that he has given, that he has bestowed, just as is taught in the formula of Concord, where it says, it is correctly said that in conversion God, through the drawing of the Holy Spirit, makes willing people out of stubborn and unwilling ones, not that we have any of those among us, right? And after such conversion, pay attention, and after such conversion in the daily exercise of repentance, the regenerate will of a person is not idle but cooperates in all the works of the Holy Spirit which he performs through us.
We, as believers, cooperate with the work of God, not as if we are an additional horse or an additional ox being paired to a yoke to pull, Holy Spirit, you do 50, I see this work that you have for me, I’ll do my 50 part, together there’s our 100. That is not a cooperation that is being spoken of but rather a cooperation in the leading of the Holy Spirit where the pure mind and will of God is what he intends to shine in the life of the Christian. And therefore, our cooperation isn’t, okay, now, Holy Spirit, I’m working with you, but rather it’s I’m working in you, in your leading as I follow you.
As he enables us to do for without the work and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we would be able to do no good work. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit, not in that sharing, but again, in his leading. Therefore, just prior to our text this morning, Saint Paul writes this, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore, do not be partakers with them for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Saint Paul uses that language, walk, pulling it from the Old Testament.
Walk, referring to how you live, how you go about your business, how you actively make use of the new heart that God Almighty puts within you. The new will that he has given you to love him in body and soul with all your heart, mind, and strength. He says, Saint Paul, see to it that you work circumspectly.
Now, I rarely, if ever, use that word circumspectly. I admit, I had to look it up. What does this mean? Well, you can see circa, like circum, like where we get circle, circumspectly, an aspect.
Think of those two going together, being aware and careful of all that surrounds you. Walk your life with nothing being unexamined or considered in the light of Christ. Walk your life circumspectly, paying attention to all things.
Why? Listen to all the contrast that Saint Paul gives us in the things that are constantly going on around us, reasons for us to see that we walk, that we live, that we take care, that we take nothing for granted in this life, nor find ourselves to be apathetic toward God in any area of all that he builds us up to be and to live in. But paying attention to these contrasts about which the new heart indeed cares, for these contrasts are not just lists, but they are things to inform our minds of what the new heart desires. Walk, not as fools, but as wise.
To be wise is to live all of life by the standard of faith, all of life. To keep nothing of your life from the Lord, no area for him to touch, to rebuke, to build up both, for he is the one who gives you life. But to seek his good in his gracious will in all things, as we fear, love, and trust in him above them all.
To not do so is to be a fool, being more similar to the world than to Christ, more similar to darkness than to light. Walk, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Redeeming the time by cursed default, our flesh, the world, and its wicked ruler breed evil into each new tick of the clock, every time, every second.
The Christian’s intention, then, is to yield no time over to the works of the flesh, but to redeem it, to win it back, to claim it back, to reclaim it by the word that is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. More contrast, walk. Do not be unwise, the contrast, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
This is done only by the word of God and the ministry of his sacraments being poured into your life, as we replace foolishness with his revealed will in his holy word, inspired by the spirit whom he sins. Walk. Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit.
So as he concludes his contrasting language, he points out this one vice, drunkenness, one of the many ways that the flesh seeks to escape in this world that is great tribulation and trial indeed, but instead points even to a person of the holy of the holy trinity, the spirit himself. Instead of seeking to escape by earthly means, be filled with the spirit. Instead of self-destructing, instead of creating emptiness and void within, what the Christian does is to seek satisfaction, to seek contentment, and to seek peace in and from God alone and especially above all, as his own holy spirit dwells in us and he fills us up for such good things to be had.
Then the second half of St. Paul’s passage that we had this morning is a saturated ode to the blessed trinity himself, as a threefold pattern occurs even in St. Paul’s grammar that he uses. What does being filled with the spirit look like in the lives of believers? Well, he doesn’t give an exhaustive list, but he gives a beautiful three points to us. It involves speaking, it involves giving thanks, it involves submitting.
Submitting. If you go back and look at the text, you can see how he builds this because speaking, now not just all speaking, because many of us, we really like to speak, which is fine. Thanks be to God that we do like to make use of the ability to communicate and a matter of fact, when others are gone whose voices we do not hear anymore, we long and we miss for those days in which we heard those particular waveforms make their way from that mouth to our ear.
So it’s not just any speaking though that St. Paul is talking about here. He even gives details. Why? Because speaking is a sign of life.
Consider the scriptures and where you see it. God created how? He spoke. And it was.
It came to be. And it is the very means, speech that is, by which God Almighty Himself spreads the good news of Jesus Christ into all places in all times. The very gospel is proclaimed by speaking.
Those who oppose Christ and do not believe in Him in the scriptures, what happens? What is even prayed for or against them in the Psalms? That their mouths be shut instead. Those oppose Christ and do not believe Him, even in Christ’s presence in His ministry, they are repeatedly silenced. They could not answer Him.
They said no more. Even in the parable this morning, what did the man without the wedding garment have to say? Nothing. He was speechless in his death, in the darkness that still had a hold of him.
Whereas opposed for those who are alive in Christ, who are resurrected from the dead, remember the story of Jesus encountering the funeral procession at the gates of Nain. What were the things that happened after he touched the beer and raised the widow’s son? What did the widow’s son do? He spoke. God has given speech to us for our benefit, speech to speak like Christ in Psalms, in hymns and spiritual songs.
Another three-fold pattern, if you notice. For such speaking actions are rooted in the word that springs forth a life of living water in the heart that then proceeds from the mouth. Giving thanks is a sign of life.
For such to do so, to give thanks to the Almighty, is such acknowledgment and joyous recognition that all good giving, even that that goes on between us, for us, for others who are in need, all of that is rooted and only fueled by the good giving that God Himself shows in Himself because of the life that He gave. God the Father, in the life and death of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Spirit proceeding from both, fills us with this good news and faith to trust it, faith to believe, faith that sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith. Clear Trinitarian illusion for Father, Son, and Spirit, Saint Paul mentions there in the text.
So, they’re speaking, giving of thanks in the life of the Christian, and the third, submitting. We don’t like that, especially in our individualistic, self-able to do things, my own kind of day, right? But there is good order in God’s creation on so many different levels that He has given to us in submission even to one another. Beautiful orders that He has put into place for to submit to one another in the fear of God is to submit to one another in those blessed orders that He has put in place, trusting Him above all, having fervent love for one another in those orders as He works His good.
So, such submission, such giving thanks, such speaking in the lives, in the active intention lives of Christians, these things are not done so that we earn or that we even keep our salvation, but such humble actions by the Christian heart. These are done because it is a Christian heart. Already, God has done this.
It is a new heart, a new creation, a new Christian life. So, we seek then to actively cooperate with the Holy Spirit in doing good works like these because it is the Father who has created us in body and soul. It is the Son who has redeemed us in the very same, our entire person, and it is the Holy Spirit who fills us, changing our hearts so that we cooperate with Him in what He seeks to perform in us and through us.
This is a blessed existence that stands out. I say, yea, even shines like a city on a hill in the midst of a world that is so extremely dark. This kind of life that lives with just even these three shines.
It walks in the wise light to dark contrast, contrast to the ways of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh as the blessed Trinity Himself, Himself enables us to redeem the time in accordance with His good and gracious will. In Jesus’ name.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.)
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