Walking Wisely

Welcome back to Campus Bible Talk.  Our first meeting for this year took place last evening.  We talked about Walking Wisely and how God provides us with guidance in making the right choices in our lives.  Our main text was Ephesians 5:15-20.  We discussed how walking wisely means to learn about God and what He expects us to do.  Making the most of every opportunity is important, as our time on earth is short.  We concluded that instead of being filled with evil we need to be filled with the Spirit of God.

The notes from this talk are below.

January 10, 2011

Walking Wisely

Opening Question: What is a wise goal you have set out for yourself recently?

It is important to set out goals for ourselves, in order to know where we are headed and how to get there.  If we determine wise goals, then we will be able to have a direction toward what we want to achieve and we can work in smaller, continuous steps to these goals.

Today, we are going to talk about a few passages from the Bible that can help us think about making wise goals and walking wisely in our lives.  The main text is taken from Ephesians 5:15-20:  15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us take this passage verse by verse.

Verse 15

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise

It is important to know how to live in a wise way.

What does it mean to live wise?

Wise means knowing what to say and how to live. 

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

By studying the Bible, we can get the wisdom to live in a righteous way.

Verse 16

making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Earlier in the same letter, Paul has told the Ephesians in Ephesians 2:10 that:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Time flies and we do not know how many days or years we have left on this earth.  Therefore, we need to seize the day and make wise choices now and do the good works that God wants from us. 

What are some of these good works?

God expects us to talk to people about Him and the salvation from sin that He offers.  God also expects us to provide for the people that are in need.  Everyone has a talent that he or she can use to do good works for God. 

Use our time to study what God wants, to pray, to encourage others, to remember to give thanks, to not waste time with “partying” all night.

We can waste time or use it in the wrong way, which will take us even more time to fix these errors or wrong choices.

What does it mean that the days are evil?

There are many temptations not to do the wise things and not to make the right, wise decisions.

Verse 17

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Once again we are told that understanding the will of the Lord, the will of God, will bring us wisdom and lead us into making the right choices with our lives.

Verse 18

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

We all know stories about situations when somebody became drunk and bad things or actions resulted from them.  God’s alternative to become full of wine is to be filled with His spirit, the spirit of goodness and wisdom.

Verses 19-20

speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God does not expect us to walk wisely and do good works while being isolated islands in the world.  Here, we are told that we need to have a good and strong relationship with one another.  For this purpose, we sing and we sing psalms, hymns and songs so that we can speak and communicate with one another. 

Basically we encourage one another. By using words from the Bible and this can be done with songs as well.

Throughout all this process of following the Spirit of God and allowing the Spirit to work in our lives, we should be thankful to God for everything.  As we have mentioned in previous lessons, we can all find something to be thankful to God.  And all thankfulness should be done in the name of Jesus.

Conclusions

Walking wisely means that we need to learn about God and what He expects us to do with our lives.  Making the most of every opportunity is important and so is the understanding of the will of God.  Finally, instead of being filled with evil, we need to be filled with the Spirit of our God. And He is more than willing to help us with that if we only ask and study.

Campus Bible Talk 2011