To Encourage You

Ephesians 5:15-17 “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Are you wise?  What does that even mean?  In biblical language wisdom is the opposite of foolishness – and no one wants to be known as a fool.  But how do we avoid living foolishly?  Who or what defines a foolish from a wise act or a foolish from a wise life? 

Ephesians 5 gives us some guidance along these lines.  For one, a wise person is one who makes “the best use of the time.” In other Bible translations, this is rendered “making the most of every opportunity.”  But how, indeed, is this possible? How does one recognize “every opportunity” and how does one make the most of those opportunities when they come?  The key, according to Ephesians 5, is to “understand what the will of the Lord is.”  And so for a person to live a wise life on this earth, from the perspective of wisdom personified (i.e., “Jesus – who became to us wisdom from God” (I Corinthians 1:30), we must understand the will of the Lord.  As opportunities present themselves, we should ask ourselves “what would Jesus do in that same situation?” for Jesus was wiser than Solomon, who to that point was the wisest one who had ever lived (Matthew 12:42).   

Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), has provided His very words and teachings to us in the Scriptures.  These teachings are designed to make us wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15) as well as wise to live a godly and Christ-like life that is fruitful from God’s perspective. 

We have been told that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  To be “equipped for every good work” is to be prepared to make the most of every opportunity in our limited time on earth. 

So, do you want your life to count in your day by day walk and, likewise, to count for all eternity?  The wisdom to make this possible is available to us only in the Scriptures as we learn them and apply them to life.  Are you spending time in God’s Word and are you putting into practice what you learn?  To do so is to live a life of wisdom, and to spurn this is to live a life of a fool.  That’s what God has clearly told us all.  May he help us to be wise enough to give heed.