For the past eight weeks we have looked at four aspects of Christian living in terms of how we should walk and please God. Giving two sessions to each of the four we have thought about walking worthily, walking differently, walking in love and walking as light, all based on verses from Ephesians 4 and 5. One additional aspect remains. We will take three weeks to explore walking wisely. This idea is introduced in Ephesians 5:15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.”
In introducing the wise Christian walk, the verse tells us that a wise walk is one that is done carefully. Carefulness is usually a valued and wise virtue so long as it is not used as an excuse for procrastination. Let’s think about it by beginning with a somewhat quaint word for carefully. As rendered in the time-honored and beloved King James Version that word is circumspectly. Another way of saying a wise walk is a careful one is to say it is a circumspect one. Analyze the word itself.
The circum- part speaks of around, as in circumference or the distance around a circle. The –spectly part speaks of looking or seeing, as inspecting or looking carefully at a matter or object. Putting the two parts together renders the thought of “looking all around.” Looking all around can be an important ingredient in a wise walk. It suggests what an advance scout might do in time of war when he goes behind enemy lines to assess the enemy army’s size and munitions strength. A walk through the enemy’s territory if done wisely is done while constantly looking all around. The Bible declares this present world is under the prince of the power of the air — Satan himself (Eph. 2:2). First John 5:19 concurs, “The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” Since our lives are cast in this present world, in a spiritual sense we are living behind enemy lines. That being true we must walk carefully and remain alert; to do less is manifestly unwise.
Given our kind of world wise Christian living takes seriously the admonition, “Look carefully then how you walk.” The opposite side of the admonition is living carelessly. Good Christians sometimes drift into a careless walk. Carelessness can be manifest in many ways. Some Christians are careless about their manner of dress, choosing immodesty over modesty. Sometimes some Christians are careless about their speech using gutter language or uttering profanities just like unconverted people might do. We can become careless about the close companions we choose. The Bible still maintains friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4) and warns, “Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33).
Carelessness sometimes shows up when bad habits are allowed to go unexamined and unchecked. Christian people can get careless in their entertainment choices, being undiscerning about what they hear and look at, forgetting theaters have exits and television sets have off buttons. One does not have to range very far in today’s world to hear professing Christians use the name of Jesus as a byword carelessly exclaiming, “Christ, I can’t believe they did that.” In a similar vein Christians who use social media regularly can get careless in treating God’s name as commonplace in the expression, “Oh, my God,” somewhat sanitized by the verbal shorthand OMG.
The caution of our Ephesian passage stands, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.”
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