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“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:15-16)

When our daughter Naomi was about three years old, she went through a stage of trying to spot every Tesla when we were out driving. I’m not sure what it was about Teslas, maybe their sleek and smooth shape, but Naomi made it her mission to spot all the Teslas that she could. And so, when we got in the car, her attention was fixed on the road out her window, her eyes searching for a Tesla, and she would shout out, “Tesla!” when she saw one. And she was surprisingly good at spotting them!

As I was reading Ephesians 5 recently, I was struck by the kind of disciplined attention Paul calls Christians to in this chapter. Believers are to pay close attention to their lives, so that they might live wisely for the Lord, making the most of every moment. But such attentiveness to how we live can be so difficult can’t it? Life is so busy, and often we can feel like we’re just keeping our heads above water with all the responsibilities we have: work and family life, friendships, school, community events, health challenges etc. It’s far easier for us to simply drift through life, letting life pull us along so to speak.

The problem with this passive approach to the Christian life is the context in which we live. Paul describes it like this: “the days are evil” (Eph 5:16). If we let ourselves simply drift along in such a world, we’ll end up conforming to the pattern of the world around us (Rom 12:2). So Paul calls us to a different way. As those who have been made alive in Christ (Eph 2:5), who “were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8), we are to be attentive to the way we live, and to seek to live wisely.  

But what does it mean to live wisely? It means to live according to God’s good design. The Bible says that God created his world with wisdom (Prov 3:19). This means that God’s wisdom is part of the fabric of our world. In creation, God has so carefully ordered his world and designed us in such a way that certain patterns of living in our world work, because it’s how God designed us to live. Wise living, then, is the skill of living according to God’s good design. It’s being able to see the different paths available in each situation, and to take a wise one.

This image of the path comes up again and again in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs pictures God’s people as constantly at a crossroads between wisdom and folly. Every day we’re faced with moments of decision, where we could take a wise path or a foolish one. Think of the many little decisions you make every day: what to do when your alarm goes off; what to say when your spouse or your kid does that thing again; how you conduct yourself at work when the boss is not looking? Wisdom is about these moments of decision. It’s about being able to recognise in those moments a wise path that accords with God’s good design, and to take it (Prov 2:9; 4:11).  

So how might believers grow in our ability to take wise paths?

First, we ought to pray for wisdom. The Bible gives us a wonderful promise in James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” So let’s be asking that God would enable us, by his Spirit, to make wise decisions and avoid foolish ones. Let’s ask God to open our eyes to the foolish patterns of speech and thought and action we keep falling into, so that we might choose what is wise instead.

Second, we ought to listen to wise instruction. Proverbs is filled with the exhortation to “listen” to wise words (e.g. 1:5; 1:33; 4:1; 4:10). And if God is the one who has stamped his wisdom into this world, then it’s his words we will need to listen to and store up within us if we want to be wise. It’s by listening to God’s word that our thinking is renewed (Rom 12:2), and we are equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17).

Finally, we ought to practice taking wise paths. The wise person is not so much the person who has filled their head with knowledge, but the one who has put that knowledge into practice (Matt 7:24-27). They are like a skilled bushwalker, who has become familiar with what good paths look like though experience, and so is adept at taking them.  

May God give us this kind of wisdom! May he make us more and more adept at taking wise paths, that we might make the most of every opportunity, to the praise of his glory.