FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 49, December 4, 2008

Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, Ephesians 5:15.

Watch Where You Walk

When I was fourteen we made a trip to south Alabama to visit my father’s uncle who lived in the country. We decided on that hot, muggy July day to go fishing. My father’s uncle knew all the great spots, so I was surprised when he took us to a cow pasture. “Where’s the lake?” I asked. It was in a clump of trees in the pasture and as we entered into the cool shade of the small pond there were at least ten water moccasins on various felled trees at the water’s edge. They would periodically slither off the trees and scoot across the top of the water. I noticed that my father had broken out into a cold sweat and I was not too comfortable either. Finally when a water moccasin slide right beside my right foot into the water we had had enough. Wisdom dictated that we let the snakes have the pond. As we walked out of the woods you can bet we were very careful where we placed our feet.

Paul is telling us to be careful where we walk, to be vigilant in how we live. The King James Version says we are to walk circumspectly, like the police knocking down the door of a crack house who, with guns drawn, are looking in all directions for trouble. A pastor’s greatest sorrow is to see people making poor decisions, sinful ones, knowing that such will bring destruction to them. We know this because we have seen it far too many times already. We can warn them, but so seldom do people listen. You are no match for the devil and your flesh. You are prone to folly, to acting like a proverbial fool, one who refuses sound, Biblical advice. What should you do? How can you watch where you walk?

I suggest three things, drawn from Ephesians 5:15-17. First, you need to know the truth and apply the truth. Paul says in verse 17 that we are to understand what the will of the Lord is. This is more than knowledge. This includes application. You need to reject worldly wisdom. The Jews sought for signs and the Greeks sought for wisdom, but Paul preached Christ crucified. The Jews, who had seen countless miracles by Jesus, still told Him that they needed more signs, to know whether or not He was the Christ. People today seem to want more signs. They know of Jesus’ miracles but they want to see more of them. There is no need for them. What He has recorded in Scripture ought to be enough. And the Greeks were steeped in the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. Paul rejected the temptation to appeal to the Jews philosophically. Instead he preached Christ to them as the only remedy for their sin. Today people seek the wisdom of the world in many ways. Proverbs constantly tells us to use the rod to discipline on our children yet we tend to listen to godless, child psychologists who tell us that spanking ruins a child’s self-esteem. God says that we have everything we need for life and godliness yet we tend to look to psychiatrists to heal our spiritual and emotional problems.

It is also vital that you remember knowledge is never enough. Paul says that knowledge makes proud, but love edifies, I Corinthians 8:1. Knowing your Reformed and Evangelical theology is a good thing, but some of the meanest people I have known are solidly Reformed in their theology. I have known Reformed adulterers, Reformed child abusers, Reformed wife beaters, Reformed pedophiles, Reformed thieves, Reformed liars. Hell no doubt is full of Reformed and Presbyterian people. If you are to walk carefully in this world, keeping yourself from danger, then you need to see things as they really are. Don’t buy into the notion that man is basically good. That’s not what the Bible says. It says that the throat of unbelievers is an open grave (the stench of rotting corpses is lodged in their throats), that the poison of snakes is under their lips (the deadly poison of King Cobras waiting for the opportune time to strike you), that they deceive with their tongues (I have in mind college professors who strip unsuspecting Christian young people of their faith by mocking the Bible), that their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. So, your very nice, non-Christian neighbor is at best filled with common grace which is no better than embalming fluid which cannot give life. It can only preserve a dead body from putrefaction for a time. And then you need to be clear on who you are. Yes, you are made in God’s image and you are in Christ, but you also have within you conflicting desires, the flesh and the Spirit, what I call the pig and the lion. The lion is the Lord Jesus by the Spirit, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. The pig is indwelling sin, your flesh, which has a voracious appetite for garbage. A pig will eat anything while a lion only eats meat. So you need to feed the lion and starve the pig. You need to take into your mind things which edify, not those things which enslave and destroy.

Second, if you are to walk carefully you also need to not waste your time. Paul tells us to buy up (like a stock broker who quickly buys up under-valued stock) the special time God gives us because the days are evil. Life in this world is fraught with danger and you need to use your time wisely to strengthen you. Good is always the enemy of better, and better is always the enemy of best. It is good that you love your spouse and children, and it is better that you attend church regularly, but it is best that you lead your wife and children, that you teach them the Scriptures, that you pray with and for them. It is good that you work. It is better that you are out of debt or getting out of debt, but it is best that you save and give away as much money as you can, being able to respond quickly and generously to needs which surface. It is good to come home at night. It is better that you spend time with your family and not watch so much television. It is best that you talk and speak words of life to each other. Obviously there is nothing wrong with edifying recreation. We all need rest, but this is very different from stultifying prodigality which marks most of us. And finally, if you are to walk carefully in this troubled world, then you need to live Christ-centered lives. You need to be clear on God’s big picture. He makes it clear in Ephesians 1:4, 5, 7, 10 and many other places. He delights in the salvation of His people to the praise of the glory of His grace. Everything that happens in the world is to bring this to fruition. So begin to see the Tsunamis, the Presidential elections, our economic woes, and your own trials as part of the big picture of sanctifying God’s people and saving all His elect. And then give yourself to this noble work, heeding Paul’s command to give your bodies as living sacrifices to God. Spend and be spent for the gospel. Allow yourself to be poured out as a drink offering for Jesus. You can rest when you get to heaven. You can retire then. If you have good health, stay at kingdom building until God takes your health or your life. Look to the day when you hear Jesus say, “Well done, faithful servant. Enter into the joy of eternal rest.”


FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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