God’s Will

Read Ephesians 5:15-21 …

In Ephesians 5 Paul begins a section about being an imitator of God. There are some familiar themes: being a person that reflects the sacrificial life that Jesus gave for us; setting aside immorality from our lives; being one that lights the world for God; and being filled with the Spirit. Toward the end of this little segment the Holy Spirit uses Paul to remind us to be wise, not unwise – another prominent theme in the Scriptures – and then writes, “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:17). So, within the span of just a few words being wise, or having wisdom, is equated with having a knowledge of the Lord’s will. It’s a wonderful topic … being in the Lord’s will … but we can also see from the Scriptures what God wants for us in this life.

Twice in Thessalonians Paul specifically makes note of what God wants for us. First, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). Here then is a three-fold description of the person that God wants His children to be: rejoicing; prayerful; and thankful. How can we not be a people that rejoice? Christians live in the shadow of the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made, a sacrifice that appeases the wrath and justice of God, knowing that we have been redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:19). How can we not be a prayerful people? Where once there stood between the common man and God a priestly system, now any of God’s children can come directly to His throne with supplication and praise. The One that holds the world and its outcomes in His hand bends His ear to us when we approach Him. And if these two things are not enough to make us thankful, the blessings that shower our lives every day from home and family to the very air we breathe, barely scratches the surface of the blessings God has bestowed upon us. Rejoicing, prayerful, and thankful should be in the heart of every child of God for the unspeakable blessings that our God and Father has seen fit to freely give us.

Paul also writes, ^“For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thess. 4:3-5). Repeatedly throughout the inspired writings of Paul, James, Peter, and John, the need for purity of life resurfaces. This desire of God for our purity is in part because humanity has been created in the image of God; when one spoils themselves thru sexual impurity, one spoils the very image of God. Although the world tries to lure us with the promise of passion and pleasure, one also demeans themselves by not showing the personal respect that sexual purity provides. When Paul speaks about “your sanctification” he is helping us understand that we, as individuals, have been set apart for God, and being set apart for God means treating ourselves as His vessel.

Peter also speaks of God’s will: “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God” (1 Pet. 2:15-16). When one looks back to the Sermon on the Mount Jesus makes the point that Christians are to be those that effect the world around them and that we should be a light that points to the Father (Matt. 5:13-16). The “ignorance of foolish men” says, “Get all you can. Enjoy the moment. If you don’t look out for yourself no one else will.” These attitudes reflect a worldly mindset that Christians in their obedience and hope cannot share. Just as the believing wife may influence her unbelieving husband by her good deeds – her “chaste conduct accompanied by fear” (1 Pet. 3:2) – let the Christian also seek to influence those outside of Christ. It should distress the heart of any Christian to think that the name of God, the way of Christ, is spoken against because of his or her behavior.

Then Peter makes this point: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). Christians stand on a hope that casts our hearts into the future, into heaven. We have found in ourselves a peace that assures us that no matter what happens in this life – good or ill – we have a Savior that made propitiation for us with His blood (Rom. 3:21-26). But there are still those out there, in the world, apart from that blood!  It is not God’s will that they be lost. It is God’s will that anyone and everyone that would come to Him in humble obedience be saved (Rom. 3:22; Gal. 3:26-29; 1 Tim. 2:3-4).

We, all of humanity, are the object of the greatest story ever told. God has not only created us in His image, but He also inserted Himself into our history from the very beginning. Christ became the apex of that history when:

“God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory” (1 Tim. 3:16).

Therefore, let us “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2). John tells us that the “world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). Let us insert ourselves into the story of God by being a thankful people, by being a sanctified people, by being a godly people, and by being a repentant people before the Lord our God.