Watch Your Step: Living Carefully in a World Full of Stumbling Blocks

Ephesians 5:15-21

Most of us can remember hearing someone tell us, “Watch your step.”

Maybe it was a parent warning us about something in our path. Maybe we were running somewhere we shouldn't have been running. Whatever the situation, the warning wasn't meant to keep us from enjoying ourselves. It was meant to keep us from getting hurt.

God's Word does much the same thing.

It isn't a list of rules designed to rob us of our joy. It is the Word of a loving God warning us about the pain and destruction that can come when we don't pay attention to where we are going.

In Ephesians 5:15, the Apostle Paul writes:

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.”

Paul isn't talking about where we physically put our feet. Our walk is a picture of how we live. It includes our choices, priorities, relationships, behavior, and the direction of our lives.

And Paul's message is simple:

Watch your step.

Walk in Wisdom

The idea of walking carefully runs throughout Ephesians.

Before Christ, we walked according to the ways of this world. After being rescued and redeemed by Jesus, we are called to walk in the good works God prepared for us. We are told to walk worthy of our calling, to no longer walk as unbelievers do, and to walk in love.

Now Paul tells us to look carefully at how we walk.

That requires wisdom.

But biblical wisdom is different from the wisdom celebrated by the world.

Biblical wisdom isn't primarily about intelligence, education, or how much information we have accumulated. It is about knowing what God has revealed through His Word and allowing that truth to determine how we live.

Wisdom is taking God's Word and applying it to our decisions, relationships, finances, families, entertainment, conversations, and every other area of our lives.

If we want wisdom, we shouldn't simply pray for it and wait for some mysterious revelation. We should open our Bibles.

God has already given us His Word to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

Make the Best Use of Your Time

Paul continues:

“Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

Time is one of the most valuable things God has given us because once it is gone, we cannot get it back.

In 2021, I was told I had less than a year to live.

I was suffering from liver failure, heart failure, and a toxic blood system. Multiple specialists told me that I probably wouldn't survive the year.

Before that moment, I had been successful by worldly standards. I had money and used it to chase the things my flesh wanted. Nice homes, vehicles, vacations, drugs, alcohol, women, and whatever else I thought might satisfy me.

But lying there thinking I was dying, none of those things mattered.

I thought about time.

I thought about how much of it I had wasted. I wished I had spent more of it with my children and my family. Money could be earned again. Things could be replaced.

Time couldn't.

And yet, I wouldn't trade that painful season of my life for anything because it was during that season that Jesus saved my soul and gave me an entirely different perspective on what Paul means when he tells us to make the best use of our time.

So what is taking your time today?

Money? Possessions? Status? A relationship? Addiction? Something else?

Don't wake up one day and realize you gave your life to things that ultimately didn't matter.

If you belong to Christ, eternity with Him doesn't begin when you die. It has already begun.

Use the time He has given you.

Understand the Will of God

Paul then says:

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

We spend a lot of time asking, “What is God's will for my life?”

But we often overlook the place God has already revealed His will: His Word.

We can think about God's will in two ways.

There is the big picture, God's will for creation. Ephesians 1 tells us that God's plan ultimately centers on Jesus Christ and the day when all things will be brought under His authority.

God's ultimate purpose isn't making us wealthy, comfortable, healthy, or giving us everything we want.

His plan centers on the glory and exaltation of His Son.

But God's will also reaches into our individual lives.

The God who created the universe cares about how you live. He cares about your decisions, your direction, how you use your time, and who you are becoming.

Romans 12:2 tells us that discerning God's will involves the transformation and renewal of our minds.

As God's Word changes our thinking, our desires begin to change. Our priorities change. The way we walk, talk, love, forgive, and even pray begins to change.

Instead of constantly praying:

“God, give me what I want.”

Our prayer begins to become:

“God, change what I want until what You want for my life is what I want for my life.”

That is what it looks like to begin walking in the will of the Lord.

What Are You Under the Influence Of?

Paul then gives us another command:

“Do not get drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit.”

When someone is drunk, we say they are under the influence because alcohol begins influencing how they think, speak, walk, make decisions, and behave.

Paul gives us a powerful contrast.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit isn't about receiving more of the Holy Spirit. When we belong to Christ, we don't receive half of Him or three-quarters of Him.

The question isn't how much of the Holy Spirit you have.

The question is:

How much influence does the Holy Spirit have over you?

When we live under His influence, He changes how we think, speak, walk, make decisions, and ultimately how we behave.

What Song Is Your Life Singing?

Paul says a Spirit-filled life produces worship, gratitude, and humility.

Acts 16 gives us an incredible picture of this.

Paul and Silas had been beaten and thrown into prison. Their feet were locked in stocks. They were hurting, bleeding, and sitting in darkness.

They had every worldly reason to complain.

Instead, around midnight, they were praying and singing hymns to God.

And Scripture tells us something important:

The other prisoners were listening.

People are listening to the song your life is singing too.

They're watching how you walk when life hurts.

They're watching when the diagnosis isn't good, when the relationship falls apart, when money gets tight, when you lose someone you love, or when God doesn't answer your prayer the way you wanted.

They're watching to see whether the God you praised on the mountaintop is still worthy of your praise when you're walking through the valley.

Some of the loudest preaching we will ever do won't come from behind a pulpit.

It will come from the way we walk through pain while everyone around us is watching.

That doesn't mean the terrible things we experience suddenly become good. Evil is still evil. Pain still hurts.

We don't thank God because everything that happens to us is good.

We can thank Him because the God who is with us through it is always good.

He hasn't abandoned us.

He is still sovereign.

His promises haven't changed.

Our pain is temporary.

Jesus Christ has already secured our eternity.

Even when we don't understand what God is doing, we can still trust who God is.

How Are You Walking?

Paul ends this section by telling believers to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

A Spirit-filled life stops constantly asking, “What can everyone else do for me?”

Instead, we begin considering the needs of others. We humble ourselves. We serve one another. We put others ahead of ourselves because of our love and reverence for Jesus.

The Holy Spirit changes the way we worship.

He changes how we respond to our circumstances.

He changes how we treat people.

Ultimately, He changes the way we walk.

So the question is the same one Paul began with:

How are you walking?

Are you walking carefully, or stumbling through life without considering where your steps are taking you?

Are you walking in wisdom, or continuing to make foolish decisions?

Are you making the best use of the time God has given you, or wasting days you can never get back?

Are you walking in God's will, or asking God to follow you down the path you've chosen?

And what is influencing your walk?

The world?

Your flesh?

Or the Holy Spirit of God?

Every Step Matters

None of us knows how many steps we have left.

We don't know how many mornings we have left to wake up. We don't know how many opportunities remain to love someone, forgive someone, serve someone, share the Gospel, or accomplish whatever God has called us to do.

That's why Paul tells us to look carefully at how we walk.

Every step matters.

Every day matters.

Every opportunity matters.

Once a day has passed, we don't get it back.

So watch your step.

Walk in wisdom.

Make the best use of your time.

Seek the will of God.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And use every day God gives you to live a life that points the people around you toward Jesus Christ.

One day, each of us will take our final step on this earth. When that day comes, may we look back at the road God allowed us to walk and know that although we stumbled and fell along the way, we kept getting back up.

We kept following Christ.

And by the grace of God, we finished the walk He gave us to walk.