Be careful, then, how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16

Live wisely, Paul reminds us in this passage from Ephesians. In challenging times – and aren’t all times challenging? – it is important to make the most of the time, to be wise in order to live in the way that God asks of us. 

Wisdom, it turns out, is a very important theme in scripture. We don’t always think about that. We might first think about the Bible as teaching us about who God is. The Bible teaches us about God’s chosen people, and certainly teaches about Jesus. The Bible also teaches us how to pray and how to live as a follower of Jesus. And so on. But we don’t always think about the Bible as teaching us about how to become wise. 

But the Bible is keen to do this – to teach us about wisdom. In fact, there is a whole book of the Bible – Proverbs – dedicated to that very task. And many other books in the Bible also teach wisdom. Living wisely is important to God, and so it should be important to us. 

But this theme of wisdom doesn’t show up all that often in our Sunday readings, so today seems like a good chance for us to focus on it. 

And that’s what I plan to do: spend this sermon time talking about wisdom – what is it, why does the Bible care about it, and what difference does it make in our life? 

Wisdom – What Is It?

Let me start with a definition. Something I don’t often do, but it seems important in this case. Wisdom is defined as “the ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments.”

Wisdom, in other words, is not knowledge. You can be very knowledgeable, and still not be wise, because you are not using your knowledge to make good decisions. 

And, in fact, it is the decisions and judgments we make that show whether or not we are wise. It makes me think of that famous line from Forrest Gump, when he quoted his wise mother as saying: “Stupid is as stupid does.” She knew something important about wisdom. You can be very smart and still do stupid things. But the opposite is also the case: You don’t have to be very smart to do wise things. Because wisdom is as wisdom does. 

Why Does the Bible Care About It?

And that, in a sense, is why the Bible cares about wisdom. Because God cares about our making good decisions and judgments. So the Bible wants to help us to become wise. 

And the Bible teaches us that true wisdom is always connected to God, who is the ultimate source of all wisdom. 

We cannot be wise without God, without respecting God and listening to God. That is why Proverbs and Psalms teach us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 

Wisdom begins with having that proper respect for God, and reverence. That is the first step on the path to wisdom. We cannot hope to become wise when we ignore God. 

So, the fear of the Lord sets us on the path toward becoming wise. But it doesn’t get us all the way there. 

In Ephesians, Paul goes on to point out that true wisdom comes from understanding the will of the Lord. How else can we make good decisions in life if we do not know the will of the Lord? 

We can have respect for the Lord, but we also must take the time to listen and learn and discern what God wants. When we do that, we become wise. We learn to make good decisions and judgments that are based on our desire to do God’s will. It doesn’t mean that we do all of that perfectly, of course. But we do it faithfully, trusting God to lead us as we live out his will in our life. 

That is what it means to live wisely, according to the Bible. 

The Result of Wisdom

But what is the result of that? What happens when we learn to live wisely? What does this promise of wisdom have to offer us? 

Paul has an interesting answer in today’s reading. Paul tells us that when we acquire wisdom, by fearing the Lord and understanding the will of God, we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit. And the result of that is that we sing – we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to the Lord in our hearts, giving thanks to God in the name of Jesus. 

How does wisdom do that? Why is it that people who are wise, who are filled with God’s Holy Spirit, end up being thankful, and singing? 

Even when the days are evil, Paul says, we can do that. Wisdom leads us to do that – to come together to worship and to sing and to give thanks to God. No matter what is happening in the world, or in our lives, we can still sing and give thanks to God. That is what having wisdom does. 

How does wisdom do that? Let me offer a couple of examples. 

Wisdom and Music

And I will start with Martin Luther. You probably know that Martin Luther loved music. He loved to play the lute and to sing. And he wrote some of our best-known hymns. 

When Martin Luther was asked why music was so important to him, he described it as “a gift of God” that “drives away the devil and makes people cheerful.” Luther knew that there is nothing the devil hates more than for God’s people to worship and sing, because when we do that, we are uniting ourselves in praise of God. And to the devil, nothing good can come out of that. 

Martin Luther also said that the one who sings “has no quarrel with the world and is not concerned with contentions in a law court. Singers are neither worried nor sad but shake all cares from their souls.” 

Martin Luther knew the power of music and of singing. He knew that singing, even in the face of injustice and evil, can be very powerful, and can become a way of resisting those things. Luther clearly knew why the fear of the Lord that leads to wisdom also leads to singing. 

Let me offer one more example of that, and this is from the wisdom of our African American brothers and sisters in Christ. Because they, too, found great power and comfort in singing. As slaves in our country, they would sing spirituals as an act of resistance, as a way of daring to believe in the goodness of God even when the days were very evil. They sang these spirituals as an act of resistance and as a way of holding onto hope. It was a way of proclaiming in song that this world is good, and God is good, despite all evidence to the contrary. 

When the world claims that everything is terrible, in other words, that the days are evil and that there is no reason to have hope or confidence in the future, those who fear the Lord, and who have received the gift of wisdom, continue to come together to sing and to worship and to give thanks to God. 

The Wisdom of Our Elders

When I think about all of this, and especially about what wisdom looks like in this way, I can’t help but think about some of the visits that I have had over the years as a pastor with some very wise people. And especially with those people who have had many more years on this earth than me. There is such wisdom to be learned from our elders.

I have had the privilege of meeting and visiting some very old people as the result of being a pastor. Some of you will remember that we recently had the funeral for Robert Peck, who was 104 years old when he passed, our oldest member. Robert showed much wisdom and grace in my conversations with him. 

Believe it or not, at my previous church, we had a member, Leila, who lived to be 113 years old. She was the 7th oldest person in the world when she passed. She, too, blessed me with her wisdom. 

And then there was Dermont, a retired pastor of that same church who lived to be 101 years old. And again, had such wisdom to give. 

Now you don’t live to be that age without experiencing a lot of trials and a lot of hardship. Each of the people I have mentioned were widowed, and they all had experienced the loss of many of their friends. Dermont, the retired pastor, often joked that all of his friends probably thought he went “the other way” and that was why he wasn’t with them in heaven. 

I think they all wondered why they lived as long as they did. But they didn’t get too caught up in questions like that. 

What they all had in common, it seems to me, is that they had this gift of wisdom that I am talking about today. They all saw the big picture and didn’t get caught up in the day-to-day drama. Whether it be in politics or in their families. Or even with their own health. They took it all with a grain of salt. They knew from experience and faith that God had seen them through many trials, and had seen our world through many challenges. They trusted God. And they had a peace about them as a result. They knew that God had been with them, and God would be with them. 

They had learned to live wisely, in other words, and the result was that they all had an unflappable peace, a calm, steady, faithful way of living each and every day. 

Trust in the Lord

And I think that is the invitation to all of us today. We don’t have to be old to be wise. Wisdom is found in trusting God. Trust the Lord with all our heart, as Proverbs puts it, and lean not on our own understanding. 

Knowledge and understanding are not bad things, of course, but the Bible reminds us that they cannot be relied upon. They cannot take the place of faith, of trusting God. 

This world is far too complicated for us to figure it all out. And thankfully, we don’t have to. In fact, that is part of becoming wise: learning that we don’t have to have it all figured out. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart” instead. 

“In all your ways acknowledge [the Lord],” Proverbs goes on to say, “and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.”

That is the invitation from God to us today, and the promise: 

Trust in the Lord with all our hearts. It will give us healing and refreshment. It will fill us with God’s Holy Spirit. It will lead us to a place where we can be grateful regardless of our circumstances. 

And, finally, it will bring us to do what we are getting ready to do right now: To sing, to make melody in our hearts, giving thanks to God for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

When we learn to trust God with all our heart, how can we help but sing? May we be blessed with the gift of wisdom, and may it be seen in our lives. To the glory of God. Amen.