Walking With Precision

In Ephesians 5:15-17 we read, See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

We often hear people speak of “being wise.” We hear such things as, “Oh, that fellow is wise in the ways of the world,” or, “He is wise in business,” or, “He is wise beyond his years,” or “He is wise because of how many years he has lived,” and so forth. On the other hand, some Christians seem to think that just being a Christian makes them wise. Oddly, for example, one respected commentator writes, “Just as in Christ God miraculously makes us immediately righteous, sanctified, and redeemed, He also makes us immediately wise.” If that were true, however, why are there so many foolish Christians today? And why, then, does Paul command it here? Why is he so specific about how to be wise? Why does James ask, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God” (Jas. 1:5)? In fact, if we do not follow Paul’s command here, he tells us that we are actually fools.

No, wisdom is not automatic. It doesn’t come by osmosis; we don’t assimilate it from what is going on around us. Wisdom comes only by God’s Word. Specifically, Paul tells us here that we can only be called wise if four facts are true of us. These facts are the right kind of knowledge and the right use of knowledge.

First, to be wise we must walk with precision: See then that ye walk circumspectly (v. 15a). As we detailed back in 4:1, walk, of course, is again peripateo, “to walk about,” figuratively, “conduct of life,” that is, how we conduct ourselves as we walk through life. Paul’s point here is that walking the Christian life is not a matter of “winging it,” making it up as we go along. The word circumspectly is crucial. In their zeal for simplicity, modern translations miss the force of this word by replacing it with “be careful.” Circumspectly is from the Latin circumspectus. The verb form, circumspecto, means “to look all around, be on the lookout.” Circumspectly is clearly a better translation; it tells us to look everywhere as we walk.

That is idea also of the Greek, akribos (English, “accurate”), which speaks of precision, diligence, accuracy, and exactness. It is used in Matthew 2:8, for example, where Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem and told them to “search diligently for the young child.” It is also used in Acts 18:25 to describe Apollos, who was “mighty in the scriptures” (v. 24) and “taught diligently the things of the Lord.” (No better word could be said of a preacher, a word that describes fewer and fewer of today’s preachers.) So the idea is clear that we are to look, examine, and investigate our walk with the utmost care. To be wise is to walk watchfully, look at and carefully examining everything with which we come in contact.

In some European countries, to protect property, the owners often build a high wall, the top of which they cover with broken glass embedded in the mortar to discourage intruders who might try to climb over it. One can sometimes see a cat walking circumspectly along the top of such a wall. You’ll see it cautiously pick up one paw and then place it precisely where there’s no glass. Once that paw is in place, it then moves the next one and so on. That does, indeed, picture it!

Most of us have experienced a situation when a momentary distraction caused an accident. One of mine was several years ago while driving. After allowing a split second distraction to take my eyes off the road, when they returned a deer was standing in my lane. Startled, I did the worst possible thing—I swerved—and ended up off the road with a smashed front end. We must constantly be looking around for the quagmires, snares, and pitfalls that we can easily miss.

This should immediately remind us of the principle of discernment, which we examined carefully back in 4:14. In a day when discernment in the Church is fading into total oblivion, Paul challenges us to investigate and examine everything. Someone has wisely said, “When the pilot does not know what port he is heading for, no wind is the right wind.”

This leads to a second principle, which we’ll examine next time.