Be Not Unwise

In Ephesians 5:17, Paul exhorts the Ephesian brethren, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” True wisdom is the knowledge and understanding of the will of God and the application thereof. The will of God is found in His word. It is only through the Word of God that we have any knowledge of Him. Without this revealed knowledge of God, there is would be no true wisdom.

Paul exhorts them to understand the will of God. To do this, one must study the Word of God. In 2 Timothy 2:15, the inspired apostle Paul commands, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” John 17:7 teaches us that the Word of God is truth. Yes, truth does exist. It exists in the divine precepts of the Word of God. We can know the truth – Jesus said so. John 8:31-32 says, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus teaches here that we can know the truth by continuing in His word.

All men can understand the Bible. The Calvinistic doctrine on the fallen state of man says that, since the fall, man is no longer in a state where he is able to understand the will of God. They teach that man can only come to an understanding of the Word of God through a direct operation of the Holy Spirit. Yet, the Bible refutes this doctrine. Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:15, teaches that Timothy had known the Holy Scripture from a child, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” He had, from his childhood understood the Bible. He did not come to that understanding of the Scriptures by a direct operation of the Holy Spirit, but by the instruction, he received in the Word from his mother and his grandmother. “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. “ (2 Timothy 1:15).

We can know the truth through a diligent study of the Word of God. All mankind can know the truth and understand it alike. For we know that the scriptures are not of any private interpretation, but that they are of, or by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:20-21). All men can have the same understanding of the Word of God that Paul had. In Ephesians 3:2-5, he tells us that we can understand his knowledge when we read his inspired words, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit”

The Word of Christ, the Bible, is the only standard of authority that will judge us in the last day. “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48) God is not a respecter of persons – “For there is no respect of persons with God.” (Romans 2:11) Since there is an absolute standard of authority; and since all will be judged according to that same standard without respect of persons; and since that standard is the Bible – then it makes sense that we must all be able to understand the Bible alike. The will of God, revealed in the Scriptures, is such that all men and women can come to the same understanding. We can be wise toward the things of God and be “understanding what the will of the Lord is” if we involve ourselves in a purposeful study of God’s Word.