Title: 13
Author: JBG
Last saved by: Preferred Customer
Company: Auth CO

© 2000  Joe Griffin

00-09-28.JSH-382 /

The Inscrutable Question: Redeeming Time: Discern How You Must Walk, Eph 5:15
1)	The next paragraph takes up the subject of redeeming time.  As we move through it we need to keep in mind that the acts of carnal death noted in the last paragraph are subtracted from the time allotted to us.
2)	This time cannot be recovered and is lost forever.  Redemption of time involves the purchase of certain increments of the time allotted to us during which we make our advance toward spiritual maturity.
3)	This paragraph includes verses 15-21.  We will study through verse 18.  Verse 15 is a mandate to replace a lifestyle of foolishness with one of wisdom.  It begins with the present active imperative of the verb:
blšpw / blepo / - 	“to see; to discern; to understand”
	4)	The verb is followed by the inferential participle oân / oun /.  This means that the second paragraph draws conclusions from the preceding paragraph.  They establish mandates to recover from Christian degeneracy.  Together they form an idiom that can be translated, “See to it, therefore, that you discern and understand.”
	5)	The verb blšpw / blepo / is in the …
present:	Tendential; indicates an action contemplated, proposed, intended, or attempted but definitely not taking place at the moment.
active:	Believers recovering form Christian degeneracy are mandated to produce the action of the verb.
imperative:	Positive mandate; a command on the volition of the believers in Christian degeneracy.
	6)	This is followed by the interrogative participle, pîj / pos /.  It determines how this recovery from Christian degeneracy should occur.  And the process involves a very old friend that we’ve come to know in our studies.  It is the present active indicative of the verb:
peripatšw / peripateo / -	“walk”
present:	Progressive; denotes constant application of the recommended solution.
	7)	We will note that the solution requires decision making and problem solving from the source of doctrine in the stream of consciousness with emphasis on the compartment of wisdom.
active:	Believers involved in the recovery produce the action of the verb by growing in grace.
indicative:	Potential of obligation; indicates what ought to occur and therefore expresses the necessity and possibility of recovery.
8)	How one must walk is amplified by the adverb:
¢kribîj / akribos / -	This is an important word in the development of this verse.  It is defined by:
Thayer, Joseph Henry.  The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.  (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1981), 24:
¢kribîj, adv., exactly, accurately, diligently; to live carefully deviating in no respect from the law of duty, Eph. 5:15.
9)	The walk is described as one that requires accuracy under due diligence.  It seeks to develop behavior patterns and character traits that enable you to execute the Christian way of life with such care you do not deviate from wheel-tracks of righteousness.
10)	The “law of duty” emphasizes the principles of the Christian walk that are revealed through the imperative moods and which become the duties required of the believer in order to show proper respect toward God motivated by reciprocal love.
11)	A corrected translation at this point reads this way:
Ephesians 5:15a - See to it, therefore, that you discern and understand how with due diligence you must walk accurately without deviation in wheel-tracks of righteousness …
12)	The recovery that is recommended is first distinguished from the behavior that is now going on.  It is introduced by the negative particle:
m» / me / -	a conjunction with the imperative mood producing an imperative of prohibition.  There are two such conjunctions in the Greek language: m» / me / denies the idea while its counterpart, oÙk / ouk / denies the fact.  The latter is always used with the indicative mood while the former may be used with all other moods.  Therefore, here we have the denial of the idea.  The idea of what?  It is stated next by the comparative particle:
æj / hos / -	“as”; plus the subject of the verb “to walk,” the nominative plural of:
¥sofoj / asophos / -	“fools”
13)	We see another alpha privative (a-) which negates the noun to which it is attached.  That noun is sofÒj / sophos / and refers in context to a believer endowed with spiritual and practical wisdom.  It is a wisdom that is divine in its nature and origin and therefore the result of the double-column advance.
14)	With the alpha privative wisdom is negated.  The believer who is involved in Christian degeneracy cannot advance spiritually nor can he access any doctrine that he knows under the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
15)	Thus the inventory of ideas under which he functions is not divine in its nature or origin.  Instead it is devoid of any biblical wisdom.
16)	This idea is denied in favor of what follows.  The transition is indicated by an alternative of contrast introduced by the conjunction:
¢ll£ / alla / -	Introduces a contrast when following a negative clause.
			The contrast is between a believer who is functioning in the cosmic system but who is mandated to alter that lifestyle by returning to the spiritual life of the Church Age including its advance in the double column: the simultaneous intake of doctrine and the development of reciprocal love for God.  Included is the comparative particle æj / hos / translated “as” plus the nominative masculine plural of:
sofÒj / sophos /  - 	“wise men”
Ephesians 5:15 - See to it, therefore, that you discern and understand how with due diligence you must walk accurately without deviation in wheel-tracks of righteousness, not as fools, but as wise men.

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