Ephesians - Walking in Ephesians - part 2

Last week we did the first part of this section in Ephesians on walking. We're calling it Walking in Ephesians. This is part two. There are about seven verses, or there are seven verses in Ephesians that use the idea of walk. And the idea of walk in scripture is this word peripateo. And actually, just what Bertha was doing, Bertha was walking around. She came in here and she said, oh, walking in Ephesians. And she walked around. So that's what it is. It's literally to walk around. But as you might guess, there's a much more, a deeper meaning basically. And it's actually, the idea is to conduct yourself or order your behavior. And this is basically by faith in the Lord Jesus. Faith in what he's done for you on the cross. So that's the idea that we're going to see in Ephesians, and there's two senses which it's used in Ephesians. One is a positive sense and one is a negative sense. Last week Randy went through the positive sense examples and just before we get there, let me just show you a couple examples of this conduct or ordering your behavior.

If you have your Bibles, let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I just want to show you a couple of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7. And basically this says, and this kind of ties it to the operation of faith. And I'll go back to verse 6. It says in 2 Corinthians 5 starting in verse 6.

Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. So walking here is a conduct of the Christian's life by faith. And there are other examples like in Galatians about by say walk by the spirit and you will not do the desires of the flesh. So walking in scripture in the sense that we're going to use it today is Christian conduct if you will. So last week Randy went through the positive example. I'm just going to review that quickly here. And this verse is walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for you.

And that's Ephesians 5.2. Next one is, walk as children of light. And then walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called.

That's Ephesians 4.1. And lastly, walk as the good works which God has prepared beforehand.

That's Ephesians 2.10. So all these verses talk of the positive aspect. But today we're going to look at the negative aspects, or the warnings in scripture. And basically Paul enumerates several warnings about walking.

And he says, basically he talks about in the pash, you did walk as an unbeliever. And he talks about the Gentiles. He uses the Gentiles as an example, or a heathen, literally. You walked as an unbeliever, basically. And he says, you know, you're to remember how you walk and you're not to do that now. And then he says, the other part of that is, in the present, you may walk as an unbeliever.

And he doesn't desire that you do that. You walk by the spirit. So we're going to see a couple, there's actually three verses we're going to go over. And they're kind of all, you know, divided up into sections. But so two ideas, one that you walk this way in the past, this is how you did walk. as an unbeliever, as a Gentile. And then in the present, he wants you not to walk as an unbeliever. Any questions or thoughts before we move on?

So the first verse is Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. And this is speaking about the past tense. It says, and you were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, too, you formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and in the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

So I have a question here. Do you see, it talks about you formally walked, and we're going to kind of go into that in a little more detail, but do you see in this pet, do you see, how do I call it, some opposition to the, actually it's interesting, I didn't, without telling the answer, what's the opposition to your walking from verses two and three? What do you see, what's something that might cause you to walk in a non-godly way. Disobedient. Okay, okay.

Anything else? Yielding to that spirit that's working, which is Satan. Okay, so where do you see that, Tom? Well, of the spirit that is now working in the sense of disobedience, so it's a spiritual... Okay, okay, alright. Anything else you see in there? Anything else that might cause your walk to be ungodly walk. Watching a lot of bad TV.

Okay, that's true. I want you to find some pieces of this verse here. I'm intentionally not telling you what it is because I want you to kind of look through here. That could be... Okay, excellent. It's according to the course of the world. That's what we naturally do. Okay, alright. Okay, you guys are right on. So if I hear I've heard, so far I've heard the Course of the World, that's one. I've heard Tom talk about the Spirit that is now working. And if you back up from that, that's really the Prince and Power of the Air.

And then down here it says, Among them too you former lived in the lust of our flesh. So if you remember, and I've always heard it, what are the three oppositions for the believer? The world, the flesh, and the devil. And these two verses here talk about those aspects.

But what's interesting is, it says, formally, they're also opposition to the unbeliever too. And that did not really hit me until I said, wow, look at this. This is the opposition to the unbeliever too. The world, the prince of power of the air, Satan, and the rest of the flesh are obstacles to all mankind. believer or unbeliever. I did not realize the scope of that until I started looking at this verse and that was kind of, wow, look at that.

It's kind of funny, you see these old cartoons with the guy in the middle and of course the guy with the halo on his right shoulder and the guy with the horns on the other shoulder and you think, as far as the cartoon rendering. No. No. So in this group- Well, they're always uneven. One's bigger than the other one, depending on what you're standing in.

Right. If you watch enough of those. Right. Okay. All right. So just with that in mind, so now we're going to kind of go down and we're going to dig into verses one and two here. So let's look at, so one and two say, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked. I just want to kind of stop there. So we're going to kind of dig into this part of it here. So basically that word in which refers back to trespasses and sins. So you could kind of rewrite that little phrase there saying you formerly walked in trespasses and sins. So there's two aspects in which you formerly walked. And so once again, Paul's looking back. He's telling the believers now, this is the way you did something, and this is where you were in the past. You formally walked.

And the formally is a word that has the idea of once or at one time. And let's look at, I guess I might have to read, let's go to John chapter 9, Gospel of John chapter 9. And this is just kind of homing on the fact of formerly and kind of give another context. So this is just, it's going to be verse 13.

This is the blind man that was brought to Christ. It brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisee. Right, okay. Pretty simple verse. Basically, so one time past this man was blind. So once again, this is at one time you walked in trespasses and sins. Now that doesn't mean that you may not sin as a believer, but this just says you once were there, you're not to be there again.

Okay, so now the two words, trespasses is the first word. That's one of the two aspects. Proptima, to fall by the wayside, a fault, a lapse of error, a lapse, error, mistake or wrongdoing. And that's actually, that peroptima is two, it's a compound word in the original language there. It's pera, P-A-R-A, is alongside. And peroptima is to fall or to collapse.

So a trespass is one aspect of wrongdoing. And the other aspect of wrongdoing is sins. And notice both of these are in the plural. plural trespasses and plural sins. Armatea, a missing of the mark, an offense in relation to God. Also, trespasses are an offense to God as well. They impact our relationship with God. So we have these two aspects, trespasses and sins.

I thought about this on and off. I've heard people try to make a distinction like trespasses is one kind of sins and sins is another kind of sins. I think they're, from what I can understand, they're synonymous, basically. Trespasses and sins are the way of saying the same thing. They give a little more breadth to the thing.

Actually, Vincent says, he's a writer of the, writes about the New Testament, the original language, it is impossible to establish a clear distinction between the two nouns in the plural form. So these are two aspects of the way you formally walk, or at one time you walked.

Except, I think for the unsaved, they don't have a path to be following. They don't have one. So they're just wandering willy-nilly. And the missing the mark, they don't have a mark either. Only saved people have those possibilities. Because they have a past and they have a mark. But you would agree the unbeliever does have a signature. He just has Adam's nature, right? And so does the believer. He's not enslaved to it. Okay, excellent. That's good. Tom? in full potency since you couldn't get out of it unless you were saved. Right, exactly.

So the unbeliever has no choice, right? The unbeliever has no choice. He can do nothing but trespasses and sins, in a sense, right? That's all he can do. But what you're kind of pointing out is that he has no standard. There's no standard to make. Well, there's some lovely, honorable people, as far as the world goes, that aren't saved.

And they think they're in good shape. I know. That was me. I thought I was in good shape. They're still there even if they don't look like horrible people. Right. I agree with you. Looks are deceiving. But basically these are offenses to God. Even though the non-believer doesn't realize it, His action, his behavior are contrary to God's standard because of Adam, because of his nature. So these words describe the missing of the mark or the falling by the wayside. And that's their nature. They're following their nature. They're following their Adamic nature. Good question. Okay, so let's go on. Let's look at, now, let me just go, let me see what I want to do here. Let me go back for a second here. Sorry, I apologize.

So what we're going to do now is we're going to continue on with verse two, and we're going to look at, if you look here, it says, according to the course of this world, we'll look at that phrase, according to the prince and power of the air, and then we also want to look at The third phrase is, we too formerly lived according to the lust of the flesh. So I'm going to look at the world, the devil, and the flesh. I'm going to look at those three obstacles in these two verses. That'll be the next following charts.

That's why I want to go back. So I apologize for that. So the first one is, according to the course of this world, So basically it says, this is Wyss translation, it says, you order your behavior, that's walking, as dominated by the spirit of the age in this world system.

Does anybody remember what the Greek word for world is? Cosmonauts. Excellent, excellent, good, good. I have cosmonauts, the Russian cosmonauts. So that word cosmos is the idea, this is a world equated with a passing evil age. So actually the idea of age and world are kind of immersed in there. And let's look, there's a verse that, there's some verses here I'd like to look at that kind of try to capture the idea of world, a world system.

1 Corinthians 3.18-20. As you're looking, I'm thinking of that phrase that Jesus mentioned, saying, you can tell the signs of the weather, but you can't discern the signs of the times. And that's not talking about the spirit of the age. That's talking about looking with spiritual insight into what's happening. Well, actually, Tom, we're going to see that very aspect here in a little bit later on, to walk as wise versus unwise. We're going to see that very shortly here.

Can I get someone to read 1 Corinthians Let no man deceive himself, if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world. Let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Notice in verse 18 it says, I'm sorry. If any man thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise, sounds like. And it goes on in 19, it says, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness.

So basically what the admonition here is that we're not to walk according to the course of this world, which is this age, and the idea of this present evil age. This age is not godly, right? And it's not godly because Satan is in control of the world system. So basically the admonition, we're not to order our behavior in line with this present evil age. We're to be a light to this present evil age.

And in Romans 12.2, I'll just read that one. This is a pretty familiar verse.

In Romans 12.2 it says, And do not be conformed to this world, or this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So we're not to be conformed. So his admonition here is not to walk according to the course of this world, according to this evil age. Go ahead. Doesn't the scripture that we must be conformed to the world, he who loveth the world and loveth the Father is not in him, isn't that a warning to Christians? Oh yeah, oh yeah, it definitely is. They don't have the love of God, it doesn't matter.

Actually, all these are Paul reminding believers of where they were prior to this. They were walking according to the course of this. This is where they were, and by implication, you're not to be there now either. It wasn't good for you back then before you're a believer. It certainly isn't good for you now as a believer. OK. So that's the first enemy of the believer, the world.

The second one is according to the prince and power of the heir. And this idea of prince or power is a rule or authority. And actually, I think King James might render it rule or authority in that patent in Ephesians. And this is a word. Ruler, it can be translated ruler, authority, chief, magistrate.

There might even be a few other ones. But what's interesting is this word can be used, like many words in scripture, can be used, and many English words too, it can be used of a godly person or it can be used of an ungodly person, negative or positive. Let's look at a couple of those.

But in this context, we're going to see it doesn't refer to a godly person. It refers to Satan here. But I want to show you both aspects here. So let's look at John chapter 3. So we're going to be looking at this word archion. Did I pronounce that right? It's a Greek word for prince. John chapter 3 and this is where Nicodemus and the Lord Jesus were talking. Can someone read verse 1 for me? Not a long, short verse. John 3 verse 1.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Right. So, okay, here's this word, archion, which is used in a good sense. He's called a ruler of the Jews. That's just describing who he was. He was a leader, a ruler. And then what's interesting is it also is used to the Lord Jesus.

Let's look in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 2. in verse 10. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10. Can someone read that for us? For it was fitting for him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Okay, so here it's translated author or it could be translated leader. So the Lord Jesus, this word is used of him. He's the author or leader in bringing us to salvation. But where I really want to go, so those are the positive or godly aspects. Here's a series of verses that kind of are parallel with the verse we're looking at, according to the prince and power of the air. And I want to go through this set too. I apologize for this. There's a lot of turning here today.

John chapter 12 is the first one. John chapter 12 and verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world now show the prince of this world be cast out. Okay, right. So basically, mine has, now judgment is upon this world, now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. Okay, so then it turned to chapter 16 in John, there's another one, John 16, 11. And this is in a series, I'll just go ahead and read this one. This is where we're talking about when the Holy Spirit is given and talking about his ministries. And then in verse 11 it says, And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. So, same word, Archion. And then lastly, Matthew 12. Matthew 12 and verses 24 to 26. Can someone read that? 12, 24 to 26.

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This prophet does not cast out demons, except by be the ruler of the deep. But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? Right. Right. OK. Interesting sidelights.

That title that Jesus gave to Satan matches the name of a well-known novel, The Lord of the Flies. Notice it says here in verse 24, it says, this man casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler, and that's our word there, Archeon, the ruler of the demons. So it's clear from the bottom three passages that when he says, according to the prince and power of the air, he's speaking of Satan, the devil, basically. OK, so that's the second.

So the first obstacle was the world. The second obstacle was the devil. The third obstacle is the flesh. We too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh. So once again, he's looking back. reminding the believers where they were before they were saved. We all too formerly lived or conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh. And lust is this word meaning a desire, a craving, a longing.

Mostly evil, but there are some times when lust is used in a good sense. I didn't actually I didn't look all those up, but there are a few cases. But most times, it comes across in a negative sense. If someone asked you just off topic, you said, well, it's a negative kind of thing. It's interesting that in modern German, they still use lust both ways. Do they really?

I would see lust to schwindeln. Would you like to go swimming? Okay. Okay. Interesting. Well, that's a good, that's a good, thanks Tom. You're, you're our historian. Wow. Okay. Actually, I didn't, I didn't look up the positive verses. I apologize for the negative verses. So in Colossians. Yeah, I know. That's what I gave you Mr. Negative today. So, all right.

So Colossians, let's look at Colossians 2.18. Let's all take this connection to snow. It's a beautiful day out there. It's just kind of cold. Like he told me, he came to me and said, I want to have snow in the summertime. I said, well, that's called rain. That's right. Go to Mount Iowa and have snow in the summertime. Yeah.

Colossians 2.18.

Can someone read that for us? Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Oh, I'm looking at the wrong place, Roger. I'm looking at it and it's not matching what you read, but I'm saying this doesn't make any sense here. Let's see. Self-abasement.

Last part, yeah. Inflating without cause by his fleshly mind. It's literally by mind of the flesh. So what he's saying is you formerly lived by the mind of the flesh. you were in total agreement with your flesh. It may seem like someone is saying, I'm doing good things. I'm a good person. That's a mind that the flesh thinks is doing pretty well. In fact, I can totally remember that as an unbeliever. Hey, I'm doing OK. And I'll do the best I can. And when God comes, I'll say, I've done the best I can. Until I realized I was a sinner. It was a wonderful day.

Okay, then in Galatians 6.8, let's look at that, Galatians 6.8.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Right, thank you. So in there, the idea of sowing is to yield to his own flesh. So the one who yields to his own flesh shall from his flesh reap corruption, but those who yield to the spirit shall from the spirit reap eternal life. So basically, the warning is again not to yield or not to be to the fleshly nature. He's reminding them of where they've come from.

Okay, and then flesh is this word, sarx, and it's a bad, when used in a bad sense, it has a positive sense. It means the entire unregenerate nature of man, including the sin nature. Actually, and we could spend a lot of time, actually that was part of the study that I think Brad and others did when they went through and looked at all the different words, and the flesh is one of those key words. There's a whole study on flesh, but I think that pretty, Hopefully it captures it. So it's the lust of the flesh. And in today's meta-speak, which doctors use, sarcoma isn't something you want to have, which is cancer. OK. Great, Tom. OK. Thank you. All right.

So that's the first of three verses. And actually, here's an amplified version. we as well at once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh. That's the Amplified Bible. Okay, so now, the next verse, we'll spend one more time on this verse. This is Ephesians 4.

It says, So I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. So the way you walk definitely has an impact on what you're involved in. And this is a pretty graphic illustration We're to walk no longer as the Gentiles walk.

And then there's a list here. Futility of the mind, being dark in their understanding. And you were talking about that, Tom. When you're not walking with the Lord, your understanding is confused. Excluded from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them. Because of the hardness of their heart.

I'm just going to concentrate basically on 17 and 18. There's just so much to cover here. And I think you guys probably covered part of this already, hopefully. Okay, verse 17. That you walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk. No longer is the idea of, do not, we're not to do this. And it's generally a prohibition. And a bunch of verses again, and I'll read all these verses. Let's just look at a couple. John chapter 5, and basically John chapter 5 is, the verse is verse 14.

Afterwards, Jesus found himself in the temple and said, Behold, you have become well. Do not, this is our word here, no longer sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you. So the rest of the verses are along the same line that we're not to do this. We're no longer to be this way.

And actually there's a companion verse here in Ephesians 4.28. Let's look at that.

Ephesians 4.28. And 428 says, let him who steals, steal no longer, but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need. Right, and basically no longer is the same word as here. But him who steals, steals no longer.

So the admonition is to no longer, and we're gonna see the Gentiles were, this is the kind of interesting part, were no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk. And Gentiles is this word, it can be translated heathen sometimes. It's a multitude or a company. of people, the same nature or genus, nation. Sometimes you'll see nation translated that way. And there's various verses that kind of talk about that.

But let's look at the Galatians one, Galatians 2.12. I'll just read this one again.

Relations 2.12.

For prior to coming a certain man from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. This is another area you could spend a lot of time on, but basically the Gentiles were It wasn't that the Jewish, I think where this saying came from, but being a Gentile was the scum of the earth. I mean, that was to the Jewish mindset, that was the worst thing you could possibly be, to be a Gentile. And God had not, his promises were never to the Gentiles. They were outside of God's blessing as far as the Jewish mind was concerned. So Paul's saying, you know, don't. Don't walk as the Gentiles walk. They're the scum of the earth. You don't want to walk that way. We Jews are godly, but of course, they had a problem too. So walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk.

So that's the first part of that. So let's go on here. So here's another rendering by the Amplified that you no longer live as the heathens or Gentiles do. So now we're going to look at the characteristics of this Gentile walk. What characterizes a Gentile's walk or an unbeliever's walk?

And it starts off with the futility of their minds. We're not to walk the futility of their minds. So let's just look at that. Walk in the futility of their minds. Futility is the idea of worthlessness, vanity. And actually, it's kind of interesting. The idea of good for nothing. It's not of any value. There's no value in this. It's a waste of time. That's kind of futility. And there's actually a better verse than the 2nd Peter verse.

Let's look at the Acts 4.15. It's probably the verse I kind of found after putting the charts together. I'm sorry.

Acts 14.15. Can I get someone to read Acts 14, 15? the earth, the sea, and all the things that are in them. Good. Thank you.

So those useless things is exactly this word right here. It's translated vain in some other translation. So these fetal things are worthless or useless. They're of no value. So it's going to tie into the mind that these are useless things of the mind. And then what happens as a result of that? So if you're focused on these worthless then what happens is that causes a darkness.

There's a darkness that goes along with that, being darkened in their understanding. Darkened is the idea of covered with darkness, spiritually or mentally confused. Basically if you're darkened you can't If you look in scripture, we see the contrast between light and darkness. If you're in darkness, the light of who God is is not available. You can't see it.

You're blinded by that. That's actually part of what the enemy does. He blinds us. Roger can a compromising attitude fall into that category? You're thinking of a believer who is not walking with the Lord? Well, I think that's possible. When you walk in your sinful nature, when you walk according to, you're acting contrary to who you are. It's sad what people can do, get involved in. That's a good point. Actually, I was looking at Macaulay. And he kind of summarized a couple of these. Basically, he had the first one as purpose.

He had that the unbeliever, as a result of walking as a Gentile's walk, or actually believer, is no purpose to guide, no light to see, and then we're going to see no life to inspire. And that's going to be the last part of the verse, which is excluded from the life of God.

Because the Gentiles were outside of God's plan. Because remember the woman that came to Christ and said, well Lord, I'm going to get in the crumbs here. I'm on the plan. And then Christ kind of comforted her. So the Jewish mindset, the Gentiles, they were out of the picture. I'm sorry, you didn't make the cut. So anyway.

Okay, so let's go on to the... So basically their moral understanding is darkened, and their reasoning is beclouded. Bonnie was proofreading, she said, beclouded, Roger? I said, well, that's what the... I cut and pasted that from the Amplified Bible. I said, that's what they had in there, beclouded, which I thought was interesting. Maybe not. What's that? Fuzzy. Fuzzy, yes. Beclouded. Fuzzy and dim. OK, so the last part.

Because of that, they were, because of this walking as the Gentiles walked, it futiled their minds, darkened their understanding, excluded them from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. So this excluded is alienated from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them. Ignorance is want of knowledge. Basically, it's ignorant, one of perception.

Hardness of heart is this idea of petrified, insensitive. It's a spiritual insensitivity. And this idea of hardness, actually three times in scripture, this is one of the cases where where scripture talks about hardness of heart. I think in the Old Testament with Pharaoh, there's a hardness there, but in the New Testament it talks about this spiritual insensitivity, hardness of heart, and it talks about Israel's blindness in Romans, and it talks about the hardness of the heart of the people who were Christ was healing them, but they didn't, you know, they wanted him to follow the law, what you're healing on the Sabbath, and they had a hardness of heart toward Christ. All right, so here's kind of another amplified rendering. Because of the ignorance, the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness that is deep-seated in them due to their hardness of heart, to the insensitivity of their moral nature. So that's the second verse. The third verse is, so we've had the idea of looking back, you once were this, you once were that, and that's the way the Gentiles walk and you don't want to go there.

This is saying, right now, therefore, right at this moment, be careful how you walk. So this is for the present, the believer for the present time. Be careful how you walk. In other words, in the past you were like this. This is the present. So be careful. And that therefore, the question is what is the therefore therefore, right?

It refers back to walking as children of light, which is what Randy covered last week. If you look back up in that chain, back up to verse 7 or 8, it talks about walk as children of light. So, if you're walking as children of light, therefore be careful how you walk.

Not as unwise, but as wise. I'm just going to do verse 15 because that's just too much to put in all, you know. So basically, let's just look at verse 15 here. Break it down. Be careful how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise. Careful is this idea of accuracy. It's the outcome of carefulness. I was kind of thinking that as a believer, our faith is a thinking man's faith. It's not just, oh, I have faith for faith's sake.

When we were overseas in England, we were overseas for five years, and there was this movie or play, I Have Faith and Faith Alone. You think, well, what in the world is that? I Have Faith and Faith? What does that mean? We have faith in a person and the truth that God has given us. Not, I have faith in faith.

So this carefulness, we're to be careful. We're to know what God is about and who he is and what he's done for us. And we're to count upon that. So this is be careful how you walk. We're to be accurate. We're to be from Missouri, nitpickers. Okay, I'm getting carried away here maybe. Okay, and it says where to walk.

It has a wise versus unwise. The word wise is to be skillful, adroit. We have the tools at our hand. We have the material to be wise in what we believe in. And the unwise is just a negative of that. There's an A in front of the Greek word. Sophos, aesophos. It's a negative of that.

So we're to walk as wise, not as unwise. And then here's Wyss kind of rendering of that first verse 15. Be constantly taking heed, therefore, of how accurately you are conducting yourselves, not as unwise, but as wise ones. And actually, one additional point here, it's kind of hidden here. It says, therefore, be careful. Well, actually, if you look at the original, that be is actually, there's a word in the Greek called blepo. Does anyone ring a bell with anybody? Anybody heard of the word blepo? I think Vern's talking about it. Look, exactly. So actually, it's really rendered, you look carefully at how you walk.

We're to look at our walk as sort of like, I'm looking at my walk. I'm probably running into things that way. You're to examine your walk, look at your walk. So that B is kind of, I think it actually, it can be better translated. That's my, after looking at the original a little bit. Therefore, look carefully at how you walk. Examine your walk. And there's other verses that go along with that.

We're just not to be, I have faith and faith alone. But the world loves that kind of stuff. They love faith and faith alone. That's wonderful because there's no consequences, no nothing. Hey, I have faith and faith. I have faith, you have faith, we all have faith. What's that? Faith in the person, the work of the Lord Jesus is what the Christian life is all about. Okay, any last questions? Next week, Bob is going to do two sections on marriage and parenting. His next two classes. Let's close in prayer then.

We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for your word, for the blessings we have, Lord. We thank you that we can put our faith in a person and in his work and what he's accomplished on Calvary that he did what no man could do. He paid the price for our sins and we trust you that that was sufficient and you are satisfied and we can trust you in our daily lives as we walk by faith in the person, the work of the Lord Jesus. We ask it in his name. Amen.