Wherefore he says, Wake up, [thou] that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.
Light shows things for what they are, and Paul now breaks into a wake-up call. Two questions follow: is he waking a dead sinner or a sleeping Christian, and where do the words come from, since no Old Testament verse matches them?
Paul introduces the line as if citing Scripture, yet no such sentence exists in the Old Testament. One writer compares two other New Testament quotations that also depart from the exact Old Testament words:
In both of these Scriptures the spirit, not the letter, is what applies to the point in hand. Used this way, it carried divine authority. So in the passage from Ephesians there can be little doubt that Isaiah 60:1 was in Paul's mind. There we read, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you."
Commentators differ on the background. Some point to Isaiah 60, others add Isaiah 52. All agree the words are an adaptation, not an exact quotation.
The person addressed is already alive. He lies among the dead, but he is not one of them:
In verse 14, a sleeping man is called to "awake," not a dead man: he is a believer, but sadly, in what a state. A man asleep is no better than a dog asleep. Neither one notices anything around them.
What Christ promises him says the same thing. He does not need life. He needs light:
The Scriptures alluded to seem to be Isaiah 52 and 60. But the application here is clearly to believers, sleeping among dead men or dead things. They are called to arise, so that Christ may give them light — not life, which would be their first need as unbelievers.
Sleep does not end the believer's life. It ends his usefulness:
Sorrowful condition for a saint to slip into! What use is a sleeper as a witness to God and the truth? Thanks be to God, such are not dead. The spark of divine life is there, and nothing can put it out. But they have sunk into a state of spiritual numbness. They have lost their enjoyment of heavenly grace and their usefulness in testimony.
The promise here is not a thing but a Person:
The unbeliever is dead to God. The true believer, if he does not pay attention to these exhortations, may fall into a condition of sleep. In that sleep he is like a dead man. In such a condition he will not profit from the light of Christ. … It has been well said, "It is Christ Himself who is the source, the expression, and the measure of light for the soul that is awake."
Older translations read "Christ shall give thee light." That is the wording these writers quote. The ESV has Christ shining on the sleeper. Either way, the light comes from outside him, and only then is there something to reflect.
One writer paints it as a picture. The sleeper does not make the light; he lets it in:
Awake, rise and open the shutters of your dark chamber of deathlike sleep. Then the sun can shine in, and Christ can give you light. And if there is in your heart some secret idol-chamber — love of money, or worldliness, or something else that has slipped in between Christ and you and taken His place in your heart — open the door. Let the light of Christ and His word shine in and expose the idol in all its ugliness.
The danger is greatest where the truth is best known:
It is a solemn thing that this call goes to the company who know more than many, as at Ephesus. They had the highest truth, and were in danger of going to sleep over it.
- Sleep. The one called is a believer, not a corpse. He lies among the dead and looks just like them.
- Call. The words echo Isaiah 60:1. They carry its sense, not its exact letter.
- Rise. Christ gives him light, not life; he has life already. This is a call to recovery, not conversion.
- Shine. He gets Christ Himself — the source, the expression and the measure of all the light an awake soul enjoys.
- Reflect. A sleeping saint has no testimony. Only a soul Christ shines on can show anything of God to a hostile world. Those who know the most truth are in the most danger of dozing over it.
See therefore how ye walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise,
Ephesians 5 has already told believers what they are: light in the Lord. Now it turns to how they walk, and to what wisdom looks like in a world set against them.
In the Bible, "wise" and "unwise" are not measures of intelligence. Older translations read "not as fools, but as wise":
In Scripture, folly and wisdom are not just matters of intellect. They always have a moral character. It is the fool who says in his heart, "There is no God." The fear of the Lord is called the beginning of wisdom. The believer as a child of light has "the mind of Christ"; he has the Holy Spirit to teach him the deep things of God. He may have little worldly wisdom or knowledge, yet he has "an anointing from the Holy One," and so has the mind of God in all that concerns His things. But the flesh is always there to fight against the Spirit. So it takes careful watchfulness to walk as wise men, and not as fools.
A Christian is not asked to find wisdom somewhere outside himself. He has it already, and this verse asks him to use it:
Wisdom, as well as light, is a distinctive attribute of the new man. The Greek philosopher searched for wisdom in vain. It has come, unasked, to the awakened sinner. Christ, who is the wisdom of God in the eyes of our faith, has also been made our wisdom by God. By the counsels of that wisdom we are taught to walk... Moreover, we need wisdom to use rightly what we know. Careful watchfulness always goes with true wisdom. Those whose road to the kingdom runs through many temptations need it. In a land of danger, we must walk with measured steps... We are in the path of folly the moment we begin to walk at our own discretion.
"Look carefully" assumes there is something to look at. Being honest about your destination does not keep you out of the mud along the way:
Uprightness is not enough. If I have to cross a bog, I may be perfectly sincere in seeking a house on the other side. But if I do not look about me, I may sink in the bog. I must look about me. It takes wisdom to go through this world — I mean as a Christian.
The warning has a target. One error says that careful conduct hardly matters as long as your doctrine is sound:
The main force of this warning seems to be aimed at the deception that would make exact conduct a matter of indifference, so long as soundness of doctrine is kept up. This lowest of fallacies can still be a danger to us, if we are not kept near to God in the spirit of our minds.
Careful walking can sound defensive, like a list of things not to do:
This is not only about avoiding certain things. There is something to gain: divine wisdom to live Christ. We have to walk with all the wisdom of God. Satan is seeking to trip us up, to dim our testimony, to cause that to be seen in us which is not Christ.
The wisdom asked for here has a direction:
We are urged to walk wisely. The first fourteen verses teach that the true measure for a right walk is God's nature of light and love. We are to profit by that teaching, and "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise." In an evil world the Christian will need wisdom, but this wisdom is in regard to what is good. So, in another letter, the Apostle can write, "be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil" (Romans 16:19).
Others put the same warning in terms of the verse's two categories. A person can belong to the second and still live like the first:
For though a believer is not a fool, yet he may be unwise and not use his time to advantage.
This carefulness is also public. Others are drawing conclusions:
Our neighbours who reject Christ still hold us responsible for Christian conduct. So we find exhortations in other parts of the Bible that tell us, in principle, that we have to take heed to what we do. Think for example of Ephesians 5:15... I am sure we all see how necessary this warning is. Our "doings" should match our words and be a bright testimony for the Lord.
- Look. The command starts with the eyes, not the feet. Sincerity about where you are going will not keep you out of the bog on the way.
- Wise. In Scripture the fool is a moral type, not a stupid one; the wise man is the one who fears God and has the mind of Christ.
- Given. We do not search this wisdom out. Christ has been made our wisdom, so failure comes not from short supply but from walking at our own discretion.
- Good. The wisdom points at what is good, not at evil: wise about good, innocent about evil.
- Seen. Careful walking is not only avoidance but gain: divine wisdom to live Christ. And neighbours are watching whether our doings match our words.
redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.