Ephesians 5:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since, he says, evil people prevail in the present days, you, as wise, should take care to give them no occasion against yourselves. For the will of God consists precisely in keeping yourselves pure, while preserving the faith as well.

Since the Apostle sometimes says, "Do not be foolish" (Eph 5:17), and sometimes, "Do not be wise in your own conceits" (Rom 12:16), can one who is senseless avoid being wise in himself?

Answer. Each commandment has its own proper limit. To the words, "Do not be foolish," he adds, "but understand what the will of God is." To the words, "Do not be wise in your own conceits," it is added, "Fear the Lord and depart from evil" (Prov 3:7).

Therefore the senseless man is the one who does not understand the will of the Lord. Wise in himself is everyone who is guided by his own reasonings and does not walk by faith in the words of God.

Since the time is evil and, as we said above, must be redeemed, one must first seek wisdom, so that through it one may have the power to know what the will of God is. For we cannot walk carefully unless we have first understood the will of God. In every matter one must first discern what is pleasing to God, and then, having formed a judgment, do what is recognized as pleasing to Him.

The will of God is that everything His servants do should be done prudently. Confusion, noise, and stubborn argument give rise to hostility. Paul added these words to what was said above, namely, that the servants of God must expose people's transgressions.

"Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of God is." For it is utter madness not to serve the Master Who has saved all.

From this we learn who is senseless, or foolish, and who is wise. Senseless is the man who does not know the will of his Lord.

God declared that rich man foolish who did not know that the Lord's will is that we should not store up "treasures on earth" (Mt 6:19). He was thinking of building larger barns in which to gather his treasures.

"Fool," God said to him, "this night your soul will be required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lk 12:20).

Wise is the one who, knowing the Lord's will, shows mercy to the poor. Therefore the Lord called those five virgins wise who "took oil in their vessels with their lamps" (Mt 25:4).

There is a need to use the present precious time prudently (Eph 5:15-20), for it flows away imperceptibly, since the days are evil. For this reason one must enter deeply into the knowledge of "what the will of God is."

One must not become drunk with wine, from which comes dissipation, but rather be filled with the Spirit, edifying oneself with psalms and doxologies, giving thanks for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Here one hears the apostolic indication of the revelry of pagan orgies. The Orthodox Church appoints the reading of this passage from Ephesians at thanksgiving services for the granting of a petition.

The Apostle ascribes circumspection and prudence with a view also to the relation of Christians to pagans, and of paganism to Christians. Here also lies, in the nearest sense, the evil of the days.

Here too lies the need to ponder what, amid all changeability, constitutes the work of God's providence and His decrees.

According to blessed Jerome, the Apostle Paul speaks here as though saying: "O Ephesians, upon whom, after awakening from the sleep of this age, the Sun of righteousness, Christ the Lord, has shone! Walk carefully and wisely, not yielding to the changeability of time.

Let persecution follow upon persecution. Keep one course and care for one thing: not to change like the moon, as the unwise do, but to stand unwaveringly in what has once been begun.

Here is the means both to walk with wise caution and to redeem the time as one should. Learn what God wants from you in this or that circumstance, and do it.

He had already said earlier, "testing what is pleasing to God." Now he says the same thing again: understand what the will of God is.

This is so important and so necessary because our prudence, always insufficient, can distort the proper manner of action. Our prudence very often, if not always, bends the matter, being diverted from uprightness by self-pity, people-pleasing, and many other reasons that seem respectable by human judgment.

But understanding the will of God disperses all the fogs that lie upon the paths of our life. It clearly shows the straight path, and by this secures and establishes the uprightness of our action.