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{Sermons on Ephesians 5:15
The Doctrine Explained
Precisians Are the Sort Who Are Upright in the Way
Their Uprightness with Respect to the Commandments
They Have Respect for Every Commandment}
As pertaining to the commandments, their exact walking consists first of all in having respect for every commandment, that is, respect for the whole Word of God. “Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments” (Psalm 119:6 ESV). “Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:20 NASB). The life of a Christian is a busy life; the Word of God finds us much work to do. We have work for every faculty and member. Our understandings have their work. Our wills, emotions, consciences, tongues, ears, eyes, and hands all have their particular work assigned to them. Every grace has its work: faith has its work, love has its work, and patience has its work. Every lust makes us work: to restrain, deny, watch,62 and crucify them. They are weights and clogs that will hang on us and hinder us from all other works if we let them alone. These lusts are working against us continually and are apt to set us to work against ourselves, working mischief and ruin to our souls if the lusts are not continually looked after and kept under. We have work created for us by every condition. Our prosperity finds us much work to keep ourselves humble, heavenly, watchful, and in a holy fear and jealousy. For otherwise the satisfactions and pleasures of this life will make an invasion and inroads into our hearts and plunder us of our graces and comforts. Our afflictions find us work to keep our spirits from sinking and fainting and keep us from murmuring and envying those whose way prospers. We have all the prescribed and solemn duties of Christianity to attend to: we have praying work, sermon-hearing work, sacrament work, Scripture-reading work, heart-searching work, and meditating work. We have work to be done for others: our neighbors and acquaintances, our friends and our enemies, and our families, servants, and children. We have not only work to do for them as one human for another human, but work to do for God to their benefit. God has work for us to do among our neighbors. God has work for us to do in our families, and for our friends and enemies: instructing work, reproving work, praying work, works of mercy and charity, and so on. We have a continual succession of work; every day has its business. Christians must have no sleeping days; their very Sabbaths63 must be [spiritual] working days. We must be at work for our souls even on Sabbath days, on which we must do no ordinary work. “There remains a rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). This will be a rest in which they will work no more,64 nor be weary any more, and all their work there will be to eat of the fruit of their doings. But on this side of that rest, there is no rest; we must be full of labor.
You see that the Word has provided much work for Christians. Now those who are circumspect, upright, and in the way will be disciplined in all kinds of work and balk at nothing that the Word requires. They are available for any service, ready for every good work, and will not pick and choose. They will not halt or balk with God, but as the apostle, endeavor to stand “complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12). Whatever is indeed a duty, even those duties that have the most pain in them, even those duties that have the most hazard attached to them, and even those duties that are the most contrary to their natural temperaments and dispositions—if they are duties and the Word says “This must be done; this is what the Lord requires”—an upright heart will yield and stoop to them. Brethren, if there is any one thing required in the whole book of God to which you cannot consent, but rather, you allow yourselves to ordinarily neglect it—if you say with Naaman, “The Lord spare me in this one thing” (2 Kings 5:18)—whatever else you do, you can have no comfort that your hearts are upright.65
62The command to watch is found frequently in this book, and indeed, frequently in Scripture as well. The word has several senses, and the primary scriptural meaning is still a current sense of the word, although that sense is relatively infrequent today. In Scripture, to watch means to stand watch in the sense of standing guard. It carries with it an expectation of possible trouble, especially if the source of trouble finds one caught off guard. The security guard who stands watch over a parking lot or store in a bad neighborhood is a good example of this kind of watching. The guard must watch actively and alertly. By so doing, he may prevent trouble, but if he is perceived as inattentive, a thief is likely to take advantage of the opportunity.
63The Christian Sabbath, since the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus, is the first day of our week, usually called “Sunday.”
64The editor begs to disagree that there will be no work in Heaven. All visions of Heaven show activity among the angelic beings. God works, and we are made in His image. We will work in Heaven, but without the toil, pain, drudgery, and fruitlessness of work on earth. It will be more like what we would presently call enjoyable and profitable hobbies. The Parable of the Talents (Luke 19:11–19) hints strongly that those in Heaven will not be idle. What is more, there is the full enjoyment of God; getting to know Him fully is the work of an eternity. Indeed, “… His servants shall serve Him” (Revelation 22:3). Then, God promises, “if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us” (2 Timothy 2:12 ESV). Now, if serving and reigning are not work, what are they?
65This statement may seem shocking to many modern readers. But consider that the Scriptures say that no unrepentant murderer (1 John 3:15), unrepentant coward, unbeliever, murderer, fornicator, sorcerer, idolater, or liar (Revelation 21:8) has eternal life, but is bound for Hell. Even with respect to less heinous sins, when someone does not trust God enough to obey Him in a particular command, it is reasonable to ask if he or she does, in fact, really trust God for salvation. The editor joins the author in pleading with the reader to take this warning seriously. Obedience to God is a strong indicator of saving faith (James 2:14–26). The reader who is still not convinced should read on; Hell is an excruciatingly serious matter.
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