Lesson 9: “Living Wisely”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- This lesson takes the texts from Ephesians 5 out of sequence to make points about good lifestyle.
- The significance of spiritual light exposing darkness is reduced to sexual morality and immorality.
- The call to spiritual life from natural spiritual death is reduced to an appeal to embrace missions.
This week’s lesson is especially convoluted. The focus of the week’s study is an appeal to live the lifestyle Adventism endorses, and it camps on sexual immorality while almost ignoring the fact that immorality is condemned in the same verses condemning greed and covetousness.
Since the lesson jumps around in Ephesians 5, putting phrases together and appealing to verses out of context to make its points, we will quote below Ephesians 5:1–20 just to give everyone the opportunity to read the whole passage in context:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:1–21).
The point of this passage is that believers, who have been born again of the Spirit and adopted by the Father (Rom. 8:14–17; Eph. 1:13,14), are called to put aside sexual immorality—a lifestyle which was part of their pagan life pre-conversion. Temple prostitution was part of the worship of the false gods from which God had rescued them.
Paul reminds them that sexual impurity has no place in the life of a believer, but it is a mark of an unbeliever, and God’s wrath comes on those who do not believe but indulge the flesh as they pay homage to false gods.
The lesson, however, is a call to morality. Because Adventism does not understand nor teach that humans are by nature spiritually dead and under the wrath of God (Jn. 3:18, 36), they appeal to their members to give up immoral behaviors because they are not fitting for people claiming to be Christian.
The difference between Paul’s appeal—written to brothers and sisters who have already been born again—and the lesson’s appeal is profound: the lesson is writing largely to UNBELIEVERS who do not know the true gospel and are not born again through faith in Jesus’ finished work.
The lesson is a moral lesson; Paul’s passage is a call to remember who we are in Christ and to trust Him. Further, the context of these verses as they occur in Ephesians makes a different appeal than do the author’s interpretations in the lesson. The lesson is a vain call to behave morally without the juxtaposition of the verses as Paul intended them.
The focus on lifestyle instead of the focus Paul made on living as true born-again believers is summarized in the Teachers Comments on page 122 under the heading Adventist Theology of Lifestyle:
As Adventists, we have included lifestyle in our list of doctrinal statements. Following Paul, lifestyle is not a marginal aspect of Christianity for us but rather the central part of Christianity, which is to say, living out the Christian life. Adventists especially articulate the biblical teaching on Christianity as a way of life in two fundamental beliefs: 19 (“The Law of God”) and 22 (“Christian Behavior”). In addition, the fact that, in Christ, we regard our transformed lifestyle as essential to Christian experience is also reflected in our church discipline and also in our repeated calls for revival and reformation.
In this paragraph we see the driving force behind this lesson: the author is using Ephesians 5, rearranging the texts for easier appropriation and interpretation, to teach the Adventist doctrine of lifestyle.
Right here in this paragraph we see the official admission that “lifestyle” is a DOCTRINE. It is, in fact, part of the Adventist “gospel”, and Adventists—led by Ellen White—still refer to the “health message” as “the right arm of the gospel”. For Adventists, who believe that humans do not have immaterial spirits, spirituality is enmeshed with a healthy lifestyle. Proper diet and exercise, sleep and sunshine are all inseparable from spiritual health because, they believe, the Holy Spirit is perceived not in our human spirits but in the neurons of the frontal lobes of the brain.
Thus lifestyle is a central requirement of Adventist doctrine and practice. This lesson appropriates Ephesians 5 to make a lifestyle argument.
Call to Missions
One of the most clear misuses of a passage in this lesson is found at the end of Tuesday’s lesson. The author has glossed over the implications of Ephesians 5:11 where Paul says not to participate “in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.” Paul is referring to unspecified “deeds of darkness”, and contextually it is clear that he is calling believers not to protect the unfruitful behaviors of unbelievers. He is not speaking specifically about sexual immorality, but that is the way the lesson treats the verse.
In fact, “deeds of darkness” is every kind of deception and coercion practiced by unbelievers. Adventism as an organization teaches a deceptive gospel, a false Jesus, and an incomplete atonement under the guise of morality and dependence on Scripture. Adventism as a whole is one of those forces that perpetuates deeds of darkness, disgraceful things done in secret. It is these kinds of dark things Paul tells the Ephesians that they must expose and no longer hide.
He even says, in verses 13, and 14, that “things become visible when they are exposed by the light,” and he ends with what is likely an early Christian hymn: “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”
This hymn is a direct reference to our natural spiritual death, our being asleep in darkness and unable to see the light of Christ. He appeals here to the Ephesians to no longer turn a blind eye to the deeds of darkness around them and to allow the light of Christ to shine on them, bringing them from spiritual death to a life in which they can walk in the light of truth.
The lesson, however, says this about this verse on page 114:
What are we to make of the poem or hymn in Ephesians 5:14, which uses language associated with the resurrection of the dead at the end of time (compare Eph. 2:1, 5) to issue a clarion call to awaken from spiritual slumber and experience the transforming presence of Christ? Since Isaiah 60:1–3, which Paul seems to reflect, is directed to God’s people Israel, we may view the hymn/poem of Ephesians 5:14 as a powerful appeal to Christian believers to awaken to their role as missionaries, refractors of the light of Christ in a darkened world (compare Phil. 2:14–16, Matt. 5:16).
The lesson reduces this powerful passage to a mere call to Adventists to wake up and embrace their role as proselytizers!
This passage has nothing to do with a false religion appealing to members to get busy and bring in new members!
Living in the light is not defined by sexual morality and a commitment to denominational missions! This particular passage in Ephesians is a powerful exhortation to believers who have already been born again to embrace their identities in Christ and to say NO to the temptations of the flesh. They are to remember they are in Christ, and they can serve Him from their own now-living spirits and make decisions that will honor God instead of obscuring Him.
For a more in-depth look at Ephesians 5:1–21 in context, please listen to this episode of Former Adventist Podcast, “Now We Can Really Sing!”
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