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Ephesians 5:15-20 - Redeeming the Time: Worship in the Spirit

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Paul has just sounded the call, “Awake, you who sleep…and Christ will give you light.” He now asks what an awakened life looks like. It pays attention to its walk, recognizes the opportunity hidden inside an evil day, refuses whatever scatters the soul, and receives a fullness that becomes song and thanksgiving.

These are not disconnected commands about scheduling, alcohol, music, and gratitude. Paul traces one life from wisdom to worship. The Church walks carefully because the days are evil; she is filled with the Holy Spirit rather than mastered by dissipation; her members address one another in sacred song; and her thanks rise to the Father in the name of Christ. Spirit-filled wisdom becomes communal praise.

Walk Carefully in Evil Days (Ephesians 5:15-17)

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,

16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

“See then” joins this command to the light of the preceding passage. Christ does not awaken His people so that they can return to spiritual sleepwalking. Paul asks them to look at how they walk. Throughout Ephesians, the “walk” is a whole manner of life: humanity once walked according to the present age, but those recreated in Christ now walk in prepared good works, in a manner worthy of their calling, in love, in light, and here in wisdom.

The word translated “circumspectly” is ἀκριβῶς (akribōs), carefully or accurately. Paul is calling for deliberate moral attention, not anxious perfectionism.1 Scrupulosity keeps staring at the self in fear; Christian watchfulness looks toward the Lord and notices what a choice is doing to the heart. Wisdom asks whether a habit is making us more truthful, prayerful, merciful, and available to God, or less so.

“Redeeming the time” translates ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρόν (exagorazomenoi ton kairon), language that can carry the sense of buying up or making the most of an available opportunity.2 The point is not that every minute must produce measurable output. Rest, silence, family attention, and unhurried prayer can be faithful uses of time. Paul is asking whether the opportunity in front of us will be surrendered to distraction, resentment, vanity, and fear, or offered to God through obedience, restraint, mercy, and worship.

The days are evil because sin works within them, not because time or creation is evil. This distinction keeps Christian vigilance from becoming contempt for the world or panic about the age. The hour is contested, but it is still God’s gift. Even a hard hour can become an occasion for a truthful apology, a restrained answer, an unnoticed act of service, or a prayer offered when the heart would rather complain.

Understanding “the will of the Lord” is therefore more than waiting for private direction about a decision. In Ephesians, the Lord’s will has already taken visible form: put off the old humanity, speak truth, forgive as God forgave you, walk in love, walk as light, and guard the unity of the Spirit. Discernment begins by obeying what Christ has already made clear. Only then can we ask wisely about the choices that remain.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St John Chrysostom reads careful walking as public Christian integrity under pressure. The believer should give no needless cause for accusation through pride, revenge, quarrels, or careless conduct. The Gospel itself may provoke hostility, but our passions should not supply the charge.

On the opportunity entrusted to us, Chrysostom gives a short, severe sentence: “The time is not yours.”3 Time is received, not possessed. That truth frees us from two opposite errors: wasting the day as if it had no Lord, and trying to control every hour as if our worth depended on mastering it. We are stewards of the present moment, and Christ is its Lord.

Filled with the Spirit, Not Dissipation (Ephesians 5:18)

18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

Paul’s positive command bears the weight of the verse: “be filled with the Spirit.” πληροῦσθε (plērousthe) is a present passive imperative addressed to the whole community.4 The Holy Spirit fills the Church; fullness is received rather than manufactured, and it forms a common life rather than a private spiritual achievement. The wording is traditionally rendered “with the Spirit,” while some grammatical readings emphasize “by the Spirit.” The preposition should carry no more certainty than the evidence permits. Both renderings keep the Church dependent on the Spirit’s living action.

Paul lets the expressions of this fullness become visible in the verses that follow: the members address one another in sacred song, sing to the Lord from the heart, and give thanks to the Father through Christ. The participial sequence continues into verse 21 with mutual submission in reverence before Christ, even though that verse belongs to the next session.5 The precise relation of means and result is debated, so “expressions” or “outflow” is the careful claim. The spiritual measure remains concrete: the Spirit gathers the Church, trains her speech for praise, and turns her members toward God and one another.

Against that fullness Paul sets drunkenness and its “dissipation.” The noun ἀσωτία (asōtia) can denote debauchery, profligacy, or reckless waste.4 Intoxication may promise ease, courage, forgetfulness, or fellowship, yet it clouds judgment and gives appetite increasing command over the person. Paul’s contrast reaches beyond a narrow alcohol debate toward every escape that scatters attention, weakens truthfulness, and makes love of the neighbor harder.

Verse 18 still names drunkenness plainly, and addiction requires serious care. A person trapped in dependence needs repentance, prayer, practical support, qualified treatment, and a Church community that replaces secrecy with truthful companionship. Shame does not heal bondage. Seeking help can be an act of watchfulness and a first consent to the Spirit’s work of restoring freedom.

Chrysostom on sobriety and fullness

Chrysostom protects the goodness of creation while confronting excess: “Wine has been given us for cheerfulness, not for drunkenness.”6 His concern is the healing of use. A gift meant for grateful reception becomes destructive when appetite turns it into escape and loss of watchfulness.

He also connects fullness with repentance. The Spirit heals the same heart Paul has been teaching to put away falsehood, bitterness, impurity, greed, and corrupt speech. Christian sobriety is the freedom to remain awake to God, honest about sin, and available for love.

Worship That Forms the Church (Ephesians 5:19)

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

Spirit-filled sacred song forms attention in two directions at once. The members speak “to one another,” so worship teaches, consoles, corrects, and carries the faith from one heart to another. They also sing “to the Lord,” so the Church’s shared voice becomes an offering to Christ. Mutual formation and Godward praise belong together.

The three terms ψαλμοῖς, ὕμνοις, and ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, have distinguishable ranges that also overlap.7 Their force is richness rather than a rigid taxonomy. Paul does not assign later Coptic, Byzantine, or modern musical categories to three fixed bins. Colossians 3:16 uses the same triad when the word of Christ dwells richly in the community through teaching and admonition. Hymnody is one of the ways Christ’s word inhabits His people and His people learn to answer Him together.

“Making melody in your heart” brings inward attention into audible, embodied worship. The same sentence says “to one another,” so the heart does not become an argument against common chant, learned rites, or disciplined melody. Paul joins the mouth and the inner person. The Church sings aloud, while each worshiper offers understanding, desire, and attention to the Lord.

This is searching in parish worship because both directions can be lost. A cantor may execute every turn of a hymn while listening chiefly for admiration. A congregant may claim inward devotion while withholding the patient effort of common prayer. Paul gives a more beautiful aim: receive the hymn as the Church’s word to you, offer it as your word to Christ, and let attention bind the two together.

Chrysostom on psalmody with attention

Chrysostom presents psalmody as a joy that trains the soul: “Learn to sing psalms, and thou shalt see the delightfulness of the employment.”8 Musical accomplishment is not his burden. He commends a delight that awakens rather than consumes the person.

When Chrysostom explains singing in the heart, he says it means singing “with close attention and understanding.”8 That phrase supplies a practical rule for worship. Learn the words. Know whom they address. Notice what they confess about Christ. When the mind wanders, return without drama. The melody becomes prayer as the heart returns to the Lord.

Thanksgiving in the Name of Christ (Ephesians 5:20)

20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The Spirit-filled Church approaches the Father through Christ in thanksgiving. Paul gives this thanksgiving a frequency, “always,” a breadth, “for all things,” a recipient, “God the Father,” and a ground, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The verse is explicitly Trinitarian: the Spirit fills the saints, their thanks rise to the Father, and they come through the Son.

The Greek phrase εὐχαριστοῦντες πάντοτε ὑπὲρ πάντων (eucharistountes pantote hyper pantōn) describes continuing thanksgiving. The final plural can grammatically be heard as “all things” or “all people,” so the Greek should not be made to prove one sense exclusively.9 The NKJV’s “for all things” presses a difficult confession: no circumstance and no person lies outside the Father’s knowledge or beyond the redeeming lordship of Christ.

Christian thanksgiving can remain truthful inside lament. A wounded person may name abuse as evil, grieve betrayal, seek safety, pursue justice, and ask God why. Such truth does not cancel gratitude. It gives gratitude integrity. Thanksgiving places the person, the pain, the needed action, and the unknown future before the Father without pretending that suffering is good in itself. A teacher who uses this verse to silence disclosure or hurry grief has severed thanksgiving from the crucified Christ in whose name it is offered.

The name of Jesus gives the prayer its confidence. We approach the Father through the Son who entered suffering, bore the Cross, conquered death, and brings His people into communion with God. Gratitude can therefore begin before circumstances become pleasant and before every question receives an answer. Christ remains faithful within the unresolved sorrow, and lament can still end by entrusting itself to His Father.

Chrysostom on thanksgiving under affliction

Chrysostom presses thanksgiving into affliction, anguish, and discouragement. His brief prayer is: “Lord, I thank thee.”10 Said truthfully, those words do not erase lament. They keep lament turned toward God rather than sealed inside despair. The sufferer remains before the Father, held within providence, and able to bless Him in Christ’s name.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic annual lectionary repeatedly hears this session within the larger Pauline reading Ephesians 5:8-21. The assigned unit begins with walking as children of light, continues through wise conduct and Spirit-filled worship, and reaches mutual submission. Ephesians 5:15-20 is contained within that reading; it is not established as a separate lectionary unit.

That wider range preserves Paul’s sequence. Light becomes wisdom, wisdom receives the Spirit’s fullness, fullness becomes praise and thanksgiving, and praise opens into relationships reordered by reverence for Christ. The Church hears worship as the fruit of a holy walk, not as an escape from one.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Redeem one real opportunity instead of worshiping a perfect schedule. Busyness can hide avoidance as easily as idleness can. Choose one recurring part of the day that is often lost to distraction, such as the first minutes after waking, the drive home, or the pause before bed. Give that opportunity a faithful purpose: the Jesus Prayer, attentive listening to a family member, a needed apology, or silence before God. The aim is not a flawless routine. It is one offered kairos.

Name the escape that scatters you. Wine is explicit in the passage, but dissipation also appears wherever relief leaves us less truthful, less prayerful, and less able to love. It may be alcohol, compulsive scrolling, food, pornography, overwork, shopping, anger, or constant noise. Bring the pattern into confession and ask for concrete help. If dependence has become addiction, seeking qualified support is an act of truth, not a spiritual defeat.

Let the heart rejoin the words in worship. Familiar hymns can pass through the mouth while the mind rehearses work, conflict, or self-consciousness. At the next service, choose one psalm, hymn, response, or prayer. Understand its words, sing them with the Church, and return your attention to the Lord each time it wanders. Attention itself becomes an offering.

Give thanks without lying about pain. Name the sorrow honestly, then place it before the Father in Christ’s name. Use Chrysostom’s short prayer, “Lord, I thank thee,” and add one truthful mercy you can still recognize: Christ has not abandoned me; someone has carried me; repentance remains open; the Church is praying; resurrection is still promised. Gratitude and lament can inhabit the same prayer.

Look for the communal marks of fullness. Paul addresses a people, not a collection of private spiritual projects. Ask whether your presence helps the parish become more prayerful, thankful, peaceful, and attentive to Christ. The Spirit’s fullness is shown not only in what we feel during worship, but in the speech, gratitude, and humble relationships that follow it.

Footnotes

  1. Ephesians 5:15 interlinear and ἀκριβῶς / akribōs. ↩

  2. Ephesians 5:16 interlinear, ἐξαγοράζω / exagorazō, and καιρός / kairos. The terms kairos and chronos have overlapping ranges; this note does not treat them as an absolute contrast. ↩

  3. St John Chrysostom, Homily XIX on Ephesians, on Ephesians 5:15-16, CCEL, opportunity paragraph. ↩

  4. Ephesians 5:18 interlinear, ἀσωτία / asōtia, πληρόω / plēroō, and NET Bible grammatical note. ↩ ↩2

  5. STEP Bible, Ephesians 5:18-21, NET Bible syntax note, and Ephesians 5:21 interlinear. The participles may be described as expressions or results of Spirit-filling; the precise means-versus-result relation is debated. ↩

  6. St John Chrysostom, Homily XIX on Ephesians, on Ephesians 5:18, CCEL, verses 18-21 section. ↩

  7. Ephesians 5:19 interlinear, ψαλμός / psalmos, ὕμνος / hymnos, ᾠδή / ōdē, ψάλλω / psallō, and Colossians 3:16 interlinear. ↩

  8. St John Chrysostom, Homily XIX on Ephesians, on Ephesians 5:18-19, CCEL, psalmody paragraph. ↩ ↩2

  9. Ephesians 5:20 interlinear, εὐχαριστέω / eucharisteō, and NET Bible translation note. ↩

  10. St John Chrysostom, Homily XIX on Ephesians, on Ephesians 5:20, CCEL, thanksgiving paragraph. ↩

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