Awake Thou That Sleep

Ephesians 5:13-17 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever do make manifest is light. Wherefore he said, Awake thou that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be you not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 

‘All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.’ All reprovable actions are made manifest by light.

‘Awake thou that sleep, and arise from the dead.’ A paraphrase of Isaiah 60:1-2. It is a command given to awake from sleep as in being dead or asleep spiritually until you are one in Christ where you will be awake and alive.

‘Circumspectly’ [Greek: akribos] circumspectly (5:15); perfectly (Acts 18:26; 23:15, 23:20; 1Thess. 5:2); perfect (Luke 1:3; Acts 24:22); and diligently (Matt. 2:8; Acts 18:25). It means to walk about watching every hand to avoid danger and enemies – live the gospel by watching your conduct.

‘Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.’ Buying up those moments which others throw away. Improve every moment to make up for those lost in sin.

‘Unwise’ [Greek: aphron] senseless, crazed (2Cor. 11:16). Do not become madmen. Here is an allusion to the wild orgies of Bacchus, in which men acted like they were mad; running and tossing their heads and appearing in every sense completely frantic. Be sober, chaste.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s