Have you ever told someone to be careful? Maybe it was a child walking in a parking lot or an elderly person walking down steps on a cold morning. When one person tells another person to be careful, what do they really mean? At its most basic understanding, to be careful is to be full of care. If you tell someone to be careful while driving at night, what you mean is that they should take care not to be tired, sleepy, or distracted while they drive, because one who does not take care can suffer consequences because of it. The general idea is to encourage a person to be alert and sober-minded in a situation that often leads a person to become apathetic or distracted. Be careful walking on ice. Be careful carrying that heavy box. Be careful driving in the city. It is also a reminder to make good and wise decisions, no matter the circumstances. Our default as humans is to become more and more lazy and apathetic over time, and often an accident or injury is what wakes us up to realize just how un-careful we had recently become.

When Paul urges Christians to be careful about how they live, these same ideas are true. Christians can easily become the opposite of alert and sober-minded. Christians often become apathetic and careless in our thoughts, in the words we speak, and in how we react to life's circumstances. Paul encourages each of us to be intentional in living wisely, not unwise or foolish like so many people do. He describes a wise approach to living as one that makes the most of every opportunity, and not letting those opportunities go to waste. Instead of filling ourselves up with the things of this world, a wise and careful approach would be filling up with the things of God. Instead of being drunk on wine, be filled with the Holy Spirit. This idea of acting foolishly or unwise was deeply connected in the Roman world to the debauchery surrounding the worship of the pantheon of false Roman gods. For example, in the practices of devotion to the ancient god Bacchus, there were huge amounts of false worship through drinking, partying, sexual exploits, and many forms of indulging in the flesh, no matter what that indulgence looked like. Often, worshippers of Baccus were known to become drunk and run around the temple like madmen, tossing their heads from shoulder to shoulder, yelling, cutting themselves, and appearing to be in every sense completely frantic and out of control. As Christians, we are called to come under the control of God, not to lose all control and simply follow whatever makes us happy or gives us pleasure in the moment. This was yet another way that Christianity presented an upside-down kingdom to the physical kingdom from which the early church emerged. Roman culture, though disciplined in many ways, reveled in debauchery and the indulgence of the flesh, as well as in the areas of the spiritual. But in stark contrast, Paul urges Christians to live in a way that seems backward and alien to the unbelieving world; to live carefully instead of carelessly. These are the options each of us has even today; we can be careful, or we can be careless. Sadly, many Christians have been led to think carelessly, to speak carelessly, and to act carelessly. Most don't do this intentionally; it is simply something we fall into because of a lack of discipline. Over time, all people, even Christians, become increasingly careless and self-centered. It is part of our fallen human nature. Those who live selfishly are not thankful, but increasingly entitled. They are not humble and teachable but are filled instead with defensiveness and pride. They are not reverent and respectful but filled with coarseness and disrespect for the things of God. The careful, disciplined Christian life is the most incredible witness to an unbelieving world. Living in a way that is totally different has been shown to be a major evangelistic pull that has drawn many millions over the centuries into an authentic relationship with Christ. We are God's chosen because we are different from the world, not because we are the same.