Ephesians 4 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
It is amazing to me how much I, how much we can all learn about how we are called to live our life in Christ from just 3 short verses. These verses are very important reminders/instructions to maintain healthy relationships with our church family, our spouse, friends, co-workers and employers, etc.
After reading these few verses, I asked myself…ok, what do these verses teach me? What do these words really mean?
I asked myself some ‘what’ ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions….
- What does it look like to lead a life worthy of my calling?
- What does being humble look like?
- What does being gentle look like?
- What does patience look like- allowing for each other’s faults?
- How and why should I keep the unity of the Spirit- binding myself with other believers with peace?
Like Siri says- ” ok- here’s what I found”
Live a life worthy of your calling:
We all have high expectations of people who have positions of great influence and power. From a Judge for example, we expect integrity, honesty, justice, moral character and behavior. When he/she fails to uphold these expectations, he/she brings dishonor to the value of that office and discredits himself/herself. The honor and value of the position should have been worth so much to him/her that he/she would never dare bring it into dispute. The public response is to have much less regard for not only him/her, but worse, for the office of the Judiciary.
As Christians, we have a far greater calling! This does not mean that we should try to deserve our place in God’s favor. It means that we should recognize how much our place in God’s favor deserves from us.
The focus is not on our worth but on the worth of our calling.
The verses in Ephesians chapters 1- 3, we can learn what the ‘calling’ means.
- Ephesians 1:4 God chose us for himself before the world was created.
- Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to be his children – and that means heirs of all our Father owns!
- Ephesians 1:7 He sent Christ to atone for all our trespasses.
- Ephesians 1:13 He seals us with His Holy Spirit to preserve us forever.
- Ephesians 2:7 He promises to spend an eternity increasing our joy in the immeasurable riches of His grace.
- Ephesians 3:10 he has given us the mission as a church to display His wisdom, even to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Or as Ephesians 1:12 says, we are “ destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.”
In other words, the privilege and purpose of our Christian calling is greater than the privilege and purpose of any other calling we may have in our lifetime. Our calling is from God, this calling lasts forever. It should give us a passion for integrity for the honor and privilege of being a child of God. We should use our gifts to build up the body of Christ.
As I read through these verses again, I can honestly say that I feel humbled that God would place so much worth on me – on each one of us He has created! I have often heard people say “I am humbled” in an unexpected circumstance and I wondered how it really applied…are they just nice, expected words words after receiving a high award? So, today I decided to look up the definition of ‘humble’ ‘gentle’ ‘patient’ -words.
Paul begs us To Be:
- Humble: Do not cause someone to feel less important. Show a modest estimate of one’s own importance.
- Gentle: To show a mild, kind or tender temperament or character. Gentleness is typically used in order to make one calmer.
- Patient: To be able to accept or tolerate delays, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.
We are asked to bear with one another. How do we do that?
- Be mindful that you are not the center of the universe; be aware that everyone is struggling with their own burdens, wrestling with their own conflicts.
- Note: (Bear with one another does NOT mean to tolerate bad behavior.)
The fact that everyone is struggling with their own issues is easy to overlook. It’s far easier to think about our own stress, to operate under the false notion that others should be aware of my stress and cater to my challenges. (crosswalk.com)
Paul said that we must endure one another.
Endure means -suffer patiently! Ouch, that’s a high expectation isn’t it? As John Piper says, and I agree, that there are people in our church family, like us, who will be grumpy or critical or unreliable, imperfect like we are. The pastor will have his own growing pains in his journey to sanctification.
“This passage is not about how ‘perfect people’ can live together in unity, ‘but how real, imperfect believers in Christ’ can maintain the unity of the Spirit, by enduring each other in love.” (John Piper)
And that is only possible by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. ~Lorna
You can read more detail on this subject at -Desiring God by John piper.
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/maintain-the-unity-of-the-spirit