What He said!, Pt 8: Live worthy

Ephesians 4:1-6                     1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (NIV)

Perhaps it is not initially clear as to what is meant by the word calling.  It might be easy to assume that only a person who is a pastor, or maybe a worship leader, has received an unction or ‘calling’ to rise to the position he holds.  This is not at all what calling means:  Calling refers to that moment when all of us believers came to accept Christ as our Savior.  Accepting Jesus as our Savior is simply not possible without divine help because our sin nature so clouds our thinking that the required faith must come from some outside source.  Hence the term calling.

But having come to Christ what do we do with it?  That is the whole point of this passage.  Paul is instructing us to live a life that reflects the glory of Christ.  Afterall, think about what we have been given:  Forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.  Wow!  So we are commanded to live in such a way that reflects our joy.  How?  He gives us four ways in which to do that. 

First, we are to be humble.  If ever a person had to find just one word to describe Jesus’ earthly life it would be this, but it is also seldom applied to any modern person.  Just as to the ancient Greeks, the modern American does not consider humbleness to be a virtue.  We are taught to seek the fulness of life, to find greatness in everything we do, and to maintain a sound and lofty reputation.  But these things seldom allow for consideration of others, and when our need conflicts with the need of another, that person is put aside.  Each of us is doing less well than we think we are and the inability to see this is usually due to pride of self.  But God corrects for that by providing friends.  Friends see us much better than we see ourselves, and they can even pick up on certain things that we say which we don't realize we are saying.  Maybe we unwittingly say something out of pride, or hate, or ignorance, but other people hear it and know it, when we can't. We should be willing to listen to other people's correction of us because they see us much better than we see ourselves.  That’s a good thing because it keeps us centered and focused on Christ.  That’s why it is so important to surround ourselves with Godly friends who are further down the road of righteousness than we are.

Second, we are to be gentle.  This is a tough one for most people.  When we are wronged, our pride raises its ugly head and we think to ourselves, ‘who do you think you are?’  Gentleness implies a steadiness of character and assuredness of life-goal as to make us unaffected by the stresses and judgements of others.  Meekness is an old word for gentleness and at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”  How can this possibly be so?  We have all seen gentle people run rough-shod over by aggressive worldly adversaries.  Why would both Jesus and Paul counsel us to be gentle in Spirit?  Remember, gentleness is not weakness; it is power under control.  Gentleness is the consuming conviction of a person so focused on pursuing a goal for some higher purpose as to be completely undeterred by slights, threats, or even injuries directed at him from outside.  Such a person is so goal-oriented that he is unstoppable;  he will win the race every time.  That opposing worldly adversary is like the rabbit who loses the race to the turtle.  He eventually wears out or has his attention diverted to some other ‘desire of the moment’ and loses interest.  Yes we must provide for our families but let’s do it in a way that glorifies our King.  When we do so in a gentle, kind, loving but firm way we are indeed showing the world that the love of Jesus is worth pursuing.

Third, we are to be patient.  I was in traffic the other day with someone who commented that I was clearly a patient man.  It started me thinking because I don’t consider myself to be patient.  I realized that over the years, without thinking much about it, I had come to realize there is much in the world over which we have no control.  It is the same with our faith.  There are several things that are certain without doubt:  God loves us without condition; because of His love through Jesus we have eternal life in front of us; and God came in the flesh once and will do it again.  Almost everything else in our lives is second, or third, or tenth in importance.  In the scope of eternity ahead of us they don’t really matter much.

Fourth, we are to bear with one another with love.  The Passion translation says we should have generous love for one another, especially those who try your patience.  Human beings cannot live in close proximity with one another without mutual tolerance.  As my wife was entering her final years we had to move out of our former home because of the stairs.  We found a very nice condominium with no stairs which meant of course we were living underneath someone else.  We met these neighbors soon enough, but judging from the amount of noise they made, not a single member of that household weighed less than 400 pounds!  None of them did weigh this much of course, but the point is I had to make sure there was no attitude in my heart when I did meet them.

All these four qualities are possible only in love. For love is the basic attitude of seeking the highest good of others.  We must do our part to be rooted and grounded in love, and we must do our part to see others succeed in life and in their walk of faith.  These four things were modeled by Christ to the disciples and the world of their day, and we must do so in the world of ours.  The other thing is that it is almost impossible not to love persons who exhibit these qualities.  They are so genuinely nice and caring that one just wants to be around them.  Exhibiting these qualities furthers the growth of the Kingdom, reflects the glory of Christ, and exalts the Father.

Finally of equal importance we should remember that all believers are the same underneath.  Background makes no difference, gift mix makes no difference, neither does race, heritage, gender, or upbringing.  What counts is we all love Jesus, and we all have the same job:  To further the Kingdom through the use of the skills, abilities and gifts we do possess.