January 14
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WALK WORTHY OF YOUR CALLING
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE THE CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO PEOPLE.” – Ephesians 4:1-8
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In this letter of Paul to the Ephesians we are all asked to live our lives the way God intended it to be. He guides us all to ensure that we are meek, gentle, patient and bearing one another in love and persistently being faithful to be united with God’s spirit and pursue peace at all times.
David Guzik comments that Paul spent three chapters spelling out in glorious detail all that God did for us, freely by His grace. Now he brings a call to live rightly, but only after explaining what God did for us. He says that when we really understand how much God did for us, we will naturally want to serve and obey Him out of gratitude. He further comments that a worthy walk before God will be marked by lowliness and gentleness, not a pushy desire to defend our own rights and advance our own agenda. We need this so that the inevitable wrongs that occur between people in God’s family will not work against God’s purpose of bringing all things together in Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon comments “We can understand this unity of the Spirit by understanding what it is not.” In a sermon on this text, Spurgeon pointed out some of the things that the text does not say. It does not say, “To endeavor to maintain the unity of evil, the unity of superstition, or the unity of spiritual tyranny.” It does not say, “Endeavoring to keep up your ecclesiastical arrangements for centralization.” It does not say, “Endeavoring to keep the uniformity of the Spirit.”
We have unity in Christ, meaning, all believers share one body, one Spirit, one hope, one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one Father. In verse 7 Paul reminds us of the grace given accordingly to the same measure Christ gave us salvation. In verse 8 he says that Jesus died to set the captives free and gave gifts to people.
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REFLECTION
• How can you walk worthy of God’s calling?