Ephesians 4:1-3
February 3, 2013
I’m not sure if you knew that today is Super Bowl Sunday. Or as some are calling this the “Har-Bowl.” I’m stuck with a dilemma. You see, the pregame show started at 9 a.m. That means they will talk about this game for 9.5 hours before the game. So, that means I should shorten my message so that you can get home to learn more about the game.
But on the flip side, I thought, or I learned last night, that if they’re going to talk about the game for 9.5 hours today, and countless hours over the past days, then I should be able to talk about God’s word for countless hours. To determine what I should do, I flipped a coin. My answer is - you may want to go for 2 out of 3.
Well, today and for the next couple of weeks, I want to look at Ephesians 4, and what Paul has to say to the early church. His words back then still apply to our lives today. Today, we’re going to look at the first 3 verses, then the next 3 next week.
Paul wrote this to the church ~
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
Sometimes we think the early church knew what they were supposed to do and who they were supposed to be, but they didn’t. Often times they didn’t have their act together. So, Paul writes these words to the church. We’re not a whole lot different from the early church. You see, Paul was concerned about the lack and potential lack of unity in the church.
In Paul’s day, church unity or the destruction of unity came from false teaching and disagreements over doctrine. Today, that is still a possibility, but most break ups in church unity start with a disagreement over some issue, which can range from worship music, to preaching styles to carpet color to just about anything.
You see, most issues in the church start with an issue, but end up with our passion taking over and the I, self-centeredness takes over. The attitude of many Christians is that unless something represents their views, or conforms to their positions and beliefs, it is not acceptable.
Paul wants us to understand the context from where he is reading and what he is basing his argument on. Firstly, Paul helps us to understand where he is. He’s in prison, he’s a prisoner for Christ. And as a result of his commitment to serve Christ, Paul urges us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received.
When Paul writes of our calling, it’s kind of like he’s reminding us of all that we have in Christ. And he’s referring to what he’s already said in the first 3 chapters.
God chose us
He has great love for us
We’re alive in Christ
Christ died for us
God adopted us
We’ve been redeemed
We’ve received forgiveness of sins
We’ve received the Holy Spirit
By grace we receive salvation
It’s God’s gift to us
We are God’s children
Through God we can do more then we imagine
That is what Paul is referring to. This is the calling we have received. So, we should live a life which is worthy of that calling.
It’s like getting a promotion at work, and the owner says to you, “hey, look, now you have this position, you’ve earned it, now show people what you’ve got.” Maybe you’re made the captain of the team, now the coach comes up to you and says, “okay, now it’s time to show what you’re made of. It’s time to lead this team.” It’s like the pastor saying to the people of the church, “hey, look at what you’ve received in Christ, you’ve got it all, and now it’s time to show one another and the world what you’re made of. Go and make a difference in the world, show the world that you are worthy to be called a Christ follower!!”
We’ve received spiritual blessings from God, but what are we going to do with them? Will we make a difference because of Christ, or will we sit and do nothing, but exert our opinions with passion, but not lift a finger to make a real difference? I know that sounds harsh, but too many churches work that way.
You see, we need to recognize that all of our spiritual blessings are the result of what Jesus has done for us. We have not done a thing to earn anything. There’s absolutely nothing I could ever do to earn or deserve all that God has done for me.
So, Paul wants to remind us our walk and our talk need to go together. We can’t say we’re a Christ-follower, but not show it to the world. If we go into the world and we make a mockery of Jesus, what have we told the world? It means Jesus really doesn’t make a difference in my life. We need to have a balance between our actions and our thoughts. We need to make sure that what we do in public matches what our faith in Jesus is. It doesn’t matter if you’re in school, with your family, at work, in the store, or writing a post on facebook, or instagram or tweeting. Are you living a life worthy of your calling in Christ?
So, before we can ask the question, so how do I live the life worthy to be called a Christ-follower? Paul gives us the answer — saying . . .
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
So, we need to do 4 things, notice, and I love this about the Bible, we just shouldn’t be humble and gentle, but we should be what!? We need to be completely humble and gentle. Yikes!
Now, let me give you a thought, which maybe you never had. I believe unity is expected. It’s supposed to be the norm in the church, not the exception. As followers in Christ, we aren’t responsible for creating unity (that’s great news). You see, Jesus has already established unity through what He did for us. Our job is to maintain and grow that unity.
Now, we can look at the 4 attitudes Paul layed out for us. Remember church is not a place where we come to get our own needs met, but it’s a place where followers of Christ come together to serve each other and our world so that we can demonstrate the power and grace of Jesus.
So, we’re called to be humble, or have humility.
The word for humility literally means to think lowly of oneself. It doesn’t mean to have a low self esteem; or to think badly of yourself. It means that I put the needs of others ahead of my own. I like the way Lawrence Richards’ defines humility ~
It is not a weak man’s surrender, but a strong man’s rejection of selfishness and determination to be actively concerned with the needs and interests of others.
Without a doubt, the best example of humility is Jesus Christ. Paul vividly described that humility in Philippians 2 where he described how Jesus gave up all the glory of heaven to come to this earth to meet our greatest need – a need that we could never meet on our own. Remember we talked about that 2 weeks ago, when I used a ladder to symbolize His coming down to earth, His humility for us, and His exaltation by God.
A church which is full of people who want to meet the needs of others, rather than to focus on their own needs will never have a problem with keeping the unity. When we can say “it’s not about me, it’s about you.” Then we’re on the right track, because if we’re caring for others, then, others are caring for us.
The next word is our call to be gentle. It can also be translated as meekness or mildness.
Unfortunately in our culture these words carry the connotation of weakness. But the word Paul uses here is a word that indicates power under control. For example, I may have the power to hurt someone, but I use my self control so that I don’t hurt them. An athlete knows another athlete is not as strong, and chooses not to hurt them. I can use words to pick someone apart, but I choose not to tear down, but I choose to build up.
Jesus wasn’t weak, but He was gentle or meek in the sense that the great power He possessed was always under control.
In other words, gentleness means that rather than fighting for my rights, I focus on what is best for others. Again, when we have a church full of people with that kind of attitude, preserving unity is an easy task.
Paul goes on to his 3rd word. We call it patience, but other versions use long-suffering. I like that word. Actually, I really don’t, because it means that you suffer long, and isn’t that what we’re doing when we’re patient. We suffer long.
This means we’re willing to put up with people that frustrate us. It means that, just like God does with us, we’re willing to put up with the actions of others that hurt us without seeking to get even. It means we’re willing to put up with those who are less spiritually mature and often don’t know any better. Obviously that doesn’t mean that we don’t deal with sin or that we don’t try to encourage others to grow spiritually. But it does mean being willing to be patient or long-tempered with those people and allow God to work in their lives in His own time.
Lastly, we are called to bear with one another in love.
While Paul encourages unity, he never expects uniformity. Every one of us has different personalities, abilities and temperaments. Paul is encouraging us to make allowances for the uniqueness of each individual part of the body. Paul is not saying that we are to tolerate sin in the body, but we are to put up with and tolerate those who are different than us.
Bearing with one another is more than just an outward façade. It’s a decision to love others in spite of our differences. The bottom line is that we do everything with love. Love is always the cornerstone.
So, Paul concludes this section by telling us to 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
Make every effort. It means don’t think it, do it. Don’t just talk about it and complain to a friend, make sure you take action to keep the unity in the body of Christ. We want to experience the peace of Christ which is unexplainable, and we won’t if we don’t seek to keep the unity through the Spirit of God.
I know that all of us would like to think there could never be a split at First Baptist Church. But we’re not immune to the “me-first”, self-centered world we live in. The only way we can make sure we preserve the unity we have been blessed with is to continue to develop attitudes of humility, gentleness and patience and learn to bear with one another in love.
As we look to the future and make important decisions, we won’t always agree with one another. And sometimes there are no wrong answers, but even when you disagree or agree, the goal is always to bring glory to Christ.
