Walk Worthy

A couple of days ago I was thinking about living on mission and what it means to be unified in a city in accomplishing the mission Jesus calls all Christians to and that mission would be making disciples. So often I see churches set on "their" mission and not really interested in the greater mission of all the churches one would find in a particular town or city. I believe we are all called to make disciples, that isn't just a call for ministers or missionaries. Wait a second, it is a call for missionaries, but not always "missionaries" in the sense that we so often think. As Christians, WE ARE ALL MISSIONARIES. That is part of our very identity as born-again believers. So as we are all given various gifts and callings, we all have the duty and commission to spread the gospel to those around us (Matt. 28:16-20).

The Apostle Paul points out in this letter to the Ephesians that Christ has reconciled all creation to himself and to God and that Christ has united people from all nations to himself and to one another in His church, which we are a part of as believers and followers of Christ. Now we can take the exhortations of Paul and other New Testament writers and try to live them and apply them and carry them out in our own lives, but without Christ and the gospel as our foundation, it all just becomes empty moralism and we end up being a bunch of people trying to do “good things” so that we can in turn be “good people.” Thankfully, Paul is always reminding us of what Christ has accomplished first and then calls us to live in light of that truth. He points this out in the very outset of chapter 4 – “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, URGE you to walk in a manner WORTHY of the calling to which you have been CALLED” (Eph. 4:1).

THE GOODS

Ephesians 4 points out a 3 key themes and they are as follows:

·      Christ is into uniting all people into his body the church. We are a new creation. (v. 1-6)

·      Christ's people are new people marked by holiness in all areas of life. We need to reject the old sinful self. (v. 1-3)

·      Christ has given gifts to His church for His church. We need to use them and use them in love. (v. 7-16)

All three of these points first show what Christ has done for us and our response or what we are called to do, not on our own strength and not to gain anything, but to carry out in light of what Christ has already done for us. TO WALK WORTHY OF OUR CALLING!

So, again what does Paul say Christ has done for us? He has reconciled all creation to himself and to God, and He has united all people to himself and each other in His church.

This is Christ’s church and we have been reconciled to him, restored to him and to each other as one body. He has restored our relationship with Him, He has made us new or as Paul says in chapter 2 he has made us “alive in Christ”, and He has given us gifts to bring unity, maturity, and defense against the devil and his allies.

Just as Christ has been a reconciler, Paul says in an earlier letter to the Corinthians that we are to be into or about this ministry of reconciliation as well. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 says this:

[17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Paul says, that we are to be unified in this one body and that Christ has given us all these different gifts and leaders. These gifts and leaders are here to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for building up this body of Christ until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood. We need to be devoted to building up this body and to attaining unity. We need to be producing mature believers, not children tossed to and fro. And most importantly we need to be speaking the truth and doing this in love so that we all grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. This requires the whole body doing its part, this is serious stuff, we each have a part to play and we need to be doing it. When this happens the body grows so that it builds itself up in love. We cannot forget the “in love” parts of this passage. We can be doing all sorts of good things but if there is no love, it doesn’t really matter.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 – “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

And lastly…

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

When we exercise these gifts and live for the unity and building up of the body in love, then we are truly walking worthy of the calling we have been called to by Jesus Christ.