Walk Worthy of the Calling
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:1–3).
In chapter four of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul begins to explain how we should be living our lives with one another in the light of these things. Of course, just plunking down in chapter four without really going into depth in the first three chapters really doesn’t give the feel or intellectual context of the verses. With this in mind, I encourage you to slowly read the first three chapters. They really are spectacular.
We know we need to go back because Paul begins chapter four with “therefore.” “In the light of all that has gone on before, do this….”
Next, he points out that he is a prisoner. He is writing from prison. I’ve visited a few prisons in my life, but I’m pretty sure prisons in Paul’s day weren’t geared to rehabilitation like ours are. They were institutions of horrible suffering. They were focused on punishment, not on helping the prisoner fit into society in a helpful way. I don’t know the exact situation Paul was in when he wrote this letter, but we do know that he was flogged, beat up, tortured, and all sorts of other horrible things in prisons in his lifetime. You can read 2 Cor 11:22ff for a short description of the kinds of things Paul went through in his life.
Paul wasn’t in prison because he was a criminal in the technical sense. He was in prison because he was a faithful and loyal servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached Christ to everyone he came in contact with and when he was approached and told to knock it off, he refused. Instead, he doubled down and spoke all the more loudly about the great gifts he had received in Christ Jesus. Of course, if Paul were a nut case, standing on a corner shouting at the passersby, they could have quietly escorted him out of town. In Paul’s case, however, people listened to him and as he invited them to join him in the service of God—people believed and were changed. Worse, the more they changed, the more they wanted to bring others to what they had; and as this happened, culture changed. And the authorities knew it.
Paul pointed out to the Ephesians that he was a prisoner of the Lord because he wanted them to know that because he believed the Gospel was true, he had laid down his life to follow Jesus. It was that important. Jesus said that if we want to be one of his disciples, we need to lay down our lives and take up our crosses and follow after him (Mt 16:24-26; Lk 14:27). Paul had left it all and was seeing the results inside of a prison cell. But at the same time, he was rejoicing in all that God had given him—God himself. Being in prison, for Paul, was simply a new ministry opportunity.
He also mentions his imprisonment because he is inviting others to join him in giving up their lives to follow Jesus. He is leading by example. He is showing them that not only can it be done, but it can be done in a spectacular way. Following Jesus may take a person to prison, but it is such an excellent blessing that it is more than worth it. The Hebrew writer mentions this when he talks about folks who had undergone horrible things because they believed the Gospel of God (and they, like us, had never seen Jesus. You can read about these folks in Hebrews 11:35-39). Notice when you get there that chapter 12 begins with a “therefore” and a call to live in a particular way.
Next, Paul begs, urges, beseeches, and implores (see the various translations) his readers to live in a way that is worthy of the gifts they had been given. He has just been explaining the grace of God, the thrill of God, the relationship with God, the wonderful blessings of God and now he calls everyone to live like they believe that it is all true—absolutely true. In a funny way, after reading those chapters, how can we live any other way? We are out of our minds to live any other way. But Paul feels obliged to spell it out for us. I guess we need it.
He goes on to say that we should live with lowliness and gentleness. Other translations say, “with all humility and meekness,” and “humility and gentleness.” Now we know that humility or lowliness of mind does not mean that we think badly of ourselves. When we do that we are still focusing on ourselves, we are still the center of our attention, and thus is still full of pride. But Paul/God calls us to change the focus of our lives to think of others as more important than ourselves (Phil 2;3).
This means that when we come to someone who is doing, thinking, feeling, something other than what we think they ought to exhibit, we treat them with a kindness and gentleness that reflects the understanding that God loves them with the same love he loves us with. We must lay aside our pride and kindly and sweetly help them walk with God. We want to exhibit a Christlike character that creates a context with others where they know that though we disagree, we still love them.
Some might say, “Oh sure, I can do that for a moment or two,” but Paul went on to say that we should treat one another with humility and gentleness, with longsuffering. Other translations say with patience. This means that there isn’t necessarily an end to how long we need to put up with the shenanigans our friend is suffering us with. We are called to be humble and patient.
Added to this is that little word, bearing with one another. Other translations say, forbearing one another, showing tolerance for one another, and making allowance for each other’s faults. Among other things, this means that they are wrong. They may be weak. They may be needy. Whatever, they need us to bear with them. It reminds me of Galatians 6:1 where we are supposed to come alongside others who are stuck in their sin and gently lift them up to God in restoration.
Does this mean that when we come across someone who is wrong in what they think that we should just let them be wrong? If they are in sin, should we just act like there is nothing wrong? What if they are clearly wrong, but they said, “I prayed about it. And this is where God led me”? Does this mean we need to ignore that they are wrong? No, it means that you approach your friend humbly, in lowliness of mind, patiently, sweetly and gently. Also, you approach them with the idea that this could take a long time and you are going to be patient and bear with them through the process.
Now Paul sticks that great equalizer into the mix. We are to do all this “in love. Jim Wilson said, “There is a higher right than being right.” Doing all these things needs to be done in the light of all that Paul said in the first three chapters and the main, primary, greatest thing we need to get from these chapters is that God did what he did for us, he did because he is love. Everything is based in love, done in love, done for love. Love is the reason, the means, the context, and the goal. So, when we do what we do with one another, we do it all in love. Love is the goal. If there isn’t any love, we have failed. If, after a discussion with someone you disagree with, you and/or they leave not feeling loved, you have failed. This is true even if you have won the argument. Also, you will find that even if you aren’t all that logical when you love people, you may win the argument anyway. And, if you love them, you may lose the argument and may learn something in the process. The main point is that if there is no love, there is no Jesus, no Gospel, no God, you are in sin. Without love, there is nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3).
One last thing for now. Paul says we are to “endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). Other translations use words like, “be eager,” “be diligent,” “endeavor,” and “make every effort.” It is a big deal to make sure that peace is present all the time. Now, peace in the Bible does not mean the absence of war, but the presence of peace. Peace in this sense means not simply not fighting but liking to be together. When we have peace, we love one another, we serve one another, we run through walls for one another. We defend one another to others. It isn’t the absence of something, it is the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives with one another.
Notice too that we start with peace, we aren’t creating peace. He says, “keep the unity of the Spirit.” One translation says, “keep yourselves united in the Spirit.” Peace is something we have because God is in our lives. We have it already. We don’t need to create it. All we can do then is to be proud, arrogant, right, pushy, impatient, short, curt, and break the unity we have in Christ. Paul is telling us, “Don’t go there!” or even better, “You are in Christ (you should take some time and go through the book of Ephesians marking all the times Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” or the like), therefore you should live like Christ.” We should, therefore, be humble, kind, loving, and patient with others. We want to focus on keeping the unity of the spirit by being lowly and patient with one another.
I hope this helps.
Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels