In the overhaul of the Queen Elizabeth (not the woman but the ship), a smoke stack was being removed and as it was set down, it collapsed. The entire stack crumpled. What had been left of the stack was mostly just 30 layers of paint. No one took care of the inside, but merely covered the outside. And because of this it decayed from the inside out.
These next three chapters of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians describe what the Christian life looks like on the outside. But the first three chapters have given us the picture of what God has done on our inside. If we don’t look to the inner reality to support our outward walk then our lives are going to crumple when a little pressure comes into them.
The key idea of this passage is that God has called us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. And in this section Paul describes two aspects of this worthy walk.
I. The Basis for the Worthy Walk
The first aspect of this worthy walk is the basis for the worthy walk. In other words, “Why should we walk worthily?” Now Paul has built his case, over the last three chapters, why we should walk in a manner worthy of this calling with which we have been called. Not only is Paul saying that we should walk worthily (from his “I implore you” statement) but that we can walk worthily (from his “therefore” statement). You see the word “Therefore” looks back to what has already been stated. And this “Therefore” is a big one. You even might want to mark this “therefore” in your Bible with an arrow pointing back to the previous chapters.
So why is Paul saying that we can walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called? I think it will be helpful to review just what it is that Paul is declaring so that we can move forward. Do you remember that I told several times when we started this series in Ephesians that if you don’t learn the lessons of the first chapters then the commands of the final four chapters will be meaningless to you? Paul is beginning the command section of this letter. But if you don’t know who you are in Christ then you will not be able to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. You will miss it. So let’s review. Why are we able to obey Paul’s command to walk in a manner commensurate (or matching) to the calling with which we have been called? Let’s review some of what Paul has told us in the first three chapters.
Ephesians 1:4, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Our standing before God is impeccable in Christ. If you are still wondering if God could continue to love you then you need to go back to eternity past and look at God’s decree for you. His love for you is not based on anything else but His great choice of you.
Ephesians 1:13-14, “In Him, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.” If you are still wondering if you can make it, if you are still worried whether you will persevere until the end, if you are thinking that your strength may fail then you need to look here to see that your perseverance lies in the Holy Spirit’s sealing work as a pledge of the time you first believed.
Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” If you are still wondering whether God will hear you then you need to look at your position in Christ. God doesn’t hear us on the basis of our track record but on the perfect track record of Christ. When God saved you He placed you in Christ in heaven. God sees you in heaven with perfect access to Him because of Christ. You are not praying in your own strength just like you never were saved in your own strength. It is all because of Christ. God raised us up with Christ. He seated us with Christ in heaven. We have access to the Father because of where He has placed us in Christ. God’s provision in Christ is all our hope and only our hope. If this is where our faith lies then we have perfect access to God in Christ.
And finally, in Ephesians 3:20, “[He] is able to far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” Why are we able to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called? Because of our own effort? Of course not. But because of Him who is able to do far more than we could ask or think and His power that works within us. Let us not be those of whom Paul speaks when he says they have the form of godliness but deny its power. When we fail to believe God’s promises to overcome sin in our lives then we are like those denying God’s power. He has done it all, it is all for us to do to simply receive and trust Him to do it.
And this is where Paul picks up his message in chapter 4. Therefore, on this basis, let us walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called. What basis? The basis that God has placed us in Christ and our entire acceptance before the Father is in Him. Therefore let us live in the manner in which God has placed us. We are not trying to become something we aren’t. God has made us perfect in Christ as to our position so let’s live out as to our practice.
II. The Appearance of the Worthy Walk
The second aspect of this passage is the appearance of the worthy walk. In other words, “What does it look like?” If we are supposed to practically live in a Christ-like manner how should that appear to others? Paul describes three characteristics of this worthy walk in the following verses.
A. Humility
The first characteristic of this worthy walk is humility. In verse 2 he says that we are to walk, “with all humility and gentleness.” If we are to rightly reflect the work of Christ in our lives then our lives must be characterized by this gentle humility. These two words belong together. Jesus used them together when He called individuals to follow Him. “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart.” What is the crunch here? If we want to be like Jesus, if we want to be true disciples, followers of Him we need to be gentle and humble in heart.
But what is humility and gentleness? Humility is not so much deprecating ourselves or casting dispersions upon ourselves, such as, “I’m so stupid,” but it is the simple recognition that apart from God I am nothing and the understanding that I am not perfect. You see pride keeps us from realizing that all that we have and all that we are comes from God. And this pride keeps us from admitting our sin. It keeps us from dealing with sin that separates us from others. In our pride we will not go to a brother or sister and speak to them about how we have wronged them. In our pride we do not acknowledge our sin to God. Since our Savior has given us an example to follow as they crucified Him, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” how much more should we be willing to forgive those who have hurt us and to further ask the forgiveness of those whom we have hurt.
What is God’s promise to the humble? “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” If we want the grace of God to be poured into our lives then we must humble ourselves. We must go to those we have wronged and confess our sin to them. Do you know what happens when you fail to humble yourself before others? Your sin grows. When you sin against others and do not forsake it you allow that sin a measure of acceptance in your mind. And if it is just a little bit OK it is not wrong. And if it is not wrong then why should you concern yourself about it again. And you become more and more hardened to that type of sin. And when that happens, be ready for God’s correcting hand of discipline to be upon you for “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Do you want God to oppose you or do you want Him to give you grace? I hope that you are on the right side of that question.
But what humility realizes is that it is not of us. We cannot walk this walk by ourselves and our resolve. We need to walk in humility. There can be no boasting in ourselves about what God is doing in our lives. The boasting is in the Lord. When someone comments about what a great person I am for doing what I am doing or living the way I am living I can’t take credit. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our sight. You don’t know the David who was. And you don’t want to. Our boast is in the Lord.
What else does this humility look like in our lives? It is gentle. This is the word translated “meek” in some translations. But I think meek gives the wrong impression. Often when people think of the word meek they think of someone who is easily walked over and abused. But this is not what the word described in the ancient world. Gentleness was used to describe the warhorse in battle, who in the midst of conflict, was under control. And that definition is a wonderful thing. Gentleness is not weakness but is power under control. We wouldn’t dare call the trained warhorse weak but according to the ancient usage it was gentle. We are to be gently humble.
There are too many Christians today who are out of control. They are angry at everything. They are angry at the homosexuals. They are angry at their politicians (I think the Bible calls them our leaders). They are angry at their spouses. They are angry over a flat tire. They have no power under control. They refuse to humble themselves in gentleness. They refuse to allow the power of Christ control their lives. If we realize that God is in control we don’t have to be. And this allows us to walk humbly with our God. Who has saved you from your sin? Who has promised you His power to live a supernatural life? Humble yourself before Him and acknowledge your utter and complete need of Him.
B. Patience in love
The second characteristic of this worthy walk is that it expresses itself with patience in love. This is the second part of verse 2. Here Paul says that we are to walk “with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.”
Why patience? With what has OUR calling been characterized by? God’s patience with us. Peter said that God is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God has made it clear that He has patiently held back judgment against us so that we would come to Him. Had He not evidenced patience with us we would all be dead. But in His patient love He waited until the time that we responded to His calling. He worked in us; He wooed us until the point that we surrendered to Him.
God is simply calling us to imitate Him in dealing with others. And why can’t we? For His patient loving Spirit now dwells in us. So we are able to patiently bear with one another. What is it about love that is patient? This love that we have for others, coming from the Holy Spirit can be evidenced with patience because we know how much it took for God to get through to us.
The words “showing tolerance for one another” is translated in Colossians as “bearing with one another.” We are to put up with one another because we are all different. Not only do we have different personalities but we have different gifts and we have different levels of spiritual maturity. For this reason we are going to get frustrated with others unless we are patiently loving those them.
Now that doesn’t sound too great unless we realize what love is. Love is not feeling but action. There may be feelings associated with love but love itself is action. If we are showing love to people we are going to be seeking for them what is in their best interest. Some people have the mistaken notion that loving someone means accepting their sin. We do not ignore the sin of people we love. We deal with it but when we deal with it in love we don’t get bent out of shape by it. We don’t get angry at this person. We deal with them with the right amount of firmness and with the right consequences, as the sin deserves. Love isn’t seeing things through rose-colored glasses. It is seeing them in the right perspective and working accordingly.
But love also recognizes some differences as superficial; matters of personality or preference. And these differences need to be recognized as such and embraced as part of that individual. Let us bear with one another in love. Taking action for the benefit of another when sin is involved, overlooking differences in personality when sin is not involved and in either case covering the individual with the knowledge of your commitment to love them regardless.
C. Unity
The third characteristic of this worthy Christian walk is unity. Paul notes this in verses 3-6. There He says, “Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”
There is a reason why God has called us to this unity. Jesus mentioned it in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.” If we are fighting with one another and dividing into cliques in the church, if we are hurting one another how will the world know that God really makes a difference in people’s lives? It does not mean that we always agree on everything but we resolve these differences not with fighting and splits but love.
The love shown in this church drew me to Christ 20 years ago. In the church I had gone to before I didn’t experience love. Everyone wanted to make sure they were out of the church first and into the parking lot. And be careful you didn’t get run over in the parking lot. But that’s not what it was like here. People talked with one another. These people aren’t acting like a church their acting like a family. What’s going on? Something. It was something that I didn’t experience in the world. It was something that I didn’t experience in a church that didn’t preach the Gospel. It was this something that drew me to Christ. It was the love of Christ evidenced in the lives of people.
And because Satan knows that this characteristic of unity is so crucial to our effective witness to those without Christ he will constantly try to break up the unity we have with Christ. This is why Paul says that we must be diligent in our course to protect the unity of the church in the bond of peace (which from the parallel passage in Colossians again is love itself).
With that though let me make one caution. Maintaining unity does not mean tolerating sin or bad doctrine. These must be dealt with but we must still approach these situations with love. Understanding this is key to maintaining unity in the church. Paul lists three foundations of this unity in these verses. What I mean is that there are three foundational ideas upon which our unity is based. “Why are we to be united?” is what Paul answers in listing these three foundations.
1. Our security
The first foundation for our unity is our security. Paul notes this in verse 4. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” The fact of our security shows our unity because by One Spirit we were placed into one church through our one sure hope of the Gospel, the free gift of eternal life through faith in Christ. Paul describes this in 1 Cor. 12:13 where he says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
We are all linked by this same security of our faith. Without this one hope of being called by God we are not united. If we can not agree on this basic tenet of our God’s calling to us in Christ then we are not in unity. We have security in Christ. We have unity in Christ. We are one because our hope is one.
2. Salvation’s exclusivity
The second foundation for our unity is salvation’s exclusivity. Salvation is exclusive. Not everyone will be saved. Paul relates this in verse 5. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” There are three truths here that hit home to our unity in salvation’s exclusivity. There is singularity in them. In the same way that we are to be one so are these things one. There is one Lord. There are not many gods. Krishna is not Christ. Allah is not the Almighty. The Dali Lama is not deity. There is but one Lord. He is the God of the Bible. In Isaiah 43, the Lord says, “So that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me.” There are not a multiplicity of gods in this world. There is one not many. We are one because there is only one God.
There is one faith. There are not many paths to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but by me.” He also said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” What is broad gate of which Jesus speaks? It is the way that says, “Believe anything you want.” It is the gate of the Universalist who says, “All will go to heaven no matter who they are.” Jesus said this will not be the case. What is written on the narrow gate? J-E-S-U-S! There is one path to God. There is one faith. And God has made it clear in His Word.
There is one entrance into the family of God. Paul says, “One baptism.” Paul is referring to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He is not speaking of water baptism that is simply the picture of what takes place in the Spirit baptism. He is describing the process of restoration (or regeneration) that takes place when the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s life at the time they believe the Gospel. There is one baptism. No one is going to enter the kingdom of God or the family of God without being born again by the Spirit of God. In John 3 Jesus says this very thing. Except you are born again you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And in that passage Jesus equates this with being made alive by the Spirit of God. And we are one because there is only one baptism. There is only one entrance into the family of God. If you have experienced this baptism then you are part of the family of God. If you have not experienced this baptism then you are not. This baptism doesn’t take place through some ceremony such as water baptism. It does not take place by someone laying their hands upon you or slapping you upon the cheek. It takes place by putting your trust in Jesus Christ as your only Savior, as Paul notes in 1:13. “You also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Paul says, “One Lord, one faith, one Baptism.” There is one God, one path and one entrance.
3. God’s sovereignty
The third foundation for our unity is found in God’s sovereignty. We must recognize God’s sovereignty is the reason for our unity. God has brought us together in the church for His purposes. And this is what verse 6 says. There is “one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” Specifically Paul is speaking about God’s relationship to the church. God has brought us together in the church for three reasons.
The first reason that God has brought us together in the church is to rule over us. He is over all. Again this specifically is referring to the church. There are other passages that speak of God being over all creation but here he is speaking about the Father’s relationship as ruler over the church. We are one because the Father is ruling over us. He is in charge of us.
The second reason that God has brought us together in the church is to work through us. This is what Paul means by He is “through all.” God has called us to Himself and placed us in the church in order to work through us. He works through us in our unity. God is over all the church and through all the church.
The third reason that God has brought us together in the church is to live with us. He is in all. Every believer has the wonderful privilege of having God tabernacle (or live) within him or her. What a wonder that God would take up residence in us. This was the foreshadowing of the tabernacle with the Jewish nation. It was a picture of this indwelling presence of God with His people. Here the Holy Spirit is that indwelling presence of God with us. Because God lives inside every believer we can live in unity with one another.
God is sovereign, He rules over all the church. He works through all the church. He lives with all in the church.
God has called us to live a life worthy of the calling to heaven that you have received as a believer in Jesus Christ. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us we can live in the manner that we should. We can make no excuses. And what should that walk look like? It should be filled with gentle humility. A recognition that only God can do it and maintaining a response to those around us that is gentle because of our own need for God. It is characterized by patient love. A love that isn’t overwhelmed by the lack of progress we see in those around us but maintains a trust in God to work in the lives of those we are seeking to serve. And our worthy walk finds itself seeking to preserve the unity of the Spirit recognizing our common security, our salvation’s exclusivity and our God’s sovereignty. If we are walking around at odds with others in our church we are not walking this worthy walk to which God calls us. If we are gossiping about the faults and sins of others you are ruining the unity of the church. You are not diligently seeking to maintain the unity of the Spirit. And as Jesus said to his disciples who wanted to call down fire from heaven on those who rejected them, “You do not know of what spirit you are.”
We need to walk in a manner worthy, worthy of the God who calls us. We need to be gently humble. We need to be lovingly patient. And we need to be united by His Spirit.
Let me encourage you, as we enter the practical section of this letter to go back over the first three chapters of Ephesians and see why God has enabled to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called. And by the grace of God put it into practice. And as we discover in the coming weeks at how our Christian life should look on the outside let us remember to reflect back on chapters 1-3 to keep it right on the inside. Lest we become like that smoke stack which for lack of care on the inside crumpled even though it looked so good on the outside. For without the inside to support the outside, the outside collapses.