8.8 - Walk Worthy of the Calling

Join us in Ephesians 4, where the Apostle Paul begins to describe the conduct to which we are called, prioritizing the unity we have in the Spirit.

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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/

Transcript

Paul: 0:30

Welcome back to those who are joining us in the Stand Strong podcast. I'm in the studio today with Noah. Again, we're in the book of Ephesians. We have, we have. Dealt with the first three chapters. Noah, this is a sixth chapter book. If you just read it as a letter, you're gonna appreciate some of the things that we're about to dig into in the application side of chapters four or five and six. But we have been dealing with. This concept of God's eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus. The mystery, the gospel, what it is all about, who it's all about. And now he begins Noah in Ephesians four, very practically, Ephesians four, and he just makes this statement walk worthy. Of the calling. Now we're gonna see that word walk.

1:17

Mm-hmm. It's

Paul: 1:18

already been used in Ephesians, but really practically it's gonna come up a couple of times here in chapter four and two or three, four times in chapter five. So what does it mean to walk worthy of the calling? He's already told us about the calling. In chapters one, two, and three now. Mm-hmm. We need to live up to that calling.

Noah: 1:39

Yeah. This is you know, in, in some ways I feel like we've been working through Ephesians, not on purpose but just because of the way it's been going, and almost like a blitz pace. I'm, that may seem like an extreme thing to say when we're talking about a letter. Right. And, and we're only halfway through the letter and we've taken six episodes to do that. Well, it's rich. Mm-hmm. It's, it's not a fluff letter. And so. I think here as we kind of turn the corner into the second half of the book and we. Consider not just the calling, but the conduct, right? Mm-hmm. Not just the calling, but what it means to walk worthy of that calling. We're gonna do well to, to try to slow down a little bit and really dig into Paul's application here and. We, we have the background to do that now, right? We've, we've, we've worked through the first three chapters and now we, I think can better understand as we get to chapter four verse one, when Paul says, therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called I. We see that there's a momentum here. Mm-hmm. I mean, in fact I, sometimes I might overuse this word, but I see a trajectory on that. Paul is on here and he has built up a lot of momentum at this point, and it's going to kind of all come out at once where there's this, this momentum is gonna. Push the ar, the argument and the teaching farther and farther and farther along. And so the first things there in verse two that he talks about when it comes to walking worthy of the calling, he says, with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love. And then verse three, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Those two verses alone, I. Are so rich as far as he is laying down in about as compact a space as you can. The concepts of walking worthy of the call. And it ends with unity. Mm-hmm. There are all of these attributes that we're supposed to be pursuing and it all drives towards unity, which remember the context pointing back, we've talked about the mystery of the gospel and how the church is the manifold. It demonstrates the manifold wisdom of God, Jew and Gentile United. And now Paul is saying, here's how that looks in, not in the church, but in you. Yes.

Paul: 4:10

Wow. You know, we, we've already been described as, now again, God's a paternal purpose. He said it's been accomplished in Christ Jesus. Look what all that God has done and looked at all, look at all that God had planned to do before the foundation of the world. Okay. Thus, making peace. He has reconciled both in the one body, the body of the church, Jew and Gentile. Thus making peace. We've got peace with God, also peace. Now, one with another. What does that peace look like? What does that relationship look like? What is this oneness really all about? Now he's gonna tell us, I want you to maintain the oneness, but this oneness of the spirit, this unity, that's something God has already accomplished. So when he's telling us to walk, word of the calling, what he's telling us about that calling as it relates to some moral qualities about ourselves. Be who you are. That's why we don't have unity today. Mm. If, if, if you're gonna go somewhere in the New Testament. And preach on unity. Pray about unity, pull back the blinds and try to get the church who of all people, the saved in Christ should see this unity that God has created. He says, I want you to maintain it.

5:28

Mm-hmm. I

Paul: 5:29

think that's been our problem. We think we've gotta create something that God has already created. He says, you maintain it. So the reason that he talks about these moral qualities of humility and gentleness and patience and this love that causes us to bear with one another

Noah: 5:50

Yeah.

Paul: 5:50

Is because he's not talking about some kind of program, some kind of approach. He's talking about people.

6:01

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 6:03

Maintaining what God has already created. And so I think I just love be who you are now to be who you are, who God created or recreate you in Christ to be is gonna take humility and gentleness and patience and this love that causes us to bear with or to put up with one another.

6:25

Right?

Paul: 6:26

And that's, that's the walk worthy, I think sometimes we get this idea that. That, wow. God's asking us to live up to a certain standard that none of it's not possible. Now we're missing the point. That's why I like that. Be, be what you are. Right. Be who

Noah: 6:42

you are. Well, and to connect that we, we won't get there in this episode, but later in this chapter he says, don't walk this way. Yeah. You haven't learned Christ this way. Excellent. Yes. And what you're saying when you say be who you are is be who you are in Christ. Yes. Not who you were before Christ. Amen. And amen. And and that reminder here at the beginning of chapter four, I, I love the perspective that you have put on that as far as maintaining what God has created in the church. This is that the church was created united in Christ and. We in the spirit are supposed to be maintaining that unity through imitating these attributes of God, the, the humility and the patience and the love. And there's one that you didn't touch on quite as much and, and I'm gonna poke it out there because I think it is, so, I, I, I think it's so important that we don't miss this. He says, eager to maintain. Hmm. There is a, there has to be a desire to maintain. If, if, if, if all of us are on the surface acting like we want this unity, but underneath we're going, I, I really, I just, I don't feel like doing this. This doesn't seem important or it seems too difficult, or it, you know, I don't, I don't feel like putting in the effort. I don't really like this person or that person. I don't. Really feel any, you know, I don't feel compelled to try to find unity with this person in Christ. That's not what Paul's describing here. He says that part of walking worthy is having this eagerness to maintain the unity that God has created in his church. That means we have to desire it. Mm-hmm. Personally.

Paul: 8:35

Yeah, that's back to be what you are. Right. See, that's, that's a, that's a character flaw in me. I, I love your highlighting that word. Depending on the translation, you're gonna have eager, you're gonna have endeavoring or make every effort. And Noah, Noah is referring to verse three there in Ephesians four, if you've got your Bibles in front of you. And that's a very powerful point to Greek speaking people. That Greek verb literally meant to make haste.

9:02

Hmm.

Paul: 9:03

Now let me try to get very practical with this. And of course, what are we talking about maintaining? He, he says, make haste to maintain the union of Spirit in the bond of peace. Mm-hmm. So he's pressing our. Our approach to peace and harmony inside this one, another relationship called the church. He brought you and Gentile together.

9:25

Yeah.

Paul: 9:25

He brought us together in Christ and Christ as our head. So look, think about this to this idea of to, to make haste. There's an urgency there, there's a zeal and attention that we need to give to this. When we, when we get this make every effort, we think, well, that's us trying harder. Trying harder. Now, I, I think. What he's trying to say is, I want you to appreciate that there's an attitude. That God's people can be who you are to walk worthy calling. You bring a certain attitude into this, maintaining the harmony and peace inside this church. Mm-hmm. Inside the church, the body of Christ. Alright. If your child, for those that are listening, your child, my child, your ma some, somebody that you love and you say, I'm gonna do anything and everything I can for that person.'cause I what? Love them. They're important to me. They're number one on my list. They get bit by a snake, a poisonous snake.

10:24

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 10:25

There is poison in their body that if you don't take them quickly somewhere to get a shot to have something done, they could die.

10:33

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 10:34

You're gonna make haste.

10:35

Yeah.

Paul: 10:36

The point is, there's an instant attitude that affects your approach. Right. You don't pass it. Let's, let's let'em sleep over it and see how the next 12 hours go. That's our problem in local churches. That's my problem.

10:51

Yeah.

Paul: 10:51

In local churches, I don't think we're taking the Ephesians four, three passage of May ha. This eagerness, this endeavoring making every effort, what am I doing? To make sure that my attitude and approach is such that it produces peace and harmony as much as depends on you.

Noah: 11:12

Yeah.

Paul: 11:12

Yeah. It's an attitude that affects approach.

Noah: 11:15

Right. And unfortunately, I think sometimes when we hear that, we go, well, that sounds real good in theory. That sounds, you know, okay, I get the motivation that I'm supposed to be feeling right now, but at the same time, why should I? Why should I experience this change in attitude? Why should I take on these characteristics? And I think that in at least one way, that's where Paul goes next when we get diverse four. Because he says there's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is overall and through all and in all. So then he, he goes into this, I mean, this is a pretty famous section right here where there's 1, 1, 1, 1. It's a drumbeat. I, I mean, it's supposed to be hammering home something. And the question is, what and why is this coming up now in this context? And when, when I read this in context, the, the image that comes to mind, the, the phrase that comes to mind is God is not divided.

12:34

Mm-hmm.

Noah: 12:36

The gospel is not divided. And so Christians. The people who belong to God, the church ought not be divided, and that because we serve a united God and we serve a, we, we not, we serve a united God through his united message, his united good news. We ought to be motivated. To pursue this unity and to maintain this unity, like you said, be who we are now in Christ, not who we used to be. We ought not be divided. There's an emphasis here on the importance of unity.

Paul: 13:18

Yeah. You know, if I, I think about what Paul said to the Corinthians in one Corinthians 12, that, that they were all immersed by one spirit into one body.

13:26

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 13:27

All of you, not some of you, if you're in Christ, you were immersed into that one body by one spirit.

13:34

Yeah,

Paul: 13:34

we got a lot of questions about that. But for our purposes in this podcast with regards to the oneness and the unity that we have, you see unity in the Godhead and that unity in the Godhead that produces the one hope. It gives us one relationship through one faith, this one baptism. I mean, there's a reason why he appeals to them based upon this oneness. This is a God thing.

14:04

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 14:05

And because this is a God thing, then this is now a church thing. This is now a saved people thing.

14:13

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 14:14

How serious am I taking this oneness? This, this harmony. Again, go back to the first century. Their biggest problem was this concept of Jew and Gentile. How can we get along

14:28

right?

Paul: 14:28

We used to live like this and we used to think like this, well, think about us today. Ours is not a Jew and Gentile problem. Mm-hmm. But ours still is a flesh problem. Still a people problem. Yep. Still I have baggage. You have baggage. I was raised this way. I used to. Think this way, and it's not about me.

14:46

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 14:46

That, that's why if you go back to some of the things, Noah, that he had said in verse two about this, I, I love the new international version. So for those who are following, I just want you to listen to the new international version in verses two and three. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient. Bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. I don't think it's an accident that he starts with humility.

Noah: 15:22

Yeah.

Paul: 15:23

He ends with the, the bearing with one another, one another in the making every effort. I think he's, he's connecting those two to love. Mm-hmm. Which he does that to the Colossians, you know, that's the indispensable one, essential thing above all these things put on love. Right. Which minds everything. We get that. So Paul's message is the same for every church.

15:42

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 15:43

This unity that that has already been created by God and you were immersed into one in one body by one spirit. Then be who you are, be what you are, and these are the moral qualities it's gonna take to maintain what God has already created.

16:02

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 16:03

And our problem is in most churches pride. Hmm. Yeah. Now let me get real, real to the point. Please do. I understand when you start having conversations about unity, especially as it relates to spiritual relationships and the church for which Christ is ahead, look, this unity that's already been created for us by the Spirit, what the Spirit has revealed. One faith, you don't, you don't. We don't become a people who agree more and more because we believe less and less. Right? And then say, okay, we are united. Right. That's ridiculous. Paul is not making that point. But what gets into the way Pride.

16:49

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 16:50

See, it was the pride in the Pharisees that convinced themselves that they had all the answers and they were the embodiment of truth.

16:58

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 16:59

That they couldn't be wrong. That's our problem today. We convince ourselves, I can convince myself that I'm defending the faith, I'm defending the truth. I'm, I'm standing where the Holy Spirit wants me to stand on the thus sayeth the Lord and I may not be.

17:16

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 17:17

And so it starts with humility. I could be wrong. I could be wrong, right?

Noah: 17:22

And this is, this is the conduct that comes with the calling. Because remember the Jesus preached Christ crucified, preached was, you know, foolishness to the Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews, right? Mm-hmm. Both of those, those are responses of pride. The Gentiles look at this and say, well, that's not how, surely, that can't be the act of God, the saving act of God. That's foolishness. The Jews, like you just alluded to with the Pharisees, you know, they think they had it all figured out and yet in their pride, they had blinded themselves to, to Jesus being the Messiah. I mean, the Messiah came, he walked among them and they missed it and. So it, all of that to say it makes sense that the problem we still find ourselves facing today is pride. And that's why the, probably the first thing that that Paul says here in, in chapter four is we have to put on humility because without that. We are gonna, we're gonna fall into the same tr traps and the same problems that they did in the first century. Even though yes, we may not have the Jew Gentile problem that was addressed in chapters two and three, the underlying problem of pride, supplanting the unity that we should have in Jesus. You know, our own pride kicking out what the spirit has established in the church. That can still be the problem. And you said something a few minutes ago that has stuck with me, and I wanna repeat it here. That is us taking a God thing and making it about us. And it's not about us. It's not been about us. And. That's why in chapter, I think it's in chapter three, that he talks about the church being the manifold wisdom of God. Mm-hmm. The church isn't about us. The church is about the head. It's about, you know, the church is the body and it is about the head. It's an evidence of God's wisdom, not our righteousness, not our goodness, not our wisdom. It's evidence of God's wisdom and his righteousness and his goodness. Our unity is supposed to be putting that on display and so. One, we take something that's supposed to be about God and we make it about ourselves. I think that's such an important point, but also what I think comes out of this passage is if we are willing to humble ourselves, like you were just talking about, and recognize that sometimes the things we are so sure about out, we're not actually correct in. If we are willing to set aside our pride long enough to look at our brothers and sisters and recognize that fundamentally what we have in common in Christ is far more significant than that, which might divide us than, than we'll recognize what Paul is getting at when he says one body in one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all. God is not divided and therefore his people, what they have in common is far more significant than what they don't.

Paul: 20:41

Yes. Oh man, I, I love that. Again, for those who have followed us in this podcast. I, I get it. I'm telling you, I'm sitting in this, in the studio, in this chair with Noah at the age of 57, and I'm telling you, I, I, I'm confessing here. The challenge in this, that, that's why he uses a word endeavor. This is hard work.

21:02

Yeah.

Paul: 21:03

It's hard for me to work on me. It's hard for me to be honest with me. Am I part of the problem? And I think, no. Let me back up. I know that's why Paul, Paul loved this church. This is a good church. These are Christians. Mm-hmm. These are saints by calling and there's a reason why he shares with them the two prayers that he does. So I'm, I'm offering this. When you find yourself wrestling with this unity and wrestling with this, how do I endeavor? To maintain what God has already created. Then go back and read Paul's two prayers to the Ephesians one in chapter one, the other in chapter three.

21:42

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 21:42

And, and get into that really study, study, study and then pray it yourself. You will realize that there were things that Paul was wanting, Christians saved people to see and understand. About Christ, about the calling, about the inheritance, about the richness of being blessed by God in this relationship about the provision of God, the power of God, the purpose of God, all of these things, and he shares that, those prayers with these Christians before he ever makes an urgent appeal. I appeal to you be what you are.

22:22

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 22:23

God has already accomplished this and done this. There's oneness. Now in this relationship, there's, there's only one body. Mm-hmm. And there's only one faith. There's only one Lord. There's just one spirit. Remember the one hope. Remember the one calling. All of those kinds of things, and that's why I think he's pressing this point about the essentiality of gentleness and humility in patience. Sometimes, Noah, I know this is going long, but sometimes this, this humility, we miss it because we don't see the worth and recognize the value of other saved people.

23:07

Mm.

Paul: 23:07

That was a real thing in the first century. I can tell you I would've been as guilty as anybody. Well, this, I don't see the value and the worth in this person, in this local church because of their dietary habits, or about how they recognize this day, above this day. Mm-hmm. And I'm convinced that I gotta change'em and fix them and do it yesterday and make them like me. Mm-hmm. And God's saying you're about to mess a whole bunch of things up because your attitude is wrong. Approach this in humility.

Noah: 23:40

Yeah.

Paul: 23:40

What matters, what doesn't matter.

Noah: 23:42

Yeah. We, we often look around with the intent to to help other people conform to our image. Yes. And that is not the calling, that is not the walk to walk, because that's not the calling to which we were called. We were not instructed to recreate one another in our image. We were instructed to maintain the unity that God has established by recreating us in his image. And that is a very different calling and it requires a very different heart and a very different attitude, and it also is gonna require very different people to come together. In a United Way, and I think that that's where Paul is gonna end up going next. We're not gonna cover that in this episode. Don't worry if you're listening. I'm not about to launch into verses seven and following. We'll save that for next week. But I think that that's part of where Paul is going is that acknowledging that in this one body there are many different people. And that's as God designed it to be. Yes. Love it.

Paul: 24:57

That's probably a good ending point for this. We could keep going.

Noah: 25:00

Yes. Alright. Well thank you for joining us on the Stand Strong podcast today. Our prayer is always that this this kind of work and this kind of study helps you in your walk with Christ, helps you see. Your calling in Christ to be a part of his one body. And our prayer is that we all, as we all endeavor to grow more and more like Christ, to be like the head, that we will also grow closer and closer together, so that as we serve God, we can stand strong.