“Live a Life Worthy of Our Calling” – Ephesians 4:1-6

"Call” is a word with many meanings, all centered on the idea of verbally reaching out to someone or something. We make calls on our telephones to people we want to speak with. We call our pets to us. We may call out to someone across the street. And we call people to us.

The Bible speaks about a calling. In today’s church, we usually limit the meaning of the call to clergy—“Being called to the ministry.” But the reality is that salvation is God’s call to each of us to follow Him through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. That calling is to move forward and toward Him.

In today’s passage, God inspired the apostle Paul to write about living a life worthy of the call.

Background

There are a lot of people who believe that Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was either intended as a circular letter—one sent to several churches—or to a different church other than the one in Ephesus. This is based on the fact that the letter is very impersonal, which is different from Paul’s other letters to churches where he served. He served in Ephesus longer than anywhere else, and it would be reasonable that the letter would have a warmth and intimacy reserved for long-time friends. This letter lacks that. Nor does it include instructions on a specific issue a church may be dealing with. For these reasons, the circular letter is the more likely idea.

Paul’s practice was to begin his letters focusing on what God has done for us through Christ. This letter is no different. The apostle spends the first three chapters laying the groundwork of the theology that shapes and transforms us. The second half of the letter then focuses on how we should act in light of God’s transforming power and call.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul expressed a prayer for that church founded by Epaphras, a friend of Paul’s. In his prayer, found in Colossians 1:9-12, Paul expressed five things he wanted for that church. First, the apostle prayed that the church would “live a life worthy of its calling” (v.10a). The second thing he prayed for was them to “bear fruit” (v.10b). Third, the apostle prayed for them to “grow in their knowledge of God” (v.10c). Fourth was a prayer for them to be “strengthened with all power” (v.11), and finally Paul prayed that they would “joyfully give thanks” (v.12).

Over the coming weeks, we will look at each of these aspects of Christian living in more depth. Today, we focus on living a life worthy of our calling. As we consider this aspect of living and walking in Christ, let us keep in mind this truth:

Central Truth: Jesus calls us to live a worthy life in Him.

To live a life worthy:

1. Listen to our calling (1)

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

We are all probably grateful that we are not prisoners. The life of a prisoner is one of restriction—being told where to live, when to get up, when to go to bed, when to eat, what to eat. The life is regimented and little is under the prisoner’s personal control.

And yet, Paul begins this section of Ephesians with reminder the readers that he is a prisoner, imprisoned because of his commitment to Christ. At the time he is writing this, Paul is probably in Rome under house arrest, accompanied everywhere he goes by Roman soldiers guarding him, watching his every move.

Yet the apostle does not consider himself to be restricted. He knows what it is to die to self and to live in the Lord. He doesn’t see his imprisonment as restricting him, but allowing him to be a witness to those who imprison him. Because of his commitment to letting Christ live through him, Paul knew what it was to live a life worthy of his calling. He imparted this to the Ephesians and to us.

There is no greater calling than to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Such a calling should shape our lives and the way we relate to the world around us.

The apostle also knows that living a life worthy of our calling is not an easy life to live. All we have to do is read Romans 7 to realize that Paul was very much aware of the tug of war going on within each person as the sinful nature wages war against the spiritual life. Rather than conceding defeat and leaving us alone, Satan seems to take particular delight in trying to destroy our Christian testimony and our close relationship with God.

That’s why Paul urged the Ephesians to set a course of living a life worthy of the calling. Peter put it this way in 1 Peter 1:13-15: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”

The decision to live a life worthy of our calling stems from the fact that God by grace has given us a new life and a new hope in Christ. He has placed His Spirit in us and is working to bring us into conformity with Him. But that does not mean we are not to play our part in this transformation. We must practice the self-control that comes from the power and presence of the Holy Spirt, and we must commit ourselves each day to dying to Christ and letting Christ live in us.

Think of living a life worthy of our calling as beginning each day standing with Jesus before an empty cross. As we begin that day, we can place ourselves on that cross, thus dying to self and allowing Christ to walk our road that lies ahead through us. Or, we can decide that we will walk that road, and Christ will have to be placed on that cross to atone for our sins.

Now, understand, Christ died once for all to free us from sin, but not dying to self and letting Christ live in us each day means that we will have to rely on that forgiveness that was gained from Christ on the cross.

Therefore, Paul, a prisoner for the Lord, urged the Ephesians and urges us to live a life worthy of our calling. In the next few verses, the apostles lays a foundation of how to do exactly that.

2. Focus on our relationships (2-3)

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.

When I was in college, each new class every semester would start with the professor handing out a syllabus and going over it with us. In the syllabus would be a calendar of the semester, indicating our reading assignments and papers to be completed at a given time. It would also include the test dates for the class. In short, each student could understand what was expected from each person in the class over the course of the semester.

In these verses, God shows us what we are to do successfully live a life worthy of our calling. There are three things we can do.

The first is to be completely humble and gentle. Humility should come easily to the believer and disciple of Christ. After all, we come into our relationship with Jesus simply by accepting the free gift of salvation that comes from Him by God’s grace. We have done nothing to earn this free and precious gift.

The humility that Paul wrote about is the same way that Jesus lived His life while on earth. Jesus could have lorded it over everyone, but instead, Jesus placed Himself as a servant of all. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” As we strive to live a life worthy of our calling, we take on the characteristics of Christ.

The humility and gentleness are reflected in the way we relate to one another. The one who is humble is willing to let go of his or her rights in order to help others grow in their understanding of Christ. The one who is gentle is willing to go the extra mile, using kind words and practices to support our brothers and sisters in their own effort to live worthy of their own calling.

The second is to be patient, bearing with one another in love. Patience and bearing with another go hand-in-hand. Being patient is willing to see the entire picture, to have a long view of where we are trying to go. Living worthy of our calling, we realize that each day is part of the process and that the process does not conclude with one day. When we realize that it is a long journey, we can relax and cut each other some slack. We can find it in our heart to be forgiving and to be kind to one another, particularly when we are motivated by the same love God demonstrates to us through Christ each day.

Think of raising our children. When they were two or three years old, they would ask the question, “why,” almost constantly. We could explain as best as we could, but then be asked, ‘Why?” When asked why, we patiently would explain it again and hope that the child would eventually gain such understanding as a small child can gain.

We show that same patience and bearing in love when we are living life worthy of our calling.

And the third thing Paul wants us to do to lay the foundation of living life worthy of our calling is to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Such a way of living is the logical extension of humility, gentleness, patience and bearing with one another. If we are doing that, we are striving to keep the peace and maintain the unity that is from the Spirit.

It needs to be said that unity in the Spirit does not necessarily mean we all become of one mind and heart. It is possible to be united in the Spirit with people who have different tastes in music and food, who have different political views than we do, and who dress differently than we do. The unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17 and that Paul wrote about here is the common bond that is found in that we are all born of God and made His children. We are the family of God, and while family members may be different from each other, in the end there is the commonality of living and growing together that creates a bond and compassion for one another.

How we find the unity in the Spirit is what Paul writes about in the next two verses.

3. Find our unity through the common bond of Christ (4-6)

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

When people have something in common, they can find things to agree on. They may be different from each other, but as long as they focus on the common things that bind them, they will come through difficult times together.

In the Christian faith, we are joined together by the commonality that is found only in Christ. The Church is the body of Christ in our world. When referring to Jesus’ life, we often refer to the time He walked the world. The truth of the matter is, though, that Jesus still walks the world. He does it through His Church.

When I say Church, I don’t mean the individual houses of worship or the denominations that have grown up in our world. By Church I refer to the body of believers who are committed to following Jesus as led by His Spirit, people seeking to live a life worthy of their calling. These people are the body of Christ, and in Him there is only one body.

We are made into one body because each of us is filled by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, repeatedly stated that when He returned to the Father, He would ask the Father, and the Father would send the Holy Spirit in His name. It is this Spirit that enables the Father and the Son to abide within the hearts of those who seek to live a life worthy of our calling.

Because we are of one body and are all indwelt by the same Spirit, we have a hope and confidence that comes in believing not just what Jesus taught, but also believing in His promises that were made by God from the beginning of Genesis through the book of Revelation. We have the hope of life everlasting, and we hope in the return of our Lord and Savior. We received this hope when we received our call, the call we seek to live worthy in.

Paul concluded his call to unity in Christ by stating all the things that bind us: One Lord—Jesus Christ. One faith—salvation by grace through Christ. One baptism—filling of our life with the Spirit and the baptism of surrender and identification with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. One God and Father of all—God, the Supreme Creator over all, the One who sent His Son, the One who sends His Spirit, making Him in and through all of us.

Because God binds us together by His Son and His Spirit, we all can strive to live a life worthy of our calling.

Conclusion

When you and I worked for a living, sometimes our boss would call us into his or her office. When we were called, we went. We may not have known why the boss called, but we went because he or she called.

Jesus calls us to follow Him. It was a calling made to the apostles, it is a calling that is made to us today. It is a calling to take the yoke of Jesus upon ourselves and to walk in obedience to Him. Only when we are doing so can we learn to walk worthy of that calling.

Jesus is calling. Are we listening? Are we following?