Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians - 4

Ephesians 4:1-6

Introduction

In his seminal work, The Pursuit of God, author A.W. Tozer wrote, Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other?

They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.

So, one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.

It is only when Christians look to Christ that unity is possible.

Having established the twin realities of the faith, Union with Christ and Unity with Christians, the Apostle Paul turns now to flesh out what that unity looks like and how we are to live out its reality in our lives.

All of it is based on our posture as believers.

If we get together and all talk about our differences and how best to overcome them to live in unity, we will never actually live in unity.

Instead, we don’t base our unity on one another, but on Christ.

We all look to Him.

If we are each in Union with Christ, then Unity will be the inevitable consequence.

It is our Union with Him that creates our Unity together.

Ephesians 4:1-6 - Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

TS - As we look now to the everyday, real-life aspects of what it means to be a Christian, the Bible outlines two particular kinds of unity that must exist among God’s people.

PRACTICAL UNITY (V.

1-3)

Verse 1 begins with that forceful ‘therefore.’

This is the primary turning point of the entire letter.

The first three chapters have been the theological foundation of the gospel, salvation, all of who Christ is and what He has accomplished, all summed up in the twin doctrines of Union with Christ and Unity with Christians.

Now that the stage is set, it is time to flesh this out.

Because all these things are true, therefore…Because of who Christ is and what Christ has accomplished, therefore…because of your being united to Christ and to His Church, therefore….

And from this point on, Ephesians will unleash 40 of the letter’s 41 commands to show how to live out this unity.

Paul will now exhort them to live out the reality Christ has created for them.

Exhort is the great word parakalo, the same word used to describe the Holy Spirit by Jesus in John 14, the Paraclete.

The one who comes alongside.

Paul is now putting his arm around them to urge them, to call them, to implore them to live a certain way.

They are to ‘walk worthy of the calling’ they have received.

Ephesians has already used ‘walk’ as a metaphor for lifestyle and will continue to emphasize it over and again.

Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done has enormous implications for how you live your life.

You are to walk ‘worthy,’ a word that means to bring equilibrium.

Walk worthy of your calling, a reference back to all that Christ has accomplished for you.

He has saved you.

He has loved you.

He has shown mercy to you.

His grace was poured out on you instead of wrath on your sin.

His kindness has shone on you.

He adopted you into His own family and calls you son or daughter.

You are placed in Union with Christ.

And you are not alone there.

He has placed you in Unity with all of His people.

What do you do in response to that?

You live up to it.

You see the radical grace and kindness that He has shown you to accomplish it and you seek to live a life that matches the greatness of that.

Now, this isn’t some sort of works-righteousness sort of thing.

All of this is in response to the saving work Christ has already done.

From the place of His merciful salvation, you launch out and live to honor that.

You don’t continue to live in a way that would dishonor the work Christ has done for you.

You honor Him, you obey Him, you live in such a way as to show that His work is real in you.

ILL - let’s say that when you first started your career you had some veteran in your field take you under their wing and mentor you.

They trained you well.

They put up with your mistakes.

They put your name in for promotions.

And once you get settled into your career, do you approach your job with apathy and laziness?

No, you work hard to honor the investment made by those who have helped you.

You want to put their influence on display.

That is what Paul is talking about here.

Consider all that Christ has done for you and work hard to put it all on display.

So what does that look like?

v. 2 - with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

Isn’t that an interesting place to begin?

After reaching the heights of theology, his first application is this.

So mundane.

So earthy.

So common.

Nothing profound.

Just everyday, gritty, character qualities that make or break relationships.

Why these qualities in particular?

Because without them you will absolutely destroy any unity you have with other people.

Be humble.

Because if you are prideful, you will alienate everyone in your life.

You will seek after yourself first.

You will place yourself first.

You will worship the god of self.

And if you are only committed to you, then you can never be in unity with anyone else.

Humility is commanded 7 times in the NT, but never before.

It is a uniquely Christian concept.

Epictetus, the famous Greek historian, placed humility first on a list of character qualities that are to be avoided!

But here, Paul lists it first to show its prominence as a necessary characteristic to achieve unity.

Humility is not some false sense of thinking you are terrible and denying the good qualities you have.

In his great little book called The Freedom of Self-forgetfulness, author Tim Keller defines humility as ‘not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.’

Humility means that when decisions are made, you are not a factor…your only concern is how it affects others around you.

But humility is not the only one…he adds gentleness.

To be gentle is to show a conscious exercise of self-control, as opposed to the use of power for retaliation.

So instead of communicating a form of weakness, gentleness actually communicates a form of formidable strength.

It takes resolve to choose to NOT react the way you want to react when someone wrongs you.

To be gentle is to not punch someone in the throat when they mouth off at you.

To be gentle is to not cut someone off in traffic because you think they’re a bad driver.

To be gentle is to speak calmly when you want to yell to put someone in their place.

To be gentle is to care more about the relationship than about your retaliation.

Then he adds, with patience.

To achieve unity, patience is required.

The original word for patience is makrothumia, a combination of two words…thumos, anger…makro, long period of time.

To be patient is to take a long time to get angry.

It is the opposite of someone who has a short fuse and blows up at every little thing.