Walking Worthy of Your Calling

Soon after a family moved into their new house, it began to show the effects of their slipshod lifestyle. The yard was littered with trash. The lawn withered for lack of care, and, even when replanted, died out again. To enter this house was to enter a shambles. It never was clean or in order.

Another family eventually bought the house and moved in. They painted the house, cleaned up the yard, and replanted the lawn. The results were completely different. What had happened? There was a dramatic improvement in the appearance of the house because there was a change in those who lived in that house.

In the same way, it is impossible that there not be a change in a person’s life once he or she becomes a Christian—because there is a perfect new resident within: the Holy Spirit.

Christians are to live worthy of their call by keeping the unity of the Spirit.

Encouragement To Live Worthily

Paul a prisoner in the Lord.

A prisoner is a person who is under custody in prison.

A prisoner is a person who is under custody in prison.

Paul says he is in prison or in the custody of the Lord.

This is considered a position of honor.

If you are going to be in custody it should be in the custody of the Lord.

It is from this position that Paul encourages and challenges these believers.

Encouragement to walk worthy of your calling.

To live or behave in a specified manner.

In a manner befitting or deserving of your calling.

Calling, the condition one enters upon the acceptance of a summons; especially all that is expected of a person who accepts God’s summons to the hope of salvation in Jesus.

This call is for everyone, not a professional calling.

Every Christian is to live a life befitting of their salvation in Jesus Christ.

How should we live then?

Steps To Living Worthily

Five steps to living worthy of our calling.

With humility, humble attitude, without arrogance. The disposition of valuing or assessing oneself appropriately; especially in light of one’s sinfulness or creatureliness.

You have to curve your ego.

An understanding of God’s work is always an attack on the ego, not to obliterate or humiliate the self, but to bring it into relation with God and to redirect its interests. In losing life we find it.

An understanding of God’s work is always an attack on the ego, not to obliterate or humiliate the self, but to bring it into relation with God and to redirect its interests. In losing life we find it.

With gentleness,

With gentleness, acting in a manner that is gentle, mild, and even-tempered. It is characteristic of Jesus.

Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 196.With gentleness,

With gentleness,

With patience, patient endurance of pain or unhappiness.

John Chrysostom explained this word from its etymology as meaning “to have a wide and big soul.” Patience is the exercise of a largeness of soul that can endure annoyances and difficulties over a period of time.

John Chrysostom explained this word from its etymology as meaning “to have a wide and big soul.” Patience is the exercise of a largeness of soul that can endure annoyances and difficulties over a period of time.

Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 197.Bearing with one another in love

Bearing with one another in love

Bearing with one another in love, to endure something unpleasant or difficult whether on one’s own behalf or on behalf of someone else.

A more appropriate way of translating this is “putting up with one another in love.” The Christian life is a life of putting up with other people and this tolerance finds it ability and motivation in love.

Love, agape, enjoys the other person, but it does not exist for enjoyment.

It is not a feeling or emotion, but an act of the will.

It exist on in relation to specific people, and it is always costly.

This love does not have its origin in human motivation; it is a choice made because of the love of God.

The love experienced in Christ must be extended to others.

This is what happened on Calvary, God extended His love for through Jesus death. God loved his son, who love us enough to give up his life, despite our condition.

Eagerness, to have or show keen interest, intense desire, or impatient expectancy.

Unity- the quality of being united into one, a state of oness.

Spirit- Spirit of God, Holy Spirit

Make every effort to keep unity.

It is important to realize that unity is something giving by the Spirit, not something we create.

It is based on in the oneness of God and the oneness of the gospel, which works the same for all people.

If God’s love is so great, if his salvation is so powerful, if God has granted such reconciliation, then believers should live accordingly. They should value God’s love enough to be shaped by it.

Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 196.