Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians 4:1-6

Therefore , I exhort you, I, the prisoner of the Lord, worthily to walk of the calling with which you were called,

with all humility and meekness,

with patience,

putting up with one another in love,

hurrying to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,

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.

Verses 1-6 are one single sentence in the Greek.

The main point is in verse 1, and then everything else explains this one main point.

What is this point?:

The reason that God sent Jesus, according to Eph. 2, is because God is creating one people who live in peace with him, and peace with each other, and live obediently toward God.

Jesus is our peace.

If you want to be at peace with God, and with people, and be part of God's family, you repent of your sins, you place your allegiance/faith in King Jesus, and you get baptized as your pledge to God.

My hope this morning is that this describes all of you.

You've heard God's call as good news, and obeyed it.

But now what?

How should you now walk, now that you are part of God's family, and at peace with God and with each other?

The answer is deceptively simple:

Worthily.

Worthily is emphasized in the Greek through word order.

This is the one word you need to hear, above all the others here.

"Therefore , I exhort you, I, the prisoner of the Lord, worthily to walk of the calling with which you were called."

In Eph.

2:1-3 Paul says that "you Gentiles" used to walk a certain way.

You had a road that you traveled in your life, and that road was a road of wrongdoing and sin.

You were the walking dead.

And (it was) y'all --

the ones being dead in your wrongdoing and sins,

in which y'all formerly walked

according to the age of this world,

according to the ruler of the authority of the air-- the one now working in the sons of disobedience.

Paul then returned to this road imagery in Eph 2:10.

For FOR HIM we are a made thing,

created in King Jesus for good works,

which God prepared before hand,

in order that in them we may/will walk.

In Eph. 2, Paul gives one explanation for why God made you a new creation in Jesus.

God created you in King Jesus FOR HIM, for GOOD WORKS, which God prepared before hand, in order that IN THEM we might walk.

Your problem, from God's perspective, was that you walking down the wrong road in life.

You were on the road of sin, apart from God, that leads to death.

God wanted you on the road of obedience, that leads to eternal life (Rom 6:22; Gal.

6:6-8).

So one of the ways of thinking about what salvation means, is it means God picking you up from this road of sin, and putting you on the road of obedience toward God.

This brings us back to Eph. 4:1.

Therefore , I exhort you, I, the prisoner of the Lord, worthily to walk of the calling with which you were called.

If God saved you so that you would walk in good deeds, what should you do?

Walk in good deeds.

Walk worthily of God's calling.

Being part of God's family is a tremendous privilege.

You are God's adopted children.

You now call God "Father."

Act like this is a privilege.

Act like God has glorified you (3:8).

Act like God has made you his holy temple, where he now lives.

Walk worthily.

Verses 2-6 explain what exactly this looks like:

Therefore , I exhort you, I, the prisoner of the Lord, worthily to walk of the calling with which you were called,

with all humility and meekness,

with patience,

putting up with one another in love,

hurrying to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,

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.

If we were going to sit down and make a list of what it means to walk worthily of our calling, I'm not sure that our lists would immediately begin like Paul's here.

I'm confident that they don't, actually.

Walking worthily of your calling means, first and foremost, living in peace with each other.

I mean this very specifically.

Look around the room.

Seriously.

Look.

You need to live in peace with each other.

That's right at the top of God's list of what it means to walk worthily of your calling.

We struggle to really understand how important this is, because we view our faith as an individual thing.

When we tell people the good news, we ask them, "Do you want to have a personal relationship to God?" When we ask people how they are doing spiritually, we ask, "How is your walk with God?" When we talk about how we are doing spiritually, we say, "I don't feel close to God right now."

Or maybe I do.

We wonder, truthfully, why we even need church.

Why not just stay at home on a Sunday morning, sipping coffee, maybe doing devotions as a family, and wrap things up in time for the pregame football show?

Why are we even here?

If Ephesians 2 taught you anything, I hope it's that God's plan is much bigger than this.

God is making one nation, one people, one family, who will live in peace with him, and with each other.

Asking people if they want a personal relationship with God, or with Jesus, is misleading.

It's missing the point.

"Do you want to be part of God's family, that lives in peace with God and with each other?

Do you want to be able to call God 'Father'?"

This is what God has called you to.

And now that you've heard this calling as good news, and responded to it, walk worthily of that call.

Verses 2-6 explain very concretely what this means.

It means, verse 2, walking with humility and meekness.

A lot of your Bibles translate the second word as "gentle."

The idea with πραΰτης isn't really gentleness.