Walk As You’ve Been Called
Paul sets
down a pretty good challenge right out of the gate on this one. “Walk in a manner worthy to which you have
been called.” That’s a pretty tall
order, Paul. But it is what God asks of
us. He knows we cannot be perfect, but
that doesn’t mean we don’t try. It means
we try, succeed, fail, celebrate when we succeed with God’s help, repent when
we fail because we trusted our own abilities too much, and continue to try.
Then we
get to the list that Paul gives us regarding godly living – a shorter list than
he gave towards the end of Galatians.
Humility. Gentleness. Patience.
Loving one another. Eager to
maintain unity. I wonder how many people
read that verse and say, “Ouch, that’s hits home.” I’m guessing that I’m not the only one that
could stand to work on that list. In
fact, I bet I’m in the majority…
One Lord
Moving
onto Paul’s next phrase we arrive at: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
God and Father of us all.” Again,
ouch. How many distinctions do we make
among Christians? Infant baptism. Adult baptism. Emersion baptism. Sprinkling baptism. 1st communion at a specific age. 1st communion after expressing genuine
faith. Communion only among
members. Unleavened bread. Leavened bread. Wine.
Grape juice. Contemporary. Traditional.
Organ. Piano. Drums.
Guitar. Dress up. Casual.
ESV. NIV. NRSV.
NASB. KJV. Liturgy.
Traditional Lord’s Prayer. Contemporary
Lord’s prayer. Pastor. Preacher.
Reverend. Right Reverend. Father.
Priest. Sunday Morning. Saturday Night. Sunday Night.
Denominational. Independent.
Wow. That list came out in under a minute. I could probably go on. But how does that prior paragraph jive with
“one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all?” I don’t know about you, but I think that Paul
has continued to hit pretty hard. We’ve
got work to do in this category, that’s for sure. There are thirty-some thousand denominations
in the world. It isn’t certainly because
there are 30-some thousand gods. I think
the problem is with us, not Him.
Grace
After the
first six verses, I really feel like I need to hear verse 7. “But grace was given to each one of us,
according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
Grace was given. Why was grace
given? Because we need it. God hands us faith, and we turn it into
works. God gives us community, and we
turn it into cliques. God gives us His
Word, and we turn it into division.
But grace
was given to each one of us. Because we
desperately need it.
Thanks be
to God.
Then we
move on. God not only gave us grace, but
he gave us people within His grace. He
gave us each other. Why did God do
this? So that the church can be built
up. So that the saints (holy ones,
consecrated ones, separate ones) can be equipped for His work. So that we can be brought into spiritual
maturity.
You know,
the middle of this letter takes me right back to where I began in
Ephesians. We should be so thankful for
God’s grace. He does it all; we just
receive it. He sets everything in
motion; we just need to follow. He puts
forth His plan; we just need to not get in the way! We need to humble ourselves and not get in
the way of His plan.
One
Lord. One faith. One baptism.
One God, the Father of all … who gives us grace. Because we desperately need it.
Thanks be
to God.
New Life
We have
new life. Hear those words! Breathe those words in deeply! We have new life. We don’t need to be the self-monger. We don’t need to be the one in control. We don’t need to be angry with humanity. We don’t need to steal because we can’t come
to believe in God’s provision. We don’t
need to tear one another down. We have
new life! We can build one another
up. We can give out of what we have
because we trust God can replenish what He has first given to us anyway. We can love one another. We can let God be in control. We can be all about Christ.
We have
new life! One Lord. One faith.
One baptism. One God, the Father
of all … who gives us grace. Because we
desperately need all of it.
Thanks be
to God.
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