The Challenge: Walk Worthy of Your Calling in Christ
In the midst of life’s many challenges, followers of Christ effectively choose how they will respond. God’s goal remains the same no matter what the pressure is in life – to live a God-honoring life that is consistent with the Gospel. In an earlier article, I referred to this as a balanced lifestyle. They key passage that describes this kind of living is Ephesians 4:1-6.
1I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as 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 above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)
In this text the call to walk worthy means to walk in balance. Essentially there are two sides of the equation: your calling and your walk. “Your calling” refers to the first half of Ephesians where Paul explains the Gospel. He basically breaks the Gospel message down into three main categories: 1) The Gospel Call – Salvation (Eph 2:1-10), 2) The Gospel Context – the Body of Christ (Eph 2:11-22), and 3) The Gospel Capacity – the Power of the Spirit (Eph 3:20-21; cf. Eph 1:19-23).
Therefore, the effort to live in balance begins by understanding the significance of the call of the Gospel in one’s life. God provided for salvation unto sanctification, provided the people of God in which the process of sanctification is lived out together in peace, and provided the power of the Holy Spirit which makes it all possible. This is true for every follower of Christ. God put you on the path of growth (salvation to sanctification), placed you where growth is possible (the people of God), and gave you the power to become more like Christ (the power of the Spirit). These three senses of the Gospel capture the situation of every person who enjoys a relationship with Christ. This is “the calling” to which Paul refers.
The other side of balance depends upon you. Paul refers to that side as “walking.” In other words, this relates to how you live each day. What do you do with the realities of the Gospel in daily living? You have been given a process, a people, and the power to live up to God’s standards, now how do you walk in relationship to these realities? This is where we are challenged to walk consistent, live in balance, or otherwise live a God-honoring life which represents all He has done for us and continues to do for us (cf., Eph 1-3).
Five Key Characteristics of Walking Worthy
We live out the call of God in our lives with all humility and gentleness, patience, forbearance, and protecting the unity of the Spirit.
Humility basically means that you see God and others as more important than yourself. You take on a lowly position. You hold God’s concerns and others’ concerns as greater. Jesus, of course, is the perfect example of humility (cf. Phil 2:1-11). Pride and humility are in opposition to each other. Everything pride is, humility isn’t; and the same would be true the other way, everything humility is, pride isn’t.
Gentleness refers to meekness and is part of the fruit of the Spirit (cf., Gal 5:23). Gentleness basically means one’s strength or power under control, self-control. The gentle person exhibits a gentleness of attitude and behavior instead of any kind of harshness. As a fruit of the Spirit, you essentially take on the tender heart of Christ toward others. A gentle person intentionally cares about how he or she interacts with others.
Patience describes a person who has a long fuse. When something happens that would normally result in anger, the person exhibiting patience has a long fuse before getting angry, is slow to anger, or is longsuffering. In the Bible, God is known as slow to anger (cf., Ex 34:6). As a fruit of the Spirit, the Spirit provides you the ability to respond slowly to any kind of provocation. In this particular context, Paul stresses patience as it primarily relates to the sins of others.
Forbearance relates to a general sense of putting up with one another in love. Of these five characteristics, this is the hardest one to clearly articulate in one word. In fact, the Greek word behind the English forbearing one another is also translated endurance with each other, putting up with one another, bearing with one another, showing tolerance for one another, and the list goes on. In many ways, it is an extension of patience; however, it does not primarily relate to sin, this term relates to preferences. In other words, forbearance governs how we handle people in love who differ from our own preferences.
Keeping the unity of the Spirit captures your total effort at living with each other in Christ. As far as it depends upon you, you strive to protect, honor, and live in light of the peace provided through the Spirit between you and other Christians. The unity of the Spirit is that bond of peace provided for between believers by Jesus through the cross (cf., Eph 2:14-18). What do we do with this peace? Paul exclaims, we endeavor to keep it. In other words, we do our very best – make our best effort – put everything we have into protecting the unity of the Spirit. We make every effort to protect this priceless gift from God to us, that is, our peace.
The Application or Look: Christlikeness
When you choose to live consistent with the Gospel – that is, you choose humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and protecting the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace – what does this kind of living look like? What does it sound like? How is it applied?
As I mentioned in a previous post, you can imagine these five key characteristics as stair steps toward Christlikeness.
Without humility, gentleness is difficult to maintain.
A commitment to gentleness helps produce patience when sinned against.
Without patience, forbearance is almost impossible.
Protecting the unity of the Spirit only happens when you have done all of these.
As you deal with another person, each of these characteristics work together to produce balance or walking consistent with the Gospel. This is Paul’s goal for you – to walk worthy of the Gospel. Each step built on the step before it seeking to honor the Lord in the way one sees and engages the other.
More In This Series Balance: More than Just Merely a Goal or Good Idea 5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Humility 5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Gentleness 5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Patience 5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Forbearance 5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Unity of the Spirit
Walking Worthy of the Gospel
Paul captures the various ways this plays out in our lives throughout the rest of Ephesians (Eph 4-6) Notice these key themes:
- Walk Worthy – as Christians who work together speaking the truth in love to each other as we grow in Christ together (Eph 4:1-16).
- Walk Consistently – not as those who do not know the Lord but as those who have experienced inner man change who can now put off attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors which do not honor the Lord and put on attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors which do (Eph 4:17-32).
- Walk in Love – as imitators of God as dear children, we choose to love each other the way Christ has sacrificially and selflessly loved us (Eph 5:1-7).
- Walk in Light – as those who have received the light of Christ, we are to live to walk in that light rather than walk in darkness (Eph 5:8-14).
- Walk Carefully – we examine every step as followers of Christ seeking to walk wisely, understanding God’s will, and in the Spirit. When we do, it impacts our marriages, families, and vocations (Eph 5:15-6:9).
How are all of these things possible? When we engage our hearts in the battle every day against our flesh and those things which would distract us from God’s best through prayer as we seek to stand as Christians (Eph 6:10-20). It comes full circle. When we recognize what God has done for us and provides for us through Christ, appropriately dwell on those things, and apply them to daily living, we can stand by God’s grace against evil inside us and in our evil world.
This impacts our attitudes, thoughts, and actions both as we respond to these things in our inner man and as we engage those around us through our outer man.
Therefore, it should not surprise you when your marriage is stronger, your relationships with others more fruitful, your vocation more rewarding, and your walk with Christ sweeter.
Reflection Questions
- How often do you apply the realities of the Gospel to your daily living?
- In what areas of the five key characteristics do you need further work? Start on the lower steps and move up toward Christlikeness.
- Regarding what you do and what you say, do you walk worthy? Consistently? Lovingly? As light? and Carefully in the Spirit?
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