THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH (4 OF 6)
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-6
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The Unity of the Church (4 of 6)
Series: Ephesians
Harley Howard
Ephesians 4:1-6
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Paul refers to himself as “the prisoner of the Lord.” In chapter 3:13, Paul told his readers not to lose heart because of his sufferings on their behalf and on behalf of the gospel. Even in prison Paul still thinks night and day on the spiritual condition of the saints, not of himself. Upon the firm and unchanging ground of God’s completed work in Christ, Paul now urges his readers to a life together, worthy of their calling. As a prisoner himself, he knows what it is to suffer the consequences of such a life and what it is he is asking his readers to risk. The Christian life does bring suffering and persecution as Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:12 that, ”all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”. It may be one of the most scathing indictments against the church in America that the lack of suffering means a lack of Godliness. As we already saw in chapter 3, Paul did not consider himself to be the prisoner of man, because even in prison he proclaimed and lived Christ before his captors. He was God’s prisoner. He could minister for God wherever he was. While in prison, he urged the church to walk worthy of the divine calling of God with which they were called. The word, worthy speaks of scales, bringing the proper weight of two objects being measured to an equilibrium; or, bringing the things weighed to be equivalent to each other. In other words, the profession of the believer should be the equivalent of the walk of the believer. And since the call is a divine call, then it stands without argument that the life must be lived on a divine level. Not only that, but it is to be a life lived with the full knowledge that it took the death of Christ to produce. Paul's urging was that the church would walk worthy of the one who died fo ...
Series: Ephesians
Harley Howard
Ephesians 4:1-6
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Paul refers to himself as “the prisoner of the Lord.” In chapter 3:13, Paul told his readers not to lose heart because of his sufferings on their behalf and on behalf of the gospel. Even in prison Paul still thinks night and day on the spiritual condition of the saints, not of himself. Upon the firm and unchanging ground of God’s completed work in Christ, Paul now urges his readers to a life together, worthy of their calling. As a prisoner himself, he knows what it is to suffer the consequences of such a life and what it is he is asking his readers to risk. The Christian life does bring suffering and persecution as Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:12 that, ”all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”. It may be one of the most scathing indictments against the church in America that the lack of suffering means a lack of Godliness. As we already saw in chapter 3, Paul did not consider himself to be the prisoner of man, because even in prison he proclaimed and lived Christ before his captors. He was God’s prisoner. He could minister for God wherever he was. While in prison, he urged the church to walk worthy of the divine calling of God with which they were called. The word, worthy speaks of scales, bringing the proper weight of two objects being measured to an equilibrium; or, bringing the things weighed to be equivalent to each other. In other words, the profession of the believer should be the equivalent of the walk of the believer. And since the call is a divine call, then it stands without argument that the life must be lived on a divine level. Not only that, but it is to be a life lived with the full knowledge that it took the death of Christ to produce. Paul's urging was that the church would walk worthy of the one who died fo ...
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