Daily Bread
Ephesians 4
Unity in the Body of Christ
1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men." 9(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Observation:
Paul now turns from giving the theological foundation for the church’s being and existence, to how now should we live. Paul says in lieu of what God has done through Christ, we should now seek to live a life worthy of the calling you received. And the first application of that is being humble, gentle and patient, and bearing each other’s burdens in love.
Secondly, Paul says to be unified in Spirit through the bond of peace. Part of our calling is to keep the unity in the Church, which is based on the unity Jesus has with the Father and the Spirit. If we do anything divisive in the body of Christ, we are not fulfilling our calling. We need to pray for the Church Jesus died for and give to it sacrificially. There is one church, one body just as there is one God. It doesn’t what matter what denomination you are from, whether you are charismatic or conservative, liturgical or liberal, we are all one in Christ. That is part of our calling. When God looks from heaven he doesn’t see “umpteen” thousand denominations, he sees one Body of Christ made up of all those who believe in His Son.
Though we are one and unified (sameness), we all have different gifts to contribute to the building up of the body of Christ. Some are apostles (those sent to start/plant churches), some are prophets (called to speak God’s word to the church in a timely manner and based on what God would say today), some are evangelists (people with a special ability to lead people to Christ), and finally pastors and teachers (those who take new believers and help them to grow to maturity in Christ and also equip them to use their gifts to grow the body of Christ).
Finally v.13 gives us the goal of every church and every pastor, that all of us become mature attaining the fullness of Christ (meaning becoming like Christ). No we will never be perfect. No we will never be Jesus. But, we can become more like him. This is the goal for every church, that it collectively would be more like Christ, and the goal for every believer, that they would grow to become more like Jesus.
Application:
Are you growing to become more like Jesus? This doesn’t mean trying harder. It means opening ourselves up more and more to the love and grace of God working through our hearts and lives. Importantly as we seek to live a life worthy of our calling, we are not meant to do it alone. God has called us into the body of Christ. He has given us different gifts and functions, but we have one purpose to bring people to maturity in Christ.
I would encourage you if you haven’t already, to seek out a small group or even a mentor to help you life a life worthy of your calling. We all need people in our lives that help us to identify the areas we need to work on to achieve our goal of becoming more like Christ. As we do this, it will affect every relationship we have. It will affect what becomes most important to us and where we want to invest our most precious commodity, time!
One day we will all appear before the Lord and we will give an account of the life we have lived. Will yours be worthy of the calling you have received? As we pursue becoming more like Christ in how we live our lives and use our gifts to build up the only thing that will last into eternity (the church and those who come to know Jesus), we can hear the words at the end of our lives, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
Prayer: God we cannot hope to live a life worthy of our calling in Jesus without your help and the Spirit’s power. Fill us with the same power that so mightily worked in Your Son’s life, so we will one day be proud of the lives we have lived for your glory! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Unity in the Body of Christ
1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men." 9(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Observation:
Paul now turns from giving the theological foundation for the church’s being and existence, to how now should we live. Paul says in lieu of what God has done through Christ, we should now seek to live a life worthy of the calling you received. And the first application of that is being humble, gentle and patient, and bearing each other’s burdens in love.
Secondly, Paul says to be unified in Spirit through the bond of peace. Part of our calling is to keep the unity in the Church, which is based on the unity Jesus has with the Father and the Spirit. If we do anything divisive in the body of Christ, we are not fulfilling our calling. We need to pray for the Church Jesus died for and give to it sacrificially. There is one church, one body just as there is one God. It doesn’t what matter what denomination you are from, whether you are charismatic or conservative, liturgical or liberal, we are all one in Christ. That is part of our calling. When God looks from heaven he doesn’t see “umpteen” thousand denominations, he sees one Body of Christ made up of all those who believe in His Son.
Though we are one and unified (sameness), we all have different gifts to contribute to the building up of the body of Christ. Some are apostles (those sent to start/plant churches), some are prophets (called to speak God’s word to the church in a timely manner and based on what God would say today), some are evangelists (people with a special ability to lead people to Christ), and finally pastors and teachers (those who take new believers and help them to grow to maturity in Christ and also equip them to use their gifts to grow the body of Christ).
Finally v.13 gives us the goal of every church and every pastor, that all of us become mature attaining the fullness of Christ (meaning becoming like Christ). No we will never be perfect. No we will never be Jesus. But, we can become more like him. This is the goal for every church, that it collectively would be more like Christ, and the goal for every believer, that they would grow to become more like Jesus.
Application:
Are you growing to become more like Jesus? This doesn’t mean trying harder. It means opening ourselves up more and more to the love and grace of God working through our hearts and lives. Importantly as we seek to live a life worthy of our calling, we are not meant to do it alone. God has called us into the body of Christ. He has given us different gifts and functions, but we have one purpose to bring people to maturity in Christ.
I would encourage you if you haven’t already, to seek out a small group or even a mentor to help you life a life worthy of your calling. We all need people in our lives that help us to identify the areas we need to work on to achieve our goal of becoming more like Christ. As we do this, it will affect every relationship we have. It will affect what becomes most important to us and where we want to invest our most precious commodity, time!
One day we will all appear before the Lord and we will give an account of the life we have lived. Will yours be worthy of the calling you have received? As we pursue becoming more like Christ in how we live our lives and use our gifts to build up the only thing that will last into eternity (the church and those who come to know Jesus), we can hear the words at the end of our lives, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
Prayer: God we cannot hope to live a life worthy of our calling in Jesus without your help and the Spirit’s power. Fill us with the same power that so mightily worked in Your Son’s life, so we will one day be proud of the lives we have lived for your glory! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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