“Therefore, Walk in a Manner Worthy of Your Calling!”

"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Eph. 4:1-3 ESV)

Having laid out his argument for the believer to live a sanctified life (set apart for God’s use) in Chapters 1 through 3, Paul now starts his teachings on the practical aspect of what it means for the New Covenant believer to live their lives in service to the one who Saved them completely by His grace. He starts Chapter 4 with “Therefore”. Those of you who have been a believer and follower of Jesus for a while have heard this before; some of you who are newer to the faith may not have heard this exhortation when reading Scripture. “When you read ‘Therefore’ in the Bible, stop and see what it is ‘There for’”. In other words, don’t keep reading until you understand what the author has said in the previous section.

If you were reading a book or letter and saw a sentence start with “Therefore”, you would have to stop and go back and read the preceding text, at least the previous paragraph or so. We need to do the same thing with Scripture. Paul is using verse 1 of Chapter 4 as a transition from the first 3 Chapters, where he was teaching about the mystery of Christ, the extent of God’s marvelous grace, and the manifold love of God. Now with those truths laid out and accepted by his readers, he now needs to tell them “So What”. What difference does it make that God’s grace saves us, what difference does it make that the Spirit of Christ lives in us, what difference does it make that we can know the unmeasurable love of Christ, what difference does it make that God can do far above all that we could ask or think. That’s what Paul is going to address in the following three Chapters.

Pay attention to these “so what” chapters throughout the New Covenant letters that the Apostles have written; from these, we can understand what it means to live our lives for Christ.

These chapters do not make up “New Covenant Laws”; they do not replace the 613 laws found in the Old Covenant of the Mosaic Law, or the 10 Commandments (which are really only 10 of those 613 written Laws). Remember that as New Covenant believers, we are dead to the Law of Moses and now alive to Christ, living in God’s unending and limitless grace. These “so what” teachings from the Apostles are not “dos and don’ts” that will earn God’s love and acceptance; we already have that in the Beloved One, Jesus.

We will never be loved by God any more than we were at the moment of salvation, and we will never be more righteous, holy, or closer to Christ than when we first believed. Because our salvation, righteousness, and holiness are based on what Jesus did, not on what we did, are doing, or will do. It’s all about Him, our Savior.

So, are we saying, like the Roman Christians said in Romans 6:1, “Are we to continue to sin so that grace might increase?” I echo Paul’s reply to that question: “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Reading these “so what” Chapters shows us how we, as those who have been made alive in Christ, can bring honor and glory to Him. These chapters answer many of the “how do I now live” questions, many of the can I or should I do this or that and questions on how to bring glory to God. Pay close attention to these chapters; they will help you with your walk with Christ, and they will help you see Christ and the power of His resurrection in your everyday life. They will help you know that we want to follow these teachings, not out of obligation but out of appreciation for what Christ has already done for us.

But following these directives on how we should live will not cause us to be righteous, holy, or accepted by God. These directions will never make us anything. Remember Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees in the Gospels (see Item 5 in Digging Deeper). These religious leaders followed the Mosaic Law to the Letter but did not have a heart that loved their God.

Keeping the Law did not make them right with God; only a broken and contrite heart can do that. Only a heart that has “repented”, recognizing that our way of attaining righteousness was wrong, and that God’s way, through faith in Jesus, is correct. Only by being born again can we ever be righteous or holy, or set apart for God’s use. So please don’t follow in the footsteps of the Pharisees by thinking that keeping all of these exhortations found in the New Covenant letters, you will find favor with God. I can assure you that you will not.

However, once God has accepted us through faith in His Son, we can and will want to follow these instructions to bring honor and glory to our risen Savior. Once we are righteous, holy, and forgiven through faith, we will want to serve our Savior out of appreciation, not obligation.

So how can we “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called… ?” (Eph. 4:1) Let’s see what the Holy Spirit working through the Apostle to the Gentiles has to say. In verses 1-6, Paul tells us that we are to be humble, gentle, patient, and hold up one another in love. So, what do we do when, in these “so what” chapters, we find that we are not doing what we read?

The answer is now that we know what we are to do, we need to do better next time the Lord allows us to show the Love of Christ to someone. And the time after that, we need to do better than that time as well, and the time after that. I think you see my point.

We, as believers, will continue to sin and not live up to these practical applications of the truths of God’s grace. But thanks be to the Father who gave his only begotten Son to die on the cross for all our sins, past, present, and future. Every time we sin, we need to remember Jesus died for that sin, and because we understand God’s grace, we accept His forgiveness, thank Him for His love and unfathomable grace, and do better the next time He gives us the opportunity.

These “so what” chapters are not there to discourage us, but to help guide us along our walk with our risen Savior. “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” (4:15).

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let’s continue to read these chapters and ask God to “have the eyes of our hearts enlightened” as to how we can be better representatives of the one who Saved us.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"