Living Worthy of Our Calling

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

 LIVING WORTHY OF OUR CALLING

Eph 4:1-6

4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

NIV

Being in bondage for the Lord is not a bad thing, as Paul admits he is a prisoner for the Lord. This does not mean that Jesus has chained him up and put him in a cell as a true prisoner of the state would be. However, when we fully commit ourselves to Christ and allow him the complete unconditional control of our lives, we are in fact in the form of a bondservant, a prisoner for the Lord. Again, we are free to roam through life going and doing what we have been called to go and do. This is the urge we are receiving to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. This calling or vocation, which is a more direct translation from the Greek, may not be what we consider our position in the body of Christ, although, that is a calling, such as we have been called to preach and teach, while others have been called to lead us in worship, and others called to serve the Lord in so many other wonderful ways. But this calling is that of being a believer in Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is a calling for our lives and we are to live our lives worthy of being a Christian. This is defined for us as being humble and gentle and patient with each other, bearing with one another in love. This makes us wonder if it is appropriate for us to use the term, “I” when we are expressing our works as a result of our calling in life, or the gift the Spirit has manifested in us. We think it would be more appropriate to always say the Lord has led me to do or empowered me to be able to do, or The Lord is doing this in my life, giving me this or that to do, or all that we do is because of the Lord’s power at work. In and of ourselves we have no talent, no ability to do anything even close to worthy. In fact, without the working of the Spirit in our lives, we cannot even live a life worthy of being called a Christian. Humility or being humble and patient must start in our hearts and minds regarding ourselves first before we can be humble and patient toward others. We cannot be humble toward others if we harbor any self-pride within ourselves. It is interesting in Greek it is expressed as being worthy of the vocation we are called with all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering forbearing one another in love. This lowliness, the Greek word, tapeinofrosunee, means to have a humble opinion of oneself; a deep sense of one’s (moral) littleness; modesty, humility, and lowliness of mind. We will get to this, making every effort later, for we are impressed to remain focused on being humble, being humble-minded, and always giving the Lord all the credit and praise for everything in our lives, and all that we have been instructed to do. Perhaps then we might be living worthy of our calling.