Ephesians Lesson 24 of 39 part 7

Ephesians 4:1

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech (or beg of) you that ye walk worthy of the vocation* wherewith ye are called."

*the divine invitation to embrace God's salvation.

We hold this as a profession do not we? We do not think any of us would like to have a personal physician, someone we commit our health and well being to, if he was someone that you could not trust, and was not adhering to the vocation that he was called or had chosen. And committed many years of study and training in and then passed a state exam to show that he was knowledgeable in that field. We know we would not want that kind of doctor taking care of our families who had not done so. Well Paul is bringing that same analogy into the life of every believer. God has called us to this particular role in the midst of an ungodly world to live a life that literally reflects our vocation and our calling. This is not meant to be an earthy thing but is as shown a divine and spiritual calling. Wherein He does the work which only He can do within His receipt, willing receivers and vessels. In verse 2, it is so practical, we are not to be arrogant, or puffed up and give people the impression that we are better than they are, or that we know more than they do. Though at times a grin or a look comes upon our face which says that we know the truth or reality of the thing being said, and often this just happens as if in autopilot. Even when we may never have been taught it, the inner witness just says, Yes that is it!

Ephesians 4:2

"With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing (the putting up with) one another in love;"

There is so much of that lacking these days. How many local churches, and we do not care what denomination or nondenominational title you can think of, they are in a constant turmoil because of the lack of true love one for another? Oh they will come up and say, “I love you with the love of the Lord” but do they? NO! Just because somebody does not agree right down to the last jot and tittle then bitterness and even hatred comes up, and that was one of the things that Paul had to admonish the Corinthians about. So here he comes now to this higher level of the Christ ones walk, that we do not walk with arrogance and pride, but with lowliness and meekness. Why, because we have willingly passed through these trials and temptations of the flesh in the action of put them to death in order to hear and see clearly. This is why we are to daily submit our own wills, imaginations, emotions, opinions, thoughts, intellect and understandings to the LORD, for we are to reflect His mindset not our own. We are to have His character and walk in His Love as he walked in Love toward all men.

Meekness does not mean we are a milque-toast. There use to be a cartoon character by that name who was always being walked on because he did not have any backbone. But that is not what the word meek means. Do you remember who was called the meekest of all men? Moses. We all of us know what a man’s man Moses was. We have pointed out that he was the second highest man in Egypt being a military man, a planner and thinker. It meant that he was a civil engineer, it meant he was a politician, Moses was not a milque-toast. And then the best one of all was when he had to flee Egypt and goes out into Midian, and comes up to the well, and here the priest of Midian’s seven daughters were watering their livestock. Other shepherds come up about that same time, and tried to drive them away, but what does Moses do? Single-handedly drove them all away. That is certainly not a milque-toast, that is a man’s man, but he was still meek. 

What does that tell us? To be meek just simply means that we know what we stand for, we can do these things in the spirit of love, patience, and diplomacy, without raising the ire of people. So this is exactly what Paul is expecting us as believers to do.

Ephesians 4:3

"Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."