“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. 2. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. 3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
I guess that we would all like to live what would be considered “a worthyChristian life.” We probably think that to live such a life would entail being a super-spiritual person who talks holy talk and knows all of the holy moves. By that description, Jesus would have lauded the Pharisees as living a worthy life. But instead of praising the Pharisees, He compared them to a bunch of snakes. Paul, who was once a Pharisee, but got over it after Jesus took over his life, gave the ideal description of the worthy life in Ephesians 4:1-3. In order to live a worthy Christian life, we will live humbly – in “lowliness and meekness.” In our affluent society the worthy life can be described as seeking greatness in the eyes of the world. But the worthy Christian life is not the result of seeking personal greatness, in fact, it is the opposite. It is seeking humility. Humility is not something that we can achieve, because if we think that we have achieved it, we are not humble anymore. This does not mean that humble people must have inferiority complexes. We have a great misunderstanding of what Christian humility is. We seem to think that it entails being a doormat for the world. Nothing is further from the truth. In fact, in order for people to live humbly in this proud world, they have to be secure in Jesus and in themselves. Humility does not come from a sense of inferiority but or insecurity, but from a sense of personal well-being and security. In order to let other people go first, one really has to be secure in oneself. That sort of looks like Jesus, doesn’t it? We can live humbly when we realize that that we do not need to be “number one” in order to feel good about ourselves. In fact, the Greek word for “meekness” means to be under control, not to be weak and beggarly. In our case, it means to be under God’s control. In order to live a worthy Christian life we will live patiently – “With longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.” The Greek word translated “longsuffering” could be called “bulldog tenacity” today. Patience, or longsuffering, is not just sitting and waiting, taking on a martyr complex, or spirit of resignation. It means to persist in Christian living, meeting life’s hardships without bitterness and complaint. It appears today that few people are aiming for this kind of patience, even in churches. It also means that we should “forbear one another in love.” This does not mean to merely put up with people; it means to forbear because we love people. We get “out of sorts” with each other at times, but we do not have to stay that way. Patience, love and forbearance go hand-in-hand with worthy Christian living. In order to live a worthy Christian life, we will live in unity – “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Humility, patience, forbearance and love are results of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Only He can lead us to humble and patient living, and only He can lead us to unity in Himself. If we follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will not be led into disunity. Because we are human, we will have disagreements, but in spite of these disagreements, the Holy Spirit will not lead us into disunity. If we are divided in our fellowship it is because of us, not because of the Holy Spirit. Disunity is Satan’s domain. Certainly a worthy Christian walk will not lead to disunity. In light of this text, will you live humbly, patiently and in the unity of the Spirit? If you will, you will live a worthy Christian life. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|