Life Together

On more than one occasion, we’ve all been encouraged from the pulpit or from the pages of this newsletter to actively involve ourselves in the lives of the people around us - inside the church and outside the church.

More recently, Tim Menez, in last month’s article exhorted the entire church body to be actively aware about how we might participate in helping newer families find their way around our church campus on Sunday mornings.

This month, I’d like to have us look at Ephesians 4:1-3 and help us see yet again the reality that we are called to pursue Christ together. There is no such thing as pursuing Christ your own way, on your own terms and in ways that make you feel the most comfortable. There is only one way we pursue this Christian life and that is done TOGETHER.

Let’s consider these words from Ephesians 4:1-3.
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.

“Walk” in this context figuratively means to conduct your life in a particular way. We see Paul use this word in other epistles as well (Philippians 1:27 and Colossians 1:10). Paul uses this word here in the imperative; it is a command.

The quality of our walk is to be ‘worthy of [our] calling’. This word for worthy in the Greek literally means to bring up the beam of the scale.

Imagine if you will the scales of justice, that need to be brought into balance. Paul says we must live lives that match our “calling”.

In Philippians 1:27, Paul says to walk worthy of the gospel. In Colossians 1:10, Paul writes, “walk worthy of the Lord.” Here in verse one, he says, “walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called.”

Truly I think all 3 verses connect when speaking about the measuring stick for our lives.

However, I think here that the call he refers to is not the call to salvation specifically though it is not less than that, but rather I think the context is that when God saves us, He then also calls us to live as one people united by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our lives together therefore must match the kind of unity to which we are called.

Unity is key for Paul in this letter.

It is unity that Paul emphasizes earlier in chapter 2 where he reminds the church that God in Christ Jesus has made one new man in place of the two.[ Ephesians 2:15] The middle wall of separation has been removed.[ Ephesians 2:14] There is no Jew. No gentile. There is only one new man. Only one new people all united together in Christ. [Ephesians 2:5]

As a result, God has made his church all fellow citizens, members of the same household, who are joined and fit together being built into a holy temple.[ Ephesians 2:19, 21]

Again, later in chapter 4 he will say that we are to grow up together into Christ. [Ephesians 4:15]

Two inescapable things come from Ephesians 4:1-3. We are to live our lives together with other believers, and we are to live our lives together with one another in such a way that the grace of the gospel is magnified.

OUR LIVES TOGETHER

There is no such thing as a rogue Christian. Isolated unto herself. Reading her bible, memorizing scripture and pursuing holiness all on her own. We cannot grow in Christ on our own. We are building blocks that are being fit together and we need each other to grow in our Christian walks.

Secondly, in the pursuit of unity we our lives are to be characterized by grace-filled lives with one another.

Paul says in verse 1 that we are to walk worthy of our calling and in verse 3 that we are to make every effort to preserve our unity in a bond of peace.

He says that we are to preserve unity with a certain disposition directed toward other people. These attitudes require the grace that only the gospel brings to us through God’s Spirit.

Humility, Gentleness, Patience, Loving Forbearance are all graces given to us by God through His Spirit. Notice that every one of these graces means that we must deny our own wants, our own desires, our own preferences, and practicing these graces forces us outside of our comfort zone and into the lives of one another.

HUMILITY

Humility engenders unity. Pride destroys. Pride puffs up and exalts self.

Pride insists on self. Humility insists on others. It takes humility to seek out others on the fringe and seek to love them and invite them into your life.

It takes humility to be willing to walk over to someone you don’t know on Sunday mornings or in your community group and take time to understand their story and ask God for the grace to walk humbly with this person as you share the messiness of your lives with each other.

GENTLENESS

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit. The Greek word here is literally the idea of power under control. The idea of a conscious decision to exercise self-control.

Think about a lion with his mouth wide open and the trainer sticks his head inside. That lion is exhibiting power under control. He could easily snap the trainer's head clean off, but instead we admire the lion’s gentleness, and we are amazed at its self-control.

What does gentleness look like in the body of Christ as we seek to preserve unity?

It means, for example, you use self-control and restraint with the words of your mouth. It means you’re careful and thoughtful about what you say and how you say it.

It means you show restraint and use your words to build up and not tear down. Can you imagine what Sunday mornings would look like if people opened their mouths in humility and gentleness and sought to enter into people’s sufferings and trials rather than avoiding making eye contact so we don’t have to speak with each other?

PATIENCE

Patience literally means to suffer long with people in the body of Christ. Patience makes allowance for people’s shortcomings and endures with people.

Patience is truly a virtue. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is lacking greatly in me at times. Patience forces us outside of ourselves, and outside of our comfort zone. Patience compels us to walk alongside those with whom we sinfully become frustrated or indifferent because they aren’t like us or don’t look like us or aren’t as ‘cool’ as we think we are.

TO LOVINGLY FOREBEAR

Forbearing in love is very similar to patience in that forbearance requires us to depend upon God for grace to tolerate those things that maybe make us uncomfortable and uneasy.

To lovingly forbear with someone who struggles with a life-dominating sin, for example, means that you walk alongside not affirming his desires rather forbearing with him. Persevering with him out of love for him because your desire is his holiness, and out of love for him you forbear with his ups and his downs as you point him to the hope of the gospel.

Living life together under the grace of the gospel accomplishes something within the body. It creates unity. It engenders trust and fosters compassion as you take time to know one another and seek to understand someone’s struggles. As you develop trust and compassion an amazing thing happens in the body of Christ.

We start being transparent with one another. Vulnerable with one another because we feel safe with one another.

This is the grace the gospel brings.

It bring us to a place of true intimacy and friendship. Too many of our friendships are built in the shallow end of the gospel where there is little risk. We need friendships that minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to one another in the depths of the gospel where there may be great risk and personal discomfort, but those friendships and relationships are priceless.

Do you have those kinds of friendships?

If not reach into the lives of those around you, get uncomfortable and trust in the grace of God to meet you there.

Scott Denny is a Pastor at Grace Bible Church