“Responsible to Walk Worthy” – FBC Morning Light (12/12/2024)

The Calling to Salvation and the Church’s Shared Responsibility

Well, good Thursday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading we're reading the last three chapters of the book of Ephesians, chapters 4 through 6, and I want to point out something that really kind of flies in the face of our contemporary, especially American, culture.

We tend to be very individualistic, and I see this even among Christians that comprise the church, the local church. We can be very individualistic, and what I mean by that is we think about ourselves, we think about our family situations, we think about our needs, we think about how we invest our time, we think about our work, we think about our stuff.

We just think very well about our place in the body of Christ, and our responsibility in that body of Christ. And I mention that because of what Paul exhorts us to in the first several verses of Ephesians chapter 4.

He starts off by saying, I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Right away that begs the question, what is that calling with which I was called? And I believe it's the calling to salvation.

It goes back to, refers back to Romans chapter 8. Remember in Romans 8 verse 29 and 30, talking about that golden chain of God's foreknowledge and predestination, and it says in verse 29, Whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he predestined, them he also called, and whom he called, them he justified. So what is that calling with which we've been called? It's the calling to salvation, the calling of to justification, and what justification leads to.

Justification and ultimately glorification. He's called us to be saved in the full umbrella understanding of salvation. That's our calling, okay? Now, if we have been called to salvation, we have personal responsibility to carry out certain things, to live in a certain way for the benefit of the body of Christ, and Paul elaborates on that in the next several verses in Ephesians 4.

Walking Worthy in Lowliness, Gentleness, and Unity

He says we're to walk worthy of the calling with which we're called. Well, what does that look like, that worthy walk? It looks like this, walking with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering.

Then he says, bearing with one another in love. You see my responsibility to others in my local church? I am to be gentle toward them, I am to be humble before them, I am to be long-suffering. That is, I don't get miffed over the least, you know, criticism or off-the-cuff remark that's hurtful.

You know, I'm long-suffering. I bear with my fellow believers in Christ in love, and I do all of this endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He goes on to explain, there's one body, the body of Christ, and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.

Everyone else in your local church who is a true believer in Christ, who's a member of that church, part of that body, they have also been called in the same hope of that calling that you've been called to.

There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all, and then he goes on to talk about the spiritual gifts. To each, one grace has been given according to the measure of Christ's gift, and then he talks about how Christ has given to those in his body different gifts to be employed for the benefit of the body.

Interconnected Members of the Body of Christ

So what I'm getting at here, and I think what Paul is getting at, is that as individual believers within the body of Christ who are members of a local church, a local church family, I'm not to just live my life like I'm an island that comes to church for services on Sunday morning and then leaves, and I really am not connected with anybody else in it.

No! We're to be interconnected. We are to be behaving toward one another in certain ways that result in building up the body of Christ, in promoting the unity of the body of Christ, and this self-styled Christian individualism that is rather indifferent to everybody else in the body, just as long as I get fed or whatever, it doesn't promote the unity of the Church.

It does just the opposite. It promotes a splintering of the Church, and then the Church isn't edified. So I just want to encourage you today to evaluate your relationships within the body of Christ, and ask yourself the question, based on what Paul's exhorting us here in Ephesians 4, am I walking worthy of the calling that I've received, and the calling that my brothers and sisters in Christ have received in my local church?

That's food for thought. Father, I pray that we would chomp on that food, we would chew that over today, and consider if we indeed are walking worthy, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday.

May the Lord bless you in it. Good day.