FBC Morning Light – June 24, 2022

Walking Worthy of the Calling in Ephesians 4

Well, a good Friday morning to you. Here we are at the end of another week, and looking forward to the weekend, looking forward to the Lord's Day, and gathering with God's people and worshiping together.

I hope that you're looking forward to that, and anticipating what the Lord would have for us as we gather together, and as we open the Word together, as we worship our God together, and as He meets with us.

Well, today we're in Ephesians chapter 4 again, in the last half of the chapter. Remember this chapter opens with Paul exhorting us to walk worthy of the calling with which we are called. The first section following that exhortation has to do with our relationship with one another in the body of Christ.

That leads him to talk about our spiritual gifts, and the gifts of pastors and evangelists and so forth, who are given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So, the walking worthy of our calling would involve carrying out the work of the ministry to which we've been called, whatever that might happen to be.

But then in chapter 17, through the end of the chapter, Paul gets very practical in our everyday Christian life. Verses 17 to 24, he deals principally with the principles of walking worthy, and those principles are that we are to put off, and we are to put on, and we are to be renewed.

So he begins by telling us that we're not to walk like the Gentiles, the unconverted. We're not to live our Christian life as if we're still unconverted. There ought to be a change in our lives. So that's when he says in verse 22 that we need to put off, concerning our former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust.

All right, so that whole way of life prior to our conversion, we need to put that away. We need to put that off. And then he says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So there's the change that needs to take place in our lives so that we might walk worthy in our everyday life of the calling with which we've been called.

The change that needs to take place needs to be an internal change. We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. And that, by the way, comes through the Word, God's Word. Finding out what God is like and what God likes, see, that renews our mind.

That changes our way of thinking and changes what we want and changes our choices and so on and so forth. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So he says, put off, be renewed, and then he says, put on.

He says, you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. All right, so those are the three basic principles of living the Christian life in our everyday walk in this world.

Put off the old life, be renewed in the spirit of our mind, put on the new man, a new way of living that is marked by righteousness and holiness. So going from the principles, then Paul gets down to the nitty-gritty and gives some application, some practical application of that putting off and putting on.

So he says, putting away lying, put away lying, but put on speaking truth. He says, put away anger, sinful anger, don't let the sun go down on your wrath. He says, put away stealing so that you may put on labor, working with your hands that which is good.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Put off corrupt communication. Put on what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. Put off the grieving of the Holy Spirit.

And then put off all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking. Let them all be put away from you. And put on kindness, be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.

So there's this whole process of putting off certain behaviors and putting on other behaviors and so forth. But notice that the Christian life is distinct. Not only what I don't do, and there can be a lot of emphasis in that, isn't there?

There are those who may have a whole long list of things that you must not do as a Christian. Don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, don't do that. Well, there's some validity to that. There's a whole old way of life to put off.

But the Christian life isn't marked and distinct simply by what I don't do. It is distinct by what I do do, what I do practice. And the question for us to consider today is, am I living Christianly? Am I walking worthy of the calling with which I am called?

What do I need to put off? How am I doing in the renewing of my mind? What do I need to put on that I might walk in righteousness and true holiness? Are we walking Christianly? So our Father and our God, we do thank you for this challenge today, because those who are truly Christ, we want to walk in a manner that is worthy of this calling with which we've been called.

Thank you for these very practical passages of Scripture that give us such help and insight. Now bless this to our hearts and challenge us with it, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.

Church on the Lord’s Day and the Week Ahead

Well, I encourage you to come to God's house on the Lord's Day. Be in church Sunday morning. We have Sunday school at 930 and morning service at 1030, still in the book of 1 Peter. Wrapping that up pretty quickly here, and Sunday night in the Gospel of Mark.

So I encourage you to come, join us on the Lord's Day. Until then, have a good day and a great weekend, and may God bless you in it.

Good day.