Ephesians 4:1-2 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.
Years ago I was working with a band on a particularly difficult passage of music. They were not getting it and I was frustrated. I then asked the youngest member of the band to play the passage (knowing he could). After he did so, I said to the band, “there!” One student’s response was, “Well sure! He practices!”
Isn’t that often the case? We see other people doing things that we are not doing and we make excuses why they can and we can’t. But Paul was not in that habit. He was writing to the Ephesian church, (from prison), and encouraging them to live lives that were in line with what they believed. We might at some level have thought that that would go without saying; that it would be natural. But Paul apparently didn’t think so.
When I say I’m a Christian, I am saying that I am a committed follower of Christ. I am saying that I have been born again. I am a new creature in Christ. The old has gone and the new has come. I am saying by all that and much more, that I am different. Not just different than you, but different from what I once was. Has the world ever been more in need of those who identify with Christ to actually follow Him and exhibit the humility, gentleness, patience, and love He did?
But too often, we hear this and we think of someone else. “That guy really needs to get his act together!” But, as the song says, “Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer!”
Am I saying that we need to try harder? Yes! However, it’s not just a matter of effort. That would not be good news at all! Our effort is a factor, but it is the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells the committed follower of Christ that really makes all the difference! I must be willing (that’s my effort); He will empower.
Jesus didn’t come to live a perfect life and die a sinner’s death so that we would be just like we have always been. He envisioned so much more than a line in my profile identifying as a Christian accompanied by a lifestyle as something else!
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
