In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he talks a lot about what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. In chapter 4, Paul talks about the church and its witness internal and externally as evidence of our faith or lack there of. The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.”
In this verse Paul says we need to rightly identify who we are when he says, “the prisoner of the Lord.” Paul is saying that he belongs to Jesus Christ. Paul is not a moral free agent free to live and do as he pleases. He says the same thing in a few different ways in other areas of the New Testament. For example in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul writes, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” Then in 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul says we are “ambassadors for Christ.” As a Christian, we must remember that we belong to God and therefore we are called to represent Him in all that we say and do.
Paul then in verse 1 says that he “beseeches you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.” That is Paul saying, because you belong to Christ, you need to live like Christ. The word “worthy” that Paul uses here means appropriately or as in a manner that honors and is honorable. So to “walk worthy” means to live a life that is honorable and honors the One we are representing. In verses 2 and 3 Paul defines how we can live a worthy life for Jesus. He uses words such as lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing, and unified. So for a Christian to live a live that honors God we are to be humble, gentle, patience, loving, accepting of one another, and we are to have a desire to be unified with our brothers and sisters in Christ. But how does Paul know, how do we know that living like this will honor God? We know it because it perfectly describes the life of Jesus as revealed in Philippians 2.
Philippians 2:2-8 can be broken down into two categories. The first is prescriptive, that is describing what we should do. The second part is descriptive, and that is Paul explaining the why of the first part. The two parts of this passage are tied together by verse 5 in Philippians 2 which says, “let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.” So verse 5 bridges the prescriptive section with the descriptive section. How did Paul describe the mind of Christ? We see it in verses 6-8. Paul says that Jesus was humble, selfless, sacrificial, and obedient. Even though Jesus was and is God, He still humbled Himself in submission to the Father’s will to come to the earth, die on a cross for sinful mankind, and rise from the dead three days later. He did this, not because we wouldn’t do it, but because we couldn’t do it. The God-man who had every right to be served, instead came to serve the world. And Jesus didn’t just do it when it was easy or just those who loved Him. Jesus walked in selfless humility all the way to the point of the most excruciating and humiliating form of death, crucifixion. So then we look back at verses 2-4 and we can see Paul calling us to live by these same attributes. We see unity in verse 2, selflessness and humility in verse 3, and sacrificial in verse 4.
Therefore, if I am going to be considered by God worthy to be called a Christian then those three things should characterize my life. In a day and age in which it is easy to say we are a Christian, and when it costs us relatively nothing to identify ourselves as Christian, the question then becomes, does my life give honor to God? Can I actually call myself a disciple of Jesus’ according to how I’m living? Here are some questions to help us think and pray through this.
- Am I humble? Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. Am I willing to take a back seat, to do things and not get any recognition for it? Am I willing to not do what I want for the sake of others?
- Am I gentle? Again this doesn’t mean weakness. In fact, meekness is strength under control. When someone upsets me and I want to give them a piece of my mind, do I instead give a soft, well-measured response (see Prov. 15:1)? Another way I put it is this, when I speak am I gas or water? Do I ignite and fan the flames or do I cool it down?
- Am I patient? This goes along with the next phrase Paul uses in Ephesians 4:2 of forbearing one another. To forbear means to put up with. Am I someone who strives to help those who are new to the faith or do I get upset because they just don’t seem to get it?
- Am I a unifier? We live in a divisive world. There is hatred, bitterness, anger, and discord everywhere we look. Do we fall into it ourselves? When people hear us speak do they hear us constantly talking negative about others or a situation? When they encounter us on social media, do they readily know what we are against or do they know what we stand for? We need to remember the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Mt. 5:9). Do we bring people closer to God and each other or do we push them further apart?
May this passage cause us to praise God for His great love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness towards us in that we don’t always walk in a worthy manner. And may it call us to prayer asking God for His help in allowing us to walk in a worthy manner.
Pastor Justin