Jonathan Newlon
Uniontown Church of Christ
23 May, 2020
Being Worthy of the Call of Jesus
Introduction
When I was a child, I looked to my dad for guidance. I still do. As I grew older, I remember my attitude changing a bit in terms of how I saw going against my father. When I was younger, I wanted to do the right thing because I was afraid of my father punishing me. I didn’t want a spanking, I didn’t want a timeout, I didn’t want to stand in the corner. I had the “fear of the Brian” in me. As I grew older, I started to understand concepts like respect and disappointment. When I wanted to do the right thing, it was no longer out of fear of being punished by my father, but rather, it was out of fear of disappointing my father. To me, my father was an is the perfect role model of what a man should be. Even to this day, I try to live my life in a way that I would be considered worthy of being called his son.
The same should be true of our relationship with God. You see, we are all called to be children of the Lord. We are called to an inheritance from God! We are called to be joint heirs with Jesus to the eternal glory of heaven. The Apostle Paul reminds us of our responsibility to God in Ephesians 4. My question to you is the same as the wishes of Paul in verse 2. Are you living in a manner worthy of the calling of the Lord? Let’s read Ephesians 4 together and see what this all means.
(Read Ephesians 4)
I. Unity as Christians
The first theme that Paul gives us in this chapter is unity. Unity all starts with the way we treat each other. He says in verse 3 that we should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In other words, we need to be striving for unity in how we treat each other. We need to treat each other with respect. I want to take a look at these three little words that Paul gives us here to help us do that: humility, gentleness, and patience.
Let’s start with humility. This can be a hard one for a lot of people, especially if you have a dominant personality. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines humility as “freedom from pride or arrogance.” As we’ve seen before, pride can be a very dangerous thing. Humility is the absence of pride and arrogance. This is very fitting when it comes to our relationship with God. When it comes to God, there is no room for pride. Without God, we are nothing. Without God, we don’t even exist. He is the almighty creator of the universe, and we are simply His creation. When you look at what our relationship really is with God, you cannot help but be humbled.
We must also treat each other with humility. We must put others before ourselves. We must look to the interests of others before our own interests. We must look after our brothers well-being, both physically, and spiritually. In answering Cain’s question from Genesis 4:9, we are indeed our brother’s keepers.
Humility is explained perfectly by Paul in Philippians 2:3-8 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant , being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The next word Paul gives dealing with unity is gentleness. I don’t know about you, but this can be a hard one for me sometimes. When I see a problem, my first reaction is to go gung-ho into it and try to solve the problem as quickly as I can. I want to correct it and be done with it. Many times, this can come off as being crass or unloving, however, I assure you it’s done in love. I just try to be more cognizant of how I approach people in gentleness and love.
We see the importance of gentleness in Proverbs 15:1. It says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Also, we see this in Proverbs 15:4. It says, “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” These are just a few verses about gentleness in the Bible.
Gentleness can go a long way in how we treat each other and a person’s willingness to listen to us. If someone starts yelling at me, my first instinct is to tune them out and not take them seriously at all. If someone comes at me harshly, they’ve just lost all credibility in my eyes. If we want our words to be heard and taken seriously, we must speak with gentleness. Otherwise, we will turn people away, rather than bringing them together.
The final of the three words dealing with Unity is patience. Out of all three words, this one gives people the most trouble. Our American society is marked by the “now” and wanting things instantly. We don’t want to wait on the things that we want. We crave instant gratification. To quote a neighbor of mine, “I want what I want when I want it.”
Look at how patient God is with us every single day. He could have wiped mankind from the earth during the great flood, but in his mercy and grace, he saved Noah so we could live. He could strike us down any minute because of our sin, but rather, He continually calls us back and allows us to repent. Look at His patience demonstrated in 2 Peter 3:9 where Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some would count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God’s mercy and grace are amazing. Thank God for his immense patience with us.
Likewise, we must be patient with others as the Lord is patient with us. We must be willing to show mercy and grace just as the Lord does patiently with us. When Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness, Jesus showed him the importance of patience. Starting in Matthew 18:21 it says, “Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.’” Jesus here was not just demonstrating the importance of forgiveness, but also of patience. We must be willing to be patient with our brothers just as Christ is patient with us. Only then can we truly foster unity amongst Christians.
II. Leave Behind Your Old Ways
The next thing I want to talk about is the call from Paul to get rid of worldliness in our lives. He starts this call in verse 17 where he writes, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” In other words, it’s time to leave our old ways of sin behind us! Look at the description that Paul gives of these ways. He describes the Gentile ways (our old sinful ways) of being hard of heart. He says they are callous and given up to all kinds of sin. If we are to honor God, we cannot have these things in our lives!
One of the greatest problems facing the Church today is worldliness. I don’t want you to misunderstand me. I think a megachurch can be a great thing if it’s done right and kept in line with scripture and truly honor God. However, the majority of these places don’t do it that way. They are there more to entertain than to feed you the truth. So many people come a Church because “the music is really good” or because “my kids can have fun there.” They’re missing the point of Church which is the worship of God! As Charles Spurgeon once noted, a great reason why the Church is shrinking and losing it’s footing in the world is because the Church isn’t trying to influence the world, but rather, it is allowing the Church to be influenced by the world.
If we are going to be worthy of the call of Jesus, we have to leave worldliness behind. Jesus gives us this truth in John 15:18-19. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Do not seek the praise of the world, rather, seek the approval of God.
III. What walking worthy looks like
With all this said about putting away our worldliness, what does a man who is worthy of the calling of God look like? Let’s start with his speech. Starting in verse 25, we are told that a worthy man speaks the truth of God. In other words, he speaks from scripture. He does not twist scripture to say what it doesn’t. He takes the words of God honestly and tells it for what it is. Notice it says later in our passage that he does not have corrupt speech. He speaks only the truth of God for what it is without an agenda of his own.
Next, we see that a worthy man puts away the negative things of the world. When someone does you wrong, the world says it’s ok to be bitter. The world would rather see you exact revenge and take wrath out on them rather than forgive. The world would have you hold a grudge against the person and speak badly of them. However, in verse 31 of our passage, Paul states to put those things away. We are not to give into what the world says we should do when wronged, but rather, we are called to put that negativity aside and substitute grace and mercy.
Finally, Paul shows us that if we put away the worldly attributes of bitterness, anger, wrath, clamor, and slander, we will instead exhibit kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness. These are important attributes for a Christian to show. We must be kind to one another and show grace and mercy. We must be tenderhearted and concern ourselves with the well-being of our brethren. We must also forgive our brothers when they sin against us. Notice what Paul says at the end of this passage, “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.”
Conclusion
With all this said, I ask you, how are you living your life? Are you concerned with the Unity of the Church of Jesus Christ through humility, gentleness, and patience? Have you left behind your old ways of sin and worldliness? Do you show the attributes of kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness? Meditate on these things throughout the coming week. Examine yourselves and see what needs to be changed in your life. As Paul said at the beginning of our passage today, “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
