UNITED IN SPIRIT
Reading: Ephesians 4v1-16
Recap on last time: The Christian family
We Belong; Children of God; Children of Light;
Heirs of the Kingdom.
Read again: v3-6
People are different!
But as social people, we need each other.
We all definitely need each other's company, support, encouragement, help, and lots more. We all need relationships and we all hope for unity and not conflict.
So sad when families are divided by disputes, by wrong attitudes, and many other causes.
When conflicts go on for years, even through generations; families divided instead of united.
Last time we considered the blessings of being part of the family of God?
Are you blest? or are you struggling to find your place of peace and unity in the church of Jesus Christ?
In this fellowship do we have a close loving family bond? One that shows the love peace and unity that Jesus can bring into the lives of all who turn to the Lord?
Oh, what a special family we belong to, when we follow the principles of united family relationships!
We are all joined together, united by the Holy Spirit.
The passage we are looking at reminds us of how we should be joined together as individuals making up the whole family of God.
We are exhorted to
Live Worthy of the Calling
We were all born into human families, with all their differences, natures, circumstances, upbringings; all of which have a big part in moulding our natural characters. Yes, we're all different not only in appearance, but in temperament, aspirations, and a multitude of other aspects.
Sometime later, we were born again into the family of God; that's the moment we gave our lives to God through Jesus and the cross of Calvary.
Then the old life was replaced by a new life, a new identity and wonderful new horizons. That's an ongoing process as we grow in the things of God and continue maturing as New Creations.
Life in the natural becomes more and more life through the Spirit of our Living God.
Let me read those verses again Ephesians 4v1-2
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling, for which you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. NLT
What a great privilege to be called by God into His family. What a privilege to be able to call he great Creator and Holy God, our Father, even Daddy (Abba)!!
What an awesome responsibility then, to be a Son or Daughter along with the multitude of brothers and sisters in the whole family of God.
An so we need to watch how we walk, remembering we are reflections of the love of God, ambassadors of Christ to every who meets with us or even passes us by.
Are we individually and as a church radiating God's light and love, do people see or feel that? Or do they just see a peculiar people in that little building up the road?
We have many onlookers who are influenced by our manner and reactions. We even have a great cloud of witnesses to the faith, spurring us onwards from heaven. (Hebrews 12v1)
Let's remember, each of us has our shortcomings and faults, that's being human. But let's not judge one another, but be patient and gentle, try to understand and see the good. It's easy to be a critic and a discourager, but the calling of God is to be a true listener and gentle encourager towards the good.
Sometimes the outward manner of someone is far different to their inner private self.
We are reminded to keep
The Unity of the Spirit and the Bond of Peace
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. (NLT)
Building unity can be hard. Our intrinsic different characters and understandings make perfect unity an ideal rather than a reality.
It can cause some big rifts, arguments, partisan tendencies, and be a hindrance to our peaceful existence as the family of God.
In short, human beings are not perfect (never can be in this life), so the church is not perfect. We have an imperfect church struggling to show God's ways to a massively imperfect world.
How can we overcome this? We saw, last time, that we are called to be children of light. The Christian family is a family showing light, goodness, not darkness and sin.
It's a battle that only the power of the Holy Spirit within each of us can empower us to win, hour by hour, day by day.
One commentary puts it like this:
To build unity is one of the Holy Spirit's important roles. He leads, but we have to be willing to be led and do our part to keep the peace. We do that by focussing on God (and His word the scriptures), not on ourselves.
We are united under one head - the head of the church our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and living through all. (Ephv5-6).
That is our source of unity and strength. We may find it hard sometimes, we may fail in various ways, but God will never fail to bring His goals to perfect fruition. His church, His family will never be wiped out.
Matt 16v18: And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
The rock is not Peter even though his name meant rock. The rock is Jesus Christ. And the once delivered faith, the Gospel.
Are we all united upon the Rock, or is there a danger we sometimes stand on our own understandings? Built on the foundations of solid rock, or shifting sands?
We are encouraged to seek
The Fulness of Christ
Eph 4v11-13
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers; to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God,
And become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. NIV
There's a lot of misunderstanding about what the fulness of Christ actually means. Some may believe it's having near on perfect lives being just like Jesus in all perfection and power.
But we're not divine like Jesus. We're mere imperfect human beings striving to become more like Jesus.
My NLT Bible puts v12-13 like this:
Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's
Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. NLT
We are all still individuals with our own place in God's family. We have different talents, different callings, and different places, but we all complement each other as part of one united family.
We can't all be evangelists, or pastors, or teachers, we can't all be outgoing in nature, and some can't be quiet in nature!
But we can all in some way develop our service in the family of God to build each other up and in the process we all grow that bit more mature and able to follow more closely the calling of God upon our lives.
ILLUS, the church service, the fellowship afterwards. The leaders and teaching, the kitchen servants and social bonding.
I always try to thank and encourage all kinds of service in the church, from the leaders to the cleaners! They should all feel valued not only by God but as an integral part of God's family.
There are those who are called to use the pulpit and there are the many who ensure the pulpit is ready for use!
Whatever role we have we are all servants and all members of one great family. We are all on an equal level in God's eyes.
We serve and encourage as we are able.
We are all one in Christ but individuals as well.
The brick wall, years gone by, hand-made bricks: many individual bricks all slightly different but the wall stands firm and is one unit of individual bricks.
Commentary quote again:
God calls us as members of his body. Some of us can do one task, some can do others. Together we can obey God more fully than any of us alone. It's a human tendency to overestimate what we can do by ourselves, and underestimate what we can do as a group.
But as the body of Christ we can accomplish more together than we would dream possible working by ourselves.
Working together the church can express more of the fulness of Christ.
So we're all growing, maybe at different speeds into greater maturity and closer to the high standards that are our goal.
We are joined:
To live worthy of God's calling into the Family of God.
To keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.
To seek and grow into the fullness of Christ.
1Jn 3:1 See how very much the Father loves us for he calls us his children and that is what we are. But the people who belong to this world don't recognize we are God's children, because they don't know Him. Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. NLT
We ARE God's children NOW, not some time in the future or only when we get to heaven; we really are members of His family today. Called and redeemed. We can know our self-worth in those facts. Knowing all this inspires us to move forward deeper into God's love, protection and service. Moving continually towards that fulness that our scriptures speak about and the spiritual growth that God desires.
Amen!
