Ephesians 4:1 - The Standard
Thomas S. Myers
THE STANDARD
Ephesians 4:1
There's nothing more pathetic than a lost earthworm. Trust me. I know. As I was walking along the sidewalk of our house to pick up the morning paper I spotted it. The unlucky earthworm had crawled from the lush green grass at the edge onto our dusty concrete driveway. You could trace his progress in the dust of the driveway. He seemed headed across the driveway when for some reason he swerved. Maybe it was the slight rise and fall of the surface that threw him off, I don't know. But all at once he began to crawl in irregular circles. When I found him, the poor thing was thin and dry, covered with tiny grains of dirt, in utter despair. Round and round he wriggled as the sun rose higher hastening the hour when his enemy-- our car tires --would find him. I thought, "He needs to be rescued." So I gently lifted his grainy from our draive way and deposited it gingerly in the safety of the tall grass of our yard.
What a way to begin a day. It makes you feel good deep inside to rescue a worm. But wait a minute, there were other worms. Scores of them. Worm after hapless worm had made his way from the safety of the grass to our concrete driveway. blissfully unaware of the dangers ahead. What would explain this great worm exodus? Maybe there was a worm a disk jockey on a late night station who had offered a prize for the worm who made it to the other side of my drive way.
As I made my way back to the house I thought of Christians I know. They are wondering all through life. They have lost there purpose. Circumstances have crushed them. They feel traped. And then a verse came to mind -- Ephesians 4:1.
When a person goes to an organization meeting like the Kiwanis Club or the Rotary Club they are given a purpose and direction. And they obligate themselves to live in accord with the rules of the Kiwanis or the Rotary. When a person joins an athletic team, they obligate themselves to conform to the rules of that team. When a person changes citizenship, they obligate themselves to live by the rules of that country. If a person joins the military, no matter how dumb the rules seem to be, you obligate yourself to obey the rules.
Now if a person does not conform to the rules of the Kiwanis Club, guess what the Kiwanis Club will do? They will remove you from their organization. If a person does not obey the rules of the athletic team, they will be kicked off the team.
If you do not obey the rules of your country, your country will remove you from society and put you in jail.
Do you know what is amazing? What is amazing is the great lengths that people will go through to be in an organization. Some clubs insist that if you must attend their monthly meetings. Even if you are on a business trip on the east coast, you must find the nearest club and attend the meeting there. If you don't you will be kicked out of the club. So what will be the club member do? He will attend the club in Miami.
ILLUSTRATION: football and the goose walk
Gordon.
Isn't it amazing what people will do when then participate in an organization? They want to abide by the rules of the organization. They want to be what they need to be.
But put the same people in the church and something goes wrong. They want all the blessings, all the rights, all the privileges, and all the honors but when it comes to commitment to Jesus Christ, the commitment and the standard is gone.
And yet the King of king's and Lord of lord's has a standard. Look at Ephesians 4:1:
Ephesians 4:1
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (KJV)
Ephesians 4:1
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. (NIV)
God wants you to conform to His standard. But what if a Christians does not want to conform to Jesus' standard?
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5:1-8 God's word says, if anyone does not conform to the standards of God, to put them out.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:6 it says if there is somebody in the church who is walking disorderly, put them out.
In 1 Timothy 6:3-5 it says that if someone is teaching doctrine which is not consistent with the truth of God, put them out.
In Romans 16:17 it says, if you know of someone who is gossiping and slandering others, put them out.
God says, if you are not going to conform and cooperate then it is better off to be out of the church.
In fact, at times God removes people from the church.
1 Corinthians 11:30
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. (KJV)
1 John 5:16
16 There is a sin unto death. (KJV)
If people can join a football team or a club of some kind, and conform with such rigid conformity, to things that don't matter, don't you think that we as Christians can make a high level to commitment to walk as God has asked us to walk?
That is what Paul is telling us in Ephesians chapter 4 chapter.
Ephesians 4:1
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (KJV)
In the first 3 chapters of Ephesians Paul said, "You have all the rights and honors and privileges of being a Christian." But now in the last 3 chapters Paul says, "Here are the rules and regulations."
In other words, if you really believe in Jesus Christ, if you really are part of the family of God, if you want to advance the kingdom of God, then here are the standards by which you are to walk.
But do you know what is so sad? A lot of people who call themselves Christians do not want to live like a Christian.
But Paul makes it very clear in Ephesians 4:1.
Ephesians 4:1
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (KJV)
Do you know what happens when you walk worthy?
Look at Hebrews 11:4
Enoch walked so worthily that one day Enoch and God took a walk together that one day, God said, "We are closer to my house, why don't you just come and live with me."
Hebrews 11:30
Hebrews 11:31
Hebrews 11:32-35.
Wouldn't you like to be a part of the group?
Look at the next line:
Hebrews 11:38.
If you have a worthy walk, the world will not even be worthy with you.
FIRST -- A GODLY LIFE IS LARGELY DETERMINED BY YOUR ATTITUDE.
Second --The Characteristics of the Worthy Walk 4:2–3
THIRD -- unity in the spirit 4:4-5
FOURTH -- unity in the father 4:6
FIRST -- A GODLY LIFE IS LARGELY DETERMINED BY YOUR ATTITUDE.
Ephesians 4:1
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord... (KJV)
Notice in verse one that Paul is a prisoner. Now let me ask you a question. Who had Paul arrested? The religious Jew's did. Although Paul was arrested on Jewish charges, Paul did not consider himself a prisoner of the Jew's. And although Paul is in a Roman prison, Paul did not consider himself a prisoner of Rome. And although he had appealed to Caesar, Paul did not consider himself a prisoner of Caesar's. Then who's prisoner was he? Look in verse 1.
Ephesians 4:1
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of... Who? ...the lord...
What's the point? Paul's attitude was that wherever he went and whatever he did or what ever his situation was he understood that God was always in control. That was his attitude. He wasn't up set. He wasn't bitter. He wasn't grumbling or complaining.
How about you, what is your attitude towards your circumstances? Do you feel like a prisoner of your circumstances? Are or you a prisoner of the Lord? What kind of difficulty are you going through? Do you feel like your trapped in your situation? Do you see that God is still in control of your life? Paul did. He has been in prison for how long? 5 years.
Let me turn that around a little bit? Are you employed? Then who do you work for? If you said the Lord you gave the right answer. And you have the right perspective. But if you view yourself as employed by a company, then when the company makes a bad policy or messes you up in some way your going to get angry. But when you realize that you work for the Lord, then you're going realize that God is in control of all your circumstances.
Did you know there is only one way to live? How's that? Did you know there is only one way to live? The way to live is by viewing your life in God's sovereign hand. I mean that when you recognize that God is in total control of your life, it takes out a lot of the pain and anquish. You have for more joy in believing that God is going to work out your problems, then you would if you got angry and up set.
Psalm 16:8-9
8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. (KJV)
Paul had the ability to see everything in the light of how it affected Christ. He saw everything vertically before he Saw it horizontally. His motives were Christ's, his standards were Christ's, his objectives were Christ's, his vision was Christ's, his entire orientation was Christ's. Everything he thought, planned, said, and did was in relation to the Lord. He was in the fullest sense a captive of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Most of us will admit that we tend to be so self–oriented that we see many things first of all in relation to ourselves. As a result we tend to be grump and complaining type of people. Instead our attitude should be, What does God want me to do with this problem? How can I most please and honor God in this?" Paul tries to see everything through God's divine grid. That attitude is the basis and the mark of spiritual maturity.
B. THE PASSION OF PAUL'S MINISTRY.
Now would it do any good for me to beg you to live a godly life? Look at verse one again.
Ephesians 4:1
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (KJV)
Paul thought it would do some good to beg others to live the Christian life. Paul's great desire was for believers to come to the place of maturity.
Paul made no apology for pleading with people to do what he knew was right. I … entreat you (niv) I beseech you (kjv), he says. Parakaleo (entreat) means to call to one's side, with the idea of wanting to help or be helped. It connotes intense feeling, strong desire. In this context it is not simply a request but a plea, an imploring or begging. Paul was not giving suggestions to the Ephesians but divine standards. Paul never exhorted believers to have a take it or leave attitude. Paul could not rest until all those who he came in contact with trust in Jesus Christ. And once that happened he could not rest for Christians to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which they had been called.
For example: Paul pleaded with King Agrippa to listen to his testimony (Acts 26:3), he strongly urged the Corinthians to reaffirm their love for a repentant brother (2 Cor. 2:8), and pleaded with the Galatians to stand in the liberty of the gospel as he did (Gal. 4:12). He pleaded out of an intense love for others, saved and unsaved. Of unsaved fellow Jews, he wrote, "I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:1–3).
Paul, who himself did the work of a pastor and was an apostle and an evangelist, spoke of believers in Galatia as, "My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). He suffered perpetual birth pains from his great desire for the spiritual growth and maturity of those to whom he ministered.
Not only pastors but every believer should have a loving concern to entreat, implore, beg, and plead with others to respond in obedience to the gospel. Like Paul, they should have a passion to entreat their fellow believers to walk in a manner worthy of their calling—to be everything the Lord desires of them.
Notice the word "worthy " in Ephesians 4:1. The Greek word refers to being in balance. Meaning this, as a Christian your conduct out to be in balance with your with Jesus Christ. Even if you are living in a prison, even if you feel trapped in your circumstances, your life should reflect you are of the Lord.
"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."
Tom Myers