Walk Worthy

Will Clark

Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Ephesians 4:1–3

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Ephesians 4:1-3 “1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

What we believe affects how we live. That is a true statement. Your beliefs affect your life do they not? What you believe about God determines how you live. What you believe about yourself determines how you live. What you believe about others determines how you live.

In the first 3 chapters of Ephesians we largely determined what the doctrine of our Christian faith is. We looked at all of the things that we ARE, we looked at our riches in Christ, who we ARE in Christ, what Christ did for us, etc.

You can only move to the imperative in the faith after you understand the indicative. In other words, you have to know what is true before you can know what to do… You have to know the WHY behind the WHAT.

The first 3 chapters give us the foundational truths that we can build our lives on. And once we know those truths, then we can take action on building our lives around them. But we know that we can’t build the walls without the foundation or it’ll all come crumbling down.

You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have all doctrine without application, and you can’t have all application without doctrine.

Unity Urged

Paul is starting out this second half of his letter with a plea for unity among believers. Unity is important among believers is it not? Paul is writing this pastoral letter to these people where he planted this church in Ephesus. He is concerned about their welfare and that they conduct themselves properly as believers.

It is true that once we become Christians, we are held to a higher standard. And we should be! We should be held to a higher standard. That’s our calling that we will talk about in a minute.

Notice Paul uses the word “urge” here. He urges this. He is urging these believers to walk in a certain way, to live in a certain way. He is imploring, or beseeching, or strongly recommending. He is encouraging them strongly to do this.

And this is somewhat forceful by Paul. I maintain the position that if you walk out of church every single Sunday feeling better than when you came in - the preacher didn’t do his job. The preacher should urge you, he should challenge you, he should call you out (not individually, but when the shoe fits - wear it).

And I can tell you that Paul called me out this week with these verses here. These verses convicted me this week in a way that was specifically what I needed to be kicked in the rear about. Sometimes God does that you know. Sometimes God makes you take medicine that you need to take. Paul is urging these believers to get along and act like they should.

Unity, Not Uniformity

Also, it should be noted that Paul is urging unity here - not uniformity. Unity comes from within, uniformity comes from pressure on the outside. It isn’t enough for us to live up to some moral standard - we need the Holy Spirit to form us, shape us, correct us as only He can. I’m reminded by the words in 2 Timothy 3:16 “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

That’s what we need. We need to be shaped from within, corrected from within, anything else is just moralism.

Walk Worthy

Ok, so he says to walk worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called. What does it mean that we are a Christian? Well it means a lot of things, but one thing that it surely means is that we are now sons and daughters of the King. What does it mean to be sons and daughters of the King? It means that we have to live in such a way that we don’t disrespect the name that we bear. We bear the name of Christ!

When a child says something disrespectful or they are acting a fool in public - who shoulders the shame? It’s the name on the back of their shirt. All these kids wearing their letter jackets or a baseball jacket around with their last name on the back of it are doing so at great risk. They are risking the defamation of their last name and their parents.

So it is with us and our Christian life. We have to live in a way that is suitable and honors Christ.

1 Peter 1:13-16 “13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””

Sums it up pretty good doesn’t it???

You say - what exactly does that mean to be holy, to walk worthy? Well, Paul doesn’t leave it up to ourselves to figure it out - he gives us examples of how we are to live in a way that Honors the Name.

#1 Quality of a Worthy Walk - Humility

These come in order of importance here. This isn’t random. Humility is the most important characteristic that we are going to discuss in these character qualities.

Humility is something that is rarely found in our world today, and it is a rare quality in a church as well. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.

True humility creates unity among believers.

Paul speaks about it in Philippians 2:3-4 “3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

That’s applicable to us today isn’t it? We live in a SELF-CENTERED world. We want what WE want. We want OUR way. We want our opinion to be honored, we want, we want, we want… Too often we are guilty of the things that we scold our 3 year old kids for. We want our own way and our own preference, and when we don’t get it - what do we do? We throw a fit! Just like the three year old.

I’m telling you, this was applicable to me this week. It struck a nerve where I needed it. God took me to the woodshed if you will...

Ok, so what is the opposite of humility?

PRIDE. What will pride do for you? Absolutely nothing.

I heard it said one time that there is a taint of pride in every sin that is committed. You can’t say that about every other sin. But the sin of pride taints every other sin that we commit. Why is that? Because pride is selfishness at it’s core, and sin is selfish.

Listen to this verse.

Matthew 23:12 “12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Has God ever humbled you? He has humbled me. I trust he’s humbled you. I trust we both needed it. We need to be humbled.

#2 Quality of a Worthy Walk - Gentleness

Gentleness. Meekness.

Now, if there isn’t much humility in the world or in the church - we are probably in a much shorter supply of gentleness.

What is gentleness? Your version may say meekness.

What is meekness?

“Power under control”

Power under control. Polo match. High powered horses that have all of that power and yet are under control.

Ever been on a horse that was out of control?

Me too. It’s not much fun! Not too many things are more frightening than being on the back of a horse that is out of control and you can do nothing about it.