“Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received.”
This is a great verse to start our study of Ephesians because in it is found two over arching themes of the book of Ephesians. One is that you have something to do, the other is that something is found in the will of God.
Here we find the bible urging us to do something. If we are urged then we have the option weather to do it or not. Furthermore, we find the word walk. Walk is a verb thus it implies doing something. God has called us, as this verse states, to do something which we have the option to do or not to do. Throughout Ephesians we find a call to action to serve the Lord, to walk in unity with other believers. These are actions we must decide to take then under go the often hard work of seeing those actions through. Walking worthy is not something that happens in a one time decision. It isn’t something that happens a few times a year. It isn’t something that happens once a week in a worship gathering. Walking worthy is a decision we make every morning, every evening, and every moment of our day. But deciding isn’t enough we must also walk. We decide to walk then we do the actual walking. That is a continual living out our faith through the Love of God and the truth of the Gospel.
As Christians we must be careful. We tend to fall into one of two ditches on either side of the road of our thinking. One ditch is the overly spiritual. Everything comes back to prayer, waiting on the Lord, and the work of the Holy Spirit. This sounds really good and spiritual. We are supposed to precede, and follow through everything with prayer. And we are supposed to seek the Lords direction on things. But to often this mentality results in an idea that we can’t do anything on our own. In some sense this is true. But God has called us to go, to walk, to be, to do, to make, to serve, and he has given us the power to do so. We have the Holy Spirit, we are called to do, don’t defeat yourself and what God wants to do in and through you before you every begin.
The other ditch is just as bad. This ditch is overly pragmatic. This ditch is all about plans, procedures, techniques, and methods. If I could just get a good plan I could do this, or if the church just had the right programs it would grow. This is completely taking God out of the equations. He has called us to do things but he hasn’t called us to do it alone. Our calling comes from God and so does our power.
I urge you to realize where your call, confidence, and help comes from. We can rely on God but we must also be obedient and do our part. Stay out of the ditches and I look forward to seeing you at our worship gathering.