Text:
Ephesians 4:1-3 (HCSB)
1 Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love,
3 diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us.
Observation:
Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus is one of my favorite books of the bible.
As I look at the present time, and look to the future, I cannot remember in my lifetime a more challenging time. However, this is not a time for God's people to lose hope. Now is the time to be the church.
Let's focus on the contents of our focal passage.
First, notice the condition that Paul was in when he wrote this letter to the church, and his attitude. He said, "I, the prisoner for the Lord". There were some people in prison for doing wrong, but Paul was in prison because he was fulfilling the calling he had received from God.
The purpose that Paul had in mind for the people of God was unity. This is expressed in verse 3. How diligently are you living to keep the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us?
Ephesians 4:3 (MSG)
3 alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
Are you walking worthy of the call of God upon your life? The fact that you are still alive is evidence that your work is not finished.
Are you living out in your daily living the principles Paul writes about in verse 3?
- Are you walking with humility?
- Are you walking with gentleness?
- Are you walking with patience?
- Are you accepting one another who are members of God's family?
- Are you walking in love?
This is not a letter to the world. Paul is writing to believers, in whom the Holy Spirit lives.
Romans 5:5 (HCSB)
5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 8:9 (HCSB)
9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Prayer:
Father, I pray that the members of the body of Christ would rise up, and be diligent to fulfill the calling of God.
Father, help us to walk in the light, and to be the light. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Matthew 5:14-15 (ESV)
14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Read the Daily Devotional by Herb Cotton; click here:
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