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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle.
Ephesians 4:1-2a
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The Lord calls everyone. Not one person is left off His list.
But here’s the problem.
Not everyone answers His call. Many choose to close themselves off completely from the One who made them, the God of judgment who will bring wrath and eternal torment on anyone who chooses to reject His call and offer of salvation through His Son Jesus.
For those who do accept God’s calling, there are expectations that come with it, expectations grounded in an expected way of living. God does have a code of conduct for His believers and we see components of this code in today’s message drawn from the opening verses of Ephesians, chapter 4. Over the next several days, we will look at behaviors that indicate someone is living the called life of God. Look again at these words from the Apostle Paul:
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Vv. 1-2a
Note here how Paul refers to the Christian believer as a “prisoner for the Lord”. The imagery here is of one who is held captive and retained, like someone incarcerated for committing an offense. Jesus followers, who have placed their trust in Him and the Father who gave Him, haven’t committed an offense but they have committed to a lifelong devotion and dedication to living as Jesus did, a life that God has called them to. This devotion and dedication are expected to be reflected in certain behaviors to show the Christian is worthy of the calling they have received. In today’s message, the behaviors we are focusing on are humility and gentleness.
First, humility.
Look to the cross and Jesus’ crucifixion and you will find it on perfect display. There, the very Son of God allowed Himself to be put to death as He bore the sin of the world, the final atoning sacrifice that would ever be needed. He could have passed on the calling His Father God gave Him, deciding He was above such an act. After all, there were so many people who not only rejected Him but went out of their way to try and kill Him. Jesus could have viewed these people as unworthy of any act of salvation.
But He didn’t. Rather, He humbly carried out God’s plan for His life and, and in turn, changed the very trajectory for all mankind. Because of His selfless sacrifice, a person could avoid perishing by simply believing in Him.
As Christians, we are expected to live a life that mimics Jesus’ humility. We are to selflessly give of ourselves for the good of others, even though the world might say they don’t deserve it. And we’re not to think of ourselves as being any better than another because in the end translation, we are a sinner like anyone else, despite being saved.
This non-judgmental approach toward living, an approach that shows we are acting in a way worthy of our calling, breeds another of God’s expectations for His believer’s behavior: gentleness.
In the fourth chapter of his letter to the Philippians, we find the Apostle Paul urge the believers in Philippi to let their gentleness be evident to all. Look in the dictionary and you will find that those who adopt gentleness will show kindness, tenderness, and considerate of others.
Need an example of when Jesus showed this?
Go to the Gospel of John and read the opening verses of John, chapter 8. There, you will find Jesus teaching a group of people who had gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles when on the scene burst a group of Pharisees and teachers of the law with a woman in tow who had committed adultery.
Putting her in front of Jesus, the Jewish religious leaders asked Jesus what they should do with the woman. The scriptures tell us that they did this in an attempt to try and trap Jesus into rendering an opinion they could use against Him as they wanted so badly to discredit and eliminate Him.
But Jesus was way smarter than they were. He possessed the very perfect wisdom of His Father. And so He neither condemned the woman nor endorsed any specific pardon or punishment for her. Instead, He put the matter back onto the Pharisees and teachers of the law who had all taken up rocks to stone the woman to death, the penalty established by the Mosaic Law.
Do you remember what Jesus said?
“Let anyone who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” v.7
One by one, the Pharisees and teachers of the law dropped their rocks and departed the scene. Jesus had defused the entire situation but he wasn’t done. For His act of gentleness was still to come as He now addressed the adulteress, asking:
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” v.10
To which the woman replied, “No one sir” (v.11a).
Jesus was the only one left with her and maybe she thought He would be her judge and jury. I often wonder what must have been going through her mind at that moment as she still had to wonder about the outcome of her public trial. She must have been amazed at what Jesus said to close their encounter:
“Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” v.11b
This was divine gentleness from God’s sinless Son to a woman who others were criticizing and longing to kill. Note that Jesus didn’t overlook the woman’s sin. Rather, His pardon included the command to turn away from her prior life of transgression. He saw the woman as still having worth, a woman who could find herself worthy of the same calling to follow God that He was living.
Through the life of Christ, we find our identity as Christians and that identity can be defined by certain behaviors like humility and gentleness. Tomorrow, we’ll look two more traits.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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