Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2 NIV
The Context:
Today's extract is part of the letter of Paul to the church in Ephesus, and it will be good to look at the very first verse of the chapter, which comes right before today's extract. Paul referred to himself as a prisoner for the Lord. Whether it was a physical prison, or one that portrayed him as bound to God as a prisoner, with his will totally submitted to God, the message is clear: the man who will be used of God will encounter difficulties and tough times. I do not find anywhere in the bible where God promised that the sky will always be blue or there will be no storms. His one sure promise is that whether I am in the pit, prison or the palace, God's presence must be with me. I will not survive the world without Him.
And the message in that first verse is also apt for this season we are in. There is so much confusion: we have allowed the world to dictate what is the norm and the acceptable standard of behaviour. The system of the world wants to dictate what is right and wrong to us, and if we do not know WHO has called us, WHY he has called, and WHAT He has called us out of and into, we will get lost. In that first verse, you read this: I urge you to live worthily of the calling with which you have been called. I was not placed on earth to just pass time or to coast through life without direction or impact, but to live a directed and purposeful life. I must not settle for anything less than what is God's standard.
The Message:
In walking worthily of the calling I have received, I must know the nature, source, purpose, demand and and the eternal consequences of that call. God does not make mistakes and if I know I have been called out of something into another thing, my greatest discovery and service to God is to find out what His call is, and pursue that with all my life. If I don't know who God is, pray, how do I seek Him or know what his demands on my life are? If I don't know why I am occupying my present space, how do I know when it is time to move on to something else? If God is not the master directing my life, and I have control over my own thing, how does God ever exercise control over me, so He can lead and make me all I can be?
It is not a suprise then that today's extract lays out the lifestyle that fits the call of God on me. If I subscribe to what God is saying, I must know that He will accept me as I am, but He will not leave me as I came. There is nothing in the natural man that God can use to further His purpose; He has to make a new man He can use, which can respond to His voice, hear Him and be quick to obey. Just for the sake of emphasis, let me reiterate: God will take me as I am, but He has to do a work in me first before my work for Him can be accepted by Him. The world celebrates the audible and the visible, but today's extract addresses the mode of operation for the man who knows and understands his calling: complete humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and love.
I look at these attributes and I see very clearly the fruit of the Spirit. What my life produces is the biggest testament to my ownership status. No manipulation of science can change the expected fruit of an orange tree to produce bananas; you can graft branches in, but if you can't impact the root, you can't do much about the fruit. When men look at me, what do they see? I also see that before I can convict the world, I must first be convicted in my own heart. Humility recognises helplessness, and seek help from the only One who can give it. Humility is first and last a matter of the heart. Men can claim all they want; the God who created and reads the heart can see all forms of hypocrisy and deceit, and He will deal accordingly.
The Response:
Do you know the calling you have received of God? For a moment, forget all the people around you, who have placed demands on you and are expecting a particular outcome from you. Don't be afraid of disappointing them, but be more afraid of being a disappointment to the One who calls, equips and sends out.
And my life will speak to people, not animals. It is before men, not animals, that my light must shine, so that they can see my good works and glorify my Father in heaven. I cannot claim to love God and hate those created by Him. I cannot be saved by this God and then have no motivation to share this God with the world. When God has done a work IN me, my life has no choice but to flow OUT with the life of God. Is His calling and work in me evident on my life? What of yours? God's time of favour is here.
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