“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”Ephesians 4:1 ESV
Reflection: who is actually the lord of your life?
In the company I spent most of my career, we received a yearly training of “standards of business conduct”. This was very important to the company, so that we as employees knew what the expectations were for proper conduct – among each other, towards customers, partners and vendors. To be properly“representing” the company in all aspects. Not to go into any detail, but the training included things like what was acceptable to talk about and do, what could be considered questionable and even illegal conduct so as to stay away from, and, even how to report if we saw anyone doing something inappropriate or questionable. And, to make sure we paid attention to the material, every year the training was changed just enough so that you could not pass the test at the end of the training without reading and understanding.
And, it strikes me very odd that, if we have to do that regularly for all employees of a company, why are we not doing the same in the church? Conduct is, perhaps, the one area where churches are the most afraid of touching. Why? Well we can probably speculate that they do not want to “offend” anyone, right? The message often is that “all are welcome”., which sounds pretty good on the surface. But what gets confused here is that all sinners are welcomed, but sin is not welcomed. We have an obligation to root out sin. So what is it that really what drives the lack of teaching on Christian conduct? Could it be that they do not want to lose the income from the members?
Chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the letter to the Ephesians is really dedicated to “standards of Christian conduct”. Individually, among church members, and in the world. If you have “entered the church”, become a member of Christ family by accepting Christ as your Savior and Lord of your life, now what? How does my life need to change? What are the signs from my conduct that Christ is actually now the Lord of my life, as I claim He is? Have I truly made Him Lord of my life, or am I just fooling myself?
Paul simply starts out chapter 4 with the following statement, which we all need to reflect on today, that is if you claim Jesus Christ as Lord in your life. He says “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3 ESV. What do you see here?
If we ask ourselves an honest question about who is actually lord of our lives, we only need to look at our own conduct. Paul starts with three basic conducts of a Christian, 1) humility, 2) gentleness, and 3) patience. We don’t have to go any further today. But, do ask yourself how is my conduct? Do I do as I want, what the culture wants, or even what the church wants? Or, am I following Christ?
This clearly means to deny self, and to follow Christ, demonstrated by our conduct. This is the starting point of what Paul calls being “worthy of the calling” of Christ.