Saturday, September
15, 2012, 6:26 a.m. – the Lord woke me this morning with the song “Living Sacrifices” playing in my mind.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Ephesians 4:1-16 (NIV 1984):
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; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were
called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is
over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us
grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on
high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”
(What does “he
ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He
who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in
order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some
to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to
prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be
built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son
of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of
Christ.
Then we will no longer
be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by
every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their
deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things
grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body,
joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself
up in love, as each part does its work.
My Awesome God!
God is so awesome! He knows just what we need when we need
it. Yesterday he gave me the song “Living
Sacrifices,” based mainly off Romans 12:1-2 where Paul begins by saying
that he urges believers in Jesus Christ, in view of what Christ did for them in
dying on the cross for their sins, to offer themselves as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God as their reasonable act of worship to God, no longer
conformed to the pattern of this world, but transformed in the renewing of
their minds via the power and working of the Holy Spirit within them. Then
today my passage was Ephesians 4:1-16 in which Paul, once again, urged those in
Christ Jesus to live lives worthy of the calling they have received.
Worthy of Calling
So, what does it mean to live a life worthy of the calling
we have received? Obviously there is some action required on our part, in the
power of the Spirit within us, though. We are to live our lives in such a
manner day-by-day in all we do and say that our lives will be praiseworthy,
admirable, and creditable in relation to the calling we have received from God.
And, God’s word teaches us that we are called to be holy as God is holy.
In other words, Christ Jesus died on the cross for our sins
so we could go free from slavery to sin and so we could now be slaves of
righteousness, holy in Christ. We are called to be holy and blameless in God’s
sight, not just positionally because of God’s saving grace, but progressively
as lived out in our lives on a daily basis. So, to live a life worthy of this
calling would mean that we would leave our lives of sin behind us and we would
pursue righteousness, holiness, and heavenly things instead of following after
our own fleshly and worldly desires and the gods of this world. It means we put
off our old lives of sin and we now choose to walk in faithful obedience to
Christ Jesus and to his commands.
In All Practicality
Just in case we still don’t understand what it means to live
lives worthy of the calling we have received, Paul expanded on this idea by
giving us some practical ways in which we can do this. We must be completely
humble and gentle. To be humble means to be unassuming and unpretentious. The opposite
of humble is conceited, arrogant and proud. Pride is centered in self. Humility
is centered in God and others. It is possible to display a false humility by
exercising inverted pride, i.e. by debasing oneself in order to gain sympathy
or the praise of others. Whether we are putting ourselves down or on a pedestal,
we are still thinking of self and self is pride. True humility does not
concentrate on self but willingly thinks of and considers what God desires and
how to minister to the needs of others. This does not mean we should never talk
about our lives or share what God is doing in our lives, but we should always
keep an appropriate self-perspective in light of scripture.
Be patient, bearing with one another in love. To be patient
means to learn to wait. I think we, as Americans especially, are not very good
at waiting sometimes. We want instant gratification and get impatient when we
don’t get it. We like our fast-food restaurants, our mobile devices to where we
can stay continually connected, and our fast modems and processors on our
computers. I can remember when PCs first came out. Boy, were they ever slow. We
did a lot of waiting then. I used to get frustrated in long lines at grocery
and department stores. It seemed I always got in the line where something went
wrong with the cash register, the register tape, the person’s items or the
purchase itself. Then the Lord showed me how ridiculous that was, and I was,
and then I learned to just expect it and to roll with it because really, just
how important is it that I get home 5 minutes earlier? Impatience is centered
in self and patience and bearing with one another is centered in God and
others.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace. Notice that this says “unity of the Spirit.” Not all that
calls itself “unity” is the unity that God desires of his people. There is much
talk of unity and peace in the church today that is not of God at all, but is
completely of man and his doing. Thus, when church leaders speak of the need to
be unified, we need to test what they say against the word of God to see
whether the unity they speak of is unity in the Spirit of God and the truth of
God’s word, or if they are speaking of unity with man’s thinking and
philosophies. Many who stress “unity” also chastise those who are truly
teaching the truths of God’s word and will even exclude them from the
fellowship of believers in order to keep “unity” in the “body.” But, that unity
is with man and so he targets any who do not comply and ostracizes them to keep
the flock from learning the truth of what God’s word teaches. This calls for
much wisdom and discernment.
Only One
There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism and one God and Father who is over all and through all and
in all. Again, this calls for much Biblical knowledge and understanding; wisdom
and spiritual discernment so that we are not led astray to false gods of men or
false images of our one true God and the truths of his word. For instance, we
don’t have to join a local fellowship of believers in the sense of “joining the
church” when we are already members of Christ’s body, the church. What we are
joining, in that case, are institutions of men for the purposes of voting and
owning property. Also, we don’t have to be baptized in a particular
denomination by a particular minister of the gospel if we have already received
a believer’s baptism. We don’t need to duplicate what has already been done in
Christ in order to please men or meet their man-made requirements.
To Prepare
The purpose of prophets, evangelists, the apostles, and
pastor-teachers was/is to prepare God’s people for works of service to God.
Now, this is not talking about offering training classes in how to fulfill
particular church ministries, I don’t believe. This has to do with spiritually
preparing the hearts of God’s people through practical lessons in faith and
practice so that we will desire to follow Jesus Christ and obey God in all
things. Why do so many churches have such difficulty getting people to serve? -
Because they have the cart before the horse. The horse is our faith in God
which drives the cart. If our hearts are not aligned with God’s purposes, his
will for our lives and the truths of scripture, then we won’t be where we need
to be to hear from God and to follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads us. They
need to teach us how to hear God’s voice speaking to our hearts individually
and of the importance of following Christ in full obedience and surrender of
our wills to the will of God for our lives.
The purpose for the “works of service” is for the spiritual
growth and development of the body of Christ to maturity in Christ. Oh, how we
often so lack in this area of discipleship of those who claim to be Christ’s
followers. And, it is not just the responsibility of these leaders to prepare
us, but we should all disciple our brothers and sisters in Christ to maturity.
And, we should each fulfill, in the power and working of the Holy Spirit within
us, our God-given roles and responsibilities within the body of Christ (not the
institution of church) by utilizing the spiritual gifts given to us by the
Spirit of God for the building up (improvement; education; instruction;
teaching; encouragement and maturity) of the body of Christ. We should not
neglect our spiritual gifts nor think we are insignificant and unimportant to
the body of Christ, nor should we exclude people from using their God-given
gifts and roles within the body because they don’t fit with man’s ideas for how
to run God’s church.
If we have spiritual leaders within our churches who are
truly teaching by example and in word and deed the holiness of God, the
necessity of forsaking our lives of sin, and of the need to live lives worthy
of the calling we have received in Christ Jesus, our Lord, then we will no
longer have so many people within our fellowships who are still spiritual
infants so easily swayed by every wind of teaching. And, there are many winds
of teaching going on in today’s church in the name of truth that are driven by
the lies and deceitfulness of men.
What I find astounding is how many who say they are
followers of Christ are actually followers of men and believe whatever they read
or hear as though it is true without really checking it out to see if it is
true or not. I find this to be the case not only from a Biblical perspective,
but in our world, in the news media, the government, the military, et al. We
are so gullible to believe so much of what we read and hear that we are just
setting ourselves up to be deceived. This calls for much spiritual wisdom and
discernment. We must take what we read and hear to God in prayer and seek his
face to see if what we are believing is true, or if we have been trapped by the
cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming and the “truth” we
are believing is really not the truth at all. We need to be listening to God
and not to men and become followers of Christ instead of followers of men. Then
God will open our eyes to his truth so we can obey His truth!
Living Sacrifices
/ An Original Work / September 14, 2012
Based off Romans 12:1-2; 6:11-14 NIV
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you,
In view of God’s
mercy,
To give yourselves to
God in love
As living offerings,
Pleasing to God, holy
in love.
This is your true
worship.
Do not conform to
worldly lives.
Let God transform you
today.
Then you’ll be able to
Test and approve of
what
God’s will is – His
pleasing
And perfect will.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Offer yourselves unto
God.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Do not be conceited.
Humble yourselves
before your God.
Do not be self-righteous.
The strength you have
to live in love
Comes from your Lord
God, so
Live your new lives in
pow’r of God.
Be changed in heart,
mind and will.
Do this because of
what
Christ did for you
when
He died on the cross
to save
The world from sin.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Humble yourselves
before God.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Count yourselves dead
to sin,
But be alive to God in
Christ.
Do not let sin reign
in
Your earthly lives so
you
Obey its evil desires.
Offer yourselves unto
your God
As those who’ve been
born again.
For sin shall no
longer be
Your lord and master.
Give of yourselves to
God
For righteousness.
Oh, holy ones, I
counsel you –
Be alive to God in
Christ.
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