Unity in the Body (2)

“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.”  Ephesians 4:1-3 (NIV)



1. My practice does not determine my position, but my position does determine my practice.


• My practice does not determine my position

...of the calling you have received...
Obviously in just a moment we’re going to focus on this whole idea of living a life that is worthy, but I think it’s important that we first determine what it needs to be worthy of. When Paul writes of our calling, it seems to me that he is once again summarizing everything he has written about in the first three chapters of Ephesians. It includes all those spiritual blessings that Paul describes there – everything from being chosen by God to being filled with all the fullness of God.

All of that together comprises our position In Jesus Christ. All of those spiritual blessings are 100% a result of what He has done for us. Not one part of my position in Christ is dependent on my own practice. There is absolutely nothing that I could ever do to earn or deserve all that God has done for me.

You’ll notice the word “then” near the beginning of verse 1. Most other translations render that word “therefore”. As we ought to know by now that is a connecting word which makes it even more apparent that Paul is referring back to what he has written in the first three chapters of his letter when he refers to our calling. So it is very clear that my practice, my behavior, does not determine my position in Christ, but this passage makes it equally clear that...

• My position does determine my practice
...I urge you to live a life worthy...

The word translated “worthy” comes from a root word that means to balance the scales. It came to be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. For instance, a person who was worthy of his pay, was someone whose work effort corresponded to the amount he was paid.

Paul is urging us here to live our lives in such a way that they are in balance with, or correspond to our calling. He is saying that there needs to be a balance between our doctrine and our doing, between our position and our practice.

In a similar passage in Colossians, Paul reinforces this concept of balancing our position in Christ and our practice:
“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:10-14 (NIV)

Paul begins by pointing out the importance of living a life that is worthy of the Lord and he even describes what that looks like – it involves bearing fruit, growing in the knowledge of God and having endurance and patience. But you’ll also notice that he encourages his readers to give thanks to God, because He is the one who has given them an inheritance and He is the one who has rescued them from the dominion of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of His Son. It is our position that determines our practice.

At first, this principle didn’t seem to me to have a whole lot to do with maintaining the unity of the church. But the fact that we all have a common position in Christ is indeed a crucial unifying factor. We are all members together of this body because of what Jesus has done for us. That ought to be the driving force for the way we all live out our lives. You are loved!