The Apostle Paul begins Ephesians 4 by exhorting us concerning how we should walk as the believers in Christ:

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called.
— Ephesians 4:1

Surely this is something we all aspire to, that our walk would be worthy of our calling. So, we need to consider how the apostle defines in these verses the kind of walk we should have.

First of all, the “therefore” in verse 1 indicates that what he is saying here is based upon all that has gone before in this book. That is, upon the high revelation it gives us, first, of all the blessings we have received in Christ, and second, of the calling we have as “the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23).

Accordingly, when he goes on, Paul does not say that our walk must consist of great deeds of faith, or of preaching the gospel in a prevailing way, or of going forth as missionaries to hostile, far away lands. Rather, he tells us that we must walk,

…with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
— Ephesians 4:2-3

So, what is the apostle’s basic concern regarding how we should walk? That we would “keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” For he knows that once this is lost, all else is lost as well and there is no hope for the church to be built up as it should.

And how are we to keep the oneness? “With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing one another in love.” That is, by exhibiting the virtues of Christ in His humanity so that we love the saints in a genuine way.

If Christians today had such a spirit, how few would be the divisions among us! And how great would be the impact of the church on all those around us; it would be like the impact of the church in the first century.

But, we cannot demand such a walk of others; we can only seek to enter into it ourselves, and pray that such a walk will draw our fellow believers to follow Christ in the same way.

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— 9 September 2023 —