Walk
Worthy Of The Calling With Which You Were Called
I, therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you
were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing
with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope
of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all,
who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
But to each one of us
grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
(Now this, “He
ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower
parts of the earth? He who descended is
also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all
things.)
And He Himself gave some
to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ, till we all come to
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect
man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of
men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up
in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint
supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its
share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Ephesians
4:1-16
Our lives are all a
matter of maturity. We do things that are wrong when we are younger. They can
be trying and can form a learning experience.
Something similar happens
in the life of those who follow Jesus.
The goal as we listen to
preaching and teaching and enjoying life together in the church is to grow up
to maturity in Christ. Each of us in on this journey, and we can encourage each
other on the road to maturity in Jesus.
There’s
joy in the journey as we walk alongside each other.
Our
Daily Bread – February 28, 2016