4 Minute Read

Prepare Your Heart

To the best of your ability, get rid of all distractions. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and quiet yourself in the Lord’s presence. Then, ask the Lord to speak to you in this time. Let Him know that you will listen and make whatever adjustments He will reveal to you.

Read God’s Word

Isaiah 7:1-10:4
Ephesians 4:1-16

A Verse for Today

Slowly and reflectively read the following verse(s) and listen to what God will say to you through His written Word. Consider writing down any insights He reveals to you.

Ephesians 4:1-3 (CSB): “Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Reflecting on God’s Word

Ephesians 4:1 calls us to a higher calling. It calls us to “walk worthy of the calling (we) have received.” If this verse were all on its own, we could probably come up with a list of attributes that should be true of the life of a Jesus-follower, in order for them to “walk worthy of the calling (they) have received.”

Fortunately, the Apostle Paul didn’t stop there. In the next couple of verses, he elaborated on how we can walk worthy of our calling. Let’s consider the action words that we should embrace and emulate if we are to live worthily.

“with all humility”

To live worthy of our calling as God’s children and followers of Jesus, we repudiate arrogance. We are humble, realizing that we are nothing apart from Jesus. We are not saturated with a sense of our supposed self-worth because we know that we have nothing that we didn’t receive from the Lord.

“with all … gentleness”

We repudiate harshness as a default in dealing with people. While there are sometimes exceptions, our default is gentleness, even when in the presence of someone who is furious and out of control.

“with patience”

We refuse to lose our minds when life gets hard or when people make it difficult for us. Instead, we remain controlled without complaining or expressing irritation.

“bearing with one another in love”

The attribute that enables us to be patient with others is love. We love those who love us. We also love those who act like our enemy. Why? Because our Lord has commanded us to love even our enemies. But we also realize that love is a powerful force that can sometimes melt the hardest of hearts. There are numerous stories in Christian history of how love for an enemy paved the way for the enemy to give their life to Jesus.

“making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”

We refuse to allow disunity and relational dysfunction to fester. As much as it depends upon us, we are striving to live in peace with everyone. When there is disunity, we strive to be peacemakers.

Did you notice what ties all of the previous attributes together? They are all focused on our relationships with the people around us. In other words, if we are to walk worthy of our calling as God’s children and Jesus-followers, we will strive to get along with people, even those who seem not to be worthy of our kindness and love.

Are you living worthy of your calling? Is there someone you have mistreated, even if you have justified your words or actions because of how they treated you? Consider surrendering it to King Jesus and ask His Holy Spirit to enable you to live worthy of your calling in the ways described in Ephesians 4:1-3.

Spend Time in Prayer

  • Ask God to help you properly assess where you need to repent and make adjustments as you examine Ephesians 4:1-3.

Going Deeper

If you want to dig a little deeper into what it means to walk worthy, consider reading the following GotQuestions article:

“What does it mean to walk worthy?”

Sharing

If this post has been helpful to you or if you think it could help others, please consider tapping one of the social media buttons below to share it on your favorite platform.

____________________

Matt Ellis is the pastor of White Hall Baptist Church in Richmond, Kentucky (whitehallbaptistchurch.org)