How To Walk

"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."
Ephesians 4:1-3

At first glance, you might be saying to yourself, "I know how to walk. Who does this joker think he is?" I will reserve answering your question for another time, but I do want you to know, that Paul was writing to a bunch of Christians in the city of Ephesus. Yes, they already knew how to walk, physically. They had learned, just as we have, how to walk within the first few years of their lives. So indeed, he must be talking about something else here, agreed?

First of all, I think it is interesting to note, that Paul is writing this from his prison in Rome, and yet, he doesn't say he is the prisoner of Rome. He says he is the prisoner of the Lord. Even though externally, there are chains on him, and guards nearby (who were also chained to him), he is bound by the love of Jesus Christ. He belongs to the Lord, and no matter what happens externally, it doesn't change the fact that his life is not his own, but the Lord's. And then, secondly, Paul is inviting us, reminding us, encouraging us, nearly begging us, to "walk worthy of the calling with which we were called."

You know, as believers all of us are called. We have the calling of Christ upon our lives to come walk with Him. But how do we do that? you may ask. What does that look like in my life? I am so glad you asked, because right here, Paul tells us how to walk. Here he gives us the ingredients, if you will, of how to walk. Lowliness is the first one, and it does not mean to scrunch down as low as we can and try to walk. You can't walk that way; you will fall. Lowliness means humility, a humbleness of the mind. It means not thinking more of yourself than you ought. It is very much quite the opposite of conceit and arrogance. Lowliness. The next one is gentleness. It is the brother of lowliness. It is the quality of being meek. Knowing you could, but you choose not to. Those two "ingredients" alone will get you noticed in this world, because it is in the opposite direction of where most of the world out there is going. And while I could use this whole space on just those two, I move on to the next, which is instruction, to bear with one another in love. This is something I believe that the church at large needs to revisit. It is so easy, and I see it in our fellowship, and know that it happens all across this land: Christians are the only army that shoots its own wounded. I have found, that in the body of believers, that we need to show the same love and grace that we show the rest of the world. In short, we need to give everybody a break, and let everybody off the hook. We don't do that too much in the body of Christ, unfortunately. We tend to write them off, to say "forget it" and then move to another church. Beloved, we are a family. And in my family, when difficulties arise, we don't move to another family and start over. We have to work through the tough times. It makes us stronger as individuals, and closer as a family. Let us bear with one another in love. Paul is instructing us to "stick to it" with our family.

Our final instruction about how to walk, is that we are to make an effort, to be earnest, to be diligent in keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We are to guard (keep) the unity, the oneness we have in the Spirit, and do that in the bond of peace. We are to guard our unity in the Spirit, the One who binds us all to one another, and do it by making things right, "to set at oneness," with our brothers and sisters. If you know that a brother or sister has something against you, don't wait for them to come to you. You go to them, and talk it out, and work through it, and set it at one again. It is our instruction on how to walk. If you haven't learned these things yet, maybe you aren't walking. Perhaps you are limping along instead. Don't limp. Learn how to walk. Amen.