When I was in high school, I can remember my mom talking with me when I had done something. She had discovered through our conversation that I was not telling her the entire truth, and I'm not surprised because she told us that she prayed daily that we "would get caught." And by God's grace, if I didn't get caught every stinking time I was doing the wrong thing! So as we were discussing my lack of truth-telling, she looked me in the eye and gently and confidently said to me, "McCrackens don't lie."
There was something about the way that she said it -- not in a proud way at all, but in a quiet confidence that let me know that our family chose to do it differently than the world. God's way. And from then on, I had the confidence to do the right thing and knew that I wasn't alone. My family and I were truth-tellers.
Now I can't say, sadly, that I have never told a lie since, but I have given great effort and prayer toward being a truth-teller because of my mom's reminder of my identity.
That is what I see Paul doing in the first verse in Ephesians 4. He says, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." He is esteeming them in the Lord. And what does that look like? "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." In other words, if I could borrow the sentence structure of my mom, "You are a Christian. Christians are humble, patient, and peaceful."
But God did not intend for us to work on these characteristics of our new identity alone. In verse 11, Paul says that the Lord gave people gifts -- some would be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers in order to "prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all...become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (vs. 12-13). I told you that the whole reason I am doing this 90 day challenge is because of listening to Pastor James MacDonald on my iPod. Preparing and building up the body of Christ is exactly what I hear him doing as I listen, and he challenges his listeners to be humble, patient and peaceful in a way that is incredibly convicting and challenging to me.
"Then, we will not longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men and their deceitful schemeing" (vs 14). Oh man...this was me! Put a powerful speaker who incorporates a bit of humor, and they will have me hook, line and sinker. I would buy whatever they're selling. Yet, I can see how God is changing my thinking to be more like His and teaching me to be a little more critical as I listen, even to Christian speakers. I want to make sure that nothing I decide to claim as my own thinking is out of line with the Word. To do this though, we have to know the Word.
There is a whole lot more to read and apply about specifics of how we should live in the rest of the chapter. But today, I want to remember my identity, the family to whom I belong:
1 Cor. 6:17: But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Phil. 3:20: But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 3:16: Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
2 Cor. 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Eph. 2:20: For we are God's workmanship...
May we remember who we are today and seek to live a life worthy of it.
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