Ephesians 4:1-3 – “I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
The Apostle Paul has just spoken of how God can strengthen us with His power on the inner man. That God wants to root and establish our hearts in His love and fill us to the fullness of Christ, and that God can do immeasurably more than we can even ask or imagine. It’s upon these promises of what God wants to do in us, that the Apostle Paul tells Christians to walk in a manner that’s worthy of Christ’s calling.
Have you ever been around an impatient person? They have an agenda and it’s not to show you the love of Christ. You are interrupting what they value more than you and they will not be gentle in making that clear. This lacks humility. Without flat out saying it, they are communicating that their agenda is more important than you are.
In each of our lives, there are people that we must bear with, out of love, because if not for Christ we would not want to. But Christ bears with us in our shortcomings and weaknesses and we must do the same for others. This doesn’t mean we can’t have boundaries and say no to people. It means that we must be patient in the process of explaining our boundaries to make sure they don’t feel blown off or uncared for.
We are all in the process of becoming who we are in Christ. That means we are going to mess up as we aim for the ideal. That also means we have to be diligent to pursue getting peace back between us when falling short has grieved someone. This is what it means to walk in a manner worthy of the call of Christ!
Jesus, we are so thankful for your humility, gentleness, patience; for how you bear with us in love. Lord, we want to honor you by growing in these things. Today, help us today to be diligent about keeping unity and peace through patience, gentleness, humility, and love. Amen.