The Right Wrapping - Part 1 - How To Live Out Our Spiritual DNA
Written by Ed Allen
Sunday, 05 July 2009 09:00
Our apologies, we missed the first couple of minutes and lost the last few minutes of the audio.
Today’s Passage: Ephesians 4:1-16
Unity in the Body of Christ
1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called– 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”9(What does he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?
10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14Then we will no 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 in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
The Truth About Spiritual DNA
- You are who you are because of God’s work in you.
- Your spiritual DNA gives you everything you need to know God.
- You become who you were meant to become as you accept (through faith) the gift of God’s life poured into your’s (by grace).
The Right Wrapping: First and Foremost we should promote community
- We publicize community with our faith
- Paul starts out his discussion on living out our faith by focusing on our relationships with one another.
- v.4:1 “...live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”Also see 2 Timothy 1:9 for “calling”
- Our own spiritual advancement and maturing comes in connection with community.
Exercising Christ-like Character: carry ourselves with grace toward those around us.
- v.4:2 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
- Keep a posture of humility
- Philippians 2:3-4 “(3)Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (4)Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
- Be gentle: accommodate yourselves to one another’s weakness.
- Be patient: Exercise constraint toward others.
- Bear with one another in love.
Exert strenuous effort to promote unity with those around us.
- We don’t have to build community; that is God’s job. But we do have to fight to protect it and promote it.
- vv.4:4-6 “4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called– 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
- Paul focuses on what unites us: Jesus Christ.
Why such an emphasis on unity?
- We see the importance it was to Jesus Christ. On the last night before Jesus’ crucifixion, Jesus prays for our unity. John 17:20-26
- 20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
- Our unity shows the world who Jesus is.