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Ephesians 4:1-16: To Live Worthy of our Calling (1)

20 Feb 2011

Worship – Andrew

Introduction

We live in a country were there is a lot of tension about service delivery. South Africa
has a constitution safeguarding every citizen’s right to have the necessities of life like
food, decent housing, security, employment and education. Subsequently many
mountains of legislation have been produced to realize these ideals. But South Africa is
seeing more and more strikes as discontent, suffering people still experience profound
lack after nearly 20yrs of democracy. Wonderful, generous ideals do not create new
worlds by themselves. Justice, equality and prosperity are not the results of grandiose
plans and noble intensions. It requires something more; purposeful action on a grand
scale; things like hard work, personal sacrifice and effective, serving leadership.

In the first three chapters of Ephesians we have seen that God has a grand, overarching
purpose with the universe which is busy unfolding in history. The final outcome has
already been secured, and God’s people play a central role in his plan. Our attention has
been drawn to what Paul refers to as “the heavenly realms”. This is a place of authority
and power. Christ has been seated there in a position of absolute authority, and
subsequently his church with him. God intends to use the church to demonstrate his
multi-facetted wisdom to the rulers, authorities, powers and spiritual forces of evil in this
dimension, because as we will see in chapter 6, that is where the battle is really at. God’s
real enemies are not evil people – they are the beings situated in these heavenly realms.

The second part of the book of Ephesians however brings a sobering message to us
engaged in this spiritual battle. The “practical daily life of the believer continues to work
out the purposes of God.”1 What is required to sustain our engagement in the heavenlies
is the practical living of a certain kind of life. The great, victorious outcome of history
that is held before us will require more than just believing that it will be true. It will
require hard work, personal sacrifice and effective, serving leadership.

Reading – Eph 4:1-16

Study (Using NIV)

:1
• This is the turnaround verse in the book. It introduces the new theme and take us
from grand, overarching plans in the flow of history and the realities in the heavenly
realms to the nitty gritty of everyday life here on earth. Chapters 1-3 explain to us

1
NIV Study Bible – Introduction to Ephesians
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where we are in relation to what is really happening. Chapters 4-6 teach us how to
live from that place.
• What is the “calling” referred to here? It is not our personal callings or occupations.
It has to do with the calling on the church referred to in the previous chapter in
verses 10 and 21.
• Remember that part of the reason that this book was written was for us to appreciate
God’s high goals for the church. Paul encourages us to live the kind of lives that
will match this high calling.

:2
• It is noteworthy that the first directive given us doesn’t relate to personal holiness or
spiritual disciplines, but to our attitudes in dealing with other Christians.
• Read and discuss
i) Jn 13:35
ii) 1 Cor 6:7
• Even though there can some fireworks in our engagement with each other as we
work out our lives, marriages, church etc together, the basic heart attitude need to
subscribe to this verse.

:3
• Our second directive emphasises unity. Paul builds upon the unity explained in
chapter 2 in the faith between previously separated groups to maintaining and
developing that unity within the Body.
• The implication here is very heavy. The unity that the Holy Spirit is generating is
dependent upon our cooperation!
• We are so used to division I the church that we have probably become very calloused
to the centrality of this issue. “Unless we are working to maintain, defend and
develop the unity we already enjoy, and to overcome, demolish and put behind us
the disunity we still find ourselves in, we can scarcely claim to be following Paul’s
teaching.”2 (context Acts 2:42)

:4-6
• The context to the believers’ unity is the fact that there is one unified gospel. We are
not free to believe what we prefer. We need to submit to what is true. How that
‘truth’ is established and agreed upon is another discussion, but once it is, we need to
respond to it appropriately.

:7
• Q: What is meant by grace?
- In this context, grace refers to a divine resource – a God-given means to
accomplish a God-given task.
• Read and discuss:
i. 1Cor 12:7, 11
• Question: What is the grace (the divine resource to accomplish your task)
apportioned to you?
2
Tom Wright, 2002, Paul for Everyone; The Prison Letters, p44
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:8-10
• This is a difficult passage to interpret (quoting from Ps 68:18), and Bible
commentators differ on possible meanings. What we can see though is that the “gifts
that Jesus gives is part of the great story of what has been achieved.”3

:11
• The well-known scripture leading to the doctrine of the five-fold ministry.
• Firstly, it is emphasised that Christ himself gave these gifts to the church;
“It is he who gave …”
• Five functions that operate to the benefit of the church are listed. The way the
passage is set out in the NIV, NKJV, and NRSV can be seen to indicate that the last
two of these functions will reside together within the same person – pastors will also
be equipped to teach.
• Paul does not give directions about how these different functions should be
structured within the church – that we must work out for ourselves in cooperation
with the Holy Spirit. We can however safely say that since Christ Himself gave these
functions as gifts to the church, they are necessary and should be present. The fact
that w may have experienced abuse in the past at the hand of people operating in
these capacities doesn’t mean we are free to just do church without them. Christ
gave these gifts, and He gave them to some to the exclusion of others.

:12
• The choice of words here is significant. People operating in these functions are gifts
to the church, and they should operate in such a spirit. The church is not there to
serve them – they are called to serve the church. Service implies self-sacrifice, not
self-gratification. This is not about some people being special. “The main point of
some people having special roles is so that every single Christian, and the church as
a whole, may be equipped for their work of service.”4
• In chapter 2:19-22 the church is pictured as a building, a new temple for God to live
in and in which every believer has a specific place. We are the “living stones”
spoken of in 1Pet 2:4-8, and Christ is the “Living Stone”, rejected by the builders but
becoming the chief cornerstone. The imagery of the body of Christ being “built up”
through the means of these functions ties in with the idea of us as God’s building.

:13
• This verse sets out the very high degree of unity that God calls the church to. Unity
is not about agreeing to disagree and then leaving each other alone. The implications
of this verse – which is rather intimidating – is that true unity necessarily must
include doctrinal content. We need to be unified not only in our faith (our belief in
God and his revelation of Himself and reality), but also in our knowledge (what it is
that we believe about Him and reality). This is a tall order, and how that will ever
happen this side of the Second Coming I cannot see. However, we read in verse 3
that the unity of the body is the Holy Spirit’s business. We are simply to co-operate
with him in it with great intent.
3
Ibid, p44
4
Ibid, p48
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• This verse also seems to indicate that this level of unity is a necessary condition for
maturity in the body of Christ.

:14
• The gospel message, though deep is very simple and accessible. The central stream
of Christian teaching is clear and the demand it makes upon lives not hidden and
mysterious. This is the stuff that brings people to Christ and causes them to grow, to
become mature and to find and be faithful in the place Christ proportioned for them.
Our immaturity however makes us vulnerable to certain forces coming against us
continuing on this simple path. Two such forces are listed here:

i. Winds of teaching. These can come from people with honest intensions but
who, for some reason, are honestly wrong. The fact that they mean well does
not make their message or its consequences less destructive. Sometimes this
wind of teaching can develop into a full-flung heresy like with the Jehovah
Witnesses. It can however be much more subtle. The teaching is not
necessarily wrong; it is just off-centre. It is truth given an inappropriate place.
It diverts one’s focus from the Lord and his purposes onto some pet-doctrine.

The people most vulnerable to these winds of teaching are those who have been
hurt in the church or under authority and they will consistently find reasons not
to fit in with the God’s general directives (his “administration” spoken of in
chapter 3) and particular processes (as played out in specific communities and
local churches).

ii. The cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. These are the
“savage wolves” Paul speaks about in Acts 20:28-30. They attract followers
with selfish intent and people follow them to their own detriment.

:15
• From this verse we can glean some important truths. Firstly, as Christians we
believe that what we believe is true to what is there. Necessarily it then follows that
other worldviews are untrue – it does not accurately describe what we encounter in
the universe. It is very important for us to take note of the subtlety found in this
verse. Truth is not enough. Truth on its own can cause terrible destruction. The
Bible teaches that Christ came “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14, 17), and we should
speak and minister the truth in love. William Blake wrote that

A truth that’s said with bad intent

Beats all the lies you can invent.5

• Secondly, truth spoken in love is placed here as a counter to the schemes and wrong
teachings of the previous verse. We are to confront each other with truth when
wrongful spiritual influences gain sway in our lives, but the truth need to come in the
attitude of verse 2; humble and gentle, patient and loving. Being able to receive such
correction from each other is also a necessary condition to maturity to develop.
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From Auguries of Innocence
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:16
• The centrality of Christ is again emphasised. Every aspect of his body grows from
himself. Each person joined in should be directly connected to Christ. We can
however not be joined to him without being joined to each other. These functions
that are handled in this passage works just like ligaments in a body, supporting and
holding together all the different parts in a way that makes life and decisive
movement possible. That is why unity among us is so critically important.
• Note also the use of the word “itself”. We as the church, and a local church, also
play a role in our own personal and corporate growth and maturity.