The Worthy Walk, and the Oneness That Holds It

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (Ephesians 4:1). Hear that word therefore. For three chapters I have shown you what you were — dead in trespasses, without hope, far off — and what God has made you in Christ: alive, seated with him, brought near, one household, the very dwelling place of God by the Spirit. I asked nothing of you in all that. It was grace, from first to last. Only now, standing on that finished ground, do I turn and beg you to walk. Not to earn the calling — to match it. Let your life answer to what mercy has already made you.

And notice how I begin. Not "the apostle," not "the free man" — "the prisoner of the Lord." I write this in chains, and I tell you the worthy walk looks like lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love (Ephesians 4:2). There is the shape of it. Not grand deeds, but a low heart. Patience with people who try you. Bearing with one another — for the church is full of people who need bearing, and so are you. This is not weakness; it is the strength it takes to hold your peace when your pride is stung. It is the very meekness of Christ, who had every right and laid it down.

Why such patience? Because there is something worth guarding: "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). Mark that you do not make this unity — the Spirit already made it. You keep it. It is handed to you whole, and it is broken by small, ordinary sins: the sharp word, the grudge nursed, the brother written off. So peace is the cord that holds it, and patience the daily labor of not cutting that cord.

Then I lay the foundation bare, and count it out so you cannot miss it: "one body, and one Spirit... one hope... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Ephesians 4:4-6). Seven times one. Your unity is not an achievement to be voted on; it is a fact to be lived up to. You share one Lord — Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. One faith in him. One baptism into him. One Father over you and in you all. How then can you despise a brother God has claimed, or hold apart from one the Spirit has joined to you?

So today, walk worthy. Not by straining after some great thing, but by the humble, unglamorous work of bearing with the person nearest you for the love of Christ. You are one. Live like it.

Grace and peace be with you.