Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. One who is at peace inside will promote peace outside. Brought into right relationship with God through His Son Jesus, we are able to love and invest in others, walking with them in a Godward direction.
Let's listen in to Rich's study on Ephesians 4, 1-6. This is the third and final part of a message titled Walk in Unity, preached on September 17, 2017. Patience is a very, very important virtue. We need this patience with each other. We'll talk about that here in a minute.
Why? And then lastly, it says in verse 2, bearing with one another in love. Bearing with one another in love. Now that is a pretty full phrase, bearing with one another in love. This is the idea, this is the virtue of forbearance. What is it that we need to forbear?
We need to forbear the mistakes and the injurious deeds of others. And it says, bearing with one another in love. All of that goes together. You see, love is the crown and sum of all virtues. God is love. We therefore ought to be loving in the outflow of God's love for us. We are to be loving.
Bearing with one another in love looks like this. Two statements now, okay? Two statements because this is a very full statement. I'll give you space to make mistakes. I'll give you space to make mistakes.
That's bearing with one another. In love, says, and invest in you for your Godward movement. I'll give you space to make mistakes and invest in you for your Godward movement. I've seen it before where a young Christian does something foolish and one who is ostensibly more mature than labels and disdains that young Christian and pulls himself and his family away from them and ultimately leave the church because I don't want to be associated with that. I don't want that person influencing my children. Folks, that's not unity. That's not at all how the body of Christ, the family of Christ operates. Bearing with one another in love says, I'll give you space to make mistakes and invest in you for your Godward movement.
Instead of standing back and saying, look what that person did. That's awful. I'm going to stay away from them. I'm going to keep my kids away from them. You're going to approach that person and say, let me walk with you in a Godward direction. That's what a community of grace does. That's what causes us to continue the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The flesh tells us to remove ourselves. That's easier to do, by the way, to just stay away from somebody you don't like or somebody who did something stupid.
Just stay away from them, right? The flesh tells us to label and disdain others. The spirit does not do that. So if you sense that in your heart and mind to label somebody and stay away from them, it's not the spirit of God leading you to do that.
It's the flesh. Why is it that these need to be given? We are Christians. We are in Christ.
We are living in the outflow. Why is it that we need patience and humility and gentleness and bearing with one another in love? Why do these commands need to be given? Two reasons. Number one, we are different. We are different.
Now think about it. It's so important to recognize and acknowledge the diversity that does and ought to exist in the body of Christ. We are different. We have different strengths and abilities.
Therefore, what you might be strong at is something I might be weak at or what I might be strong at is something you might be weak at. And it's wrong for me to expect you to be as strong as I am in a particular area. We have differences. We have different strengths and abilities. We also have different backgrounds and perspectives. We don't all come from exactly the same background. We come from various upbringings. I grew up south of the border. I am a citizen.
I want you to know that, okay. I grew up as a minority. That's how I grew up and I received the abuses that sometimes minorities receive. We all come from different backgrounds and perspectives. Some of us are different. Some of us grew up in church. Others of us did not grow up in church. And because of that, we have different perspectives on what church ought to be.
Be careful with that. We also have not only different strengths and abilities, backgrounds and perspectives, but we also have different personalities and preferences. Aren't you glad we have different personalities? I mean, we're just like me. We would be one boring place, wouldn't we?
Right? We all have different personalities and preferences. And yet, in Christ, those can be brought together in a complementary fashion instead of being competitive.
Complimentary instead of competitive. And that's what the Spirit of God does in maintaining that unity. So we need to learn to be humble and gentle and patient and bearing with one another in love because we are different. But not only are we different, here is another equally important truth. Every one of us is imperfect. Every one of us makes mistakes.
Every one of us gets distracted from time to time. Every one of us still battles the flesh. And sometimes we're listening to the flesh more than we are listening to the Spirit. That's where we need to come alongside each other and walk in a God-ward direction instead of dividing from each other. Each of us is still being made like Christ, and the flesh is inherently divisive. And so is Phariseeism.
And for those of us who have grown up in the church all of our lives, Phariseeism can be a real threat. 50 plus years of church experience for me. Now, I wasn't born in church. You understand that?
Okay. But I've been in church a long time. I've been in a lot of churches. I've been around a lot of Christians. Among the most divisive people, in my experience, among the most divisive people have those been in church the longest. It's kind of a sad commentary, isn't it? There's two reasons why.
Two reasons why. Because they're used to doing something a certain way for so long that that to them has become what Christianity is, or what the walk of faith is, or what church is. Because they're used to doing something the same way for so long that if something different comes along, well, that can't be right. That can't be church. That can't be faith. But you see, what that's doing is that is confusing the traditions of men with the commandments of God. Be very, very careful in those arenas, folks.
Be very careful in that. And the secondly, and I asked another church leader just this last week, why is it that those who've been in the church for so long can be among the most divisive? He says because they've been so busy doing things, doing church things, that they never have really developed their knowledge of and their walk with God.
Isn't that sad? You can be busy doing all the right things and not walking with God. And if that is the case, you will not be one who is promoting peace.
We are all imperfect and we need to recognize that. So the basis, the basis for this unity that we have in Christ is very clear that he has, beginning at verse four, there is one body, one spirit, just as you are called to one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The basis of our unity is the divinely disclosed truth.
That's the indicative of chapters one to three. Unity in the truth. Listen to me, please. We are not called to unity at all costs. If we catapult truth to maintain unity, we are not walking worthy of the calling. We can't go there, but we need to be maintaining unity in the truth. And this next, these next few verses use the word one seven times. So unity is about oneness.
Why? Because the basis of our unity is the unity of the church and the oneness of God. There is one body, many diverse parts, one body all over the world.
I've traveled, I've seen it. There is an inherent unity in the body of Christ. There is one faith. That means there is one means to salvation for all people of all time. Salvation by grace through faith, one faith. There is one baptism. And that baptism comes from, it's 1 Corinthians 12, 13.
To be baptized means to be placed into. There is one placing into, for in one spirit we were all baptized, placed into one body. Jews, Greeks, slave free, we were all made to drink of one spirit. So there's one identity.
There is one hope and calling. We all have the same hope and the same calling to a radical new community of one new people to the glory of God. So the basis of our unity is not only the unity of the church, but secondly, the oneness of God. One Lord, one spirit, one God and Father of us all. One Lord means we're following the same person. We are all followers of Jesus Christ, headed in the same direction with the same resources in Christ. We're marching to the same drum beat. There's one spirit, the same spirit indwelling each one of us with his presence and his power.
We all have the same guarantee. He is the spirit of Christ. Every one of us has that same spirit and one God and Father of us all. We're all a part of the same family, one sovereign source over all, through all and in all, he says.
Romans 11 36, Paul says something very similar. For of him, through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. He is the point.
He is the point. That is the basis of our unity, the unity of the church, the oneness of God. To pursue this is to promote the unity of the church. So let's be about that.
So let me challenge you this morning, just before we sing our closing song, just one verse, just one verse of a song is what we're going to sing. One who is at peace inside will promote peace outside. Are you at peace inside? Do you know the peace of God? Or are you ignorant of the truths of God? Or is there cognitive dissonance within your soul because the way you're behaving is contrasting what you say you believe?
What do you need to work on there? Or how about the four virtues of humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another in love? Where does God need to work in you? And he's not saying go out and try harder to be better at this. That's not what he's saying. Do you hear me, folks?
That's not what he's saying. He's saying come to me, know me, walk with me, let my truth transform your heart and mind and let me do this through you. That's what God is saying.
Do you need to work on that this morning? Let God work. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-01-06 19:51:42 / 2023-01-06 19:56:36 / 5