A Worthy Walk, Part 1

It's one thing to memorize historical data in the Bible as you study the moral lessons in its stories, but it's quite another to internalize the whole of Scripture. At Insight for Living, we're committed to both, that is, understanding God's Word and living it out, too. And if you've been following along with us, you know that Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Ephesians. It's called, Becoming a People of Grace. Today, we've come to Ephesians chapter 4, where we discover Paul pivoting from teaching theological principles to commanding personal response. Chuck titled today's message, A Worthy Walk. We have a love affair going with this letter to the Ephesians, and all of us are enjoying the journey together.

I, perhaps more than any of you, how I need this. I sometimes have people ask me if I've been reading their journal, or if I talked to their wife before I preached a sermon. I said, no, I just preach on what I need to hear, and I let you listen in.

That's how I feel about these things. In your worship folder, you'll find an outline of the letter to the Ephesians. There really is a chart that you may want to place here following our reading of Ephesians 4, verses 1 to 6, and just mark this spot. We'll be back here shortly. Ephesians 4, 1, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Not too hard to figure out. That's about unity, isn't it? And we'll be dealing with that in a few moments. Please join me in prayer. Let's just have a few moments of silence here.

You bring your need to the Father who cares about it more than you do. How good and how rare are moments of quietness and yet how necessary, Lord? Everything seems to be full of noise and music we didn't turn on and sounds we didn't prefer.

It's just everywhere. And to find a place of real solitude is hard to do. Teach us afresh and anew as we meet together to value times like that, times when we can really be lost in wonder and love and praise. Remind us to sing to you when alone with you as we give you our praise, for you are our righteousness.

We worship you, O holy God. Now there are a thousand distractions and each one of us has his or her own list of concerns that could preoccupy us during this vital time of continuing worship. When we hear someone sing and when we give our offerings and when we listen to the teaching of the scriptures, our minds can wander. Seize our thoughts, Lord, and capture our hearts. Bring every thought into captivity for the glory of Christ. Be honored in the reasons behind our giving today. Encourage those who can't or aren't able to give and refresh and inspire those who are able to give abundantly. And remove from our minds the distractions so that we can really focus our thoughts on something as valuable as our walk in unity together. May we be freed from defensiveness and anger and the things that resist truth so that the seed of the word can lodge on soft, fertile soil and grow change in us. For these quiet moments now as we give and as we continue our worship, we thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen. All of us who love to read have our favorite authors, don't we? In fact, if you really like an author, chances are good that you have collected that author's books over the years.

Authors love collectors. And you know, when you really love an author, you learn his style. And you find that you don't really look for a title or a particular subject that she or he may have written on, but you look for the name. And you often go into the bookstore and you say, has so-and-so written a new book lately?

And they'll say, yes, we have this one. And you, almost without looking into it, have learned to trust that writer, that author to communicate in a way that you find entertaining or inspiring or understanding. Every writer has a style.

And as you study the style of the writer, you find yourself connecting with a sense of comfort and encouragement and understanding. The Bible is a collection of, would you believe, about 40 writers. We can't call them authors, because the Holy Spirit is the author of the scriptures.

But these 40 writers, under the inspiration of the Spirit, chosen by God, have put together those truths that make up the 66 books of the Bible. Now when you talk to people who have studied the Bible, you find out that they have their favorite writers. I have a good friend who says, my favorite all-time writer in the scripture is Jeremiah. And he said, when I hear something from Jeremiah, my life just sort of lights up and I look up and I smile because I have this sense of kinship with Jeremiah. I have another friend who says it about Moses. He says, to me there's no writing better than the first five books of the Bible, and the way Moses puts his thoughts together sort of cements it in my mind. One of my Greek profs used to say it was Luke. He chose Luke. He said the intellectual stimulation of a vocabulary and the syntax of a physician like Luke is like no other writing in all the New Testament.

That was his preference. But I have the feeling if you ask the general Christian crowd, a number of Christian people, if they have a favorite author, most would say Paul. Paul is my favorite, many would say. And like all the other writers, Paul has a style. I find Paul's style fascinating, not only because it is so consistent, but because at times the very same words are used from letter to letter. I also notice that in Paul's style, he usually lays a solid doctrinal groundwork, and that takes up the better part of the letter, certainly half of it, often more.

And then there's a turning point, which I call the hinge, like a door has a hinge. The hinge in Paul's letter then introduces the practical side. So we have orthodoxy, and if you will, orthopraxy. We have doctrine, and we have duty. We have the theoretical, and then we have the reality. And it all hangs on the hinge, and when you study Paul, you find the hinge, you know you're moving from the vertical emphasis to the horizontal emphasis.

From our relationship to God and understanding Him better to a relationship with other people and relating to them better. Let me show you this. Turn to Romans chapter 12, and I will introduce you to one of the hinges. These hinges never squeak, by the way. They're well oiled, and they often are our favorite verse of a particular letter. Romans 12, 1 is the hinge.

The first 11 chapters have been full of great doctrine. Depravity, salvation, the work of Christ, the cross, sanctification, and then you move into the whole study of the Jew and the Gentile, and God's sovereign work in calling and electing. Then you get to the hinge, Paul writes in verse 1, Therefore, that's the word, therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies, see the practicality in it? To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And if that isn't enough, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.

Do you feel the long index finger punching you in the sternum? Do you feel Paul now suddenly saying, stop thinking theoretically and start realizing this is designed to change your life. The secret is the word, therefore. One of my Bible teachers used to say you need to always figure out what the therefore is there for. And in this case, it's to change the emphasis from the vertical, focusing on God, to the horizontal, focusing on your relationship to the Lord and to others.

I'll show you another one. Look at Galatians. Skip the Corinthian letters, turn to Galatians, which is Paul's magnum opus on liberty. It is really the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. And for four chapters, look at Galatians 5, for four chapters he makes it so clear that we are no longer shackled by the constraints of Judaism or the demands of legalism. We have been freed.

It is the letter of freedom. If you struggle with legalism, you need to become a student of Galatians. It will set you free. Now look at verse 1 of chapter 5.

You will hear the hinge. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. And he goes right on describing how you can live out the freedom that Christ has made available to you. Each time I meet up with a legalist, and that's not that seldom, I remind them that the book of Galatians is still in the Bible. That there is a freedom that is there that they have never really understood and are afraid of.

But as long as you have this kind of practical direction, you won't be afraid of it. Because Paul now rounds the corners on living a life of freedom and teaches us to do it with maturity and discernment and wisdom. Skip Ephesians. We're going to be there in a moment.

Look at Colossians. One more if I may. Chapter 3. Again, this is so Pauline.

He does this again and again. He's talked for two chapters about the great doctrines of Christ. Because in writing to the Colossians, he's dealing with the heresy of the day. Gnosticism. An intellectual religion that kept people from Christ rather than drew them to him. And he's established a very firm Christology for two chapters. He gets to chapter 3 and there it is again, the hinge. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Look at the practicality. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth.

Isn't that masterful? He's established that Christ is the preeminent one above all of the affairs of this life, knowing that there's everything in life to drag us down. He says in chapter 3, now focus on Christ.

Seek the things that please him, that honor him, and you'll be able to handle whatever life throws at you. Ephesians is really the classic example of that and when we get to chapter 4, once again, we come to another hinge. And as a matter of fact, if you could read it just as Paul wrote it, you would see that 4-1 of Ephesians has the very same opening three terms in the Greek text as Romans chapter 12 verse 1. Why it's rendered implore in verse 1 of chapter 4 of Ephesians and beseech in Romans 12-1, you've got to ask the translators, because it's the very same word. I beseech you, therefore, is the way Romans 12-1 begins, Ephesians begins the same way.

Though it reads differently because the eye is emphatic in the original and so the writers, or I should say the translators in hopes of capturing that, put the eye above the imploring. So he says, therefore, I go. I, Paul the prisoner. Remember, I'm on your side.

Remember, I'm the one who has stood in defense of the Gentiles. I, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you. And suddenly he moves into another series of practical directives. Some of them are commands, some of them are pleadings.

Here's a pleading. I implore you to do what? To walk. Isn't that a relief? Isn't it great, it doesn't say, to make a mad dash or to climb the highest mountain or to move into the marathon of misery through the rest of your life as you live for God.

No, he doesn't say that. I implore you to walk. To walk. To take one step at a time, putting one foot ahead of the other. To walk.

To walk how? To walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. For three chapters he has been emphasizing the calling. The calling. We have been called by God who initiated the plan of salvation. We have been called by Christ who implemented the plan.

We have been called and sealed by the Holy Spirit who has inspired and enabled the plan. And now he says, let it make a difference in your walk. Walk worthy. That's a great word. I love words. I had a friend say the other day, you are a word vulture. I took that as a compliment.

I do. I get on words like a buzzard gets on roadkill. I'm telling you, I will pick. I will pick at a word. I will dig away at it. I will check out the etymology. I will find what the background of it is. And I just find it fascinating. Worthy sounds like something you do in front of a king or you sing in front of the Lord himself.

But this is about us. This is axion, A-X-I-O-N. We got our word axiom from it and the root word is to weigh something. In fact, really, when you check it out, it means to be of equal weight. It's a mathematical term, isn't it? You who love math.

There's an equation and axioms, axioms indicate that the equation is true because what is true on one side is of equal truth on the other and it becomes axiomatic. Here it's not about math. It's about life. I implore you to walk in a way that balances out your calling. Your calling is great and pure and holy. Your walk is to be pure and great and holy. When I had the privilege of playing a very small part in the memorial service for the late, great coach Tom Landry, behind the scenes, before we were ever in front of the public, I had a chance to listen to one ball player after another who played on Coach Landry's team.

I want to tell you it was a pleasure to hear what they had to say. The most common remark was the one Randy White made before the public a little later. He walked the walk. He walked the walk. He didn't corner us and embarrass us. He didn't drive his faith down our throat.

He didn't preach and use his coaching position in an unfair way to take advantage of us or to exploit us as a team. He walked the walk and we couldn't deny that it was a true walk. He walked worthy of the calling. That's what he has in mind here.

He walked worthy of the calling. You have a chart that we gave you several weeks ago and stuck it back in the worship folder today. Just look at it here for a moment. It's a horizontal chart that takes you from Ephesians 1, 1 all the way through to 6, 24, the whole letter. In my chart, I've shown you the hinge. Notice it? Right in the center of the letter at the end of chapter 3 before chapter 4 gets very far underway.

I didn't write it there, but there's a therefor across the hinge. We looked at what God has done for us in Christ in chapter 1. We saw what Christ has done for us in chapter 2, and we saw what the mystery means to us in chapter 3.

All of that is so great and all of it is so important. It was like laying the foundation for everything that he now wants to say regarding the living of the life. When we get to chapter 4, immediately we move into the walk of the believer, followed by the life of the imitator. Interesting, maybe you didn't know it, but we are told to imitate God in chapter 5 of Ephesians. If you think walking the walk is tough, think about imitating God. You can't do it without the power of the Spirit. That's why chapter 5 is full of truth regarding the Holy Spirit and the living out of the fruit of the Spirit through the power of the Spirit. The last section is the strategy of the warrior as we deal with the spiritual battles that are upon us. Back to this early part of chapter 4 as we learn to walk in a balanced way. Remember the old chorus some of you will remember, after all he's done for me, after all he's done for me, how can I do less than give him my best after all he's done for me?

That's an axiom, that's an axiom chorus, if you will. All he's done for me, how can I do less than balance it out with a life of obedience that follows? So beginning in chapter 4, he implores us to take the truth we've learned about God and Christ and the Spirit and to carry it out in our daily walk. This is Insight for Living, and we've come to the hinge in Paul's letter to the Ephesians where the door of theological teaching transitions to provoking a personal response. Chuck Swindoll titled today's message A Worthy Walk, and there's much more to learn from this passage. To discover more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. The pattern Paul used in his letter is consistent with our mission here at Insight for Living. Teaching theology is foundational, and it's essential that knowledge is the fuel for life change.

In that regard, we count it a privilege to continue the process started by Paul that continues to this day. In fact, it's our mission to go and make disciples, just as Jesus commanded. Well, to that end, we're calling on friends like you to join us in the all-out effort to bring God's message of grace to all 195 countries of the world. We're calling this mission Vision 195. Together, we can implement the great commission of Jesus by making disciples through radio, our website, the mobile app, CDs, books, DVDs, the podcast, our live stream feed, and more. Whatever amount He prompts you to invest in Vision 195 will truly make a difference. To give a contribution today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888, or give through our mobile app or directly online at insight.org slash donate. Thanks so much for your generous support of this nonprofit ministry.

Now Chuck has come across a book he's highly recommending to you. In a day when it's easy to feel fearful and overwhelmed, Take Cover offers a clear path to finding peace in God's protection. It's written by fellow pastor and radio Bible teacher Philip de Courcy, who's heard on the daily program called Know the Truth. You can purchase a copy of Take Cover, Finding Peace in God's Protection by going to insight.org slash store or by calling us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Most of us have been heartbroken to witness civil unrest in the public square, eclipsing the urgent medical needs imposed by the global pandemic. At Insight for Living Ministries, we believe there's never been a better time to extend God's grace to those in need.

In this emotionally charged era where shouting matches are commonplace, where people feel voiceless and overlooked and even condemned, would you be among those who give generously so that we can spread the fragrance of God's grace to those disparate for a second chance? We're looking to add more monthly companions to the team. Become a monthly companion today by calling us. If you're listening in the United States, call 1-800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash monthly companion. My friend, more than ever, Insight for Living Ministries is determined to serve as a lavish garden for people all around the world who long to smell the aroma of God's matchless grace, a safe place where imperfect, sinful people are forgiven, taught the truth and redeemed. To become a monthly companion, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 1-800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash monthly companion. Be listening Friday when Chuck Swindoll continues his study in Ephesians called Becoming a People of Grace, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, A Worthy Walk, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001 and 2009, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.