Father, it is within the family. complete joy and gladness. that we celebrate The cherished and treasured, and we savor. The uh sacrifice of your son. And Lord.
Out of that heart We long to honor you. And out of that heart, we long to please you. And out of what you have done in our lives, Lord, we are, in that way, absolutely thrilled. to be called your children. And so we ask this morning.
that you would bless us. Guide us and direct us as we move forward. Heal our bodies. Strengthen our minds. Give us a focus upon you.
Bless our relationships. go before us in our jobs. Go before us with our families. Go before us, Lord, as we long to serve and honor you in every way in the life of your body and in the world. Bless us, Lord, this morning, even now.
As we get to open your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. We're a little thinner crowd this morning.
We have about 75 or 80 of our ladies that are up at our women's retreat. Up in Bear Lake. And all children are going to be glad that their mothers are coming home this afternoon. It's always fun to see how kids show up on a women's retreat weekend. And they look pretty good.
Well that's pretty good.
Well done, dads. Um Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to Ephesians. Ephesians. If you are our guest, I'm Brian. I'm the lead pastor here, and we've been studying Ephesians.
We're going to continue in that. This morning. I hate doing yard work. I know some guys are like, yeah, it's good. I like to putter around.
It relaxes me. Enjoy it. I don't know. I don't understand you. I don't get you.
But, you know, I wish you'd come by and relax around my house sometime. But it genuinely is. This kind of thing is like therapy for guys. They kind of like it.
Now, I've observed there are two kinds of guys that work in their yard. All right? I don't know what kind you are. I know what kind I am. There's the guy Who just wants to get it done?
There's a guy that goes out by the force of his will. He's just going to do whatever it is. He doesn't worry about equipment, really. He doesn't really think that much about that. He just is going to go out.
If there's weeds to pull, he's just, he has no strategy with the weeds. He just sees them and is at random, goes after them. He sometimes wears gloves, sometimes he doesn't. He just he kind of when he needs something he's got he's got some things in the garage so when he needs them he goes and gets it and he comes out and he you know but he only gets it if the the the raw materials of his body are not working like he would like them to work and then he has to condescend to use a tool in some way right because he's a caveman So that's me. And then there are these guys that I watch.
And I admire them. I wish I was like them in this way. But they take like. They take like 20, 30 minutes just to prepare to do yard work. They're not even doing it yet.
They're like they get the right hat on Like they like lay out everything they need. They think through what they're gonna need ahead of actually needing it. Imagine that. They like lay it all out, they get the tools all out, they've got them. They start things the right way, they approach the weeds with an actual plan of what they're going to do and how they're going to do it.
They're strategic, it's all laid out.
Now, I watch them, and at first, when I was younger, I'd see those guys and I'd be like, Can you believe this guy? I mean, come on, man, get over yourself, it's yard work. Like you don't need to do all that stuff. You're not going on vacation. You're not packing a bag here.
You're walking out in your yard. And now I look and I go, I wish I could be like you. Because I see the fruitfulness. Of the guy who thinks through all of it and maps it all out beforehand before he gets out there.
Okay. In our text, the next couple of weeks, we're going to be in Ephesians 4. Especially the first part here. We're gonna look at verses one through six. This morning we're gonna look just at one through three.
This morning. So one through six though, I haven't even gotten going yet.
So one through one through six is kind of not a unit separate at all, it's just building on thought. But oftentimes, Unit C is very much the focus, is really a focus of all a chapter, at least the first half of chapter four, pretty much. But one through six sometimes treated as a unit. But we have to kind of divide it into two parts. And the second part of it is actually the foundational part for the first part.
So the second part in my illustration is the preparation to do it all right. To lay it all out and map it all out so that you can do unity right. The first part. is actually what goes into the doing. of unity.
The second part is what God has provided for us. The first part. is what we're called to do. with what God has provided for us.
So God's laid out all the tools. God's mapped out the plan. God's given all the resources. We'll see that in verses 4 through 6. But verses 1 through 3 is the.
What do we have to do? What's the formula? For um u unity. And when I say unity in verse 1 through 3, I mean a little bit distinct from what I mean in 4 through 6. And here's the distinction.
When you think of unity, you can think of something that God has afforded that just. Unity. In other words, there's a principled unity. in the church. We came down.
You celebrated the Eucharist, the giving of thanks, communion, whatever you want to call it, the Lord's Supper, and you celebrated it.
Now you did that in concert. With a bunch of other people in here who are all collectively saying, this. Symbolizes the hinge or the heart of our spiritual lives. This is the ground of the gospel. And in principle, that acts.
As something that is unifying to all of us, we have a doctrinal statement. That doctrinal statement, if you're going to be a partner with Lifeline, which is basically a doctrinal statement that just articulates, for the most part, the essentials of the faith. You would give your yes to that in partnership. And in giving your yes, you're saying yes to a principled. Unity.
But now you leave and you walk back from here or you sign a doctrinal statement or you make a particular kind of confession of faith, but then you are upset and angry and frustrated and dislocated. from people in your life and people even in this body. What's happening is you have this principled unity that you started with, but you're struggling to have practical unity. You're struggling to actually walk. Out.
You're on the same ship because you are placed on the same ship. There's intentionality in being placed on the same ship. There's missional intentions, there's communal intentions, but you're struggling. with what it actually means for you as you go Walking about the ship, and for how you'll relate to each other to practically. live in unity.
Practically live in unity.
So, when Jesus said that it was by your love for one another that the world would know that you're my disciples, and when he prayed in his high priestly prayer in John 17 that they might be one even as we are one, he was focusing on practical unity there. He affords everything that we need for principled unity. He's given us all the resources to be one in Christ. The issue is whether or not we are going to have the tools. Or rather, the manner in which we will apply the tools that have been provided for us to be able to execute upon the unity that He has afforded us.
Now, in doing that, what happens is to the world, we say yes to the gospel. That's what happens. It's why there's a disconnect when we say in communion I mentioned both those pieces, the vertical and the horizontal, because when we say yes to this, but we say no to a kind of unity in our marriages, we say no to a kind of unity in our families, we say no to a kind of unity in our church, we say no to a unity with fellow believers, we're sending mixed messages to the world, and we're saying that the gospel is the kind of thing that only gets around certain portions of the world. Of us, selected portions of us, and we curate the gospel that way like a menu. And Paul is trying to go against that.
So let me look at the text with you. And let's just read through. We're going to read all the way through verse 6, actually, if we can. And then we're just going to focus our time on verses 1 through 3. I, therefore, a prisoner, For the Lord, Ephesians 4:1, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which.
You have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is So, this is what is. We saw what ought to be in what I just read. This is what is.
There is one body and one spirit, just as you are called to the one hope that belongs to your call: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all is over all. and through all and in all. We'll get to that in a different week. For now. I want us to focus on verse 1.
And what we're actually going to do is look at 1 and the tail end of 3, because the first part sort of has us focus there on the duty that we have for unity. And then we're going to have to look at the textured disposition that's in verse 2 and the very beginning of verse 3. But as you think about the duty of unity, just look at verse 1. I therefore... A prisoner for the Lord, Paul says, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called.
I'm going to put up here three different concepts. The first two coming from verse one and the final one coming from the end of verse three. The first thing we have to note is Paul states. And reiterates for us this condition that he has as a prisoner for the Lord.
Now he says, I therefore, this is a very important part of Ephesians as we've been studying the letter because We have built, he has given us and established a set of doctrines, the establishment of what you have received in Christ, the salvation that is yours in him alone, and all that that has meant, right? All the spiritual blessings of chapter one, his prayer in chapter one, that is basically a prayer springing from the gospel that he's afforded, then the explaining or explication of the gospel in chapter two, verses one through ten, and then its corporate effects in 11 through 22. And we saw chapter 3, and we saw, we looked at his prayer, right? And the mystery of the gospel he comes to preach, and then his prayer for the church. In light of this doctrine, that's what this word therefore.
Stands as like a little hinge on the door. The therefore is not looking back to one specific piece. Of chapter one through three, it's looking back at all of it. And it's saying, in light of everything that I have said up to this point about the salvation that you've received and its implications for your life.
Now, therefore, and he switches over. Deers.
Now he switches and we're going to look at this word walk in a moment, we'll get there. But before he does it, he switches and he re-identifies himself. But when he does that, he does it in terms of a double entendre. For him to say, I'm a prisoner of the Lord means two things for Paul. First, he's a prisoner of the Lord in the sense that.
The reason he's physically in prison writing from Rome sometime between AD 60 and AD 62 to the Ephesians, also to the Colossians, the reason why he's there is because he was faithfully following the Lord.
So he's there because of.
So in that sense, he's a prisoner of the Lord in the sense that he's a prisoner because of Jesus. But he's also a prisoner in another way. He's using it also metaphorically to say that he is a prisoner in the sense that he is held captive in his life. to Christ. It's not merely that he is living out the physical consequent of what it means to be a Jesus follower, but rather that he is held captive.
It reminds me of a verse of Scripture in Romans chapter 6, verse 20, 22 through 22. which reads, For when you were slaves of sin, You were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you're now ashamed? For the end of those things is death, but now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. As he's about to exhort them what it means to actually walk out their salvation, what it means to be someone who follows Christ from the reception of the gospel forward and who knows how to rehearse that, he identifies a basic orientation, a condition, and that is that you have to see yourself.
Over against the world and over against sin, over against the flesh, over against the devil. You have to see yourself as one who is held captive to Jesus. In that way, you are a prisoner. for him. of him.
And so that orientation is where you start.
So in that verse, he says, are therefore a prisoner for the Lord? And then he says, urge you. The word is like to parakaleo. It can mean, it's where you get the word for the Holy Spirit called the comforter, to the one who comes alongside, right? It literally means in Greek to call alongside of.
But to call alongside of can mean different things. I can come alongside you and I could put my arm around you and encourage you. That's one way I could do that.
So sometimes the word's translated like comfort or encourage. But I also can say, get going! Cray alive. Snap to it. Like a coach.
I used to coach basketball. I loved getting in her grill. Yeah. When you get going like that, that kind of coach, that's an exhortation. That's a you ought to do this.
It can also mean that. That's what it's used as here. When he uses it here, he's not using it in comfort, he's using it in exhortation. This is what you need to do. He says, I urge you.
And here's the statement about our conduct. To walk, which is a metaphor that he uses throughout the second half of Ephesians, used throughout the New Testament. But boy, second half of Ephesians, it's used. As a statement, metaphorically, to live. Used eight times in Ephesians, always metaphorically, not literally, metaphorically as a way of speaking about living.
living, right? Like Johnny Cash, I walk the line. I walked along. I'm going to live on the edge here. Live for this.
is the idea. Urge you to walk. How how? in a manner worthy The word for worthy means... of uh Literally, in its most literal sense in Greek, it came from the idea of scales where you'd have a beam, and it meant the beam was brought.
to equilibrium. The beam was brought up on the other side. Think of a teeter-totter where you have people of equal weight. When you were little and your older sibling would pin you at the top, you might be, let me know.
Okay. Somebody of equal weight you can have fun on the theater totter with. You could even balance sometimes with them right on it if you were careful enough, right? That's the idea. To live.
comparable to the calling that you've been called with.
So let your eyes go back to Ephesians 1 verse 18. Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, he's already said this to them, that you may know what is the hope to which he has. See it? The hope to which he has called you. He's called you.
So then in verse 1, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called is a collective way of saying to live your life. Equal to What you have received.
Now Greatest war movie of all time. I asked around the office, and I went into Aaron's office because he thinks he knows all about movies and brags about all the time.
So I went to Aaron's office, and Stephen was there, and I said, Greatest war movie of all time.
Now, interestingly, we all concurred on our perspective of what is the greatest war movie of all time, right? Saving Private Ryan. If you think it's something else, then you're just wrong and probably sinful. But it really is an unbelievable movie if you've ever seen it, right?
Now, there's this. Kind of final scene as the movie ends that is just if you watch it I watched it the other day I've seen the movie a bunch You know tons of times I watched this one scene on YouTube and I'm like at a coffee shop and I'm like Trying not to choke up at the coffee shop while I'm watching this. This is a little YouTube clip. Like, what's wrong with me? But it's this scene.
Matt Damon, he does it to me every time. There's this scene in the movie where Captain John Miller, who has led the guys to go get Private Ryan, whose siblings have been lost in World War II, so that he can be the only surviving son of his. Of his mother, and they go behind enemy lines in Europe to get him, bring him back. And finally, as they're just about to be waylaid and destroyed, planes come in, bomb the enemy, they're saved, they're spared. But Captain Miller is shot and he's dying.
You can't script it any better. Steven Spielberg, he's there on the bridge, he's leaned up against the wall. Nobody looks dead but alive, as good as Tom Hanks, and he's there staring. like this and He pulls Private Ryan, who he and six other men have sacrificed, a couple of them died, sacrificing their life to give him a future. He pulls him close.
And if you've seen the movie, you know what he says. He goes, No. Earn this. Earn this. And you just go.
Now What does he mean earn this? He's given him the gift. He has given him The rest of his life. And then Matt Damon stands back like this, and he's choking up and struggling, and then it fades to him at old. And he's at the cemetery in Normandy.
And he's standing in front of the guy's cross. Right? As an old man now, modern times. And he's talking with his family and his wife about like, tell me I'm a good man. Tell me I did my life right, right?
that he earned it. He's given a gift. This is what Paul's saying. You've been given a gift in the gospel. He's given a gift in the gospel.
He's not saying. Earn it in the sense that now you work to get something. He's using this language of effort, this language of doing. In a similar way that that character said, earn this. The guy could go out and be a total loser.
He would have had his life. What did he mean by earn it? He meant live a life worthy of the sacrifice. He meant live a life where what you do with your life reflects the magnitude. of that which you've received.
So to walk In this way. To walk in this way, and Paul again, Ephesians 4, 17, I won't read them all. 5-2, 5-8, 5-15, he's going to hit this word walk again and again and again. It's a theme running 5-4 and 5 in particular. He's making the point to them.
God has provided something for you in the gospel. He's afforded something to us as a church.
Now, live in the shadow of it, live in the weight of it. Don't act as it. As though Something monumental was not purchased. by Christ for you to live your daily life as you go about this world. Instead live in the shadow of it.
in that way. Not to obtain it. But in gratitude because you've received. It In its I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. Skip down to verse 3, eager to maintain.
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Our conservation. What does that mean? It means to preserve. Unity's been received.
This is the point of verse 3 going into verse 4. You maintain that which you've preserved, that which you have. Right? You you can build a house. That's not what he's talking about.
Or you can move into a house and you can be a good homeowner and you can maintain the premises. And that includes preemptive Maintenance. That includes seeing something slightly going sideways and you begin to address it. It's noting symptoms of larger problems that need to be addressed, but you're happening to it and you're assessing it and you're keeping your foot as a homeowner, as it were, on the gas.
So that the thing doesn't fall apart. That's the idea. You've been given unity.
Now Preserve it. Maintain it. Right? So we come together as a church. And it's not that I come together and I go, well, here, my brother Reuben, I got to do everything I can to build unity with Reuben.
No. I don't have to do everything I can to build unity with him. I have to do everything I can to maintain a unity that Christ has given him and I right here. in the gospel. I just gotta not screw it up.
I've got to keep on it. And as I live a life, and as you live a life worthy of the calling you receive, now if you do, if you do, if you do, if you do, you do, and I do, now all of a sudden we keep walking that gospel back into our seats and out into our cars and into our homes and out into our workplace and back here again and all around again. And before you know it, we have unity because it's the breadth of the Practical byproduct of a life that celebrates seriously the unity that we've been afforded in the gospel.
So we maintain We maintain it.
Now Let's focus in on the disposition. for Unit C. What goes into it in particular? And there are five ingredients for practical unity that he gives here. They're self-explanatory in one way, but we need to look at them because I think there's some nuances that will be helpful.
Verse 2: This calling you've been received, how you live in a manner worthy with.
So, this is telling, this is the adverbial sense. Of this urge to walk, this urge to walk. This sense that you ought to do this. How much is that? Do you do it?
What kind of life do you have in regard to those around you?
Now, as we go through these, I want to challenge you to think about them in two primary spheres. Obviously, the sphere in which the immediate context here is about is right here. It's the local church, not just this morning gathering, but your relationships with one another. But I also want you to think about them in terms of your family. Because there's something about your biological family as well that I think is a kind of greenhouse a little bit for what goes on in the broader context.
So I want you to think about them both this way, okay? Think about them both.
So here's the first. With all Humility, with all humility. Um As you think about this term, Keep in mind that in the ancient world. Particularly in the Greek culture, the term that's used for humility here was not something that was really valued very much. In fact, it was kind of disdained.
Epictetus, in the late first century, so not that far removed from Paul's writing here. uh made the point that it was of all Character traits, probably the one that was least, that people should be least inclined to have.
So it was not the kind of thing at that point that was thought to be overly virtuous, probably because it was seen as a part of weakness or frailty. But Paul lays hold of this. And he moves this term forward. It's a term that's not used before New Testament times. And he uses it as something that should be indicative of the Christian life.
So to be humble.
Now, I want to show you two quotes that I think give us the sense of what's going on with this term really well. And they're from a couple of people a few hundred years ago. The first one is Francois Fenelon. He says, Those who are truly humble will be surprised to hear anything exalted of themselves. They are mild and peaceful.
Of a contrite and humble heart, merciful and compassionate, they are. Quiet. Cheerful. Obedient. Watchful.
Fervent in spirit, and I love this, incapable. of strife. You'd be that kind of a person who's just incapable of not getting along with someone? Could you imagine? I mean, we live in a world where the one thing it means to be an American is you're capable of not getting along with everyone.
Incapable of strife. They always take the lowest place. Rejoice when they're despised, and consider everyone to superior. to themselves. They're lenient to the faults of others in view of their own and very far from preferring themselves before anyone.
By the way, let me pause there one thing. You almost never know Until you deeply reflect upon someone who is humble, that they're actually humble. And what I mean by that is that humility by its nature is a virtue that's underground. Real humility. If somebody is feigning humility, They're working at it.
I knew someone who used to have an email address, I am servant at. Uh oh. I think you should get a new email address. Be careful broadcasting that you're a stellar servant. I'm really good at humility.
Just ask me. Um it it goes by stealth by its nature. We may judge of our advancement in humility by the delight we have in humiliations and contempt. That may sound extreme to you. And I think it's extreme for a really good reason.
You will judge your humility by how angry you get when you get cut off on the highway. How humble are you? You'll judge your humility by how you react to that woman that you live with. Who speaks to you in a way that just He didn't really like. Because she knows how to push your buttons.
Like nobody else does. You'll judge your humility. by how you react. to that man Who keeps doing the same thing over and over and over again because you married a lunkhead. You'll judge your humility.
by how you handle things with your children. By whether you lose your chips with them. or whether you're able to maintain a kind of sweet equilibrium with them. You'll learn a lot. By how you are when you don't feel like you want to feel.
in relationships. Uh a second quote. in a little book called Humility, Andrew Murray. Wrote, the insignificances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity. Because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.
Yeah. Listen close. You can be a proud missionary to Muslims and give your life to them. Just because you went across the world to be a missionary doesn't mean that you're humble. Yeah.
It doesn't. You can do things, you can go serve the homeless downtown. And be proud. About it. Just because you do a humble act that people identify as humble doesn't mean you have humility.
Humility shows up. When It comes out unplanned from your heart. when it's not strategized for. When when you Git. Buttressed when you Come against when somebody comes and absolutely is at war with you in some way.
And yet you seem Organ naturally. Your impulse is to keep the disposition of Jesus. It is in our most unguarded moments that we really show and discern what we are. To know the humble man, to know how the humble man behaves, you must follow him in the common course of daily life. Does he feel Does she feel?
Indignant. with indignities. Does she feel frustrated and angry? Does he feel? Very Uh At an angle.
and ready for war. when he is not treasured by someone. That's how you know. If you are growing in humility. What is it that comes out when you're not planning for anything to come out?
That's what you'll find.
So here he says this is the first piece of what it means to sort of contribute to unity.
Now, why is that so important? It's because I don't know what you're going to say to me. You don't know what I'm going to say to you. I don't know how you're going to be. You don't know how I'm gonna be.
You don't know how each other are going to be. You don't know when you wake up what the person who's on the other side of the bed is going to wake up like. You don't know. And maybe you do know. Maybe they open their eyes and you go, I've seen that look before.
But the reality is You can't script the way everybody relates to you in your life.
So therefore you have to have taken a deep dive into editing the script of your own dispositions so that they respond appropriately when other people act in a way that you don't want. That's what he's getting at. You'll know in your daily. Life. with all humility and And we get the word.
gentleness. Gentleness. It's a word that is characterized Jesus in Matthew 11. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am.
So learn from me, follow me, apprentice yourself to me, see how I act. Read through the pages of the Gospels and see when people People came against Jesus, how did he respond? And gentle? and lowly in heart, And you'll find rest for your souls. Our tendency in Matthew 11, 29 and 30 is to where he talks about yoking up to him and so forth, right?
He's a burden-bearer, is to kind of focus on the notion that he helps bear our burdens and we can find rest in him. But notice the first part of it is Learn something, he said. Watch how I act in regard to people and see that I have, it's a Greek word, process. Prouse or Prates. I possess I possess a kind of meekness sometimes, the words translated, meekness.
But I have this gentleness.
So, what we need to do is understand gentleness. Maybe a little different than we might now. When you think gentle, you might think of Charmin. Or you might think of some type of cotton, and so it's so gentle on my skin. It's not really that.
It's getting after. The mid-twentieth century commentator William Barclay, I think, has a good way of describing this. The man who is prouse is the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. The word has the idea of think of it in terms of a self-control. It's a self-control.
It's somewhat, this is why it can be referred to as Jesus. When I read that verse to you, I'm gentle. If immediately you went and said, Well, yeah, but he starts whipping up on people at the court of the temple. But he rebuked the Pharisees pretty sternly. And yet he Tolerates and more than tolerates, lovingly tolerates, which we'll talk about in a moment.
The disciples in the way that they act like Yahoo sometimes. He receives broken people and sits with them in their brokenness. He's so patient with Mary and Martha in different ways. And we see him in different ways where he is both. He has the ability to be angry at the right things.
and not angry. at things you ought not be angry. About. He understands. How to be.
So here's an illustration. Um We had a family in the church in the early days of the church, and they had a dog, and the dog's name was Ted. It's a great name for a dog, Ted. This dog was the largest German Shepherd I personally have ever seen. Not the thickest, but the tallest.
The thing was like... I mean I was like, Ted, no. But he was like, he was, he was huge. And he weighed, I mean, a lot.
Now I would go over to their house And Ted was a dog that was big enough. That there was an intimidation with Ted just being around. But it added to it that if if you kind of If he wasn't sure you were welcome in the house, Ted would lay on his bed that was like the size of an aircraft carrier, and Ted would lay on his bed and he would just look at you and he'd go, Grrr. And I would look at it, ta ta. But when they welcomed you You could go anywhere you wanted in the house.
Because Ted was completely under their control.
Now Ted, if he wanted, he could have used my femur as his toothpick if he wanted to.
Okay. But he wouldn't. Because He was under complete control. with his master.
So you could pet Ted. And Ted would like it. But if I walked into that house without those people there, I would not be here to preach this message. Because he would have eaten me as a snack. The ability to do that.
To be under your master's control. is what process.
So when you fly off the handle, You're not under The master's control. When you seethe and quiet. You're not under the master's control. When you wanna Right the ship! You're not under.
The masters could control. It is the kind of thing where your self-consolidation is.
Now that's important in community. That's important when things don't go the way you'd like them to go. That's important when disappointment comes. That's important when crucial that's important when you're rebuked. I mean what's the Don't we all do c two things?
I mean, depending on our character traits, we tend to deflect rebuke or we tend to get defensive in rebuke. One of those two. Right. They don't know what they're talking about. They don't get it and so you deflect or how dare you Right, you get defensive.
The person who has Prowse. Is somebody who isn't going to get different. They're going to be able to receive, they're going to be self-controlled, because they're living in a context of community where their disposition is prepared for the other. in that way. He says with all humility and gentleness and with patience.
with patience. It's a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 2. Chapter five, but I want you to see one verse that this is used in a number of texts. I just want to highlight one, because I want you to see a particular way that it comes from God. in what that might mean for us.
It's Romans 2.4. Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance end? Patience. God is patient. Not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
Here's what patience is. Patience is long in the tooth. with someone else's sin. That's what patience is. It's long in the tooth.
with someone else's sin. It's restrained. It's not reactive. It doesn't mean it ignores it. God doesn't ignore our sin.
It doesn't mean that it puts it aside. It doesn't mean it receives it lightly necessarily. But what it means is that it's long in the tooth. It's dispositionally of a frame of restraint. Of restraint.
See, the spiritual life is so much about restraining. impulse. restraining impulse. Don't you have a lot of things that you would want to say that you shouldn't say? Don't you have a lot of things you'd like to do that you ought not do?
Don't you have a lot of ways you'd love to react that you ought not react? The better part is almost always Restraint. When it comes to this dynamic.
Now, keep in mind. In context here. The Ephesians are coming together, Jew and Gentile. different cultures. Different ethnicities.
In that way, it's very American church in some ways.
Now, it's deeply theological with the law and so forth here. But nonetheless, we come together and you have all different cultures. Even in our own church, there's a variety of cultures and backgrounds. If you find yourself impatient with people who don't see the world initially the same way that you do. You need to be able to take the first two.
humility and self-control or gentleness, and bring them to bear with patience on the relationship. And receive the exhortation that you're of a different ilk than they are, and to that end, you're going to fight to not let those natural differences get in the way of the unity that you could have celebrating the gospel together. You gotta fight against that. You have to do this in your marriage. Right, you have to do this in marriage.
You get married and early on, don't you find this out in marriage? Early on, you're like the way that they conceived of life from their home of origin and the way that they conceive of life from their home of origin, man, they're different. In that first year, Two years, it's like What's going on here? Why do you do it that way? The toilet paper goes this way.
It never goes this way. What kind of commune? Are you a socialist? You put it under. What's wrong with you?
You know? I mean, like those kind of where you But you put your toothbrush in the shower? My goodness. Are you disgusting? What's wrong with you?
Why do you do that? All these little different things. But you press out in life and relationship and what you learn is that restraints and the capacities for it, Okay. are the better part of what it means to maintain Unity in small ways, but then it comes into large ways. Then it comes into big decisions.
Then it comes into when we're really up against it. We learn through the small daily things the capacity to be able in the larger things to deal with each other with a view to unity, surrounding our life with the virtues consistent with the gospel.
Now that to say this fourth one, because the fourth one is an important one that is very understated in the life of the church. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, you get this word, I'm going to call it loving tolerance, bearing with one another in love. I appreciate that you have this idea of bearing with one another, and then you get the qualifier in love. And that's because Toleration of itself is not necessarily a virtue. toleration in and of itself.
Because toleration means I'm putting up with you. But I can put up with you and hate you. I just am. wise enough to not tell you that I hate you. Remember, Brian, you just said not everything you think should be said.
That that's So he doesn't say tolerate or just the idea here of Bear With. The word the word for bear with used in the in the Greek subtuagent of uh Job. Job 6.11 about sort of enduring difficulty. being restrained in difficulty. It can y you can have it in terms of bearing with sinful people.
In 1 Corinthians 4 it's used that way. In 2 Thessalonians 1 it is used that way. The key piece here is that you bear with one another in love because love shows the manner in which you tolerate.
So what does that mean for me? That means that my job is to tolerate you. Your job is to tolerate me. But it is to do it Not Not cynically. It's to do it, not.
Um Bitterly.
Sometimes We can do that. We can do that in marriage. He'd put up with somebody. Roll your eyes. This is not an eye roll verse.
It's not an Iroll verse in the church. You know the way she is.
Okay. I'm a brother. It's not that. It is Varying in love, which means tolerating with a view to their best interests. tolerating in a way where you want the best for them.
Tolerating where your heart is for them and toward them, not against them. to bear with one another. in love. Don't just put up with each other. Be virtuous.
Inside as you bear with one another. Yeah. And then finally, the fifth piece here is Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. We looked at the last part. I just want to think about this idea for just a quick moment.
eagerness. Eagerness. Um the word can mean something like um In fact, this is the way the NIV translates it, I think, is like, make every effort. to maintain. Make every effort.
Um it's this present active idea. To be eager here, essentially, we could phrase it this way: maybe something like, Make haste. or even work hard. You could say either one, because it's used to make haste in more classical Greek, work hard. continuously.
But it has a sense of haste with it. It's a sense of urgency. It's it's the idea There's something in right. You're not content to leave it not right. You're that person who Jesus says, you remembered at the altar that your brother has something against you, so you left your gift at the altar and you went to him.
You didn't say, yeah, we'll talk about it later. You went. Because you're eager. to get after it. You're eager to be the kind of person that relates in the context of unity.
So as a church, there's a formula here. A virtue. There's a sense in which I have you can have a humility. a kind of meek Self-control that he calls, that's translated gentleness, a patience. Where you are willing to restrain yourself, a bearing with where you do it in love with someone else, not just putting up with them, and you're eager to live like that.
You're eager to pursue peace. You're not resistant to it, or dodging it, or moving away. from it. He's already established that the gospel sits down and brings us together in this unity, that the Spirit is present among us.
So that's why he says to maintain the spirit. Right? Of unity in the bond of peace. The Holy Spirit, you've got to reflect His character, and I have to reflect His character.
So, my encouragement to you is this: when you think about your life, Think about what it means for you. that God's given you all the tools. to do the project of your life. Think about the fact that you're supposed to live your life. In reflection of the gospel received in such a way that you live worthy of that gift.
And part of living worthy of that gift is honoring the gift that he's given you of one another. And if you just let that go, like someone living in a house that never attends to it, that unity will crumble. It'll just fall down around you because we're sinful creatures. You've got to happen to it.
So you've got to wake up in the morning and think: how today in my marriage, how today, in my parenting, how today in my family relationships, how today in my friendships, how today in my church, can I happen with the virtues of humility and gentleness, patience, bearing with each other, loving tolerance, and an eager disposition to that end? In doing that, we end up walking out a gospel life. Father, I pray that you would bless us today and help us as we seek to honor you. Living out. The truths.
that we have seen in this text. Walking humbly.
