Chapter 4
Amplified Bible:
Ephesians 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God's service,
Ephesians 4:2 Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.
Ephesians 4:3 Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.
Paul begins Chapter 4 with his identity…the prisoner for the Lord! He was imprisoned by the Romans, but his identity is in the Lord. He appeals to us to live a life worthy of our divine calling. Have we realized that we have a divine calling? We have been called to this divine calling. This is from God…not man. Our belief will determine our behavior.
I remember once when I worked in an office, that I got very mad about something. I was married to the Purchasing Agent and was daughter-in-law to the Vice President. An outside salesman knew I was upset, and he took me by the arm and said, “Girl, remember who you are.” What an incredible spiritual lesson he taught me, and a good business one, too.
Paul is begging us to remember who we are in the Lord. He is pleading with us to behave in a way that supports this divine calling. I just love this! Are we a credit to God’s service? If not, we have forgotten who we are and whose we are. That which we long for is evidence of this divine calling. The longing comes from the heart of God within us.
In Verse 2, we see the divine paradox at play. Remember who you are is not a place of pride in self. It is living in humility, meekness, patience, tolerance…all of which are generated by love. Love is the first fruit of the Spirit. That is because all the others proceed from it. Our divine calling comes from the Love. Paul pleads with us to love one another. Living as becomes you…I love that! How does it get any better than this!
We love because He first loved us. This loving one another does away with judging. We judge others because we are really judging ourselves on some level. Otherwise, it would not make any difference to us. We would not be urged to find something WRONG with another. We do, because we have conscious or subconscious programming that there is something wrong with us and/or someone else. We have bought into the devil’s agenda of guilt, condemnation, and shame. Instead of seeing what another is NOT, let us see what is…other children of God who are learning the Way, the Truth, and Life.
Access your capacity to love. It is the Father’s love. Give it away. We love because He first loved us. He showed us how. He filled us with this grace. We are one in a limitless God. That means we can believe in the limitless power that is His within us. Do we realize that God has our back? Realizing that, what will we allow God to be and do through us? It is such a comfort to me…as the Good Shepherd, He has my back.
Ephesians 4:3 “Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.” At His birth, the angels proclaimed peace. When you look at His life, there is anything but peace that is seen from a human perspective. When wakened from a storm in the boat, He said, “Peace, be still.” The peace that He brings is much more profound than the storms of this world. This peace resonates with the energy of Heaven…love. Oneness in the Spirit has a binding power of peace. Wow! Peace means that we have learned to not judge. That means we are peaceful in trusting others to God and God with others…and ourselves.
Paul shows us how to live in submission to the will of God…even prison. We do not like to think that our experience might be like Paul’s. From the emotional and spiritual perspective, our prisons are internal. Because we are still learning to share His peace with others, we are often living without the harmony and oneness of the Spirit. We feel it. That is the longing in us that we keep trying to fill with the people, places, and things of this world. We already have in Him what we are seeking.
Paul’s description of himself as a prisoner for the Lord speaks so softly to me. He had met the Master. He had been captured by the Master. He was in love with the Master. I find the following quote to be a beautiful expression of this relationship between Paul and the Master (Jesus and God):
“That is exactly the role of a Master, to create an intense desire for union
with the Beloved--and when union happens,
an atomic mystical power is released
that can be directed toward humanity."
Ladinsky, Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices
From the East and West (Penguin Compass: 2002), 58-59.
Oh, wondrous Lover of my soul. To be filled with this intense desire for union of which Paul is speaking and living out in his life. We have no greater calling.
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