Ephesians chapter 4. We'll read verses 1 through 6. We're going to be again looking at verse 2 tonight. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you, admonish 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's one body, 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. Lord, please speak these words into our hearts. Cause us, Lord, to seek to do your will as we hear from you this night. In Christ's name. with all humility and gentleness. Certainly isn't the way of the world. Probably not what we were taught as we were growing up. But it's the way of God. We've read about the ways of the fallen world. We were at one time walking according to the ways of the fallen world. According to our own lusts and desires. But for three chapters, Paul has set forth the doctrine of the eternal plan and purpose of God. And of His working out of His eternal purpose in His eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The gifts of election, adoption, redemption, and inheritance and glory. All those in chapter one. New spiritual life in Christ. All rooted in His great love. And if we are not mindful of the gifts we've received from Him, we won't respond to the admonitions and instructions we have beginning in chapter 4. But He's done a sovereign unilateral work all by His grace in everyone who's been born again. Based on no works of our own, no thoughts of our own. And all these blessings given by God to those He chose in Christ before He made the world were accomplished at the cross in and through Christ. At the cross, He not only redeemed His people through the shedding of His blood, but as we recall in chapter 2, He abolished all distinctions between Jews and Gentiles. So through union with Him, Jewish and Gentile believers are now one body, one people of God. Chapter 2, verse 15, He has made the two into one new man. So now, all those who've been joined to Christ by His Spirit, through faith in Him, have access to the Father through Him. You can pray to the Father. We saw people praying on a football field. And prayer's a good thing. I kept wondering, do they know they must come to the Father through Christ? This was God's plan from all eternity. Before He created anything, to bring all things together in His Son. This was His purpose in election, in creation, in the incarnation, in the cross, and in the resurrection. So all these blessings we've received, and that's why I remind us of them, because what He's calling us to here in chapter 4 is a right response to these blessings. They're the basis for the exhortations we have here. So He's given us the divine doctrine, now the application of that doctrine. I don't have to really come up with some clever application. It's right here. We're in the application and will be for several months. What a person believes, Paul is showing us, will determine how that person lives and how that person thinks and speaks. There's no separating what is really our doctrine from our lifestyle, from our conduct. One writer says Ephesians has more specific practical applications for daily life than any other New Testament book. I believe he's correct. And as we look at this first section, it's 16 verses really, the focus becomes the unity of the body of Christ. But then he deals with individual characteristics that God desires to see in each of us. But it's the responsibility of us all to seek these qualities, these fruits of the Spirit by and large, and to make every effort thereby to preserve the unity that's been imparted by the Spirit. He has joined us into one body. So Paul begins, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Now is that a change for a person once he's been born again? It sure better be. In the fallen world, what do people walk according to? Well, in the fallen world, most set their own standards. Whatever they feel is right. Whatever permits them to live in whatever manner gives them pleasure. The unbelieving world has always lived by its own standards. And now, all who are true believers, who've been born again of the Spirit, can look back and see that we too all once lived in that very same manner. Our life should have changed the moment we were born again. But we used to live according to our own lusts and desires, and according to the mores and morals that were invented by men, the ways of the fallen world. That's where we were. And that's what Paul tells us in chapter 2. We were all there before God in His mercy because of His great love made us alive with Christ. and opened our eyes to divine truth. That's where we were. So the issue that Paul raises here is, is our professed belief manifested in our lives? In our thoughts? In our words? People see Christ in us. If God has made you spiritually alive and reconciled you to Himself in Christ and predestined you to be conformed to the image of Christ, then He's also prescribed that you live as He has effectually called you to live. Our doctrine, again, must be applied to our conduct. We're not free to be who we were. In fact, if we are who we were, that transformation of the new birth may well not have taken place. So Paul's words, I exhort or admonish you to walk, to live in a manner worthy of that calling you've received. Now, I know we could never live in such a manner as to actually be truly worthy of having been affectionately called to Christ and given eternal life and all these blessings. But folks, it is our absolute duty to strive to do so every day with all our might. to make every effort to conform our lives to Christ's life and to live as He's commanded us. That's the duty of the true believer. In our response to His grace and to His instruction as to how we're called to live, we see the expression of what we really believe. I say it all the time because it's the truth and it's so important. Living by His commands with all humility, with all gentleness, demonstrates that we actually believe what we say we believe. And that we acknowledge Him, not ourselves, but Him as our sole authority. Paul's saying, conduct yourselves in harmony with the responsibilities to which your new relationship with God has called you. So in the remainder of this letter, Paul's going to show us what this means. One thing we must understand at the outset, walking in a manner worthy of our calling demands our conscious effort. Isn't going to just happen. God has equipped us. He's given us the power by His Spirit to do what He's calling us to do. He's given us knowledge of the right way of life. We can't plead ignorance and we can't plead a lack of empowerment. And so in verses 2 through 6, The objective we see of each of us walking in a manner worthy of His calling is the unity of the body. 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. Now some of these words get translated differently. The King James has it, "...with a lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, enduring one another in love, making every effort to preserve the unity imparted by the Spirit by means of the bond consisting in peace." Does anybody reading these things think to another of Paul's letters. Do we see something like this somewhere else? Turn to Colossians. Colossians is a companion letter to Ephesians. They were both written while Paul was in prison, in the latter days of his life, along with Philippians. So Colossians chapter 3, verse 12, Paul wrote this. So, as those who have been chosen of God, now here he calls them the called, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Now the last three we see in the same order right here in Ephesians 4, 2. And then he continues in the very same vein as in Ephesians, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone. Just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And just as he writes in Ephesians, he writes here in Colossians, verse 14, beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Much of this letter is focused on the communion of saints, the Una Sancta, as it was called in another language. But we are one body in Christ, all who have been born again. So in verse 2 here in Ephesians, Paul begins to define what it means to walk in a manner worthy of his calling. And his starting point is humility and gentleness. Now we are raised from our youth to seek toughness, pride. I've got news for you. Those aren't godly virtues. King James calls it lowliness and meekness, but the words mean the same thing. So that's the starting point. Followed then by patience, or long-suffering was the Old Testament word. And then the qualities of tolerance for one another and love. And all of these appear both here in chapter 4, verse 2 and 3, and in Colossians in the passage we just read. Now, we see these qualities somewhere. And whom do we see these qualities? Jesus Christ, our Lord. These are qualities we see in Christ. All of them. Most are among the fruits of the Spirit that we read of in Galatians 5, 22 and 23. These qualities are manifestations of the Spirit of God in His people. And so Paul exhorts us to cultivate these characteristics of Christ and of His Spirit. And here, in this passage, he links these three to the preserving of the unity of the body. Now this isn't intended by Paul as a complete list, an exhaustive list of the qualities which should be evident in the lives of all believers. But notice the language, with all humility and gentleness. In other words, with the highest degree of humility. Not just a little humility or a faux humility. Real humility of the highest degree. Our lives, as the people of Christ, should be characterized by these qualities. Humility, gentleness, patience, and loving forbearance. They're essential to maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So, I spent a lot of time looking at the language, the words used to describe these things, wondering why does the New American Standard use humility and, on the other hand, the King James uses lowliness. Why does the New American Standard use gentleness in its translation? King James translates meekness. Well, in large part it's because all of those words are bearing on the same thing. They're all bearing on the same attitudes and manner. And the distinction between humility and gentleness is that humility is an attitude of mind and heart. It's an attitude we have. The word that's used here is translated at different times, lowliness of mind, humility. We'll see it in other places as a Hebrew word for meekness or gentleness can mean poor, afflicted, humble, or meek. New Testament word that's sometimes translated meekness is translated in the New American Standard as humility. And it's translated by others as gentleness. So these words and what they convey to us, it overlaps. The meanings overlap. There's a great deal of overlap in the concepts of humility, gentleness, lowliness, and meekness. But humility speaks of a state of mind. an attitude of mind and heart. Whereas gentleness or meekness speaks of a change of manner. Our manner, our conduct. And so in that sense they are distinguishable. And I think both the King James and the New American Standard try to do that to make sure we can see these are two different things. One an attitude of mind and one a manner of conduct. Now, humility is the opposite of what? What would the opposite of humility be? Pride. Now, the world encourages pride, and the Bible tells us clearly pride is a sin. In fact, it may well be the root sin of all sins. It certainly was the root of the sin in the Garden of Eden. The opposite of humility or lowliness is pride, arrogance, self-importance. There's no greater destroyer of unity in the body than pride. And there may be no subject that's more prevalent in Paul's letters or in all of Scripture than the condemnation of the sin of pride, which the world regards as a virtue. I don't want you to have to be turning. So just sit back and listen to what the Word of God says. Romans 12, 16. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, you see, humility is dealing with the mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Philippians chapter 2 verse 3, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. Don't merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. And Paul says, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and took the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men. Proverbs. And Proverbs says a lot about pride. Proverbs 8, 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth I hate. Proverbs 11, 2. When pride comes, then comes dishonor. But with the humble is wisdom. Proverbs 16, 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. One more from Proverbs 29, 23. A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor. This is not the way of the world. This is the way of God. There may be a hundred such passages. And you can find them yourselves. Ecclesiastes 7, 8. The end of a matter is better than its beginning. Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit. And it's not just the Old Testament. James 4, 6, he gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says God is opposed to the proud. You want God to be opposed to you? Be prideful. But he gives grace to the humble. First Peter 3, 8. We read this earlier. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit. This is no minor doctrine. This is no minor teaching. 1 Peter 5.5, You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders, and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I suspect we read through these passages when we get to them and just flow right through them and on to whatever's next. Where's some intellectual stuff I can get my hands on? But this is what God wants in us. And Jesus said, Luke 14, 11, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted. And he said it again in chapter 18 of Luke. And humility is, as I said, not seen as a virtue in our world. It wasn't seen as a virtue in the time Paul wrote. There were actually writers who wrote things condemning humility. But it's Christlike. What's it mean? It means to not insist on our rights while putting others' interests ahead of our own at the same time. William Hendrickson says, Humility has been called the first, second, and third essential of the Christian life. And he's right. When we compare ourselves to others, that can very quickly lead to pride. Maybe it's hard to be humble when you feel you're superior in some way, some ability to someone else. But when we compare ourselves to God, we're never better. We're always inferior. And that's why spending time in God's Word is so critical. It's easy to feel we've got better ideas, better theology, better everything than others. But it's impossible for any honest man to think he's anything but an ant before God. And notice the order and the arrangement we have here. We've kind of touched on this. But he mentions humility first. He's trying to get to unity, unity of the body. Why does he mention humility first if his goal is the unity of the body? What does it have to do with unity? Yeah, humility in each of the members is the first step toward unity of the body. And gentleness or meekness, gentleness of manner is a product of humility. If we are humble within, our manner will be not prideful, not boastful, Not overbearing, but gentle. Humility, true humility is manifested in a gentle manner. Now, if you've got a whole group full of people who are humble, and whose manner is gentle, and who bear with the wrongs or the shortcomings of the brethren, that will lead to unity. That's the point here. If there's rudeness, envy, quarrels, shouting at each other, is that going to lead to unity? Of course not. And these arise from pride and from self-importance, from placing one's own interests above those of others. One isn't going to be, by the way, tolerant or forbearing of others unless and until that sin of pride has been subdued. We all are guilty here. We all need to do this. We're ordered to do it by our Creator. We need to acquire in ourselves a humble spirit and a mild, gentle manner. None of us would have designed our lives this way. God did. This is exactly how God designed for our lives to be. It's laying aside all haughtiness, all sense of superiority, all desire to please ourselves first. And in doing that, we become humble and gentle. I'm going to show you the key to all of this at the end. But part of what he's talking about here is a forgiving and tolerant attitude of others. Because others don't always do what we would have them do. So these aspects of our attitudes toward one another in the body of Christ are the first thing that Paul addresses here. These are essential elements to our living in a manner worthy of our calling. And Paul is going to also exhort us to exhibit the same qualities and attitudes in our dealings with those outside the church. Why would that be a useful endeavor? In what kind of setting might that be helpful to be humble and of a gentle manner when we're trying to witness? Humility is necessary both in our dealings with one another and in our witness to the world. And who's our example? Our model? We see Him in Scripture. It's Jesus. What did He say? He invited people to come to Him as one who was what? Gentle and lowly in heart. Meek and humble in heart. That's what He said of Himself. And that's what He calls us to be. So meekness, gentleness, that's not weakness. He's not talking about weakness at all. He's talking about consideration for others and a willingness to forego our rights like Jesus did. Harold Hohner says this, the word here for meekness or gentleness never connotes weakness. Rather it speaks of a conscious exercise of self-control, a conscious choice of gentleness. as opposed to the use of power for the purpose of retaliation, for example. One who's meek does not seek to impress. He doesn't use compulsion or force. So meekness, while humility referred to an attitude of mind, meekness or gentleness refers to a manner of behavior. It doesn't have anything to do with courage or lack of courage. In fact, it takes far more courage to be gentle and meek than it does to be the opposite. And it certainly doesn't mean weakness. It takes more intestinal fortitude to behave gently than to behave loudly and angrily. I trust we've all got experience with the latter. I know I have. And the only way you can work on this, is spending time with the one who is gentle and meek and humble. And these ideas of humility and meekness are so closely related that where the New American Standard translates gentle and gentleness, the King James translates meek and meekness. They're so close, they're almost inseparable. So the meek individual is one who's willing to forego his rights. We don't have any rights. The Bible never talks about our rights. We wouldn't have any rights at all if God hadn't given them to us. We have no rights by nature. We have whatever God has given us. All his rights were gifts of his grace. And never does scripture teach us to assert our rights. It just doesn't. Quite the opposite. First Corinthians 6.6, Brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers. Actually then, it's already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? Jesus will say the same thing in a passage in Matthew. Chapter 5, verse 38, you've heard it said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person. Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. He's talking about insults here. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let them have your coat also. Psalm 25, 9. This is throughout the pages of Scripture. He leads the humble or meek in justice, and He teaches the humble His way. And again, this word here that's translated both humble and meek is a Hebrew word. Anav can mean poor, afflicted, humble, or meek. Poor, afflicted, humble, or meek. Again, the concepts are virtually inseparable. Psalm 3711, the meek will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. In one of the rare places where the New American Standard translates the word praos as meek, 2 Corinthians 10.1. And look who he refers to here. Now I, Paul, myself, urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent. Zephaniah 2.3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have carried out his ordinances. Seek righteousness, seek humility. So translations vary, but that humility And gentleness or meekness are qualities the Lord desires to see in His people. That's beyond question. There isn't some issue here, is this for me or is this just for some super Christians? No, no, this is for all of us. And when we refuse to set aside our pride and then earnestly seek these qualities, what are we doing? We're defying our Lord. That's what we're doing. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Remember when Jesus rode into Jerusalem for that final time. We have this quote from Zechariah 9.9. Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey. And Jesus said, when he called people to himself, Come to me. all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11, 28, and 29. And the application for us, what is it? Well, this is it. But James 3.13, Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, where do those two arise from? What would be the root sin of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition? Pride. If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above. It's earthly, it's natural, it's demonic." Arrogance, selfish ambition, bitter jealousy are demonic, James writes. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed, whose fruit is righteousness, is sown in peace by those who make peace. These qualities, these virtues, humility, meekness, patience, all point to and lead to unity. So how are we to develop and grow these qualities in ourselves? What can we do to help nurture these qualities in ourselves? Only through communication with God. We can't communicate it to one another. We can set an example for one another. But in the end, it's only through communication with God, through prayer, and through daily feeding on His Word. We're shaped by whatever we take in. When we sit before the Lord and His Word, that's what's shaping us. When we take in the wisdom of the world, we're either going to come into agreement with the wisdom of the world, or we're going to respond in a hostile antipathy toward it. And neither response will promote humility or gentleness in us. If we begin each day with time in the Word of God, and I mean at least as much time as we spend in the things of the world and prayer, we will be shaped by the wisdom of God. When the shenanigans of the 2020 election came along, one of the few places you could go to find out what was actually happening was Steve Bannon's War Room show. He would always open with a what he called a cold open, which would be the left-wing media's version of things. Always very deceitful. And after a while, you don't want to see that anymore. And you realize that what he's putting up there What he's showing you of these broadcasters is designed to encourage and stoke anger toward and hatred for others who oppose our way of thinking. And it doesn't lead to humility or gentleness. And in one way or another, this is true of all of this media, it's going to either feed us Christ, which none of it does, or it's going to stoke hostility in us. Whatever's being promoted in mass media is almost certainly in opposition to the Word of God. And if we feed on those things, if we spend more time with those things than we do with the Word of God, we're going to set an obstacle to ourselves in becoming humble and gentle people. But if we feed on the Word of God, we will grow and we will give evidence that we're truly His children. Now, we've got several more aspects here, but these two characteristics are so important. I want to stop there tonight. Paul's already given us a great deal to think about and pray about. This is an ongoing battle. It's a daily battle. I know that. I'm in the same battle. It's not easy, particularly when we see evil in the world. It's not easy. But Christ maintained, in the face of it all, and direct opposition to Himself, which led to His being murdered, He maintained His humility. And He maintained a gentle manner. And we must understand, Paul isn't making some suggestions here. He's telling us what God, who created us and who died for us, wants to see in us. May not be the most profound passage, but it is extremely important for us. None of us were born humble or meek. All of us came into the world selfish and prideful. But God worked a change, a transformation in us. And He wants to see change and transformation in us. And I believe in the end, the question for us is this, will we submit to His rule? Adam did not and he was evicted from the garden. Or like Adam and like all the unbelieving world, will we doubt Him and defy Him? Well, let's take a moment and ask the Father that this Word of Christ would dwell in our hearts and then we'll close in prayer.