Paul says “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.”(NASB 4:1)
We are supposed to walk in a manner worthy because God has not just saved us from our sin, but also “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (1:3) It doesn’t stop there, He also adopted “us as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” (1:5)
God wants us to walk in a manner worth because “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.” (1:4)
He proceeded to tell us a few things of how this is to look: “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.”
In all of this we are “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit” (4:3). For “there is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (4:4-6)
We know that God is one and He wants us as, His body, His church to “keep the unity,” (not create it!) and be one. He already created the unity. (2:11-22)
Jesus “gave gifts to men” (4:8) to help us keep the unity. “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” (4:7) We have seen through the last few weeks that “He Himself (Jesus) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” (4:11) These positions it says are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (4:12) The purpose of these positions is equipping, meaning furnishing completely everything needed for the work of ministry so that the body of Christ is edified, literally built up. The word “saints” doesn’t refer only to “super Christians”; we are all saints if we have faith in Christ.
Paul also speaks of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, as well as Romans 12. These lists differ in there scope so we know that the list given here in Ephesians is not meant to be a complete and exclusive list of the gifts given by God.
We know that “to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (4:7). We each have a gift then, and are called to live as “the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (4:24). Each part of this body is “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (4:16). The body needs each part to be doing its share so that it can grow properly and build itself up. Each part therefore needs to be grounded in its “knowledge of the Son of God” (4:13) “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine…but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ” (4:14-15).
