EPHESIANS 4
9 Outlines
Ephesians 4:1-6
THE WORTHY WALK
In the Bible, there is another word used to describe conduct.
The word used is "walk".
A person's "walk" is a way of describing their behavior.
In the Book of Ephesians the word "walk" is used six times.
Ephesians 2:10, 4:17, 5:2, 5:8, 5:15
The sixth time the word "walk" is found in Ephesians is found
in our text.
Ephesians 4:1 - I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Our conduct or our walk is to be a walk worthy of the vocation, or the
calling to which we have been called.
Basically, Paul is telling us that we are Christians, and we should act
like it!
Let's look at the worthy walk which we should walk this morning.
THE REQUEST FOR A WORTHY WALK Vs. 1
The first word in this verse is the word "Therefore."
Generally speaking, when we see a "therefore" or a
"wherefore" in the Scriptures, we look to see "What it's there
for!"
It is very possible that this "therefore" could refer back to
the first 3 chapters, which are basically doctrinal in nature. Now Paul is
moving from the doctrinal to the practical.
He's going to address some issues in practical Christian living in the
last three chapters of Ephesians. But all
Biblical practical Christian living is based on sound doctrine. Paul is basing
his practical teaching on his doctrinal teaching.
Another possibility is that Paul says "therefore" based on the
what he said in Ephesians 2:21-22 - In
whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the
Lord: [22] In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God
through the Spirit.
According to these verses, you and I are the habitation of God!
The Holy Spirit indwells us, and we are part of his holy temple, along
with all other believers.
No wonder, Paul is going to encourage us to walk a life worthy of the
calling to which we have been called!
Notice the title that Paul gives himself here in Vs. 1, "the
prisoner of the Lord."
Paul was a prisoner in
"BESEECH" - This, is not a command, but such a strong request,
that if it wasn't for the grace and love of God, it would be a command.
Paul urges us in this verse to walk worthy of the vocation to which you
are called.
We are asked to walk worthy of a vocation.
Here, a vocation means a calling. So, really we are being asked to walk
worthy of the calling to which we have been called.
What is our calling like?
We were invited before salvation to trust Christ as our Savior.
When we believed upon Him for salvation by faith we became the children
of God! John 1:12
You and I are called as the children of God!
And a calling to be a child of God is a high calling.
We didn't earn it. We are sinners.
Jesus died for our sins, securing forgiveness.
All we did was say "yes" to Jesus' invitation to salvation.
Paul is beseeching us, begging us to walk worthy of that high calling as
a child of God.
The word "worthy" has to do with weight.
The idea in this verse is that my "walk", my conduct should
weigh as much as my calling. My conduct
should reflect the fact that I am a child of God.
My position, my standing in Christ is CHILD OF GOD.
My practice, my conduct in life is to be as CHILD OF GOD.
My walk should match my talk.
No one should be able to look at the way you act as a Christian and be able
to honestly say, "IF THAT'S A CHRISTIAN, I WANT NO PART OF IT!"
In all we think, say, and do, we should "weigh in" as the
children of God. We should walk worthy of the vocation, the calling to which we
have been called.
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE WORTHY WALK Vss. 2-3
Read Vss. 2-3 -
Paul tells us that we should behave in a certain way in our worthy walk. Here
are the requirements of this walk.
1. LOWLINESS
Another word for lowliness is humility.
What is humility?
Humility is realizing that others are more important than you.
Humility is realizing that the world does not revolve around you.
Humility is being willing to let others receive more attention than you
do.
Humility is letting others have their way, even if you think your way is
better.
The greatest example of humility is our Savior. Philippians 2:5-8
We think that we are so important.
We think that what we have to say is so important.
But remember, Jesus Christ truly was important, and humbled himself to
the cross.
2. MEEKNESS, OR GENTLENESS
I consider gentleness, the equivalent of "speaking the truth in
love." It's not so much what we say, as how we say it. Proverbs 15:1
"Meekness is not weakness!"
Moses was called the meekest man in all the earth, but he was a forceful,
powerful, dynamic leader.
Our Lord Jesus was "meek and lowly in heart", but he certainly
had righteous anger the day he kicked the money changers out of the temple.
Perhaps we should think of meekness as "power under control".
3. LONGSUFFERING
To be LONGSUFFERING is "endure with unruffled temper."
Another word we could use for longsuffering is "patience".
Are you able to go through a trial without blowing your cool?
Can you take it on the chin and not hit the ceiling? James 1:2-4
4. FORBEARANCE
While patience deals with all situations, I feel that forbearance deals
with people. the word means to hold up, bear with, endure.
Say, have you ever noticed that we want everyone to be perfect?
Every Sunday School teacher should be perfect.
Every deacon should be perfect.
Every trustee should be perfect.
Every pastor should be perfect.
Every person sitting next to you this evening should be perfect.
We want everyone to be perfect, that is, everyone but ourselves! When it comes
to ourselves, we want people to accept the fact that we aren't perfect!
How do we forbear each other? By accepting and forgiving the faults and
short coming of our friends and family.
The forbearance that the Lord wants us to practice is to be done in the
love of Christ.
5. UNITY
Vs. 3 - As
I strive to walk worthy of the Lord, what should my goal be?
My goal, my plan, my object should be to endeavor to keep the unity of
the spirit in the bond of peace.
Now, by unity, I do not mean uniformity.
Not everyone will act the way you do.
Nor will they always think the way you do.
Nor will they have the same plans as you do.
But unity is agreeableness.
Amos 3:3 - Can two walk together, except they be
agreed?
3 ways to have unity:
1. You both naturally agree on a matter.
2. You don't agree, but after talking it out, you come to agreement.
3. You don't agree, but in love, and because it is a matter in which
opinions are allowed, you agree to disagree and it does not affect your fellowship.
You disagree agreeably.
How can we endeavor to maintain unity?
Be willing to talk.
Be willing to listen
Be willing to go to a brother or sister when you've offended him or her
and to apologize.
Be willing to go to a brother when you've been offended and try to make
it right.
THE REASON FOR A WORTHY WALK Vss. 4-6
Everything else in the faith is one!
We in our behavior should be one as well!
ONE BODY - The body being the body of Christ.
When one part of your body fights the rest of your body, that is
sickness. When there is fighting in the body of Christ, the church, there is
sickness!
ONE SPIRIT - The Holy Spirit is working in the life of each one of us,
not just inside of you.
ONE HOPE OF YOUR CALLING - The Return Of christ for the believer.
ONE LORD - Jesus is Lord to every believer.
ONE FAITH - One body of truth.
ONE BAPTISM - The Holy Spirit was already mentioned. I believe this
refers to believers baptism.
ONE GOD AND FATHER OF US ALL.
We have all these things in common, therefore there should a unified walk
worthy of the calling to which we have been called!
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:1-16
THE WALK
Our Christian life is viewed
by Paul as a "walk". Our walk is how we live. The walk is important,
and Paul shows us some of the aspects of our walk in this passage.
THE WORTHY WALK - Vs. 1
THE HUMBLE WALK - Vs. 2
THE UNIFIED WALK - Vss.
3-6
THE GIFTED WALK - Vss.
7-11
God sent gifted men so
that we will walk correctly.
THE PURPOSEFUL WALK -
Vss. 12-16
As we follow the
teaching of gifted individuals, our walk will have a purpose. We will be
perfected for the work of the ministry.
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:2 etc.
BE CONSISTENT!
Many of us feel that we are not as talented or as
worthwhile to the Lord as some other Christians are. Our problem is that we tend to compare
ourselves with others instead of comparing ourselves what God expects of us in
the Bible. Next to being saved, the next
most important thing is that we be faithful or consistent! See Ephesians 4:2. When I am consistent:
MY PORTION IS GOD'S WORD - Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:1-3,
John 15:7, Philippians 4:8
There is not enough emphasis placed on memorization of
and meditation upon Scripture. The more
we consistently think upon God's Word, the more Godly we will become!
MY POWER IS GOD'S SPIRIT - Zechariah 4:6, Ephesians 5:18-21,
Ephesians 1:19-23, Ephesians 3:16
God's Holy Spirit is the one who will enable us to be
consistent. We couldn't save ourselves
because we have no power to save. We can
not live the Christian life consistently without God's help. We have no power to live the Christian
life. We need the power of the Holy
Spirit at work in our lives.
MY PRAISE AND PRAYER ARE GOD'S PLEASURE - Philippians
4:4, Psalm 63:3-7, 113:3, Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Thessalonians
5:16-18, 1 Timothy 2:1-3
God wants us to consistently praise Him. God wants us
to consistently come to Him in prayer.
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:4-6
NARROWING IT DOWN
We as Christians
talk about priorities.
We know that God
is important.
We know that we
have an obligation to the Lord Jesus because he died for us.
We know that we
will answer to God someday.
And yet we conduct
our lives as though our obligation to God were the least important thing in our
lives.
We have a broad spectrum
of responsibilities and interests, but it is time for us to get our priorities
straight. It is time to narrow down what
we do, eliminating other things, so that we do what is important to God.
Ephesians 4:4-6 - There is one body, and one Spirit, even as
ye are called in one hope of your calling; [5] One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, [6] One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and
in you all.
These verses were
actually written to encourage unity within the church. They speak to me about what is important to
God, and have challenged me to try narrowing down the details of my life so
that I will concentrate on what’s important.
The Trinity is
very evident in these verses. You will see the emphasis on God the Holy Spirit
in verse 4, God the Son in verse 5, and God the Father in verse 6.
THERE IS ONE
BODY
That body is the
body of Christ. The body of Christ is the church. 1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans
12:5
The church which is
the body of Christ is made up of every person who has truly placed their faith
and trust in Christ as Savior.
You and I are
members of one body.
We all have
different functions, but we must work together, if the will of our Lord and
Master, the Lord Jesus is to be accomplished.
All too often we
get independent. We do our own thing
without considering what our responsibility is to the church, the Lord’s body.
We have all been
given at least one Spiritual gift to use in service to the Lord and to the rest
of the body, the church. If we fail to
do what we can do for the body of Christ, the church is handicapped, just as
you are handicapped if one of your body members, like the fingers fail to do
what they are supposed to.
We get so wrapped
up in our little worlds, that we become independent of the church, and the
other members of the body. If your eye
or another part of the body did that, you’d be in big trouble!
1 Corinthians
12:14-21
Being a member of
the body of Christ, the church is more than showing up when I feel like it or
putting money in the plate. In order for
you to do your part within the body, you must accept the fact that your
contribution is important and that you are obligated to use whatever gifts and
talents God has given you to help and encourage the other members of the body
of Christ.
THERE IS ONE BODY
THERE IS ONE
SPIRIT
The one Spirit is
the Holy Spirit.
The word “Spirit”
is capitalized.
That shows that it
refers to one “Holy Spirit”, God the Holy Spirit.
In a sense of the
word, we have many “spirits” in our lives.
We might have a
joyful spirit, or an angry spirit.
We might have a
jealous spirit, or a spirit of cooperation.
We might have
forgiving spirit, or a bitter spirit.
We might have a
spirit of hunting, or a spirit of sports, or a spirit of pleasure, or a spirit
of independence, or a Spirit of pride.
All too often,
people try to set apart one of these or one of many other “spirits” as “holy”
or most important in the life.
The Holy Spirit
indwells the Christian. Romans 8:9
If there is only
one truly “holy” Spirit, it makes sense that this Spirit should be the only
Spirit controlling my life.
When He controls,
all my attitudes and my priorities are going to be right. Ephesians 5:9
How do I allow one
Spirit to control my life?
1.
Confess all known sin.
2.
Ask God to fill you with His
Holy Spirit.
Luke 11:13 - If ye then, being evil, know how
to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
My friend, when
we, as Christians, do not allow God’s Holy Spirit to be the ONE PREVAILING
SPIRIT in our lives, we are missing God’s best, not only for ourselves, but for
the whole body of Christ.
ONE HOPE
Ephesians. 4:4 - There is one body, and one
Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
God, through the
work of His Holy Spirit, called you to salvation. If you accepted the call, believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have one hope.
What is that one
hope?
It is the hope of
Heaven.
It is the hope of
eternal life.
This hope is not a
“maybe”, but a certainty. Revelation 21:1-4, 1 John 3:2-3
We will be like
Jesus when we are in His presence.
Because we have
this one hope which extends into all eternity, we are to live our lives in pure
way.
I am to live my
life as a citizen of Heaven, because that’s exactly what I am!
ONE HOPE
ONE LORD
We all give lip
service to the fact that Jesus is Lord.
And we realize
that Jesus, as God, rules in Heaven.
And we realize
that Jesus will rule when He returns to earth.
We call Jesus,
“Lord”, but here are some sobering verses.
John 13:13 - Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well;
for so I am.
Matthew 7:21 - Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven.
Our biggest
problem is saying that Jesus is Lord and not acting like it.
Our trouble is we
try to have more than one Lord in our lives.
That’s like having more than one boss telling us what to do. Matthew
6:24
ONE FAITH
There is “one
faith” in the sense that there is one body of truth in which to believe. There are the basics of salvation that must
be the tenets of their faith.
There is also “one
faith” in the sense of one person in which to place my faith.
There is only “one
faith” that saves and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:36
The concept of one
faith is important because there are many teaching that there are many ways to
Heaven.
A typical comment
is that “We are all serve the same God.” Or “We’re all going to the same
place.”
WE DO NOT ALL
SERVE THE SAME GOD!
WE ARE NOT ALL
GOING TO THE SAME PLACE! John 14:6, 1 John 5:12
ONE BAPTISM
The Holy Spirit has
already been mentioned, so the baptism here is not the Baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
Baptism speaks of
identification.
When a Christian
is baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, he or she is identifying himself or
herself with the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is only one
baptism that is necessary.
That is the
baptism that comes after belief in Jesus as Savior.
It is the one
baptism that follows the one faith.
The pattern is
simple enough.
Matthew
28:19-20 - Go ye therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
Amen.
First a person is
to believe on Christ, becoming a disciple.
Next they are to
identify with Christ by being baptized.
Then they are to
grow in Christ through learning.
Acts 10:48 - And he commanded them to be
baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
ONE FATHER
Ephesians 4:6 - One God and Father of all, who
is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Why should I make
sure that I have no idols in my life?
Because there is
only one God!
Why should I
worship only one God? Because there is
only one God!
Why should I bring
all my problems to my Heavenly Father?
Because He is above all!
Notice the
completeness of our God. He is above. He
is through. And He is in us!
Such a wonderful,
all powerful Heavenly Father is to be worshipped and adored.
IT IS TIME TO
NARROW THINGS DOWN!
ONE BODY
ONE SPIRIT
ONE HOPE
ONE LORD
ONE FAITH
ONE BAPTISM
ONE FATHER
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:11-16
GOD’S GIFTED MEN
GOD’S GIFTED MEN ARE ESTABLISHED OR EARMARKED – Vs. 11 – Given
by God
GOD’S GIFTED MEN ENABLE – Vs. 12
GOD’S GIFTED MEN ENDURE – Vs. 13
GOD’S GIFTED MEN EDIFY – Vss. 14-16
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:11-16
THE ROAD TO MATURITY
God wants His church to grow into Spiritual
maturity. Here is His plan for
accomplishing this task. Notice that
each verse begins with a preposition, so that we have:
1. THE "AND" OF PROVISION Vs. 11
God has provided gifted men to the church. In our day they are the evangelists, pastors
and teachers.
2. THE "FOR" OF PURPOSE Vs. 12
"For the perfecting of the saints, for the work
of the ministry..."
3. THE "TILL" OF PERFECTION (MATURITY) Vs.
13
4. THE "THAT" OF PERMANENCE Vs. 14
5. THE "BUT" OF PROCLAMATION Vs. 15
6. THE "FROM" OF PROGRESS Vs. 16
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:21-31
“IF” or “WELL PUT”
Vs. 21 – If we have heard the Lord Jesus and have been
taught the truth about Jesus, then we should:
PUT OFF – Vs. 22
·
The “old man” whose behavior is corrupt.
PUT ON – Vss. 23-24, 32
·
Being renewed in the spirit of the mind
·
The new man created in righteousness and holiness after God:
Kind
Tenderhearted
Forgiving
PUT AWAY – Vss. 25-31
·
Lying – Vs. 25
·
Anger – Vss. 26-27
·
Stealing – Vs. 28
·
Bad Language – Vs. 29
·
Grief (of the Holy Spirit) – Vss. 30-31
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:24-32
THE NEW MAN
Ephesians 4:24 - And that ye put on the new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
THE NEW MAN’S TRUTHFULNESS –
Vs. 25
THE NEW MAN’S TEMPER – Vss.
26-27
THE NEW MAN’S TASK – Vs. 28
THE NEW MAN’S TONGUE – Vs.
29
THE NEW MAN’S TRIUMPH – Vss.
30-32
1.
HE CAUSES NO GRIEF (to the Holy Spirit) – Vs. 30
2.
HE HOLDS NO GRUDGE – Vs. 31
3.
HE MANIFESTS GRACE – Vs. 32
***************************************************************************
Ephesians 4:25-32
PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN
LIVING
Christianity is a
very practical faith. After coming to
know Christ as Savior, we are to conduct ourselves in a practical, Godly way.
Paul gives us some tips for practical Christian living in these verses.
1. BE TRUTHFUL Vs.
25
2. BE TAME Vss.
26-27, 29
Anger should be
under control.
Our speech should
be edifying instead of being destructive.
3. BE TRUSTWORTHY
Vs. 28
4. BE TENDER Vss. 30-32
We should be those
who do not grieve the Spirit of God, but practice forgiveness. We should
forgive as we have been forgiven.
RETURN TO EPHESIANS – PHILEMON INDEX