One in us All and We All in The One

Eph. 4:1-5  

1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  6 and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

This passage is so rich with meaning. It is quite worthy you spending some time reading it repeatedly. Paul assures his readers about unity-- the unity of God, the unity of Christ-followers together in God, and the unity of the Christian faith. The Church-- the collected believers in Christ across the nations and the organizations should be united in the Lord. Our faith should be the unifying factor-- one faith, one baptism. . . In our local groups we must be bound together. But not just within our group but also among those groups. The Nazarenes, and the Frees, and the Wesleyans, and the Southern Baptists, and the north, east, and western baptists as well (if there are such groups), along with the Presbyterians, and the Brethren groups and the . . . and the. . .-- all who claim Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and Savior of all-- must be willing to cease distinguishing themselves and start unifying together in our One Faith!

Our unity will require some effort on our part-- make every effort. The one and only thing that prevents believers from being unified through their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, is a sense that says something like 'it ought to be my way or the highway.'  Instead of clarifying our brothers' and sisters' faults we need to be overlooking them with the Grace that unconditional love can give. If we would "always be humble and gentle" then we would not find ourselves running down our fellow believers in conversations where they are not present.

Paul-- identifying himself as a prisoner --wrote from incarceration because of his persistent obedience to his call to teach Christ everywhere. He invites us to identify our own call-- that we are called by God to faith in Christ. Upon that step of faith, Paul reminds us all to lead a quality of life that is worthy of your calling. How is today going? Are you living in that way of worthiness? Would you like to be? Have you prayed and asked Him for it to become so in your life?


Your Servant in Christ's Love
Dan
drdanelliott@gmail.com