Ephesians 4:2-3  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.

Last time we saw that the real battle is over relationships, how we live is the fight beginning with humility moving to gentleness which is connected to:

•             Patience

Be patient with each other or bearing with one another in love. Often we will pray for patience yet in reality it is the outflow of the attitude of humility (putting others before ourselves) coupled with the action of gentleness (power under control). Patience removes the word “but” from our vocabulary, the word we use to defend our impatience and lack of tolerance. “But if you knew how annoying they were.” “But she did it first!” “I would, but you don’t understand how I have been wronged.” Jesus reflected humility, gentleness and patience with the woman He healed with the bleeding issue in Luke 8:42-48. Having secretly touched him she was physically healed yet Jesus stopped to talk with her, why? For 12 years the law had declared her unclean leaving her relationally isolated, alienated from love, her illness didn’t just leave her with a physical burden, she was financially bankrupt and emotionally broken. What she needed wasn’t just physical healing but someone who would give her the time of day and touch her emotionally empty life. What did Jesus need? To get going so he could see Jairus’ sick daughter who was dying. Whose need was more important to the Savior? The Savior saw her need and served her need before His own and He did it with gentleness. Jesus attitude of humility tied to the action of gentleness reflected patience with the people around Him. The very pretext for these traits is that there is something or someone to be patient towards, we don’t have to bear with those who are easy to get along with. I don’t have to be patient with a person who does what I want them to do. God is not going to pat me on the head for my ability to respond well to others who walk in a manner worthy of his calling. Adding to the call we are challenged to be patient and bear with each other “in love.” I can exercise patience when not caught off guard, and if the humility part doesn’t trip me up then the “in love” part usually does. The truth is that patiently enduring the annoying traits of others often builds up our sense of superiority. But to be patient in love and humility means I actually have to care about others; I actually have to regard their interests as greater than my own. I actually have to love them, even to the point of being thankful for the opportunity to show loving patience. I actually have to see such opportunity to practice patience in humility and gentleness and love as opportunity to walk in a manner worthy of my great calling. Often our agendas and sense of importance leave us blind to the need of those around us. Yet Jesus surrounded by the crowd with the pressures of time and expectation not only felt the touch of the woman but had time for her.

•             Unity

The final admonition, “being eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. This is what the Apostle Paul has been leading up to, and one could say, what the whole epistle is about, unity. We can see hints of it in chapter 1 in what is said about Christ: “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (v. 10). Chapter 2 reminds us of the wall of hostility being broken down between Jew and Gentile in Christ: “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility…that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (vs. 14-16). How eager should we be to maintain unity? Consider what Jesus prayed for in His final recorded prayer to God the Father: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:20-23). He said that the world would take notice based on the unity, the oneness that we demonstrate. The cross not only reconciles man to God it also reconciles man to man. Today there are many who say but Christians can’t even get along so why should I believe? How can we bear witness to such work if we will not demonstrate it? Unity matters, we have to be eager and exercise, today we are not eager for unity and we do not want to exercise humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance in love. So how do you measure up? If these verses present the traits of walking in a manner worthy of your calling, do you feel like you are walking the walk with all humility and gentleness; with patience and bearing with another in love; eager to maintain the unity of the faith in the bond of peace? What an immense  calling, one in which we can feel pretty small as we measure ourselves against God’s standard. We must remember that the key to our calling is humility, when you are humble, you don’t feel threatened, so you are able to exercise gentleness. Through humility, you are not encumbered with pride that keeps you from being patient with others. Because of humility you understand that you are as messed up as anyone else so you see the need to bear with the faults of others. Humility allows us to get out of the way instead of trying to get our way. What about you do you desire unity will you respond and lead a life worthy of your calling?

Ephesians 4:2 “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.”

Have you ever heard a rousing speech that has awakened within you a desire to rise up and respond to those words? When William Wallace challenged the Scottish army not to flee but fight by saying: “Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live… at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!” I wanted to join and be part of that band of brothers. When Aragorn said “this is not the day to forsake our friends but the day to fight”, I was ready to charge with him. Speeches stir our souls giving us a vision of what could be if we would commit to the cause. When I read Paul’s letters I am reminded that these words were distributed to the church and read aloud for all present.  Have you ever thought about the first time the first three chapters of Ephesians were read aloud to the church? Hearing about the blessing after blessing, the glory and the power, of love that cannot be measured, then closing with that magnificent doxology: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, accord to t power at work within us, to him be glory in the church & Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever & ever. Amen.” It is difficult to think of a more exhilarating moving and motivating speech. Then the letter shifts gears and in light of the power and the glory and the love of God in Christ, Paul urges his listeners to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Imagine the anticipation and the buildup of the first three chapters. “Yes, Paul, yes! We are ready to go forth. Tell us what to do.” And they then hear the words: “…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Really that’s the battle cry? Be humble? Be gentle? Be Patient? That’s the best Paul can come up with? It’s like a soldier heeding the call to fight for his country, and then being pulled aside and told to be nice to the other soldiers and mind his manners, to be respectful of his officers. Have you ever thought about what part of the letter you would have come next? If it had been me (thankfully it wasn’t), I would have had what Paul wrote in chapter 6:10 come next “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” That would seem to be more fitting for the battle cry to be we will fight against the cosmic powers. So why does Paul start out the way he does? Is it because he thinks he needs to start with the basics before moving to the battle or is it that how we live is the battle! Are you ready to fight? Paul says that joining the battle is being humble and gentle, patient and making allowance for other’s faults, why, because of love. The battle in life is love, it’s what caused Jesus to wrestle in the garden and die on the cross and love won the battle. So what about you, will you join the battle with:

• Humility

The first thing Paul tells us about living a worthy life is that it involves humility, actually it says all or complete humility. The Greek word is comprises of two words which refer to lowliness and the heart or mind so the Greek defines humility for us as a heart or mind that thinks lowly of itself. Philippians paints the picture of humility for us. “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). Humility is an attitude of counting the interests of others as greater than mine; it is refusing to insist on my rights and actually putting others ahead of me. The beginning of the battle then is how we view others and our need to get out of the way so that we can see them. It is more than just having a fair-minded view of ourselves and not being puffed up; we are to “count others more significant” than ourselves. Why is this the beginning of the battle, because this is what leads to the scandalous behavior of turning the other cheek, giving up your coat after your shirt has been taken, going the extra mile and helping someone who has already taken advantage you. It involves nursing and paying for the care of a stranger who has no claim on you. It includes kneeling down and washing the dirty feet of those who are under your authority. It means being known as a slave of all because you serve everyone. In short it means living out Philippians 2:3-8 and being like Jesus, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Such humility, and only such humility, is worthy of the calling that we have received. Only such humility will enable us to carry out what we are then told to be and do. For with humility we are next called by Christ to possess:

• Gentleness

The image that comes to my mind that best captures the essence of this word is the picture of power under control seen in how a horse responds to the reins of its rider. Gentleness is not about acting weak or subservient, but rather keeping strength in check to do what is best for others. The gentle person does not feel the need to throw his weight around, but rather to use whatever ability he has for the good of others. Without humility what would happen to gentleness, our world reveals the answer, it would be swallowed up by selfishness. Humility reveals the Savior and pride reveals people. Today the battle cry of love may seem a strange song but how we live this life is what the battle is really over. Today will you rise to the call of Christ and live a life worth of your calling or will you run?  “Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live… at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!”