In Love, Eph, 4:1-3
Ephesians 4:1-3 · Vern Peterman · Feb 6, 2005
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 56
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262320266996

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We'll be moving into Ephesians chapter 4 here, the second half of the book of Ephesians, and we're taking a momentous turn, if you will, because we've been covering the first three chapters, which applies to our position in Christ. It keeps laying that out. Here he turns a corner and we begin seeing Paul urging. We begin seeing Paul giving things that are in the way of imperatives, and so we'll see more of that here as we study in the weeks ahead. Here in this passage I want to point out, this is one of Paul's long sentences. Paul wrote, as he wrote through the book of Ephesians, it's amazing, it is almost as if Paul got so carried away with what he was writing, he wrote a number of long sentences. You've got them there in your handout. By the way, if you're joining us for the first time this morning, that's the page number on your handout, okay? So if you see a page number, that's it. If you don't see a page number, it's not in your handout. All right.

One of the things that shows up there, we talked when we studied through it, Ephesians 1, 3 through 14 is one long sentence in the Greek. As a matter of fact, we put a trophy and a globe next to that. Why? Because Paul gets a world record for that one. Okay? So far as we know, in all of Greek literature, that is the longest sentence.

4-1-6, by comparison, is short, but it's still a long one. So what's going to happen here, we're going to be looking at the first half of that 4-1-6 here this morning, and then the second half next week. As we look at it here, something else to take note of. There's a certain structure or pattern that Paul uses where he first kind of states his urging and then he lays out, and we put it to four bullets here, a characterizing of what he's talking about there. Something that you will note and will make note of as we go through here, there in that characterizing of what he is urging them, There are four words that come out and match exactly.

Galatians 5, 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit. So what is he urging? He's saying, I urge that you walk, but then he characterizes it and he says, I urge that you walk in such a manner that the fruit of the Spirit is displayed. Alright, so that's one thing. If we look at Galatians 5, 22 and 23, here are the words that are identical, basically, to those in the English and the Greek, between the two passages. So he is urging them, as they walk, to express the fruit of the Spirit, the life that the Lord Jesus gives by the Spirit's doing.

So, are you ready to dive into the details? Therefore, therefore I. Now Paul, as he has been doing all along, he likes to use logical connections, doesn't he? For this reason, therefore, he keeps putting those things in there. And we've made the point before that Paul often, especially in the last part of his books, will give imperatives.

The Greek has a form called an imperative. We don't have it exactly in English other than to underscore something, maybe with volume. or somehow saying something differently, or adding some words to it. But this is an imperative, it means a must. And the point that we make here in the New Testament epistles, especially in the books of Paul, he makes imperative statements. He says, you must do this.

But the imperative, and this is an important distinction, the imperative is not a moral imperative, implying your condemnation if you fail, but a logical imperative based on your position. That is why in the first half of Ephesians he lays out their position in Christ. In the second half where he gives imperatives, or in this case gives urgings, it is based on the position that they have in Christ. It is logically extending the position, not coming at you with a moral condemnation.

See the difference? Big distinction there. One of the things that popped out at me as I was looking at this, this is a pattern that Paul has followed before, Romans at the end of chapter 11, the start of chapter 12. By the way, chapter 12 is where Paul starts off with a practical section, right?

An applied section, and he's doing the same thing in Ephesians. So what does he say? For from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be the glory, which he also just said at the end of chapter 3, to him be the glory forever, amen. This verse ends like chapter 3 with some, it's a little bit more abbreviated, but then what does he do? He starts chapter 12, therefore I urge you, okay?

A similar beginning. This is Paul's pattern. He will pray for the believers, he will glorify the Lord, and on the basis of what he has prayed, on the basis of his glorifying the Lord, he will then convey to them, here are the practical truths that carry out from that.

Therefore, I am the prisoner of the Lord." Now, Paul is not saying that the Lord is holding him prisoner. He's not in Jesus' jail. But, the point there is that he is a prisoner because of his ministry for the Lord. If it wasn't for the ministry of the Lord, he said, I wouldn't be going through this. It's for the sake of the Lord that I am a prisoner.

He has told them at the beginning of chapter 3, this is for Christ's sake. So he's continuing on this idea in more brief form here in chapter 4. He says, I implore you. Now he could have given them an imperative. You must do this. Again, not to condemn. He wrote to the church at Rome, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So the intent is not to offer a moral imperative by which you may be condemned. but a logical imperative based on your position. If we have a logical imperative based on our position, or an urging, it is a logical imperative because anything else is spiritual insanity.

So, he urges them, he could have used the imperative, instead he urges them. It's still logical, because he says therefore, but it's personal. It's personal. It's a personal appeal. As an apostle, he can say, you must, can't he? Right? He has the authority as an apostle to say that. But what does he do instead? He conveys to them his care for them, personally, by appealing to them on this urging.

I urge you. I urge you. I, the one who am imprisoned. I, the one who am chained up to a Praetorian guard 24-7. for the sake of Christ. That person who is willing to pay that price because he says, I love you, I urge you. That's his imploring, his urging, his beseeching as King James has it. Then there's this word parapateo, walk. He says, I implore you or I urge you to walk. Now, so what's he talking about here?

Does he mean we need to become experts at walking? Subscribe to some walking magazine, get some books. Study this walking thing. Do we need to really study walking with intensity? Is that what he's talking about? Maybe get a magazine or two. Maybe specialize even. Country walking. See?

Is that what he's talking about? Probably not. He's not implying we ought to get lots of practice at this physical walking. He's instead pointing to a spiritual walking. We saw this word walk before. He's used it previously but it was never before in an urging. It was never before in an imperative. Previously, he was saying, the unbelievers also walk.

And he was saying, the Lord prepared good works that we might walk in them. Here, we see that the word walk was used in the Old Testament numerous times as a way of describing our lifestyle, habit of life. It is a manner of living. is what he's referring to there, and you see several references in the Old Testament. You have that on page two of your handout.

And in Exodus 16.4, again, the admonition there has to do with walking. So what he's carrying over is an idea out of the Old Testament. Is he giving them law?

No. It's in reference to lifestyle, manner of walking, the way that one lives. That's the focus. How he gets there, in terms of the way one lives, is quite different from the law, but he draws upon that Jewish understanding of the word walk as a lifestyle. The Greeks rarely used it.

Okay, now, in Ephesians, starting from this verse, we're going to see it show up several times, and now, rather than being some reference that doesn't have directly to do with how they are living right now, from here to the rest of the book of Ephesians. It's going to continue to point to how they're living, what's their lifestyle, what does it look like. We saw this also in Colossians, and we've seen the first couple instances. Each chapter in Colossians has one reference to this walking, this lifestyle, this outward behavior. This word means to walk about. Interesting, walking is something you do one step at a time, isn't it? It's one step at a time. It's not one big leap. Walk is referring to our lifestyle, our daily manner of living.

That's what the urging is about. He says, I am urging you. I've told you for three chapters about your position. I am urging you now to let that position get carried out in the way you live. Real, real world, practical, actual. Real time, real life reality.

The believer is urged to walk in his daily condition consistent with that eternal position. It's the position that he already has in Christ. Now, he begins making a characterization here. He doesn't say, hey, I want you to walk, because really, both believers and unbelievers are walking. Walking not just in the sense of putting feet out in front of the other, but walking in the sense that everybody has a lifestyle. Everybody has a lifestyle, both the believer and the unbeliever. As believers, there is an urging, an imploring about that lifestyle in a manner worthy.

He's characterizing it now. Here's a Bible study insight that would be good for us to take a look at here. In the New Testament, whenever we read about an urging or exhorting, a beseeching, anything of that sort, an imploring, he's talking about our condition.

There's no sense in urging you about your position, right? It's a done deal. He's been telling them all along for three chapters, you've been seated with Christ. Does He have to keep telling you, be seated? No. It's a done deal. God did it. There's no urging about our position. We can't tweak it, adjust it, enhance it, or alter it. We have a position in Christ as believers that is fixed in the heavenlies.

The urging is about our daily condition. Whenever you see an urging in the New Testament epistles, that's what it's pointing to. He's talking about reality. Here's what it looks like here on planet Earth in space and in time. That's what he's pointing to. The typical basis for that urging is our eternal position in Christ. Based on your position in Christ, I urge you in this direction in your daily condition. It is also a more personal way of saying what could have been an imperative, but he is urging them because he cares about them personally. He's making a personal appeal rather than an authoritative appeal. The calling to which you've been called.

He isn't talking about any phone calls. He's not talking about cell phones or anything of the sort. you know, hey Courtney, you've got a call, right? Not one of those. It's not somebody calling your name, like several weeks ago, hey Vern! Okay? Not that. You have a call, and this call, okay? In Ephesians 1, remember, he told us that the Father chose us. He told us that the Son redeemed us and the Spirit sealed us.

Paul prayed chapter 1, starting with verse 15 through the end, that we might know the hope of His calling. When we get into the second chapter, the Father saved us, and He spent the first three verses telling us how desperately we needed to be saved. The Father saved us and placed us in the heavenlies with Christ. Then He goes to tell about how in Christ's death, both Jew and Gentile were created into this new creation, the Church, that never existed before. One body with access to the Father.

Then, when we got into chapter 3, it told about how our call was something of which God revealed to us. God took the initiative to reveal, and He revealed to us His eternal purpose. Paul prayed that we might be enabled and empowered That's what we saw at the end of chapter 3. We might be enabled and empowered to convey from our position into our condition.

God's energizing. God's doing it. He did not give us a position and say, that's what your condition ought to be. Go for it. He said, here's your position in Christ. It's fixed in the heavenlies. So much so that He broke a world record. He set a world record when He began telling about it. His pen just wouldn't stop.

Then he spells it out and he says, okay, I'm praying for you now that that carrying over of that position into your daily life, day-to-day, moment-by-moment reality, would be by God's power, God's enabling, God's doing. That our daily living wouldn't just be a matter of some standard being set out there and give it your best shot, but God carrying it out by His power, His doing, His energizing.

In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul begins to spell out what that looks like. If I have this position in Christ, and I am living from the heavenlies, if I am blessed in the heavenlies, irreversibly, untouchably in the heavens, if God is the one enabling me, what does that look like? That's what he begins telling them. Here's what it looks like when a believer who has this position, is depending upon the Lord for God's energizing, this is what it looks like in daily life. Here's what it looks like when you put skin on it. Now, so we look at this passage here, and what do we have?

In a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called, here is where it begins to qualify. What does it look like to have a manner worthy? Does that mean we have to try really hard to be worth the salvation? No. It's a manner consistent with the calling. He says, I've spent three chapters here telling you how incredible your calling is, how phenomenal your position in Christ is.

Now, I've also prayed for you that it would be the Lord in your life making that calling a reality in your daily condition. That it would be lived out, not by your life, not by your best, not by the old college try, but it would be lived out by God's doing, God's accomplishment, God's energizing, by His working in you.

Now, here's what that looks like. And here it begins to describe, and we'll look at each of these points here, But that's what this last part of this portion of the passage, again, this is only the first half that we're looking at this morning of this long sentence.

But he's laying out for us, here's a description of what it means to walk worthy. That's what it is. Now, humility, the first word that he comes up to describe. Tapenophrasone is what he says. We saw this before and we were studying a couple of years ago almost in Philippians 2, 2 and 3. There it's described as humility of mind, and that's a good way to put it.

The King James has it as lowliness of mind in that passage, and it has the idea of this. Tapeno means low, and then the second half of the word refers to our mindset. And so this word tapeno was used, for example, to describe the Nile River when it was down at a low point. It was used for cutting off the top of the mountain like Herod had done to build his Herodian fortress, to cut it low or to have it be low. This is the word tied to the word that we saw all throughout the book of Philippians, proneo, the mindset, having a mindset that is lower, a fitting mindset.

He used other words to help describe that as well. He coupled that with another word, gentleness, praotas. And we need to take a look at this word because our tendency is to think of gentleness in terms of physically, maybe someone who's inclined to be gentle in their movements, or maybe in a more figurative sense, gentle in their words and their manner with people. And certainly he urges that. This particular word is curious, though. It's actually a word that has a lot of overlapping meaning in the Greek. with the word he used for humility.

And it's an idea of having a steady acceptance of God's working in our lives. How about that? A steady acceptance of God's working in our lives, seeing that God is working all things together for good. Recognizing that. So instead of just reeling off out of control, getting terribly upset, God, what are you doing? What's happening in my life? Don't you have things under control? Instead, it's recognizing God is indeed doing something very critical, important in his life, and consistent with his eternal purpose.

That's this gentleness. That's this recognition that says, you know, God's doing something here, and what I think ought to be happening is not top priority. God knows exactly what he's up to. It's a calmness about that. It's a peace about it. The next word that he uses in the English comes across as patience or long-suffering.

Macrothumia. So the point we make here is that all macrothumia is patience, but not all patience is macrothumia. Oh boy, what does he mean by that? That's intended to confuse you. This isn't macaroni. This isn't macrame. This isn't doing the macarena. This is macrothumia. Macrothymia is patience with other people.

That's to be distinguished from hupomone, which is endurance, patience with things outside of you, but not people, whether it's circumstances or things. So there's a distinction in the word. What he is mentioning here when he says this word patience is explicitly patience with other people, like the patience you have to have with me when I get up here and talk too long and show funny pictures.

Hopefully they aren't too embarrassing. So, he makes this distinction here. He is urging patience with other people. That's his urging here. Yes, is there a place for you to exhibit patience with circumstances and with things? Yes, there is. When the curtain rod doesn't work, that's a great time for patience with things. That's hoopamone. This is when people don't work.

Macrothumia, that's what he's talking about here. Both of these words are sometimes seen together, so Paul puts two of them to get the whole idea of patience. And so you see that in 2 Corinthians. Boy, those folks in the 2 Corinthians elective, they just get all kinds of neat stuff.

Anyway, 2 Timothy 3.10 as well.

Now, he says they're showing tolerance. The King James has it forbearing. You know what forbearing is, don't you? Yeah, there's forbearing. And, of course, we now have four elders at this church, and so we have perfectly good examples of forbearing. Just so you know what it looks like, what forbearance is. All right, I have to forbear my jokes, too. Showing tolerance.

This word is, in the Greek, aneko. We need to get on to what this really means. So here's aneko. What this is really talking about is patience regarding the errors and weaknesses of others in the church body. People like me. That's what he's calling them to. Showing a forbearance, a tolerance for the weaknesses and errors of others. Now, then he says tolerance for one another. Here's a curious little point there. The Greek word is all alone, and it doesn't mean all alone.

This is really interesting. This word is used lots of times in the New Testament, where the people in the church are urged, love one another, forgive one another. All those one another's that you see showing up, this is the word that's behind that. And he's pointing to it here. Showing tolerance for one another. It has to do with church relationships. It helps you do this. It's interaction between us as believers. That's what he's pointing to here. It's the relationships between Christians that are at focus.

All alone is not all alone, but it's with everybody else. You see, one of the things that's real interesting is he spent three chapters telling us about our position. And that position is certainly true of us individually, it's also true of us as a body, as a church body. Together we have a position.

The point that he makes here, he says, in love, He says showing tolerance for one another, that is entirely within this agape love, this love that has God as its source, that doesn't look to what the other person does in order to express itself, but expresses itself based on what will benefit the other person. That kind of love.

He says show tolerance for one another, I'm not going to punch you in the face. Not like, oh man, I'm at the breaking point with you, but I'm not going to punch you in the face. That's not what he's talking about. This is instead, all that tolerance is within love. It's not simply a matter of stopping right at the edge from slugging the guy in the nose. That's not what he's talking about.

He says that all has to do with carrying out that tolerance or forbearance with one another in love, in the agape love, the unconditional selfless love that looks to the benefit of the other first. He says, Endeavoring, the Greek word is spudazzo, and that's not some flavour of Italian ice cream. It means to be done eagerly and consistently. Now I know some of us occasionally have some things where our body doesn't cooperate entirely, but the intent anyway is that we breathe and that our heart beats pretty steadily and it keeps going and a half hour break isn't going to cut it, right?

That's the idea. There's consistency to it. There's a constancy to it. That's what this word diligent means. That's what Spudazzo is pointing to. There's a constancy and consistency that is characteristic of what he's about to describe here. So he says to preserve. You know what preserve means, right? Here's preserves, here's some things that are kept and preserved. To preserve is to keep, to keep it in its current condition, right? So that's why you have this word preserve.

So the word is terreo, which is literally to guard. So when the people who are reading this letter would see this word, be diligent, be constantly and consistently and continuously, tereo, what do they think? They're thinking of this. Guard. One of the things that you're all quite well aware of, I'm sure, is that if you have someone, for example, in a military guard position, you don't want them to snooze off for a couple of hours. You don't want them to just go off and go get a bite to eat. You want continuous and consistent guarding.

And so this is the verb that he uses. He's certainly not intending that the Christians ought to come up with this sort of equipment every Sunday morning. But the point being, that is the mindset of this preserving and keeping. That's the word picture that he's carried across to them.

That there is a sense of guarding that's intended. And you know when you guard something it means that There is value and meaning in the intensity of watching and preserving. You see that? So what does he do to preserve? It is a matter of guarding and keeping and preserving a unity that's already there.

There isn't any call for us to create some unity. All right, now that you're Christians, get united. That's not his call. That's not what he's saying here. The unity of the Spirit is the unity of our position that we already have in Christ. It's already there. It's already in place. It's accomplished by means of the Holy Spirit. It's His doing. It's been placed into the body of Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit.

To preserve the unity is to convey the unity that we already have in this position in Christ, together, mutually. recognizing, okay, that our basis of unity is fixed in the heavenlies. It's a done deal. So we don't have to create any unity. You don't have to cook it up or come up with it. It's there. You have in your handout, and good news, we won't go through all these passages here this morning.

You have in your handout, however, some listing of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. Those in the Acts elective may recognize these. These are not exhaustive. There are other verses that I could have used to support them. There are some other ministries that might have been included. The point being, the Holy Spirit is carrying out these ministries in each one of us. And some of them are already done deal.

You ever talk about somebody, you know, it is a common term among Christians these days, and, oh, to get an anointing or something of that sort? That's interesting. Anointed is always in the past tense for Christians. Okay? Done deal. And those are things I think to recognize here. We have it in common as believers. The unity of the Spirit. This is the unity that the Holy Spirit has brought about.

It's already there. It's already in existence. That's why we're not called to create it. We're called to guard it. To preserve what is there, not create something that wasn't. When we were studying through Philippians, Philippians 1.27, we introduced this picture. Some of you may recall it, where Paul is urging the believers in Philippi to strive together. The unity that they have and the power that comes out of that unity, Paul is saying, you don't need to create it, just preserve it, guard it.

Finally, the bond of peace. This isn't a military peace. This isn't keeping two people from fisticuffs. But instead it's a peace, it's a settled peace, recognizing we have a right relationship with the Lord. Recognizing who the Lord is and who has made us in Him. That's what it's pointing to. Real interesting, this word bond is actually pointing to chains.

Here's Paul, chained up to a Praetorian guard. At least two years prior to writing this letter, he'd been chained up to a Praetorian guard 24-7, except for some time on the ship. He spent a couple of years in Caesarea, on the coast. Now in Rome, again, 24-7, chained up to a Praetorian guard. Being chained up to a Praetorian guard wasn't fun, because the guard probably resented it, and he was under no obligation to be nice to you, even though you were chained to him. You say you're hungry? Tough. Gotta go to the bathroom? Tough. This is different.

He says, a bond is peace. How about that? Bond is peace. The peace of the Lord. That binds us together. We're together alright, but not because we're stuck. Not because somebody clinked the chains on us. We have a binding that has that sense of permanence. It's the peace of the Lord. The peace of the Lord. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage here, how wonderful it is to look and see to begin to see what it looks like when our position is carried into our condition by your spirits working in our hearts by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we look in the days and weeks and months ahead studying this passage, Lord, we look forward to the glorious wonderful time seeing what that looks like when the life of the Lord Jesus has lived out in us and through us and expressed through each of us to one another. We thank you for this passage. We thank you for the truth that you revealed to us. In Jesus' name, Amen.