Ephesians 4:1-6 - Practical Theology

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It's the heart of what we're going to be talking about together this morning.

We're in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Ephesians 4, we've hit the midway point of the book of Ephesians.

And this morning we're actually at a hinge point in Ephesians.

And thus far, as we've gone through, we'll do a little bit of review.

What's happened in the first three chapters is that Paul has given us this rich theology

where he's extolling the grandeur of God's love and grace.

He's explaining the life-transforming reality that through Jesus,

those of us least deserving of being in God's presence are connected to God by faith.

Those of us labeled enemy are now seated at the king's table with name tags that say connected to Jesus.

Paul has explained how all the power, all the work, all the glory for this are all God's.

Because we're saved by grace alone, he says.

And so he's talked about how being connected to God connects us also to each other.

Jews and Gentiles in the same family, one temple being built up.

Because what's most important about them, remember, is not their personal religious pedigree.

It's the fact that they're connected to Jesus.

That's what's most important.

So some of the richest theological teaching in all of the Scripture on the grace of God,

on the process of salvation, on the nature of the church.

And then we hit chapter 4.

Listen to what Paul's going to do as he makes all that great theology, practical theology.

Ephesians 4 at verse 1.

Hear God's holy word.

I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

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.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call,

one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,

who is over all and through all and in all.

The grass withers, the flowers fade, but these words of our God will indeed stand forever.

Pray with me.

Father, as these are your words,

and as what we need is to hear from you rather than from a man,

we ask that you would speak.

Would you speak to our hearts clearly?

Would you take eyes that are easily blind and allow them to see?

Would you take hearts that wander after other things and give us a heart for you?

Renew our affections after Jesus.

Would you do that by your Spirit?

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

I still remember holding my first child in the hospital.

I remember being overwhelmed with joy,

thinking things like,

how in the world could I love a little baby like this so much?

And also thinking,

I think this changes everything.

I had no idea.

Listen, I love my girls.

And what I'm about to say does not change that.

It's bad when you start this way, isn't it?

And something bad is coming.

This doesn't take away from that at all.

But they've changed everything about my life.

That's what happens, right?

We love them so much and, not but,

and it's often hard to remember life without them.

Christy and I have had this happen several times on a vacation or a date

where it's just the two of us.

And we try to think back only seven years for us.

And what did we do in the evenings back then?

How did we make decisions?

Like, what did we talk about when that happened?

And what happened was that everything changed.

The reality of becoming a parent changes not just your tax filing,

but everything, right?

Sleep schedules are altered.

Your daily plan is changed.

You suddenly follow school rezoning decisions very closely.

Where are we going to be?

Where will the kids be?

Eating out for dinner is so much more complicated.

It was already hard enough to decide where you wanted to go,

but now you're also asking,

where are the kids going to be able to make it through the meal

without being too disruptive so we can get in and get out?

And what will they like to eat?

You have to live all of life as a parent, right?

Many of you have also experienced the life-altering reality of parenthood.

Some of you have felt or seen the impact of a lifestyle-altering diagnosis.

The reality, for example, of having an allergy.

That means not just a line on my medical form,

but it means every grocery store and restaurant I go to,

I need ingredient lists and details about what I can and can't eat.

It means now nothing with peanut butter near me or no milk products.

I don't know how some of you manage it, honestly,

if I couldn't eat peanut butter.

But you have to start thinking about everything you do in light of that.

Every moment you live as someone with the allergy

or whatever it is that you're dealing with.

Some of you have felt life being altered

when you put on glasses for the first time

and all of a sudden you saw everything differently.

You didn't realize you could actually see the person over there

or the sign on the road was something you could read.

And all of a sudden, there it is.

Everything looks different.

Or you're coming out of school and you got a job for the first time

and you thought it was just going to be a job,

but now your schedule is completely altered.

Your relationships are different.

Your flexibility seems to be gone overnight.

All of life has changed.

We all know what it means to have one particular reality

that alters the rest of life.

To live the rest of life in light of one reality.

That's what Paul is going to say in the second half of Ephesians.

All this glorious theology,

all these wonderful truths that I've been talking about

actually alters all of life.

It's doctrine with a purpose.

Look at verse 1.

What does he say?

I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord,

urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling

to which you've been called.

Therefore.

Therefore, he says a great word, therefore.

Walk in a way, because of all of the things that you've heard,

walk in a way that fits with that.

Live a life that fits with the reality of who you are

and what God has done for you.

In light of all the wonderful good news that I've told you about,

here's what your life should look like.

That word translated worthy is not do enough,

be good enough, try hard enough,

but it's telling us to live in a way that's fitting,

that's appropriate, that's commensurate with the reality of who we are,

with the calling we've received.

What fits with this?

Live in a way that fits with what God has done,

the salvation that you have been given by His grace.

Interestingly, in the first three chapters of Ephesians,

you know how many commands Paul gives to the church?

Three full chapters, 50-some verses, one command.

In chapter 2, he tells them to remember some things.

Remember.

That's the only command they get for three chapters.

The commands are going to start coming fast and furious now.

As you think through the next three chapters of Ephesians,

Paul's going to say things like,

Submit.

Obey.

Love.

Put on.

Stand firm.

Be kind.

Forgive.

Do not get drunk.

Keep alert.

Speak truth.

And many, many more we're going to hit in the next few weeks.

He's about to tell us what life should look like

in light of our new reality.

And this is not unusual for Paul, if you know his letters, right?

This is how Paul often operates.

The truth he teaches always has practical implications.

And likewise, he always roots his moral commands back in rich theology.

In each letter, he tells both what is true,

he does that first,

and what to do next in light of that.

Romans, for example, has 11 chapters of intense theology,

wonderful doctrines.

And chapter 12, verse 1 says,

Therefore, in view of God's mercy,

offer your bodies as living sacrifices.

And there he goes telling us what it looks like.

Galatians has four chapters on the doctrines of grace.

And chapter 5, verse 1 says,

Therefore, stand firm.

This is not just Paul.

This is the biblical pattern, right?

That we've seen over and over.

God's grace comes first.

Always.

God's grace first.

And you never leave it.

You never outgrow it.

You never pass beyond it.

It's not moving away from the doctrine,

away from God's grace onto something else.

God's grace motivates and empowers our behavior.

That's biblical Christianity,

because Jesus changes everything.

The nature of his grace is that it meets us where we are,

but it also doesn't leave us where we are, right?

It meets us there.

We don't have to clean ourselves up, look better.

God's grace comes to us,

but it's a transformative grace.

One that doesn't leave us where we are,

but makes us new and changes all of life.

So it's vital that we keep our doctrine and our duty,

our preaching and our practice connected to each other.

Some of us love learning, right?

We love the new book, another class to take.

I'm excited.

I can't wait to do that.

But it never makes much difference in how we live.

We can deliver a great lecture on love,

but we don't show it much.

And that's no good.

Others of us haven't read a book since we were in school,

and we only read the ones that were required then.

But we scorn doctrine.

We say it only matters how we live.

Just be moral.

Just love people.

Isn't that really what matters?

But the Bible says no.

Be good for goodness sake falls short of biblical Christianity,

because it skips the heart and the relationship with God that God so desires.

We've got to keep those two connected to each other.

So that's what you're going to continue to hear

as we go through the rest of Ephesians together.

Paul is not leaving doctrine behind in order to get practical.

Paul is explaining what a life lived in light of the truths

that he's been teaching us looks like.

It's one of the reasons you hear us talk a lot at Southwood

about experiencing and expressing grace.

That's our mission, right?

Both experience God's grace and express it.

That both of those are necessary together.

We have to hear and receive and feast on God's grace for ourselves,

and we have to share it with others.

Either one without the other is anemic Christianity

or no Christianity at all.

That's why, for example, Sunday school and serving the poor

are both important.

They don't work against each other.

They work together.

So here's where Paul's headed.

He's going to walk into your workplace.

He wants to sit at your dinner table.

He wants to talk about your relationships with the world around you.

He wants to hone in on your speech,

on your marriage,

on your marriage,

on our church life.

And one at a time,

he's going to work his way through some of those things

because Jesus changes everything,

all of them.

And when we say that in 21st century America,

we get a little bit uncomfortable, don't we?

We've individualized and privatized our religion so much at every chance we get.

So that what we think is normal is this,

that religious people say,

Jesus changes Sunday morning.

The super spiritual,

the really the most religious friends I have

would say,

Jesus changes Sunday

and one hour of every other day of the week.

But the Bible says,

Jesus changes everything,

every moment of every day.

He's not a side dish to fill out your life.

The truth of Jesus is life altering.

Everything changes now

because he's redeeming and renewing all of it,

all of life.

All of it is his.

Just like becoming a parent,

having an allergy,

getting a job,

everything changes now.

And I'll be honest with you and myself,

there are a lot of days I'm really not sure I'm up for that.

I'm really not that interested.

In fact,

I don't have the bandwidth for it.

I feel like I just,

I don't have the time or the energy

to stop and think about how Jesus shows up here.

I just,

there's some things that need to get done.

I know some things that are really important to me

and I just don't really care

to stop and to put in the effort to think,

what does Jesus have to say about my marriage

or my money

or my job?

Anybody else ever felt that way?

Am I the only one that sometimes feels like,

man,

there's just so much

and I already know most of what I need.

I don't really need to know what Jesus says about this.

Can I just do some things?

But Jesus won't share his glory

with my idols.

Jesus won't allow me

to talk like a Christian on Sunday

and ignore him on Monday

and avoid what he loves.

Jesus loves me too much

to let me shipwreck myself

by leaving him out of my life.

He doesn't want me to miss

what he created and redeemed me for.

He wants to see me flourish

and honor him in all of life

for his glory

because it's also what's best for me.

That's why he says,

I urge you to walk in a manner

worthy of the calling

to which you've been called.

I know what's best for you.

I'm calling you to something.

Walk in a way that fits

with the great gifts I've given you,

with the great things

that I've done for you.

So buckle up.

Ephesians part two.

Practical theology.

Subtitle.

Paul the theologian

becomes Paul the meddler.

Today, in the rest of our passage,

he begins with one area

that's already been a big theme

in Ephesians.

It's unity.

He wants to start

by talking about unity.

He's going to begin right here

in the church

and he's going to say,

Jesus has already

united you to each other.

Now live out the unity

that already exists.

That's what he's going to tell us

in the rest of this passage.

Look at verses four to six.

He's reminding us of what's true.

There's one body,

one spirit.

You were called to the one hope

that belongs to it.

One Lord,

one faith,

one baptism,

one God and Father of all

who is over all

and through all and in all.

That's not what he hopes

will happen one day.

That's already true, right?

He's reminding us of that.

Seven times there's that one.

What you share in common,

what you all have

because there's one of it

is more important

than your differences.

You're in one family

because having Jesus

for your brother

means you have the same father

and are indwelt

by the same spirit.

It's what Jesus does

when we're connected to him.

He makes us family.

Remember how Paul told us

he did that back in chapter two?

Jesus,

Jesus himself is our peace.

He is the one

who's made us both one,

took the two

and made them one.

He did it

by breaking down in his flesh

the dividing wall of hostility.

He was creating in himself

one new man

in place of the two,

so making peace

and reconciling both of us

to God in one body

through the cross

where he killed

the hostility.

He preached peace

to those far off

and those who were near

and through him

we both

have access

in one spirit

to the Father.

Jews and Gentiles,

those who've known Jesus

a long time

and those who met him yesterday

are one.

They have one father.

They're in the same family,

especially through the cross.

That's what Jesus did for us,

right?

He made this true.

So the call for the church

here in our passage

is not to fabricate

togetherness out of nothing,

to try to act like

there's something

we have in common,

but rather to reflect

what's already true.

We're in the same family,

like it or not.

You may get to choose

your friends,

but family is family,

right?

We're already connected,

but do we act like it?

Does the way we live

reflect the biblical reality?

That's the question for us.

Paul says,

I'll tell you what it looks like

when you practically live out

that Jesus has connected you

to each other

in the same family.

You're eager to maintain

the unity of the Spirit

in the bond of peace.

You long for that.

You work for that.

You're eager.

Eager to maintain.

Notice,

not create it,

but maintain

what already is true,

the unity of the Spirit.

That sounds a lot like

our last membership vow,

doesn't it?

We're promising

to study the purity

and the peace

of the church,

to work proactively

and intently

toward her unity.

We're eager,

not just don't sow discord,

although that's

certainly important,

but positively,

we're supposed to be

working towards peace,

longing to see it come.

in our relationships.

How?

How?

What's that going to look like?

With all humility

and gentleness.

Verse 2.

With all humility

and gentleness.

That only makes sense

when your salvation

is all of grace.

Be humble.

Think less of yourself

because you make much

of Jesus.

When the focus of your heart

is on what He had to do

to rescue someone like you

from yourself,

you begin to be humbled.

You do begin to think

of yourself less

and can therefore be gentle

rather than harsh

with others.

Think about the connection there.

Who is it that you speak

harshly about?

Be honest with yourself.

When you're by yourself,

when they're not around

and you let your hair down

and you say what you really feel,

who gets the harsh criticism?

Think of that person.

Think of the words you say.

Isn't it because,

at least in the area

that you're criticizing them,

you feel superior?

More worthy, perhaps.

You wouldn't say it,

but honestly,

more holy.

Can you believe

what she said

about her kids,

about her friends,

about her church?

Can you believe

what they decided

about Sunday school,

about schooling their kids,

about VBS?

Can you believe?

Can you believe

implies you can't believe it

because you're better

than they are.

You would never do,

think,

say such a thing.

What brother or sister

are you treating harshly

because you've forgotten

you're no better

than he is?

Paul reminds us

that in this regard,

walking in a manner

worthy of the calling

we've received

involves deep humility,

knowing who we really are.

You're not the one

who figured it out first,

right?

You were dead

and he made you alive.

That's how the call worked.

That calling we received

came that way

to a dead person

that God made alive.

The good works you've done

were planned ahead of time

by him

for you to walk in them.

All the glory goes to him,

so don't think you're better

than your brother or sister.

Jesus thought

they were valuable enough

to die for.

Have you decided

they're worth less

than you?

So making every effort

to live out our unity

looks like humility

and gentleness.

And then Paul says

it looks like patience

and love,

the end of verse 2.

The idea behind the word

for patience here

has a long-term perspective

that one would be

long-suffering.

I love how Pastor

Sinclair Ferguson

says it.

He says,

this is taking

a long-term view,

especially when things

go wrong.

That's really what

it has in mind.

It assumes disappointment,

offense,

conflict,

but it urges us

to bear with one another,

to stay in relationship

rather than bail,

to suffer hurt

but respond with blessing

time and again.

And that requires

a long-term perspective,

doesn't it?

It doesn't make sense

in the moment.

It requires

a long-term perspective

because when I'm acting

ugly to you,

you have to believe

that Jesus is

making me beautiful

or else you're done

with me.

In the moment,

I'm ugly

and you see it

and you know it.

You have to believe

Jesus is making me

beautiful

because when I hurt you,

you have to actually

believe that

Jesus is going

to heal all that hurt

rather than it feeling

better to hurt back

in the moment.

A longer-term perspective.

Because when I continue

to be that kind of person

you can't stand,

you have to believe

that I'm more family

that you're stuck with forever

than a friend you can drop

at no cost to yourself.

Have you ever had

that conversation

with your kids?

If you've got more

than one kid,

you may have had

this conversation.

I, of course,

haven't,

but you've said to them

something like,

hey, y'all are sisters.

Don't treat your sister

that way.

You shouldn't speak

that way to anybody,

but especially not

your sister.

She'll be your sister

forever.

I mean,

you may move

and your friends

may move

or you may develop

a new group of friends,

but she'll always

be your sister.

Right?

That relationship

is valuable.

It's lasting.

That's the long-term

kind of view

in all of our relationships

with each other

that being patient

and bearing with one another

in love calls for.

In Christ,

these really are

your brothers and sisters.

You really will be with them

long-term.

And when I say that already,

all the objections

in your head are starting.

Oh, yeah,

that's sweet and nice,

but biological family

is different

from spiritual family.

Don't make it seem.

I know those objections

because I've heard them

and because I've thought them.

But I say to you,

the biblical,

spiritual reality

is more true

and longer lasting

than the other.

You have one Savior.

And so you have one Father.

And it really does matter

that they're your brothers

and sisters forever.

And that's really hard

for us to think about

in a Bible Belt culture

where there's churches everywhere

and our culture says

church is something

you approach

as a consumer commodity.

You go look down

the menu of churches

in your town

and find the one

that is most,

where the people there

are most like you

and it best serves

your needs.

That's what church is,

our culture says.

Very rarely do you hear

people talking about

wanting church

to be a place

where you find

hard people to love.

When you hear that,

it's not a compliment.

Usually it's a complaint,

right?

That's what it means

when we say it now.

Oh, man,

I don't fit with them.

They're hard.

They're difficult.

Who are you unwilling

to admit to yourself

as family forever?

Here's what we do.

Instead of being eager

to maintain

the unity of the Spirit,

we harbor bitterness

rather than forgive,

don't we?

God says,

same family.

Don't live at odds

with someone

I've connected you to.

Bear with them

when they fail.

Be humble

because you'll fail next.

Instead of being eager

to maintain

the unity of the Spirit,

we care only

about our own church.

Listen,

this passage

isn't anti-denominations.

That's not what it's saying.

It doesn't say

we'll all think

and act the same

about every issue.

But it does say

same family

to other Presbyterians,

to Baptists,

to Methodists,

to non-denominationalists,

to Pentecostals.

Do you remember

what's most important

Paul says?

Are you able

to major on the majors

so that you can love

and work

and cheer for others

who go to another church?

And then perhaps

the epidemic problem

in my generation

in America.

Instead of being eager

to maintain

the unity

of the Spirit,

we're not living

at odds

with other Christians.

Why?

Because we're not living

with other Christians

at all.

Because that's become

the new thing, right?

I'm not leaving Jesus.

The institutional church,

on the other hand,

is quite another matter.

We disconnect

in a split second

rather than doing

the hard work

to stay engaged.

And that can happen

at any age,

but those of us

who are younger

are really,

really good at it.

We usually think

we know better.

And those of us

in the church

need to begin

by admitting

that they have

some really valid concerns.

They often offer

really true critiques,

don't they?

They look at the church

and they love Jesus

and many churches

are full of people

who've lost

their passion for Jesus

if they ever had it.

Who've lost

the priority

of gospel ministry

and seem content

just to make themselves

comfortable and peaceful.

So I see why

the Jesus-loving

individualist wants out.

Why would I sit

in there with them?

And to be honest,

God doesn't want

the church to stay

stuck there either.

He calls us to repent

and regain the love

we had at first,

right?

But,

unity does demand

that we not give up

on the church

even at her worst.

Why?

Because God hasn't.

God says to those

in the church,

same family,

even the ones

that don't seem

to get it,

and the church

may be ugly at times,

but she's Jesus' bride.

When we disengage

because of our

perhaps accurate critiques

of the church,

we too miss

the biblical vision

of humble and gentle,

patient and loving

community

of what it really means

to be family.

But you might be thinking,

I'd never choose

to be in a small group

with them.

They're so awkward.

And how could I ever

trust her again

after the way

she betrayed me?

Theologian D.A. Carson

says this about the church.

He says,

ideally,

notice that word,

ideally.

This is the way

it should be.

The church is made up

of natural enemies.

What binds us together

is not common education,

race,

income levels,

politics,

nationalities,

accents,

jobs.

Christians come together

because they've all

been loved by Jesus himself.

They're a band

of natural enemies

who love one another

for Jesus' sake.

Ideally,

that's what the church is.

That's the way

it's supposed to be.

That's why Jesus

called Jews and Gentiles

together into his church,

right?

That wasn't an accident.

He wasn't forced to.

Why did he make it that way?

Why did he bring together

a band of natural enemies?

Because how else

could they display

the love of God?

How else could they

show the world

the love of a God

who sacrificed himself

for his natural enemies?

He wanted to be

in relationship

with them enough

that he sent his son

to the cross

for people he should,

by all regards,

have had nothing

to do with.

And so he sets us up

in the church

and designs the church

to be a place

where we find people

we'd otherwise have

nothing to do with.

And he says,

be eager to be connected

to them.

Work hard on it.

Be patient.

Bear up with one another

when you rub against each other

the wrong way.

The church is the place

where we have the chance

to be patient

as God has been patient

with us.

To love and bear

with one another

in love

as he has stuck with us

and continued to love us.

It shouldn't surprise us

when that is needed

to stay connected

to each other

in the church.

That's not shocking.

That's the way

he designed it.

It's hard.

It's needed

that we bear

with each other.

It's needed

that we suffer long,

that we're humble

and gentle.

And it's not easy.

But it's worth it.

Unity may not sound

real exciting to you.

I just want to go hear

about unity today.

That'd be good.

That applies to my life.

Unity.

You'd probably rather hear

something on marriage

or the armor of God

and we're getting there.

Those are coming.

But while it may not

seem real important to us,

it was at the top

of Jesus' list

for his followers,

wasn't it?

When Jesus prayed,

what did he want

for those who would

believe in him?

He came before the Father

pouring out his heart

in the garden

in John 17.

Do you remember it?

He prays for them

that they may all be one.

It gets close to using one

as many times

as Ephesians 4,

but not quite.

Just as you, Father,

are in me

and I in you,

that they also may be in us.

Why?

Why does he want us

to be one?

So that the world

may believe

that you have sent me.

The glory you've given me,

I've 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.

Why?

So that the world

may know

that you sent me

and that you loved them

even as you loved me.

Oneness,

unity,

so that the world

will believe

Jesus is God

and that he loves them.

Don't you want them

to know that?

Don't you want the people

you care about

to know Jesus is God

and he loves them?

The one thing

we're called to

so that people

will see and believe

that a holy God

loves sinful,

hostile people,

that that would be

the truest story of all

is loving each other

like that.

Church,

Jesus has connected you

to each other.

He's picked

your family.

Now live out

the unity

that already exists.

By this,

all men will know

that you're my disciples.

If you formally

stay together

in one denomination,

no.

If your church

never splits,

no.

If you always look,

sing, pray,

and minister

exactly the same way,

no.

If in all the diversity,

all the mess,

and all the brokenness,

you still love

one another.

Father,

forgive us.

We don't long

for that

as much as we long

for getting

what we want,

for having things

our way.