"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,"My last post focused on the calling that the Lord has laid upon our hearts, and I was blessed to hear of all that the Lord has been calling some of you to do. Ephesians 4:1 mentions our callings, but it takes it a step further by telling us to walk worthy of them.
So what does it mean to walk worthy of our calling? It certainly doesn't mean we deserve it. Nothing we do can ever make us deserving of what Christ gives us. He has blessed us more than words can explain (Ephesians 3:20) - much less what we could ever deserve! We can never be worthy, but we strive every day to become worthy. In all of His life on earth, Jesus never commanded us to do something that we could simply do on our own. We need Him for everything.
How do we walk worthy of our calling, then? Paul answers this in the following verses of Ephesians 4:
"with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."Too many times we think that being "worthy" involves more doing. Sure, the Lord wants us to do things for Him, but this does not come first. "For by grace you have been saved, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) What comes first is not works but instead humility, kindness, patience, unity, and peace - certainly not things we can do by ourselves.
Submitting our "works" to God and allowing Him to change our hearts is hard, but it is the only way we can walk worthy of our calling. When we arrive in heaven, we will be judged for what we have done and will be rewarded accordingly. While our works (or lack of) will not void our salvation, what a sad day it will be if our list of works for Christ fit on a napkin. Let's build a library of accomplishments - a library built on a foundation of humility.