The second half of Ephesians is about how God means us to live now that we are His children. Who we are shapes what we do.
This passage from Ephesians 4:1–16 is about growing up. It’s about who we’ll be when we’re all grown up in Christ, and it shows us how we’ll get from here to there.
This sermon centers on three themes:
1) Unity
The hinge of the letter to the Ephesians is this: “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
You’ve been called into God’s salvation and family as His sons and daughters, so live like it! Let your identity become your living. Let your being shape your behaving. Let who you are flow into what you do.
Act like the person you already are in Jesus Christ. Now, what would that look like? Four traits to pursue as members the family of God: humility, gentleness, patience, and loving forbearance.
We are united in Christ’s body. We aren’t called to create this unity because God has already done that. But we are called to maintain unity.
What does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called? It means living out the very character of Christ with and toward one another, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. It means unity.
2) Diversity
The unity of the body of Christ isn’t uniformity. Uniformity means everyone is exactly alike. But in the body of Christ, everyone is different. And yet, we’re all united in Christ. There’s unity-in-diversity.
We are diverse in Christ’s gifting. You are a uniquely gifted conduit of Christ’s grace for those around you. When you show up, grace pours out. We’ll never be all that Christ wants us to be unless you’re present.
3) Maturity
The reason Christ is giving all these gifted people to His church as pipelines of His grace is in order that we might grow to full maturity, so that together we might become like Christ.
We are maturing in Christ’s fullness. God has the audacious aim of making us like Jesus in every way. And if that is the case, we have a lot of transformation to undergo. To grow in maturity in the fullness of Christ, we must learn to “speak the truth in love” with one another.
Takeaway: God grows us by grace through one another.
So, what does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called?
It means eagerly maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
It means eagerly contributing our diverse gifting for the building up of the body of Christ.
It means speaking the truth in love with one another that we might mature in the fullness of Christ.
Unity through diversity unto maturity.
Ephesians 4:1–16
