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Article by Derek Hill
Derek Hill is a father of two beautiful children. He plays guitar for the worship team at his church. Listening or playing music is one of Derek's favorite things to do. He has been in the church his whole life. His favorite Bible verse is Romans 8:31 - "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Derek has written 114 articles on What Christians Want To Know! Read them in the archive below.
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Thank you so much Derek! What great verses to remind us who paid the price and that we, the blood bought ones, are to live “worthy” of the calling of God in Christ Jesus.
It always bothered me a little(lot) to think of myself “able” to do anything “worthy”, let alone walking in step with God’s lofty requirements of what He deemed “worthy”.
It was in the remainder of that verse that it started to sink in that His idea of “worthy” was a lot different than mine:
” I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” Eph 4:1-3
Then I realized this proud person(me) was really in the soup because Jesus demanded the impossible, to walk in “like” humility as Him, who washed his follower’s feet. This was His example, to do likewise, in order to be deemed “worthy” of His calling. Wow! I realized that this would require a miracle because it wasn’t happening on my end.
You have reminded me to pray, “Even so Lord Jesus, help me , because it is only through your Holy Spirit’s power in my life that I have any hope of being ‘worthy’ of your calling”. All the glory goes to Him.
Thank you, as always, for your encouragement Derek!
Blessings,
DocReits
Thank you so much for those encouraging words DocReits! I want to encourage you also by saying that you can approach the throne of God with boldness and confidence if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. God only sees you as Holy because Jesus blood has washed your sins away! I am so thankful and grateful for Jesus! And you too! God bless you!
DocReits,
As well as enjoying Derek’s post, I enjoyed yours as well.
This verse you quoted …. ” I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” Eph 4:1-3
is a very powerful verse indeed. There is one part of this verse that I think gets read over and not noticed by many. …… “beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,”
Notice especially the “with which you were called” part. We do not all have the same calling. God knows exactly what we all know and what we are capable of. He doesn’t expect everyone to do all the greatest things.
I think a lot of people get a little to hard on themselves sometimes over verses such as this. That is why it is so important for us to remember God’s instructions when studying his Word.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
The “rightly dividing the word of truth.” is the part I was trying to emphasize her.
I believe that God calls us all according to our skills and abilities, and I think maybe we all expect too much from ourselves at times. I’m not saying that it is ok to be a slacker or anything like that. Better say that so there won’t be a bunch of replies about how that’s what I’m implying.
Humbly,
Samuel A. Huber
Thank you Samuel for your reply to my thoughts,
Unfortunately the KJV translates Eph 4:1 like this:
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the VOCATION wherewith ye are called”(emphasis mine).
That is the one and only place you will find the word “vocation” in the KJV of the Bible although it is the same Greek word as is used 10 other places in the KJV NT which is always translated “Calling”. The NKJV corrects this.
Unfortunately I believe you understand this text to be referencing “calling” as one’s vocation. Context argues against that here.
The Greek word for “Calling” here is an “invitation”. It has the sense of God’s invitation to partake in eternity with Him(i.e. Salvation, to become a saint ,Strong’s Con.). This can be seen in 9 out of those 10 references where the word used here as “Calling” is used in the NT.( Heb 3:1, 2Tim 1:9, 2Th 1:11, Philip 3:14, Rom 11:29, 2Pet 1:10)
Further you state,
“We do not all have the same calling.”
Yes we do. This is God’s invitation as the “Called out” or “invited” ones as the text in question references(Eph 4:1). We are to walk “worthy” of this calling(of being invited by Christ to be one of His redeemed), as the contiguous text explains, by acting,
” with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:2,3) That is HOW we walk “worthy”.
You will notice the overlapping themes with the fruit of the Spirit mentioned here:
” But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22,23)
That is why my original post stated to Derek,
“You have reminded me to pray, “Even so Lord Jesus, help me , because it is only through your Holy Spirit’s power in my life that I have any hope of being ‘worthy’ of your calling”. All the glory goes to Him.”
It is only as Christians that we can walk worthy because it is only through Christ’s Holy Spirit, working through us, that we are able to exhibit this(His) fruit.
I welcome your comments.
Blessings,
DocReits
I’m sorry, I guess I was unclear. I do not disagree with what you said, but I was not talking about vocation.
I was talking about the work that the Lord would have us do for him and his cause as we walk in our journey with him in this lifetime.
That’s all.
Thanks,
Sam