Walk This Way

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul urges the Ephesian believers to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." (Eph 4:1) Seems reasonable. But, uh, one question. What calling? I mean, don't we have to know the calling to know how we should walk? Well, sure. Let's look.

Paul begins the letter with this claim:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Eph 1:3)

Okay, so the blessings that He has already given are part of our calling. What blessings (Eph 1:4-14)? Well, He "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless" and "He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ" and He redeemed us through His blood and He made known to us the mystery of His will to unite all things in Christ and He gave us an inheritance and He gave us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance. For starters. All of that was "according to His purpose" and "to the praise of His glory." Our calling, then, includes His blessings for His glory and His purpose.

Further, Paul prayed that they would know God (Eph 1:17), specifically in terms of "the hope to which He has called you," "the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints," and the "immeasurable greatness of His power." What power? That power that raised Christ from the dead and raised Him to God's right hand "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion." (Eph 1:17-23) That's part of our calling.

And there is more.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. (Eph 2:4-5)

The news itself is stunning -- raising dead sinners like that (Eph 2:1-3) -- but He did it "so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph 2:7) We have a calling, to make known the vast riches of His grace in His kindness to us.

He's not done. Paul told the Gentile believers to remember their first condition -- "separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12) -- and now are brought near (Eph 2:13), made into "one new man" (Eph 2:15), being "built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Eph 2:22). Another aspect of our calling.

And there's more. Paul told the Ephesian believers about his mission to the Gentiles (Eph 3:2-13). The purpose was "so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." (Eph 3:10) Our calling.

Finally, Paul prays. He asks God to strengthen them "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Eph 3:10) for a specific purpose. That purpose is that they would "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Eph 3:18-19). This is obviously impossible on its face, so Paul points out that God "is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us" for His glory (Eph 3:20-21). Our calling.

There it is, in summary. There is our calling. There is the standard that should dictate how we should walk. With God as central and God's glory always in view and God's purposes always at the fore, we are called always to make Him known on the basis of His grace ... no, the "immeasurable riches of His grace." We are called to embrace His blessings and glorify Him in all things. Walk that way. Paul begins chapter for with a "therefore." In this case it is a huge "therefore." We have a lot of walking to do to walk in a manner worthy of that calling.