A Worthy Journey

This past Sunday I preached a message on one of THE MINISTRIES WE PRACTICE TOGETHER in the sermon We Do Discipleship. As you know, discipleship is important! Here is why—Discipleship is the discipline required to accomplish Christian living. God’s powerful river of blessing flows through the channel of discipleship. We are thus empowered to live the Christian experience only through a daily commitment to discipleship. We must walk with Jesus daily if we would live powerfully and honor Him fully. We owe this to Him, surely! Paul thought so! Here is what he said on this matter—

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Ephesians 4:1).

The phrase “live a life” literally is “walk” (peripateo) in the Greek. The word walk is a key word in the book of Ephesians. Paul used it five times to describe the Christian life. What does he mean when he refers to the Christian life as a walk? Someone said it means that, “It is a long obedience in the same direction.” I think that is a good description. It is to walk with Christ daily over a lifetime. This is discipleship!

However, Paul goes further because he urges the readers to live a life “worthy of the calling you have received” (v.1).The word “worthy” (axios) means “to be of equal weight.” So picture an old set of weight scales with a bar across the top, and two containers hanging by a chain from the ends of the bar. In one of the containers is what God expects of us and in the other container is what God sees in us (the life we actually live). Paul encourages us to compare these and see if they measure about the same. He is saying: I plead with you to think about what all Christ has done for you and compare that with how you are living in response to what all He has done for you. Paul is so right! We should seek to live our lives equal to the blessings given to us and the life God expects of us. Each of us should say:

Christ has done so much for me personally,
The least I can do is to live worthily.

This calls for a serious commitment to a life of discipleship! If you want to know where to begin, go back and listen prayerfully to my sermon We Do Discipleship from this past Sunday. If you have further questions, your pastors, deacons, teachers and all on our great leadership team of service will help you in this discovery. Blessings to you in your discipleship journey!

Devotedly yours,
Pastor Ron