Worthy?

-->

Ephesians 4:1 – “Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God.”

Just a note about process. In recent readings in scripture, I have concentrated on limiting my scope to one or two verses. That is, concentrating on a particular thought by the author. Reading slowly, to gain clarity on what is being said. Many times – too many – I have read rapidly (which has some merit) and just run over some key insights because I was moving too fast. This deliberately slow reading has been helpful. Not merely to facilitate ‘meditation’ on the text, but to read with focused comprehension.

And that is appropriate. Ancient writers were pressured into writing brief and succinct prose as writing materials were very expensive. Those writers (generally) needed to say a lot in a little space. A good student, using sound process, will tease out that dense writing to gain additional helpful insights.

Let’s get on with it …

Look at this phrase: “Live as people worthy of the call.”

What’s interesting is that Paul made such a strong statement regarding being saved by grace, yet now – as saved people – we are to live as if we deserved being saved – worthy of the call. We are to live as people who are worthy of the call. God has called us – we all agree on that. Calvinist theology says he did so without any consideration for our works or other merit – and I affirm that.

If it is true – that we did nothing to merit our calling; that it was just placed on us without any discernable worth – then where does this obligation come to live as being worthy of the call? In theological fact, I am not worthy of it. Yet Paul now seems to ask us to live as if we did ‘merit’ salvation.

Well, that’s a lot of fun Theological Geek stuff. Is there a resolution? Yes – of course there is. It is the difference between B.C. and A.D. “B.C.” is commonly known as “Before Christ,” while “A.D.” is an acronym for the Latin, “year-of the-Lord.” As a kid, who didn’t know Latin, I was just told “A.D.” meant ‘After Death’ – meaning after Jesus’ death.

Here is a part of the Good News in the calendar of history. Before Christ (B.C.), I was broken, destroyed, and dead. Remember Ephesians 2:1? We were spiritually dead and hostile to God.

But God.

God did something. He called us - though we had no worth, merit, or leverage – and we were Born From Above (John 3:3), regenerate, a new person. Before Christ, we were helpless, dying, and weak.

But After Death – especially Jesus’ resurrection – we are made new, have a great future hope, and are strengthened by God the Spirit living within us. Now, in my personal ‘years-of the-Lord,’ I am a new person with power to live differently – to live as if, yes, we are worthy of the calling that God gave to salvation.

In fact, I am worthy because Christ died for me and now lives in me (Galatians 2:20).

And here, our non-Calvinist friends help us out. It turns out that Wesley stated that we should be able (theoretically) to completely avoid sin. That is, we have been given the spiritual power to do exactly that. But, in our weakness and folly we choose to give in to the power of habit and fall into temptation and sin.

Paul says, ‘Don’t do that! Understand who you really are, now! You are God-indwelt little Christs – start acting like it!’