SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/18/2019
8:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to “The Lowly Walk”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 Therefore I, the
prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have
been called, 2 with all humility and
gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all
who is over all and through all and in all.”
John
MacArthur entitles his tenth chapter of his commentary on the book of Ephesians
“The Lowly Walk” and as seen above it covers the first six chapters of the 4th
chapter of Ephesians.
As
we begin this fourth chapter of Ephesians we see it begins with the word “therefore”
a word that as I have mentioned in earlier SD’s is used some 904 times in the
Word of God, that is the NASB95 version, which is the version that I use. This word therefore comes up when we want to
look back at what we have learned, and as we look back at the first three
chapters of Ephesians we have learned much and so when we see this word “therefore”
beginning the fourth chapter we are moving on to, in this case, talk about how
we are to live because of what we learned in these first three chapters.
What
we could compare this section to is a person who joins an organization, or
lives in a household and has a desire to follow the rules of the organization
in order to be faithful to it. This is
what Paul is going to be talking about here.
Since we are now born-again believers in Jesus Christ there are things
that we want to do, things we want to practice as we think about all that the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for us as He took our place on the cross, suffered
the sufferings that we should have suffered, and then died the death that we
should have died, all for us. After that
He was buried for three days in the tomb, and then the Spirit of God raised Him
to New life which shows that God was satisfied with the death that He died for
us. Once we confess that we are sinners
unable to do anything on our own to be acceptable to God we are born from
above. Now since this greatest of
miracles has happened to us we are to walk in a worthy manner with the Lord,
something that Paul will be talking about as we begin this 4th
chapter of Ephesians. John MacArthur
writes “Sometimes in the church such loyalties to standards and fear of
ostracism do not operate with the same force.
To many Christians are glad to have the spiritual security, blessings,
and promises of the gospel but have too little sense of responsibility in
conforming to its standards and obeying its commands.
“In
the first three chapters of Ephesians Paul as set forth the believer’s position
with all the blessings, honors, and privileges of being a child of God. In the next three chapters he gives the
consequent obligations and requirements of being His child, in order to live
out salvation in accordance with the Father’s will and to His glory. The first three chapters set forth truth
about the believer’s identity in Christ, and the last three call for the
practical response.”
I
want to quote another paragraph at this time from MacArthur’s introductory
comments: “God expects conformity within
the church, the Body of Christ. It is
not a forced legalistic conformity to external rules and regulations, but a
willing inner conformity to the holiness, love, and will of our heavenly
Father, who wants His children to honor Him as their Father. ‘Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the
gospel of Christ,’ Paul admonished the Philippians, ‘so that whether I come and
see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one
spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel’ (Phil.
1:27).”
As
we live out the Christian life we have to understand right doctrine as this is
essential to right living. It would be impossible
to live a faithful Christian life without knowing what biblical doctrine is all
about. To define doctrine we could say
that it simply means teaching, and there is no way that even the most sincere
believers can live a life that is pleasing to the Lord without knowing what God
Himself is like and knowing what the sort of life that God wants us to live
out. If we set biblical theology aside
then we will also set aside sound Christian living. One of the things that I have talked about
many times in these Spiritual Diaries is the necessity of knowing and learning
God’s attributes, for if we know His attributes then we will know more about
who God is and that to me is one of the most important things that any believer
can do if he wants to walk worthy with the Lord, and this is something we
should all strive for. When one thinks
of how brief our life is on planet earth and the in heaven it goes on for
eternity it should be our desire to live our life here on earth in a manner
worthy to the Lord. I have mentioned
that our Christian life on earth is just a warm up lap around the track as we
prepare to live out life, real life when we get to heaven.
MacArthur
concludes his introductory comments by showing us where we will be headed as we
study these six verses: “In Ephesians
4:1-6 Paul appeals to believers to walk worthily of their high position in
Jesus Christ. In describing that walk he
discusses its cal, its characteristics, and its cause.” We begin, Lord willing, with “The Call To the
Worthy Walk” in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I look forward to better understand more
about my walk with the Lord in a manner that is worthy. It is my prayer that the Lord will not only
teach me more about the worthy walk, but will empower me to live it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To continue to think about and study the
truths found in Romans 12:3.
Scripture verse that goes along with
yesterday’s quote: “So let each one give
as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful
giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).”
2/18/2019 9:13 AM
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