Tuesday, February 19, 2019

PT-1 "The Call to the Worthy Walk" (Eph. 4:1)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2019 9:52 AM



My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-1 “The Call To the Worthy Walk”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Ephesians 4:1



            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,”



            Ephesians 3:1 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.”  We see another reminder of 3:1 in 4:1, that is that Paul was a prisoner of the Lord, and we can take from this that Paul did not believe he was a prisoner of Rome, but that he was a prisoner of the Lord.



            As we look at 4:1 and what Paul reminds his readers of as far as being a prisoner of the Lord we then can see that when he brings up the worthy walk that there may be times when that worthy walk will bring hardships to those who are walking worthy with the Lord.  It was not the intention of Paul to ask them to walk in a way in which he had not himself was walking or to pay a price that he himself was not willing to pay.  MacArthur adds “His present physical circumstances seemed extremely negative from a human perspective, but Paul wanted his readers to know that this did not change his commitment to or his confidence in the Lord.



            Paul was not asking for sympathy because of his imprisonment, but he was reminding them again of his complete subservience to Christ, his being “the prisoner of the Lord” whether he was in jail or not.  When Paul was on his way to Damascus as seen in Acts chapter nine and the Lord saved him at that time he then became a prisoner of the Lord and never sought to be free of that divine imprisonment.



            As I was reading in MacArthur’s commentary on this section of Ephesians I read two paragraphs that really have great meaning to me.  I know that from listening to his sermons and reading his commentaries that John MacArthur loves the apostle Paul and loves the life that he lived as Paul gives every believer many things that they want to do in their walk with the Lord, and so at this point I want to quote these two paragraphs and then end this SD so that we can all think about what is said here.



            “Paul had the ability to see everything in the light of how it affected Christ.  He saw everything vertically before he saw it horizontally.  His motives were Christ’s, his standards were Christ’s, his objectives were Christ’s, his vision was Christ’s, his entire orientation was Christ’s.  Everything he thought, planned, said, and did was in relation to his Lord.  He was in the fullest sense a captive of Lord Jesus Christ.



            “Most of us will admit that we tend to be so self-oriented that we see many things first of all—and sometimes only—in relation to ourselves.  But the person who has the Word of Christ abiding in him richly, to one who saturates his mind with divine wisdom and truth will ask, ‘How does this affect God?  How will it reflect on Him?  What does he want me to do with this problem or this blessing?  How can I most please and honor Him in this?’  He tries to see everything through God’s divine grid.  That attitude is the basis and the mark of spiritual maturity.  With David, the mature Christian can say, ‘I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand’ (Ps. 16:8).”



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The bar has been set very high for me as I read these two paragraphs, and only by the grace of God can I do things that will bring honor and glory to my Lord Jesus Christ.



My Steps of Faith for Today:  Romans 12:3, “Not to think more highly of myself.”



Quotation for today which is actually from an Unknown Author:  No one ever falls into sin as the result of being to watchful.”



We will look at the verse that goes along with this quote in our next SD.



2/19/2019 10:24 AM

           

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