SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/20/2019
8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Call to the Worthy Walk”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians 4:1
Message of the
verse: “Therefore
I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the
calling with which you have been called,”
We want to look at the words “I…entreat
you,” first of all as Paul made no apology for pleading with people to do what
he knew was right. John MacArthur writes
“Parakaleo (entreat) means to call to
one’s side, with the idea of wanting to help or be helped. It connotes intense feeling, strong
desire. In this context it is not simply
a request but a plea, an imploring or begging.
Paul was not giving suggestions to the Ephesians but divine standards,
standards apart from which they could not live in a way that fittingly
corresponded to their being children of God.
Paul never exhorted on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. He could not rest until all those given into
his spiritual care walked ‘in a manner worthy of the calling with which’ they
had ‘been called.’”
As
we look at some different places in the New Testament we see more of Paul’s
heart speaking to people like King Agrippa to listen to his testimony. This is found in Acts 26:3. Then in another place he strongly urged the
Corinthians to reaffirm their love for a brother who had repented. This is found in 2 Corinthians 2:8. He
pleaded with the Galatians to stand in the liberty of the gospel as seen in
Galatians 4:12. One of my favorite
sections that goes along these lines comes from Romans 9:1-3 as Paul pleads
with his Jewish brethren to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. “1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not
lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and
unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated
from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” We truly see Paul’s heart in this section of
Romans.
In
MacArthur’s commentary he writes about the difficulty of being a Pastor and
trying to do the things that go along with what Pastors do, stating that some
get depressed because they do not have enough time to prepare their sermons and
to do the other things in the ministry that they need to do. My thoughts on this is that first of all the
people in the congregation should be praying for their Pastors on a daily
basis, and then they should also be doing the things that they need to do, and
in the case that we are looking at here that means to learn to walk worthy with
the Lord. I have a special prayer list
that I use to pray for our Pastors every Saturday, and also a smaller portion
that I use to pray daily for our Pastors.
In that one used on Saturday there is a section in it that I have quoted
from time to time on different Spiritual Diaries, and I think that it fits in
here and so I will quote it on this SD. This
quote comes under the heading of “Effectiveness in Proclamation.”
“Now the following is a quote from Gardener Spring
“"We cannot convert a single soul. We press home the divine commands and
they trample upon His authority. We press home His threatenings and they
despise His justice. We speak tenderly of His promises, they heed not His
faithfulness of His beloved Son and they tread Him under their feet, of His
patience and long suffering but their impenitence and obstinacy are proof
against them all. We reason and plead with them until the obstacles to their
conversions seem to us to rise higher by every effort we make to overcome them.
Until finally we sink in dejection and cry out, `What mighty power can break
these granite-like hearts, what omnipotent grasp can rescue these perishing men
from everlasting burnings?' O
you blood-bought churches, your minister’s need your prayers for the exceeding
greatness of that power which God worked in Christ when He raised Him from the
dead," end quote.”
As we go back to our text we see the word “walk” in it and that word in the New Testament is frequently used to refer to daily conduct in our day-by-day living, and it is the theme of the last three chapters in Ephesians. John MacArthur writes “In the first sixteen verses of chapter 4, Paul emphasizes the unity and in the rest of the chapter the uniqueness of the Christian walk. In chapters 5 and 6 he stresses the moral purity, the wisdom, the Spirit control, the family manifestations, and the warfare of the Christian walk.”
He goes on to explain the word “worthy:” Axios (worthy) has the root meaning of balancing the scales—what is on the one side of the scale should be equal in weight to what is on the other side. By extension, the word came to be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. A person worthy of his pay was one whose day’s work corresponded to his day’s wages. The believer who walks ‘in a manner worthy of the calling with which he has been called’ is one whose daily living corresponds to his high position as a child of God and fellow heir with Jesus Christ. His practical living matches his spiritual position.”
We will continue looking at this subject in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my desire to continually to learn more about my high position that I have in Christ as I have been looking at since the middle of October that is found here in Ephesians and then to walk in a manner worthy of that high calling. When I fail I have to remember the words of the old Scottish preacher who said “The successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Part of a worthy walk has to do with being humble as seen in Romans 12:3.
Verse that goes along with yesterday’s quotation: “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13).”
2/20/2019 9:03 AM
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