Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians 4:1-2

 

! Introduction

            I got my hair cut on Monday and after I had started getting my hair cut a fellow came and sat in the chair next to me.

When the hair dresser asked how he wanted his hair cut he said that he wanted a good hair cut, fairly short.

Then he explained that he was starting a new job the next day.

As far as I could understand he must have been a university student and the job was with a financial firm, probably as part of his education.

As I heard this conversation, I thought it was interesting that he understood that there can't be a disconnect between his appearance and the professionalism required of the job he was taking.

Over the last few months, we have been talking about all that Christ has done for us, about the message we have which is worth proclaiming and about the call from God we have to proclaim that message.

Ephesians 4:1,2 teaches us that there cannot be a disconnect between what we have received and what we have been called to and the way we live our lives.

These verses are addressed to all of us as the church.

The words in these verses are plural which means that they are not written so much to any one individual, but rather to each individual as they make up the body of Christ, the church.

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I.       The Urgency of the Appeal

            As Paul addresses the Ephesian church in this regard there is a definite urgency to what he is saying.

The urgency comes out in his comment that he is a "prisoner in the Lord."

This comment seems somewhat out of place and we wonder why he mentions that he is a prisoner at this point in his teaching.

From other things which Paul has written we know that he saw himself as a prisoner in several senses of the word.

There were times when he had been arrested because he was proclaiming the gospel.

At other times he writes about how he was compelled to proclaim the gospel and perhaps at times he felt like a prisoner of the gospel message itself.

Either way, it is clear that his choice to follow Christ was something that consumed his life.

As a person who was so committed to Christ that he was willing to be in prison or to be bound by the necessity to proclaim the gospel, his comment lends urgency to the appeal made here because it tells us that he spoke as one who did not follow Christ theoretically but with a full commitment.

He knew what it meant to follow Christ and he knew the cost involved in following Christ.

When he speaks in this way, he speaks with the authority of someone who did not give advice from an ivory tower, but as someone who lived what he was speaking about.

In other words, there is credibility because of who was making the appeal.

Barth points out that "The apostle is not pleading for compassion, but wants to point out the price he is paying – that is, perhaps, his specific right to be heard and heeded."

The urgency is also present in this appeal in the words which he uses to encourage them to follow what he is teaching here.

We hear the urgency in the NRSV translation which says, "I…beg you."

Other translations use different words.

NIV says, "I urge you" and NASB says, "I implore you."

Whichever translation is used, we get the idea that this is important stuff and we must listen to it.

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II.

The Basis of the Appeal

            The appeal itself is, "…lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called."

It is an appeal to remove the disconnect between who we are and how we live.

!! A.   Lead a Life

            The appeal is an appeal to "lead a life" or as it says in other translations, "live a life" or "walk in a manner."

One of the key implications of leading a life is that it must be done regularly.

There is a difference between sowing a lawn and mowing a lawn.

Sowing a lawn is a project.

You begin by tilling the soil, leveling the soil, putting down the grass seed, packing the soil and harrowing in the seeds and then watering the seeds.

You keep watering the seeds until they have grown to a certain height and become well established.

At that point the project is over.

Leading a life cannot be that way.

The project is never over.

Leading a life is more like mowing the lawn.

Once the grass is established, it is necessary to mow it every week or so forever.

It must be done regularly.

It must be done consistently.

That is what it means to "lead a life."

Some people choose to give something up for lent, like coffee or chocolate.

It is a good practice to instruct us on what it means to do without, to make a sacrifice.

Many people who do this, however, can hardly wait until the 40 days are over so that they can have their coffee or chocolate again.

Giving up chocolate or coffee for lent is a project, not a lifestyle.

A person who gives up sugar because they are diabetic is in a completely different situation.

Their giving up something is not a project, but a lifestyle.

What Paul is calling us to is not a project, but a lifestyle.

!! B.   Worthy

            You know that in mathematics, an equal sign indicates that whatever is on one side of the sign must be equivalent to whatever is on the other side of the sign.

The word "worthy" in this text functions like an equal sign.

It tells us that there must be equivalence between our lifestyle and the calling we have received.

We have a balance beam scale at home and it works something like an equal sign.

When the scale is level, which is the goal, then whatever is on one side of the scale must be exactly the same as what is on the other side of the scale.

In a similar way, there must be a balance between our lifestyle and the calling we have received.

Wood says, "Paul is insisting that there shall be a balance between profession and practice."

!! C.   Of Your Calling

            So the word "worthy" functions as an equal sign or a balance scale.

On one side of the equal sign is our lifestyle – how we live every day.

On the other side of the equal sign is, as Paul says, "the calling to which you have been called."

What Paul is saying is that there is a calling upon our life and there cannot be a disconnect between our calling and our life.

What is the calling to which we have been called?

We have already looked at that calling in considerable detail in the previous chapters of Ephesians.

There we learned, in 1:4, that God has chosen us "to be holy and blameless before him in love."

In 1:5 we learned that we have been called to be "God's children through Jesus Christ."

In the rest of chapter 1 we learned that we have been forgiven and called to know the mystery of His will.

We have been destined to an inheritance.

Chapter 2 indicates that we have been called to do good works.

In chapter 3 we read that we have been called to make known the news of the boundless riches of Christ and to make everyone see.

From all these verses we understand that we have a very high calling.

It is a calling that puts us in the position of being children of God.

It is a calling that tells us of the blessing of having our sins forgiven.

It is a calling to become like God.

It is a calling to make the message of the gospel known to everyone.

This is a high calling, but there is a sense in which it puzzles us.

The puzzle is, "why is it necessary to be reminded to live according to what we are?

If we are forgiven children of God who have been blessed with the greatest news in the world why do we need to be reminded to live according to it?

If we have been seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, why do we so often fail to live like kings and instead live like Christ's enemies?

In this verse, Paul calls us to be what we are, but if this is what we are, why does he have to call us to it?

A week ago Friday, I attended a seminar about how to help people who live with sexual addictions.

The speaker, Sy Rogers, talked about why it is necessary to be told to live worthy of our calling.

He pointed out that God has already taken care of our guilt.

He has declared that we belong to Him and He has taken care of our future.

These are all the things which talk about what we are, our calling.

He further pointed out that what God has not yet done is to change our humanity.

Temptation, weakness and desire are still a part of our humanity and God has left it up to us to manage our humanity.

That is what makes it necessary for Paul to remind us that we must live in a manner worthy of our calling.

God has changed many important things, but He has left us with the responsibility within the grace of having been changed, to continue to make changes in our life.

The encouraging thing is that he has not left us alone even in the task of managing our humanity.

He has given us the grace of forgiveness when we repent after failure and He has given us the power of the Spirit to help us manage our humanity.

Therefore, as Paul says here, we are responsible to remove the disconnect between what we are and how we live.

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III.

The Details of the Appeal