The worth of our identity should drive us to live in a way that is worthy of our identity as a follower of Jesus...

At the church where I serve, we are spending our time together in a sermon series entitled identity. During this series, we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Ephesians.

Now this week I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we jump into the next section of this letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to early followers of Jesus at the church at Ephesus, we are going to see the Apostle Paul make a shift when it comes to the focus of his letter.

For the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians, we have seen the Apostle Paul focus on all that God has done vertically for us so that we could experience the identity that He designed us to live in as followers of Jesus. This week, however, we are going to see that Apostle Paul shift his focus to how we should live when it comes to our horizontal relationships with others in light of all that God has done when it comes to our vertical relationship with Him.

And as the Apostle Paul makes this shift of focus, we are going to discover another timeless truth regarding our identity as a follower of Jesus that has the potential to change how we see our true identity, the identity that God designed us to live in, so that we would live our day to day lives in light of our true identity. So let’s discover this timeless truth together, beginning in Ephesians 4:1:

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of the church at Ephesus with the word therefore. The Apostle Paul is basically saying “In light of what I have said in the first half of this letter. In light of the reality that our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings because we have been chosen by God the Father and adopted as His children, because we have been rescued by Jesus Christ from the selfishness and rebellion that separated us from God, we have obtained an inheritance according to His plan and for His glory, and we have the Holy Spirit’s ongoing activity in our lives. In light of the reality that our identity as a follower of Jesus is based on the reality that while we were once dead, we have been made alive through Jesus. In light of the reality that our identity as a follower of Jesus should remove racial barriers and should result in equality among followers of Jesus. In light of the reality that our identity as a follower of Jesus flows from the incomprehensible love of Christ that results in our relationship with Christ. In light of the reality that I am writing this letter from jail in Rome after being arrested for proclaiming the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel.  In light of all of that, I am imploring you to do something.”

Now the word implore, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to urge strongly. You see, the Apostle Paul was strongly urging the members of the church at Ephesus to respond to all that God had done for them that resulted in their vertical relationship with Jesus to do something when it came to their horizontal relationships with others.

And what Paul was strongly urging the members of the church at Ephesus to do was to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. When Paul uses the work walk here, he is referring to how one conducts their day to day lives. Paul is referring to how we live our day to day lives as followers of Jesus. And how we should live our day to day lives is in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called.

Now this phrase, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “I am strongly urging you to live your day to day lives in a way that is worthy of the invitation that you have received to experience a relationship with of Jesus that came as a result of God’s choice to extend that invitation to you. I am strongly urging you to live your day to day lives in a way that is worthy of all that God has done for you by choosing you to be His child and rescuing you from your selfishness and rebellion through Jesus performance”.

And it is here that we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to our identity. And that timeless truth is that the worth of our identity should drive us to live in a way that is worthy of our identity as a follower of Jesus. Just as it was for the members of the church at Ephesus; just as it has been for followers of Jesus throughout history; the worth of our identity should drive us to live in a way that is worthy of our identity as a follower of Jesus.

Now a natural question that could arise here is “Well Dave that sounds great, but what does that look like practically? I mean, that just sounds like some church mumbo jumbo talk stuff. So how should the worth of our identity drive us to live in a way that is worthy of our identity as a follower of Jesus?”     

If those questions are running through your mind, I just want to let you know that those are great questions to be asking. And in Ephesians 4:1-16, we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us two ways that the worth of our identity should drive us to live in a way that is worthy of our identity as a follower of Jesus.

Tomorrow, we will begin to discover them together...