Eph
4:1-2
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you
to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble
and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
NIV
Paul in this Bible verse urges us to live lives
worthy of who we really are or who we are called to be. Let me say that the
reason it was necessary for Paul to write this letter was because there is a
great possibility of not living a life worthy of the calling to which we have
been called. There is a possibility of forgetting who we really are in the lord
and trying to blend into this world system that is inimical to the advancement
of our true nature.
God
has made you and me priests and kings, we are looked up to first by the
principalities and power; the spiritual realm that does not submit to God, they
want see if we will live a life that is any different from the people under
their bondage. Secondly, the world wants to learn from us.
This
life of righteousness and Holiness that God wants us to live can only be lived
by those to whom the grace has been given. It is only those of us who have been
endued with grace from God that can live a Holy life. Holiness is the nature of
God.
Paul
gives us the first steps to living this life (as those who have received a
divine nature and who are the only ones who can benefit in the holy nature) he
tells us to be completely humble and gentle.
Humility
and gentleness are virtues that even though you have been given the capacity to
have, you can chose to switch them on or switch them off. Paul urges us to be
perfectly humble and gentle.
These
two are the keys to living the life that God has called you to live on the
earth because they are like thresholds that if you surmount, you will noticed that you are living a life of the
Spirit.
Before
you can be humble, you will have conquered the threshold of love and charity,
humility is as a result of true love for God and your neighbor. When you truly
love someone, you forget who or what you are before the person, you will not
even notice how willing you are to serve the person.
The
reason why a president can babysit a child and even tie his shoe lace is most
likely because that child is His child or grandchild who he loves…
When
a man is perfectly humble, it is because of the natural outworking of the love
he or she has.
Secondly,
gentleness is another threshold in the department of self-control which is the
second pillar of the fruit of the spirit- every manifestation of the fruit of
the spirit is either an outworking of love or self-control.
It
takes self-control to be perfectly gentle.
Go
out today knowing that you have already received the nature and have the
benefit of being holy (a benefit that not many have) and focus on attaining the
thresholds of perfect humility and perfect gentleness.
The
reason God tells us to be Holy is because He is Holy; Holiness is His nature
and we have the benefit to have received this nature.
Prayer:
Father, give me the grace to be holy, for you are Holy. Amen