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Jesus' followers appear to be hopelessly divided over every imaginable issue; there are more than 30,000 Christian groups worldwide, all claiming to see things more clearly than their brothers and sisters. Paul cuts to the bottom line: we worship one God through one Savior by one Spirit, and this "one faith" — if joyfully embraced — will transform our relationships with each other and with the world.

 

No More Excuses
Something to Believe In, Something to Live Out

August 8, 2010

Glenn McDonald
Ephesians 4:4-6

 

Does one word really matter? Ask the Wall Street traders who panicked last spring when a single order concerning Procter & Gamble stock accidentally called for the sale of billions of shares instead of millions. Within minutes the market descended into a frenzy of lemming-like imitation, and before the day was over the Dow had plunged by hundreds of points. One word can make a very big difference indeed, for better or for worse.

Right at the center of the book of Ephesians there is a single word on which the entire letter pivots. It balances everything that comes before and everything that follows. The hinge point of Ephesians is the Greek word axios, which is translated “worthy” in chapter four, verse one: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

In ancient Greece the word axios was associated with a set of balancing scales. You can still go to markets all over the world today and buy beans or flour or gummy bears by using essentially the same instrument. In Bible times, if you wanted a pound of figs, the merchant would put a one-pound lead weight in one of the pans, and then keep adding figs to the other pan until they were exactly level. When equilibrium had been achieved, your figs were axios. They were worthy. They were balanced according to a fixed standard.

It’s not an accident that the Holy Spirit led the apostle Paul to use this one word at the center of the book of Ephesians. This is the balancing point. The first three chapters have been all about what God has done: God choosing us, God loving us, God forgiving us, God dying for us through his Son Jesus. The last three chapters are all about what we must do in response to God: how we ought to speak, and work, and pray, and get married, and raise our kids. Our response must be axios. It must be worthy. It must represent a balance between theology and practice – between what we know of God and how we are living right now in total trust of God. God’s good news isn’t just something we must believe in. It’s also something we must live out.  

Now all of us know from experience how easy it is to get out of balance. Things can seem so clear on Sunday morning – the gospel makes so much sense! – but then on Monday morning so-called real life begins to reassert itself. All too often our heartfelt Sunday intention to live a life that is worthy of our calling has been crushed before Monday lunch.

Why does that happen? Often it’s a matter of balance. We may load up the theological side of our personal spiritual scales with Bible studies and sermons and neat, new books and conversations with Christian friends. But we have no clue how to take all that God-information and translate it into how we can actually get along with challenging people or a stack of unpaid bills. Or we may unbalance the scales by joyfully plunging into this new way of life called discipleship – following Jesus as his lifelong learner – when in fact we have learned almost nothing about God’s holiness, God’s grace, and God’s Spirit. Therefore we default to the “wisdom” of our faulty feelings instead of standing on God’s Word.

Paul calls us to a balanced life with God and with each other. It’s time to be axios. It’s time to balance what we know with how we live. Look again at verse one: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Many Bible translators opt for the word “therefore” instead of the word “then.” In this context they mean exactly the same thing. There’s an old adage in Bible study: Whenever you see the word “therefore,” find out what it’s there for. Paul is saying, “Therefore, now that you have been seriously clued in to the character and the purposes of God, it’s time to start walking.”

Do you remember how Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee outlined the book of Ephesians? He described it as Sit, Walk, Stand. For three chapters now we’ve been sitting together. We have fixed our eyes on God. But now it’s time to get up and go forward. Pat Smith got us started on this part of our expedition last weekend. And by the time we reach the last half of chapter six Paul will be ready to tell us how we can stand against spiritual darkness.

We arrive today at Ephesians 4:4-6, three short verses that pack quite a punch. Paul wrote in verse three, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” There is to be a visible, functional unity amongst people who trust in Christ. But what does that unity look like? Does that mean we should all attend the same church? Is there supposed to be one big denomination? Is it God’s intention for all of us to pray, and worship, and receive the Lord’s Supper in exactly the same manner?

Let’s look at how Paul describes the essentials of the Christian faith. Whether reading from our own copy of the Bible, looking up here at the screens, or reciting from memory, let’s stand together and speak aloud this part of the Word of God:

There is one body and one Spirit –

just as you were called to one hope when you were called –

one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all,

who is over all and through all and in all.

There’s nothing else in the book of Ephesians quite like this text. This is a micro-summary of what Christians believe. The Holy Spirit may have inspired Paul to write these words especially for this correspondence. Or maybe Paul is quoting an ancient hymn or theological formula that was already in circulation amongst early Christians. If that’s true we have no idea (humanly, at least) who wrote these words. But whatever their origin, they are obviously important. Paul is clearly telling us that this is something to believe in.

Have you ever fantasized what it would be like to remember everything that you have ever read, so you wouldn't have to keep reading and re-reading the same textbook, or going back and double-checking your favorite recipes, or accessing the Rolodex to find that phone number that you certainly should have memorized by now? For C.S. Lewis, the renowned British author and theologian, fantasy was reality. Lewis had the mind-boggling ability to remember every page of every book he had ever read.

Sometimes students in his Oxford classrooms would test him. They would open at random a book they knew that Lewis had read – say, a study of medieval architecture – and begin reading aloud. Midway through the first sentence Lewis would take over, reciting from memory the rest of the paragraph and everything else on the page. Right now you may be thinking, "I can’t even remember the password for my own ATM card.”

Keep in mind that Lewis himself wasn’t all that impressed with this special ability. He was quick to point out that most of what he had read wasn't worth remembering. The problem for Lewis and for us is that reality seems to come to us as a never-ending stream of data. Only a precious few things are really important and worth holding on to. Most of what we hear and experience we do not need to capture, and surely it would be a mercy if amnesia erased 99% of what we have seen over the years that passes for “entertainment.”  

But God’s Word is different. This is a living library of 66 books. Every page matters, because the author of these words is still speaking through them. Yet none of us is C.S. Lewis. How can we get our minds and our hearts around 2000-plus pages of communication from God?

            Over the centuries Christians have worked hard to address that challenge.  Disciples have composed short, manageable summaries of what the Bible says. These statements are known as creeds – a term derived from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe.” Ephesians 4:4-6 appears to be an ancient creed. Right after Paul appeals to us to live in unity with each other, he says, “Here are the spiritual basics upon which we can build such a life.”

Notice Paul’s repetition of the word “one.” There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of us all.

Almost certainly this is an echo of two famous verses from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

The idea that there is “one important thing” is also at the center of Jesus’ visit to the home of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. It’s dinner time, and Martha is in the kitchen making preparations. Mary, however, chooses to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to him. Martha becomes irritated. “Lord, tell my sister to get in here and help me!” But Jesus answers, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” And what is this one crucial thing? The one thing Jesus is referring to is spending time with him.

            Now it cannot be trivial that Paul uses the word “one” seven times in these verses. Seven is the biblical number that connotes completeness or fullness. Paul appears to be telling us that this short creed represents the totality of what Christians believe. These are the core doctrines. To live well together, we must always take these seven things into account.

Paul says that there is one body. The church of Jesus Christ is not divided. It is not schizophrenic. The true church, which is comprised of the worldwide fellowship of all those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus, has not been shattered into thousands of competing subgroups and denominations – even though it certainly looks that way to outsiders. If you are in Christ and I am in Christ, then we belong to the same family – and without any further delay we must get over the petty foolishness that sometimes leads us to believe we’re playing for different teams.

Paul says there is one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father of us all. Almost every time the New Testament uses the word “Lord,” it’s referring to Jesus. So this is the Trinity is reverse: Spirit, Son, and Father. Scripture tells us that God doesn’t speak three different messages in three different ways. God’s voice is heard as one through all three persons of the Godhead.

Paul writes that there is one hope, one faith, and one baptism. It’s hard not to laugh out loud when we read such words, especially when we remember the multiple ways in which controversies about baptism – how old should we be, how much water should we use, and who gets to do the dunking? – have prevented millions of Christians from fellowshipping with each other. How can we ever establish authentic unity in the body of Christ?

The answer is that we don’t have to establish such unity. Jesus has already done that. Our call is to recognize, value, and maintain the unity that automatically belongs to everyone who belongs to Jesus. This is not about creating some kind of artificial organizational unity. But it is about caring more about being with each other during the ups and downs of real life than being right. If we are in fact in Christ, then the vast majority of our differences do not require separation from each other. What God does require are generous lifelong doses of what we find back in verse two: humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance. Essentially that means learning how to love each other.  

Unity in the body of Christ is God’s idea, and he’s not going to give up on it. Whether we happen to like or dislike the other people in this room who also happen to trust in Jesus is not the point. God has granted us the reality of spiritual unity, and he insists that we live it out.  We don’t have to agree with each other on every issue. But to live an axios or worthy life we must place more value on things that bring us together than on things that drive us apart.

That is not an easy thing to do. In fact there’s nothing easy at all about moving this creed off this page and into our lives. But that is God’s call to us. These words are not only something to believe in. They are also something we must live out.

Unfortunately, a great deal of the teaching and preaching here in America – including some of my own – has given the impression that once we embrace the core truths of Christianity and pray a prayer to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, the game is over. We’ve checked the little box that says we’re going to heaven. Now there’s nothing left to do. Dallas Willard calls this the phenomenon of vampire Christians. “Jesus, what I really need is just a little bit of your blood that you shed for me on the cross. Thanks so much for saving me. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get back to my own life. But I promise that when we meet in heaven we’ll get to know each other.”

There is nothing in the Bible that leads us to believe that once we have accepted Christ, nothing else is required of us. When it comes to salvation, it’s true that God gives us everything. But he also asks for everything.  As one Bible commentator puts it, God has given us a million dollar salvation. It is scandalous to suggest that all he requires is a five-cent response.

To live a life that is axios or worthy of the calling we have received, we must believe the words of the creed here in chapter four. But believing these words requires that we actually live them, too – with no more excuses. Paul says there is one hope and one faith. Are you actively pursuing spiritual disciplines that are training you to put your hope in God and God alone? Or are you expecting that spiritual growth will somehow just happen as you grow older? Is your life consistent with what you say you believe?

Paul declares that there is one Lord. Are you hedging your bets as to whether Jesus is the only way to know God, thereby leaving open the possibility that maybe he’s just one way among many? If so, you may feel right at home in today’s spiritual climate. But you are in fact not a Christian, or at least not yet. The Bible says that until we turn our backs on every “lord” but Jesus of Nazareth, we remain dead in our sins.

Jesus said to Martha, “You are worried and distracted by many things. But only one thing is needed. Your sister Mary has chosen that one thing by giving her attention to me.” Would Jesus be able to say that about you? Have you come to understand that there is just one God and Father of us all, who is over all and through all and in all – and that you are wasting your one and only life by offering your loyalty to anything less than Christ?

Obedience to God calls for specific action. There are three places or realms where God will always meet us, and where he faithfully draws us beyond ourselves into real spiritual growth. They each begin with the letters W-O-R: Worship, Word, and the World.  

Worship isn’t just an hour-long gathering once a week. It’s a way of life. Sometimes we picture a service like this one as a spiritual filling station to help us get through seven more days. But this is much more like the Colts training camp. This is where we practice for one hour what we’re called to do every other hour this week – turn our attention more fully to God. This week, try establishing specific stopping points during each day – perhaps every three or four hours – where you turn away from your phone, any flat screens, and from books and conversations, and simply turn toward God in quietness, trust, and a simple prayer of thanks. Learn to worship God in every circumstance.

When we open the Word we hear God’s voice with exceptional clarity. While it’s always of value to read and study on our own, this is a great time to register for an upcoming group study. Consider becoming part of Bible Study Fellowship, the Life Changes study for women here at ZPC, a one-to-one mentoring relationship, or one of our church’s adult Bible classes. Join a study that will help you grow.

When we choose to serve others in the World, God changes us. That’s what happened to Don Armstrong [who shared his testimony before the sermon].  Come and participate in next Sunday morning’s Volunteer Expo here at ZPC. Come with an openness to find the ministry or the place where God will use your service to transform both others and you.  

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of officiating at a number of weddings. I can tell you there has been almost nothing that all those brides and grooms have had in common. Some have been tall and some have been short. Some of been quiet, while others have been extroverts. One couple hadn’t yet graduated from high school, while another couple had actually met each other at their 50^th high school reunion. Most grooms have been the picture of health, while one of them got married in a hospital bed knowing he had less than a few months to live. Some couples have been wealthy and have taken off to honeymoons on other continents, while other couples have had barely enough money to pay the modest fee to the county just to get their wedding license.

I’ve seen a lot of different brides and grooms. But I have never once seen a bride or a groom come to their own wedding and casually say, "I do," without having given some serious thought as to how proclaiming those two little words was going to change their life forever.

Do you give serious thought to the things of God before saying, “I believe”? Are you in danger of committing spiritual perjury because your life isn’t axios, or worthy, or intentionally formed around God’s unchanging spiritual realities? No more excuses. This is the day. Now is the time for us to believe what God says, and to live out what we believe.

The congregation was invited to reflect on the following words, and then to speak them publicly (as they felt led) as an expression of trust in God:

I believe in one God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I believe that the Father loves me with a love that is immeasurably more than all I could ask or imagine.

I believe there is one hope for the world and for my own life – Jesus Christ.

I believe that the Holy Spirit is even now transforming me into the person God has always intended me to be.

By God’s grace I will choose every day to live out what I say I believe.

With God’s help I will seek the unity of Christ’s one body, the church.

Through God’s power I will continue to believe…until in heaven, face to face with him, my believing will at last become sight.