The Call

Eph.4:¹ “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.” (emphasis added).

Please read Eph.4:1-32 (NRSV). I am certain that just from reading this portion of scripture alone, you have already been blessed. However, we will highlight certain portions over the next few days and trust that we will engage the portions we do not in our collaborative and personal Bible study. The first thing that we see from this passage is that everybody has been called by God.  It is not only the pastors and the ministers that have a calling, everybody has a calling. You have the calling of God and the Bible says you should live a life that is worthy of your calling.

Eph.4:¹ (KJV) “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (emphasis added). The word beseech is a very strong word. It is like saying I beg you with everything I have, to live a life worthy of your calling. Clearly, it is a false doctrine to say that once you are saved, it does not matter the kind of life you live. Once you are saved, you are fine; “grace” covers all. Have you heard this before? What I say to such people is this, since you insist that you are not under the law, it is fine. Just walk up to the cashier in the bank, grab the money and say, ‘I am saved by grace’. I can assure you that you will serve time in a correctional facility.

The point is this; that calling is by grace, you cannot attain it except God calls you. Heb.5:⁴ (Voice) “The office of high priest and the honour that goes along with it isn’t one that someone just takes. One must be set aside, called by God, just as God called Aaron, the brother of Moses.” For God to call you and I is grace, His unmerited grace. We saw in Eph.2 that we are saved by grace, it is not of works, nobody can boast about it. The calling is by grace, you cannot earn it. God has chosen to call you. But He is saying, now that you have been called, you are to live a life that is worthy of your calling.

There are a lot of people that feel it is okay to be lawless, they are called antinomians. Antinomianism is lawlessness, and legalism is on the other end of the spectrum. God has not called us to either legalism or antinomianism. Legalism will bring bondage; antinomianism will also bring bondage. But God has called us to freedom. Legalistic and antinomian people always end up in bondage. It is for freedom that Christ has made us free.

Prayer: Father, thank You for choosing me and for calling me. Help me live a life that is worthy of Your call upon my life, in Jesus Name. Amen!