Third Week of Lent
Ephesians 4:1-16
Monday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16. Paul begins this second half of Ephesians with this statement in verse 1: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Up until this point in Ephesians, Paul has been describing God’s beautiful grace that he has lavished on us; forgiving our sins through Jesus Christ, giving us new life and drawing us together into one body with Christ as the head. Now, Paul shifts gears and begins to give instructions for how we should live in light of this beautiful salvation.
This shift is important because it shows us that our obedience as Christians is directly tied to what God has done for us. It is often easy to think of obeying God as some difficult task. But obedience is really a response, a joyful response to our amazing, gracious God. In other words, obedience is not a burden, it is worship. Worship is far more than singing in church on Sundays. It is a joyful, willing, obedience to God’s will, in response to his great love for us.
Take some time today to think about obedience. How do you view obedience to God? Is it a chore? A burden? Or is obedience a joyful act of worship? Ask the Lord to work in your heart this week so that your obedience to him shifts from being a burden to worship. And then as we go through this season of Lent, ask the Lord to show you areas in your life where you can grow in obedience to him, and in doing so more fully worship him. And as your worship grows, so will your joy.
Tuesday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verse 3. Paul instructs the Ephesians to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Unity is one of those words that we hear about a lot, both in the church and in our country. People lament about the lack of unity we have in our country today. Ironically, we long for unity and at the same time attack people who disagree with us. Even in churches, there are so many threats to unity. Therefore Paul’s call for unity seems like a tough challenge.
Thankfully God has provided a way for us to maintain unity in the church. And that plan, which is laid out in this passage, is simple: A church that serves together, grows together. And we can pass that truth on to individual relationships. Friends that serve together, grow together. Spouses who serve together, grow together. Families that serve together, grow together. The way to maintain the unity of the body of Christ is to serve together, to build up the body of Christ together (verse 12), so that we are truly functioning as one unified body (verse 13). The things that threaten to divide us melt away as serve together and grow together.
We’ll explore this idea in our devotionals for the rest of this week, but for today, ask the Lord to help you be an agent of unity in our church. Ask the Lord to show you ways you can serve in our church, especially together with other people. And pray that as we grow together in unity, that our church will be able to faithfully and more effectively share Jesus with our surrounding community!
Wednesday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verses 12 and 13. Before coming to Mission Village Christian Fellowship, I looked at a lot of job descriptions for pastors. And some of them were terrifying. The pastor was expected to preach, lead worship and musical praise, evangelize in the community, teach Sunday School, offer counseling, visit all of the sick, coordinate community service projects, grow the church, and increase tithing. In other words, be everything and do everything. I wouldn’t have been surprised to also see those job descriptions include mowing the lawn and serving as the resident church plumber!
Now as a pastor, I enjoy many of the ministries mentioned above (not the plumbing part however!). But in this passage Paul makes it clear that the work of the ministry is NOT the pastor’s main job. The main job of the pastor and other leaders in the church in verse 12 is to “equip (God’s) people for works of service.” So the main job of the pastor is to equip others to serve and do the ministry of the church.
So if the job of church leaders is to equip, then the job of the congregation is to be equipped. So take some time today and think about how you need to be equipped in your Christian faith. Do you need to grow in knowing the bible more? Do you need help in knowing how to grow closer to God? Do you need to be equipped in how to do ministry? Or do you need help thinking through how to live out your faith in the workplace? How do you need to be equipped in your faith?
Ask the Lord today to show you the areas in your life where you need equipping, where you need training and growth. And then make sure that you tell me or one of the other leaders in the church. My job, the job of the Elders, and the job of our Leadership Council, is to equip you to serve. And then as we serve together, we can grow together.
Thursday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verses 12 and 13. Paul is clear here that the job of the pastor is not to do all of the work of the ministry of the church, but to equip God’s people to do the ministry of the church. And as the church serves together, it grows together. That is how the church cultivates and maintains unity (verse 3).
Therefore, the question every one of us should be asking ourselves is not should I serve in ministry at church, but rather, what ministry should I serve in? Serving in ministry is not an optional accessory to the Christian life, it is the Christian life! Just as every part of the human body works together to keep the body healthy and functioning, so every part of the body of Christ should be working together so that the body stays healthy.
There are several ways to figure out where you can best serve, and what your role is. Spiritual gifts tests can be useful to see what your strengths are. Often your natural skills and abilities translate well into some area of service in the church. Sometimes you just need to try serving in a ministry area to see if that is a good fit for you. But the best way I know is to ask the Lord to show you how he has gifted you, and then ask others what they see in you. Ask a friend at church, where do you think I could best serve? And then go with what they suggest. So starting today, pray about serving, talk to folks around you at church, and then dive in!
Friday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16. Throughout this passage Paul explains that as we serve together, we grow together. As we have seen this week, serving together is critical for the health of our church family.
But in the same way, serving together is also important for individual relationships. Marriages, friendships, families, can all be strengthened and grow together as they serve together. One of the best quality times I have had with my boys was serving together at a church work day. Serving together really can help build strong relationships, because the service provides opportunities for deeper conversations with people than you might normally have on a Sunday morning.
But serving together not only helps us build stronger relationships and be unified as a church (verse 13), it also helps us grow in spiritual maturity together (verses 13, 15). Serving together not only brings us together, it helps us to know and follow Jesus more and more. So if you have been walking with the Lord for a while, is there someone around you who is younger in their faith who you can serve with? Invite them to come join you in whatever ministry you are serving in. And if you are younger in your faith, find someone around you who is further along in their spiritual journey, find out what ministry they serve in, and go join them! And then watch what happens in your life!
Saturday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16 one more time and review the devotionals from this past week. Paul’s big idea in this passage is that as we serve together, we grow together, not only in unity, but also in spiritual maturity. As we serve together, we grow closer to Jesus together. And that’s our goal as a church: to help each other to know and follow Jesus.
Unfortunately, the reason many Christians do not grow closer to Jesus is because they are not growing together with other believers. We live in a highly individualistic culture, and it is easy to think that if I have Jesus and my bible, I’m good. But Paul is abundantly clear here…we need each other to grow closer to Jesus. There is no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian.
So the first step of application for you this week may be to reject the temptation to be a long-ranger Christian, and ask the Lord to help you see your need for Christian community, for brothers and sisters in Christ who can help to grow closer to Jesus. Before we can serve together and grow together, we may need to pray, “Lord, cure me of my independence and self-reliance.” That is a scary prayer, but it is also beautiful, because it paves the way for something far better, which is growing closer to Jesus with our brothers and sisters in Christ.