“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” – Ephesians 4:1-2
When I look at Ephesians 4:1-2, many of the things Paul is talking about come completely unnatural to me. If I am being brutally honest, humility, gentleness, patience, and unity…there is no way in the world these things would ever define me.
EXCEPT for the fact that Jesus saved me, changed me, and made me new! The passage says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
As a child of God, we have been called to live a life worthy of His calling. How do we live that worthy life? Through the things Paul follows with: humility, gentleness, patience, and unity. God wants us to be patient with others and attempt to be unified rather than get angry.
He wants us to show humility and gentleness. While some people might find these things naturally easy, I believe most people would struggle with at least one, if not all of these traits. They just don’t come naturally to us.
But Paul isn’t saying do what is natural. He is telling us to walk the new walk. And in order to walk that walk, we must live with humility, gentleness, and patience. How can we do that? Only through Him.
God doesn’t ask you to do anything that you can’t do through His strength. The problem comes when we try to muster up strength on our own. That is when we will fail. Because when we try to draw the strength to be patient, and we aren’t patient, there is a blowup waiting to happen.
When these qualities don’t come naturally, you can’t draw on your natural strength. Seek God and ask for His strength. After all, we can only obey His commands through Him and His power!