Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Ephesians 4:1-3 | Date: August 24, 2014 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Bond of Peace

If you will, turn in God’s Word with me again this morning to Ephesians chapter 4. I’m sorry, Ephesians chapter 4. The title of the message this morning is taken from verse 3, “The Bond of Peace,” or if you’d like the whole verse, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And so the theme of the passage is keeping the peace.

Now, before we get into the message, let me just vent a couple of frustrations that I have when I approach a passage like this, a theme like this. The theme, of course, is on maintaining peace in the local church. And the frustration I always have on this is, on the one hand, I’m concerned that someone may be thinking, “What’s going on that he’s gunning for that I don’t know about?” And I hope you know me well enough by now to know that if there’s something that we need to gun for, we do that either on an individual basis or publicly if we need to, but we’re not very subtle about those things.

On the other hand, if I give that disclaimer, I’m a little concerned that some may think that, well, then this passage really isn’t that important for us today because we’re doing okay. So on the one hand, I want to say very thankfully that God has given us wonderful peace and unity here at RBC in Franconia. Seven plus years that I’ve been coming here, we have not had any division that I’m aware of, and certainly no church fights or anything like that that so often mark the life of local congregations, and I’m very grateful for that.

And on the other hand, I certainly don’t want you to think that this passage then somehow was not written for us at this time. Because although this passage was written for every church, it most certainly was written for us at this time. And it certainly is for us, and the theme of it is how to maintain this peace that has been established. So I hope you will see that as we go through here, that the exhortation that the Apostle Paul here gives to us is very pertinent to every congregation. And if we are not in the midst of conflict—thankfully we are not—we ought to be thankful for that on the one hand, and on the other hand, vigilant to maintain that peace that God has given to us. And it’s this passage that has been given to instruct us as to how to maintain that peace that we enjoy.

So verses 1 through 3: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” There’s one body, one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

And one more time, we’ll be focusing on verses 1 through 3, so let’s look at this again. “I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you’ve been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, Your Word is always so relevant and addressed as it is to sinners like us. These exhortations are always needed. We pray that You will use this passage of Your Word to shape us to be what You’ve called us to be, that You will, through this Word by Your Spirit this morning, enable us to walk in a way that is worthy of the calling to which You’ve called us, a way that reflects the gospel that we have embraced. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Reality of Conflict in the Church

I think, I’m not sure, I think I have told you this parable before, but if I have, for that one of you who has forgotten it, I will tell it again. The parable of two blind men. Actually, they were two formerly blind men. They met at a Christian convention where there was a preaching conference, and these two ran into each other and turns out they each had a similar story. “I used to be blind.” “I used to be blind.” “Yeah, but I met up with Jesus and He healed me.” “I met up with Jesus and He healed me.”

And the one says, “Yeah, all He did was spit a little in the dirt and made some mud and He rubbed it on my eyes and I could see.” And the other guy says, “No, that’s not how Jesus heals blindness. I ought to know. He just spoke and I was healed of my blindness.” “No, no, what He does is He spits in the mud and He makes it and He puts it up on your eyes and He heals you. I know, I was there.” “No, that’s not what He does.” And these two ended up fighting over how Jesus heals blindness. And of course, two denominations resulted from this conflict. They were appropriately called the Muddites and the Anti-Muddites. And they continued the rest of their life in their own little groups, exclusive of all others, while all around them there were people who were blind and did not know that Jesus had come to make them see.

Well, it sounds ridiculous and it is overplayed a bit, but actually there’s more truth than fiction in a little story like that. In many ways, it’s the story of the Christian church. We even sing about it: “By schisms torn asunder, by heresies distressed.” It’s what we have been for centuries to our shame. And it’s the story of local congregations everywhere. Fights, splits, conflicts. “Well, that’s just not the way I see it.” “That’s not the way I think we ought to do it.” “That’s not right.” “It’s not my preference.” “Now you’re invading my turf. That’s my ministry. And that’s not the way I think you should be doing it.” Or, “We don’t appreciate what was said.” Or my favorite one, “It’s not what he said, it’s how he said it that bugs me.”

For many years, I hosted an annual pastors’ conference. Pastors would come from all over. And as it turned out—this wasn’t planned this way—but as it turned out, one of the blessings of the conference to many who attended was this became a venue, a forum in which pastors could meet for mutual encouragement. Inevitably, every year there’d be some pastor or pastors who had come who were just, I don’t know what to say, embattled—discouraged in ministry because of conflicts in the church. Maybe they wanted prayer, maybe they wanted counsel. “How do I handle this? How do I handle that? What should I do? Should I resign?” Those kinds of things. Year after year, for many years, I’d go home from the conference and I’d say to Kim, “Oh, we’ve just been blessed. I’m not one of them.” And of course, my turn came.

It’s regular talk among pastors, how to handle this problem or that, or as the phrase goes, “this church member from hell.” It’s a regular part of pastors’ conferences. When you go, they’ll have a seminar on how to deal with conflicts in the church, how to stay above the fray, which never seems to work very well for pastors. We always find ourselves in the middle of it somehow. And we’ve all seen it: churches who are lined up on one side or the other behind this issue or the other, usually behind this personality or the other. Or as I’ve seen in the 50-some years in the church work that I’ve seen, it’s often the case that you have one person who is the offender or the offended—doesn’t matter which—and he’s not the one creating the division; it’s someone who’s taken up his cause who’s creating the division in the assembly.

People arguing, determined that “we must have it my way.” “You must see it my way.” And the result of it, of course, is a lifeless congregation. It stifles congregational worship and it prevents the churches from moving forward in any meaningful sense. As I say, we’ve all seen it. I’ve not seen it here at RBC. I haven’t heard all of your history. I suspect that lurking somewhere back in our history here, we have something that isn’t so pleasant to talk about. And of course, we all know a hundred other churches where people have been angry about this or that or the other, and there’s been fighting and conflict in the congregation.

Reminds me of the story of the mother who called her son one Sunday morning, called him, woke him up out of bed, said, “Are you going to church this morning?” He said, “No, I’m not going to church this morning. I’m not going to that church anymore.” She said, “Well, you gotta go.” “I’m not going to that church.” “You give me three good reasons why you shouldn’t go to that church.” “Well, it’s easy. One, I don’t like those people. Two, they don’t like me. And three, several of them just have said it—they don’t want me to come back. You give me three reasons why I should go to church.” She said, “That’s easy. One, you ought to go to church. You know that. Number two, you gotta be able to face up to your problems. Number three, you’re the pastor.” I told that one time at the conference that I mentioned earlier, and after everybody calmed down, there was a voice from the back: “Oh yeah, been there.”

In the church of Corinth, it was much like that. “I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Cephas.” It was full of one-upmanship and pride and competition, people jockeying for influence. Paul had the problem in his beloved church at Philippi, a church that was so good to him in so many ways, and yet Paul, when he writes to Philippi, has to say, “Hey, those two women in your church who are fighting, tell them to get along.” Problems in the congregation are nothing new. It’s something that goes way back.

I have a good friend who was the pastor of an enormously important influential church, a flagship church of his denomination. He’s just a marvelous preacher, one of the best preachers I know. And he went to the church, and shortly after he was there, there were conflicts of various kinds, and it became very notable, and it was known all around that this church was just embroiled in conflict. And finally, he left and just got worn out by it all, like churches have done. They just wear out the pastor until he finally leaves, and certain churches have that reputation of being preacher eaters. And he ended up leaving. They lost the best pastor they could ever possibly have. I can’t imagine they’ll ever have someone better. People would sometimes say to him, “Oh, so surprised to hear that there were problems at,” and they would name the church. And his response, I think, was very wise. He would say, “Why are you surprised? Have you never read your New Testament?” One time, we were sitting at dinner with him, and Kim asked, “How long were you there at,” and she named the church. And right away, he responded, “100 years.”

To live above with saints we love, that will be glory. To live below with saints we know, now that’s another story. The simple fact is the church is very often a walking self-contradiction. We profess a faith in a gospel that promises not only justification before God, but transformation of life. And God has begun a marvelous work in us to that end. But it’s not done yet, and we show both sides of that all the time. And so there’s friction and difficulty in what we call today our interpersonal relationships.

The Biblical Mandate for Unity

It’s a theme that the Apostle Paul takes up quite often. I don’t know if you’ve taken time to notice that before, but it’s actually a theme that the Apostle Paul speaks of quite often in his letters. And you might be surprised just how often it is, and I’ll give you a list of them here. If you’d like to jot them down, you can:

• Romans chapter 12, verse 16: “Live in harmony with one another.”
• Romans 14, verse 19: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
• Romans 15, verses 5 and 6: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus so that with one heart and one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10: “I appeal to you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with one another so that there be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and in thought.”
• 2 Corinthians 13, verse 11: “Finally brothers, aim for perfection, be of one mind, live in peace.”
• Philippians 1:27: “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then when I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.” I love that as a motto for a church: “contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.”
• Philippians 2, verse 2: “Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and in purpose.”

For all of the churches that the Apostle Paul founded, he had one problem that persisted in all of them, and that is in every church that he founded, the people of the church were sinners. He couldn’t get away from that. They were people in whom God had begun a great work, but that work wasn’t complete yet. And so he had to deal with then people who were left with faults of all kinds, some minor, some major. And beyond the faults that they had, they had personality quirks and things that would just rub other people the wrong way. And the people who were rubbed themselves had faults, and they had their own quirks, and they would rub people the wrong way. And all sides had pride, and that is the ingredients—well, those are the ingredients for a real potential for disaster.

And shameful as it is, it is an old problem. The inspired apostle, speaking for the Lord Jesus Christ, would often write to his churches to correct that problem, or sometimes just to forego that problem, to warn against it. And sometime he would write and say in so many words, “Brothers and sisters, what we hold in common so far transcends any difference that we have among us. How could we possibly be fighting amongst ourselves and denying the gospel that we have embraced?”

That essentially is what Paul says here in verses 4 through 6: one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Here we are brought together in the essence of the gospel that we have embraced, and yet there are problems? What problem could be so big? What difference could be so significant as to overthrow this oneness that we have in Christ?

At other times, the Apostle Paul will write and give a bit more of a sharp rebuke, and he’ll say things like, to the effect of, “The way you are behaving with one another is a denial of the gospel that you have embraced.” We believe and we preach that God, in Christ, not only justifies us, but He transforms us. Paul speaks of that in chapter 2; we have seen that. We have become a temple in whom God dwells. And this temple in whom God dwells by His Spirit, He is transforming it throughout this whole age. And so what are you saying by your fighting—that God doesn’t indwell us and transform us after all?

And that is the significance then of the word “therefore” in chapter 4 and verse 1. “Therefore, I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Therefore—now what’s the therefore? Therefore, what’s it pointing to? It’s pointing back to all that we’ve been seeing in chapters 1, 2, and 3 about the great glories of the gospel and what God has accomplished for us in Jesus Christ. That He is taking these strangely diverse and deeply divided peoples and made them one new man in Christ and brought them together to stand before God and worship before Him. Redeemed them by His blood and brought them together so that all divisions on this horizontal plane have been erased. And He’s brought us together. And in fact, He ends with that prayer in chapter 3, which is the transition to this part of the letter now, where He prays that by this great love that we have come to understand, we would be so gripped that it would change us and make us what He’s called us to be.

And so he says, “Therefore,” on the basis of all of this, “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” We’ve been called of God. That’s one of the great blessings. That’s one of the great truths that we love to rejoice in, in a Reformed Baptist church—this doctrine of divine calling, that God has marvelously overwhelmed our hearts and irresistibly drawn us to Christ. Paul is simply saying here now that that calling has implications. This gospel that we have embraced is to be seen, not just something professed with our lips; it is something to be seen in the way that we live.

And so in this letter, Paul does a lot of teaching in the first three chapters, telling us about this gospel that we have embraced. And now he turns the corner, chapter 4 and verse 1, and says, “Therefore.” And for the rest of this epistle, for the rest of this letter, what he’s going to be doing is telling us, “Here are the implications of that gospel that you have embraced. Here’s how we should live and show the gospel.”

Now, it’s interesting here. Well, first of all, notice again verse 3. It’s important that you keep in mind that what we find here in verse 2 in particular that we’ll focus on now, verse 3 tells us the purpose of it all. That this exhortation to humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love—the purpose of that is that we are to be eager by it to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Paul is not here trying to establish unity. That’s very important to recognize. His whole argument is that we are one in Christ. What he’s arguing here is how do we maintain and promote the outward manifestation of that oneness and unity in Christ? How do we maintain the peace? And so he gives us here really a very simple prescription. It’s amazing how basic this is and yet how essential this is to any sustained peace in the life of a congregation. Four things he points out in verse 2.

With All Humility

Walk worthy of the calling, one, “with all humility.” With all humility. Be humble. First exhortation to maintain the peace: be humble. Or as the King James translated it, “with lowliness of mind.” I like that, lowliness of mind.

There isn’t much—and we all know this—there isn’t much uglier than pride on someone else. And for some reason, we somehow think that this stuff that looks so bad on everyone else somehow looks good on us. One of my favorite descriptions of pride comes from an Eastwood movie: “He’s a legend in his own mind.” I’ve known people like that. They think they’re the reason for their own success. It’s like the emperor with his new clothes; everybody knows better but him.

Someone has said that humility is a divine veil that covers our good deeds and hides them from our eyes. Someone else has said humility is just the truth; it’s pride that’s lying. Augustine said that it was pride that changed angels into devils and it’s humility that transforms men into angels. And pride is a tricky thing. As soon as you think you have it, you’ve lost it. It’s a tricky thing that way. It has to be just this natural, instinctive, self-effacing attitude that’s not all running around always with an attitude towards self and “poor me” and “I’m no good.” It’s not that at all. And once you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.

I’ll never forget it. Years ago, a church wrote to me asking if I would consider becoming their pastor. And with the letter, they sent a questionnaire. And with the questionnaire, they had some questions about myself that they wanted me to answer. And one of them was, “Rate yourself one to 10 on these traits, one to 10.” And one of them was, “Rate yourself on humility, one to 10.” You can ask Kim. I wanted so badly to give myself a perfect 10 and see what they did with it. “I am the most perfectly humble person you have ever met.”

Well, it really is a tricky thing. If you set out to be humble, you often become so absorbed with yourself that it just becomes another kind of pride with a masked humility or a pretentious self-absorption. “I’m no good. I can’t do it.” And sometimes we’re just more concerned, frankly, we’re more concerned with the appearance of humility than we are with humility itself.

And our model in this, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians chapter 2: this one who from all eternity had all of the outward trappings of eternal glory emptied Himself, took on fashion as a man, became a servant, became obedient even all the way to death, even the death of the cross. Jesus illustrated that very truth in John chapter 13 when He takes that towel of humility and wraps it around Himself and goes around to each of His disciples and washes their dirty feet.

Now what he tells us here in verse 2 is we are to walk “with all humility,” with all humility. Now how are we to understand that? Every kind of humility? Or as the NIV translates it, “be completely humble.” Every kind of humility expressed in every kind of situation—don’t be selective about this; be humble in every conceivable way. Not put on, not just looking down at yourself, but genuinely, naturally self-effacing with a lowliness of mind. There really is nothing quite so attractive as that, is there? A professor in one of the seminaries I attended struck me while I was taking studies with him—just a brilliant man, brilliant man, widely learned, deeply learned, very impressive guy, most humble man I’ve ever known in my life. Just the most attractive, just the most attractive thing you’ve ever seen. Like Jesus.

Now keep in mind where the Apostle Paul is going with this. He’s not here speaking simply of humility for humility’s sake. What he’s dealing with here is how the congregation can maintain peace. How we can keep and preserve this bond of peace that God has established through Christ and by His Spirit. And there’s simply nothing, first off, there’s nothing that will hinder peace and fellowship in a congregation like pride. We can survive almost anything, but you can’t survive that. My way, my opinion, my turf, my feelings. Well, this is not the way of our Lord.

Now keep your hand here; we’ll come right back. And I want to point out a verse in Proverbs that I’ve pointed out to you before, I think. But again, for that one person who has forgotten it, I want to point it out again. It’s just a very important verse, a statement on the subject of pride. Now, I’m going to have to work at the translation here. Bear with me just a minute. It’s not that I’m great in Hebrew; I’m not. But I have checked with several Hebrew scholars that are much better than me. And I’m convinced that the King James translation here is the one that has it right. Verse 10, Proverbs 13 and verse 10, in my translation here reads, “By insolence comes nothing but strife.” That is the only result of pride or insolence—strife. But I think the original should be read, the “only” should be earlier in the verse. So it’s like the King James: “Only by pride comes contention.” Only by pride comes contention. That is to say, wherever there’s contention, look behind it, and the reason is pride. Now, it might be on one side or the other. It might be on both. It’s not addressing that particular question. But it is making the statement that behind contention is pride. Only by pride comes contention. Without pride, you won’t have it.

And Paul is telling us here, now back to Ephesians 4 verse 2, that to walk worthy of our calling, we are to walk like Jesus walked in humility, not so concerned with our feelings, our way, and our opinions, but humble with one another. If we allow pride, conflict is inevitable. Cultivate humility on all sides, and peace is inevitable.

Jesus deals with this in kind of a subtle way. You remember in Matthew chapter 7, when He speaks of the guy with the two-by-four in his eye, worried about the speck of sawdust in his friend’s eye. That’s just like us, isn’t it? We’re very good at seeing the faults in other people as though we don’t have them. The problem is we proceed as though we have no faults. We proceed as though, well, even if I do have faults theoretically, they’re not as bad as yours, which is another way of saying my sins are more refined than yours. And you can see here how Paul is dealing with just root issues in terms of how to maintain peace in a congregation. Brothers and sisters, if we would get off this pride kick and recognize the truth about ourselves—see ourselves for what we are. See ourselves for what we are in Christ, yes, but see ourselves for what we are. And deal with one another accordingly. Peace is inevitable. So number one: how to maintain the peace? Be humble.

Gentleness

Number two, be gentle. Be gentle. Or the King James translation: “meekness.” Be meek.

Now gentleness or meekness is simply humility in action. It means, it speaks of being restrained rather than self-assertive. Meekness is power under control. A meek or a gentle person is one who does not always have to insist on his own rights. A meek or a gentle person is one who’s willing to bend. A meek or a gentle person is one who’s willing to give in for someone else in order to maintain the peace. Gentleness or meekness is that unresisting disposition of mind which enables us to bear without resentment—to bear without resentment and without retaliation—the faults and the injuries of other people. “Yeah, of course, I love him, but I’ll never forgive him.” No, we can’t do it that way. We have to do it not the way I’ve ever done it before, insisting on our own way, our own rights.

Now he’s not saying here that we must become everybody’s doormat. Obviously he’s not saying that. Jesus was not that. Paul himself was not that. He writes to the Corinthians and says, “I’m going to come with a belt and give you a whipping if you don’t straighten up.” There are times when you have to be assertive and there are principles at stake and so on. Our problem is we never can quite figure where that line is and we always think it’s a little closer to our direction than it ought to be.

This is speaking then to that person who is always concerned that he or she always has to voice the opinion with force. Gentle. Gentle. A person who is gentle or meek is one who is also teachable. That’s why James tells us in James 1:21 to “receive with meekness the engrafted word.” Be teachable. Last seven words of a dying church: “We’ve never done it that way before.” Yeah, seven words. Last seven words of a dying church: “We’ve never done it that way before.” And we’ll go to the grave insisting it’s gotta be done this way.

And again, our model is the Lord Jesus Himself, who was, when He was reviled, reviled not again, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. Gentle, meek, not always having to insist on my own rights, not always having to have it my way, not always having to protect my turf, not blasting, not condemning people that disagree, not blasting and condemning people who rub me the wrong way or happen to promote an opinion that I don’t agree with. You see how this would promote lasting peace in the congregation: humility and gentleness, power under control, the ability to endure the faults and injuries of others without resentment, without retaliation. Number one, be humble. Number two, be gentle.

Patience

Number three, be patient. Be patient.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, the problem that Paul had in his churches is the same problem we have here at RBC, and that is it consists of sinners only. Every one of us. Every one of us has our faults. And beyond our faults, every one of us has our own little quirks, our own little idiosyncrasies. Of course, I don’t. There are things about our personalities that rub other people the wrong way, and the same is true on all sides. And given all of that, if we’re going to maintain peace in the congregation, brothers and sisters, we have to be patient with one another.

I always liked how the King James translates this verse: “longsuffering.” My grandmother taught me the importance of that word. She said it’s one of those words that defines itself. Just pronounce it right, she says, and you’ll get it. Long-suffering. You suffer for a long time. That’s what being patient is. Suffering long with one another. Someone offends you, someone who is in the congregation who’s just not your favorite personality type—you suffer with it. Patient.

Aren’t you glad God is more patient with you than you are with other people? Can you imagine our plight if God were only as patient with us as we are with one another? And yet that is our standard exactly. Jesus picks it up in Matthew chapter 18, the parable of the unforgiving servant. In fact, Paul picks it up here in exactly that way in chapter 4 verse 32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.” There’s the standard. To walk worthy of our high calling in Christ, we must deal with one another in a way that Christ has dealt with us. Patience, long-suffering.

In other words, what this simply means is that in view of the fact that God has been patient with me, despite the fact—despite the fact that my sins against Him are so much more frequent and so much more severe than my brother’s sins against me—I must be patient. Well, you can see here again how Paul is dealing with root issues. If we are humble, if we are gentle, if we are patient with one another, harmony in the congregation is inevitable.

I don’t expect that you will always like what I do. I find that hard to imagine. I find it very difficult to imagine that people wouldn’t always agree with me. But brothers and sisters, I can tell you confidently that God expects you to be patient with me. And now you can turn it on me, and we can turn it to one another. We will not always do what one another agree with, think the best of—it might rub. But God expects us to be patient with one another, like Christ has been with us. Number one, be humble. Number two, be gentle. Number three, be patient.

Bear With One Another in Love

And finally, number four, bear with one another in love. Bear with one another in love.

Now that’s just really another way of saying be patient. But I think probably what’s in view here is not just patience generally, but when he’s speaking of bearing with people, he probably has in view bearing with the faults and the injuries of other people. Patient in that sense. People are going to bring offenses. There are going to be rubs, and there are going to be faults. I mean, things said in the heat of a moment because we’re sinners. Paul says here simply, bear with one another. Be patient in the sense of enduring difficulty, in the sense of enduring offense, being self-restrained. Put up with one another, even when there’s disagreement, even when there’s difference, even when there’s been offense. In other words, you don’t always have to get satisfaction. You don’t always have to have your day in court. But like Jesus, we commit ourselves to Him who judges righteously.

It means then that when someone injures us, faults us in some way, we don’t ridicule him. We don’t slander him behind his back. We don’t, for the rest of his life, look down our nose at him. We bear with one another. Accepting, even embracing one another, warts and all. And the key to it, the key to it, is how he says to do it here. He doesn’t just say, “bear with one another.” Bear with one another, get it? In love. In love.

It’s amazing how forbearing love can be. All my kids’ lives, they demanded more of me. That was beyond my obligation. In their little—I never said, “I’ve been feeding you, Jimmy, for 10 years. Do it yourself. Buy your own food.” Kids were young. They used to love for me to give them a horsey ride. I’d get down on all fours and I’d run them around the house and I’d run into the bedroom or into the living room by the couch and I’d throw them off and you know, bucking bronco thing, and throw them on. And that expends a lot of energy, especially as they get a little older. And get done and I’m about to collapse and they’re giggling and laughing and “Do it again, Daddy, do it again.” And so you do it again, and you do it till you die, and you don’t say, “Hey, I’ve got some rights here,” but you stoop to their level because you love them, just like Jesus has done with us.

Think how, if we would all work at this, how it would sweeten and preserve the fellowship we have here. Be humble, be gentle, be patient, and bear with one another in love. Why do we do it? Keep it in mind, verse 3. Why do we do it? Striving to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That is, we recognize, conscientiously, we recognize that God has formed us into one new man. And that one new man must show itself in the way we relate to one another. And we strive to show this gospel that we have embraced and put it on display. And so in order to display this oneness that has been established in Christ, we are humble, we are patient, gentle, and we forbear with one another in love.

It doesn’t tell us here to establish the peace. God has done that. He’s telling us here to work it out. In other words, it’s one of those famous passages of Paul’s where he just simply tells us, “Be what you are.” Brothers and sisters, you’ve been made one, now be one. And here’s how you do it. One day, brothers and sisters, one day, we will be brought together to a perfect realization of the oneness that has been established in Jesus Christ. To live above with saints we love, that will be glory. In that day, we won’t need to be patient. There’ll be no faults. That will be glory. But our solemn calling here and now is to put that unity on display here so that outsiders looking in will always see the glorious truth of the gospel that we’ve proclaimed and embraced—that God has not only justified us in Christ, but He’s transformed us and He’s made us one to His glory. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, how we need, how we need this kind of exhortation and reminder. We are all so prone to our pride, self-assertiveness. We pray that You will give us always a mind that is like that of the Lord Jesus; shape our lives after His. May we remember the great condescension of our Lord Jesus, that He who was rich for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. May we display that kind of love for one another in all of these practical ways, we pray. And we ask, Lord, that You would use this increasingly to put the gospel of Jesus Christ on display through us, that others may see what Christ does in those whom He saves. We pray in His name, amen.