Ephesians 4:1-8

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.”

As Christians we have been called to live a life in imitation of Jesus. When we tell others about our faith, when we let them know we are Christians, we are then obliged to live a life worthy of that name, as Paul reminds in this passage. Even though we are truly not worthy to be called a Christian because of our sinful lives, nevertheless we have been called and so we must do all we can to try to be worthy of the name “Christian”. What that then means is that we must work to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which” we have been called.

We need make no other resolution, whether at the beginning of a new year or at the beginning of each new day, have no other resolve than to work as hard as we can to lead and live such a life. Fulfilling such a resolve will take all the time and energy we have. It will also include any other resolution we might want to make about any changes we would want to make in the way we have been living our lives. Leading a life worthy of the named Christian is all we need to do, the only resolution we need to make and the only resolution we need to keep.

In truth it is an easy resolve and one easily kept, if we believe what Paul is telling us. At first we might think being gentle and humble in our words and actions, being patient with others and with ourselves when we fail to be gentle and humble, keeping peace one with another especially in the most trying of times – we might think this to be difficult if not impossible. And it is if we think we have to do it all on our own. But we do not. We all have been given whatever grace we need to lead a life worthy of our calling. And we will continue to receive whatever grace we need to continue to lead and live such a life each day of the year.

All we need to live this life worthily is to cooperate with God’s grace and not reject it. Why would anyone reject God’s grace? That is probably the faith question that confounds each one of us, especially after the fact. After we have done something that is unworthy of us as a Christian, we wonder to ourselves how we could have been so foolish, so selfish, how we could have rejected God’s help. The worst part of it all is that we did so freely. We were not forced to do something that was unworthy of our Christian faith. 

I pray: Lord God, thank you for calling me to follow Jesus each day of my life and for giving me whatever grace and strength I need to lead a life worthy of that calling. Amen.