Ephesians 4 1 3 As a prisoner for

Ephesians 4: 1 -3

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. -Lives that Are Worthy-

Adopt the Right Attitude Because of this Paul writes, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ” The first attitude or character trait is humility.

Up until the twentieth century, traditional cultures (and this is still true of most cultures in the world) always believed that too high a view of yourself was the root cause of all the evil in the world. What is the reason for most of the crime and violence in the world? Why are people abused? Why are people cruel? Why do people do the bad things they do? Traditionally, the answer was hubris – the Greek word meaning pride or too high a view of yourself. Traditionally, that was the reason given for why people misbehave.

But, in our modern western culture, we have developed an utterly opposite cultural consensus. The basis of contemporary education, the way we treat incarcerated prisoners, the foundation of most modern legislation and the starting point for modern counseling is exactly the opposite of the traditional consensus. Our belief today – and it is deeply rooted in everything – is that people misbehave for lack of self-esteem and because they have too low a view of themselves. [1]

If we were to meet a truly humble person, Lewis says, we would never come away from meeting them thinking they were humble. . . the thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less”. [2]

The second character trait or attitude is that of “meekness” or “gentleness”. Third, we are told we should have an attitude characterized by “patience” or “long-suffering”.

The fourth attitude or character trait is love. The real meaning of agapē is unconquerable benevolence. If we regard a person with agapē, it means that nothing that he can do will make us seek anything but his highest good. Though he injure us and insult us, we will never feel anything but kindness towards him. That quite clearly means that this Christian love is not an emotional thing. This agapē is a thing, not only of the emotions, but also of the will. [3]

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Let me give you some suggestions: 1. The first step, which may surprise you, is to study doctrine. 2. We need to spend much time with God.

3. We need to actively cultivate these traits in our lives. The Goal We Pursue… So here is the question: Are you living in the axiomatic way in which you know you should live as a child of God?