4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Ephesians 4:1–7 (ESV)
I am so struck by the call to humility and gentleness in here. After being stereotyped and cancelled by more than a couple Christian friends in the past few years, it’s hard to read this and not point fingers. That’s probably more a sign that I’m still healing than reality. For a few years, (ok still) every talk I heard at the GLS gave some bad examples and all of those bad examples reminded me of my pastoral work at the homeless shelter. Now, when I see calls for unity or the proper way to relate to one another in the Bible, I have the same 4–5 bad examples come to mind.
Walk in a manner worthy of your calling with humility gentleness patience forbearing
The loudest Christians these days are the ones that are doing the most insisting. It’s one thing to be bold and passionate, but it’s another to be humble. I was in a group once that wanted one of their core qualities to be that they were attractive. That didn’t mean that they had bangs in the 80s and fauxhawks in the 20teens, that meant that we wanted to live a way of life that people could look at and desire.
That’s a lofty goal. Even if it would probably end up in being what Bob Warren used to call “fake smiles, sad eyes, and nobody wants what you’ve got.”
Right now we ascend to the idea of humility being a lofty goal, but at the same time people in my town wear shirts that say “May God have mercy on your soul, because I won’t.” Humility is terribly attractive, but invisible.
So yeah, humility. Not candy fake martyr wimp humility, but genuine no-attention grabbing, powerful but quiet humility.
Gentleness? I think I’ve already addressed that. Some people actually refer to having guns as a “God-given right.” I”m not even going to spend time here explaining how un-biblical and un-christian that is.
But what about gentleness? Can we be gentle without being passive? Can we be gentle without being cowards? I think so. I think this list isn’t a list of individual things. I think it’s stacking.
Humility brings about gentleness.
Oohhh, so if it’s stacking, look what happens.
Humility leads to gentleness, which then leads to patience. This is Qui-Gon sitting behind a ray shield while Darth Maul paces. One is an animal trapped in a cage, the other is resting in the safest place in the world.
The keyboard warrior fighting an imaginary caricature of a person is fueled by the pride they are right, the energy of the aggression of proving their point, and finally the speed with which they take down their opponent (me).
Patience. Look at some old wise letters written long ago. These guys were debating and discussing topics that wouldn’t be replied to for months, and sometimes years. The person that wrote the first letter might not read the reply for 3 years! Think of how much room for change and enlightenment you can expect in 3 years!
And yet, keyboard crusaders want you to be convinced in minutes from a few hundred word screed.
Patience.
Walk in a manner worth of the calling to which you have been called with all humility, gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love
We bear with one another, not drawing our identity from who we have defeated. We don’t build our honor or our self-esteem on what we stood for, but instead we build on love. And this love in here isn’t our own generated benevolent love. It’s the love of Jesus for us and for the person we are trying to maintain unity with.
We maintain unity of the Holy Spirit. Unity that He has already created (see Ephesians 1, 2, and 3) and that He has made us a part of. We are part of that unity when we become Christians.
By humility, gentleness, and patience, we bear with one another and we keep that unity.
Or more likely, from my experience, we don’t.
