A Worthy Life
Paul starts this great chapter by encouraging us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. What does such a life look like? Just look at the nouns: humble, gentle, patient, love. It makes every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. It is a life rarely seen, endorsed, or promoted in the Western church. (I don’t know the Eastern church well enough to comment but hopefully they have held more closely to this scriptural injunction.)
So Who are Church Leaders and What are They For?
Much has been made of the so called “five fold ministry”: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. There is no great mystery here, no deep magic in these terms. Not everyone is called to be one of these. Some would teach otherwise but clearly these servants exist to serve a larger body and if everyone is one of these then there is no larger body left to be served.
Let me just call it like I see it. I certainly can be wrong but I firmly believe that I am right about this observation in many cases. Some place great emphasis on these “offices” because they love to be respected and admired and what better way than by having a “title”. This is just human nature, but it’s not the Holy Spirit.
Even worse are those who use these titles to prey on the human nature of others. “Come join our ministry and reach your God given potential! You too may be a prophet, or an evangelist, or…” You get the idea. In fact, the more you give the more likely you are to hold one of these “offices”. Isn’t that exciting? Like shooting fish in a barrel. If you don’t think that sine do this then you don’t believe the warnings the New Testament writers give us about the wolves that will come in among the flock.
These are legitimate “gifts” given to the church. Those who actually are these gifts don’t have to advertise it or tell you in order for their gift to function. More importantly, they only exist for the church, not the other way around. They exist to help the church reach its goal which is first and foremost to attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ: mature, unified, strong in the knowledge of Christ.
Furthermore, they are no more important than the least member because it is only as each part does its work that the fullness of Christ is attained. The “leaders” must be the servants of all or they are not pointing to and modeling Christ at all.
Not Like the World
Paul closes this chapter with instructions about how to “no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking”. To many this means… it’s really hard to say what it means. To a few it is about a legalistic set of rules that distinguish “us” from “them”. I’ve been there and done that and I can tell you first hand that doesn’t work. (The scripture agrees on that point.)
Yes, Paul does give some guidelines here about speaking truthfully and not stealing, and the like. They are good guidelines, but the truth is that all of us choose our favorites and ignore the ones that don’t suit us. I think the real key can be summed up by the last verse.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
This sounds very much like a life “worthy of the calling we have received”. We may or may not be called to one of the ministry leadership positions in the church but we are called; we are called to live this verse. If we will live this verse we will certainly be distinguished from the world by living a life worthy of the calling we have received.
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