Ephesians 4 1 16 commentary

EPHESIA S 4 1-16 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live
a life worthy of the calling you have received.
BAR ES, "I, therefore - In view of the great and glorious truths which God has
revealed, and of the grace which he has manifested toward you who are Gentiles. See the
previous chapters. The sense of the word “therefore” - οᆗν oun - in this place, is, “Such
being your exalted privileges; since God has done so much for you; since he has revealed
for you such a glorious system; since he has bestowed on you the honor of calling you
into his kingdom, and making you partakers of his mercy, I entreat you to live in
accordance with these elevated privileges, and to show your sense of his goodness by
devoting your all to his service.” The force of the word “I,” they would all feel. It was the
appeal and exhortation of the founder of their church - of their spiritual father - of one
who had endured much for them, and who was now in bonds on account of his devotion
to the welfare of the Gentile world.
The prisoner of the Lord - Margin, “in.” It means, that he was now a prisoner, or
in confinement “in the cause” of the Lord; and he regarded himself as having been made
a prisoner because the Lord had so willed and ordered it. He did not feel particularly
that he was the prisoner of Nero; he was bound and kept because the “Lord” willed it,
and because it was in his service; see the notes on Eph_3:1.
Beseech you that ye walk worthy - That you live as becomes those who have been
called in this manner into the kingdom of God. The word “walk” is often used to denote
“life, conduct,” etc.; see Rom_4:12, note; Rom_6:4, note; 2Co_5:7, note.
Of the vocation - Of the “calling” - τᇿς κλήσεως tēs klēseōs. This word properly means
“a call,” or “an invitation” - as to a banquet. Hence, it means that divine invitation or
calling by which Christians are introduced into the privileges of the gospel. The word is
translated “calling” in Rom_11:29; 1Co_1:26; 1Co_7:20; Eph_1:18; Eph_4:1, Eph_4:4;
Phi_3:14; 2Th_1:11; 2Ti_1:9; Heb_3:1; 2Pe_1:10. It does not occur elsewhere. The sense
of the word, and the agency employed in calling us, are well expressed in the
Westminster Shorter Catechism. “Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby
convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ,
and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely
offered to us in the gospel.” This “calling or vocation” is through the agency of the Holy
Spirit, and is his appropriate work on the human heart.

It consists essentially in influencing the mind to turn to God, or to enter into his
kingdom. It is the exertion of “so much” influence on the mind as is necessary to secure
the turning of the sinner to God. In this all Christians are agreed, though there have been
almost endless disputes about the actual influence exerted, and the mode in which the
Spirit acts on the mind. Some suppose it is by “moral persuasion;” some by physical
power; some by an act of creation; some by inclining the mind to exert its proper powers
in a right way, and to turn to God. What is the precise agency employed perhaps we are
not to expect to be able to decide; see Joh_3:8. The great, the essential point is held, if it
be maintained that it is by the agency of the Holy Spirit that the result is secured - and
this I suppose to be held by all evangelical Christians. But though it is by the agency of
the Holy Spirit, we are not to suppose that it is without the employment of “means.” It is
not literally like the act of creation. It is preceded and attended with means adapted to
the end; means which are almost as various as the individuals who are “called” into the
kingdom of God. Among those means are the following:
(1) “Preaching.” Probably more are called into the kingdom by this means than any
other. It is “God’s great ordinance for the salvation of men.” It is eminently suited for it.
The “pulpit” has higher advantages for acting on the mind than any other means of
affecting people. The truths that are dispensed; the sacredness of the place; the peace
and quietness of the sanctuary; and the appeals to the reason, the conscience, and the
heart - all are suited to affect people, and to bring them to reflection. The Spirit makes
use of the word “preached,” but in a great variety of ways. Sometimes many are
impressed simultaneously; sometimes the same truth affects one mind while others are
unmoved; and sometimes truth reaches the heart of a sinner which he has heard a
hundred times before, without being interested. The Spirit acts with sovereign power,
and by laws which have never yet been traced out.
(2) The events of Providence are used to call people into his kingdom. God appeals to
people by laying them on a bed of pain, or by requiring them to follow a friend in the still
and mournful procession to the grave. They feel that they must die, and they are led to
ask the question whether they are prepared. Much fewer are affected in this way than we
should suppose would be the case; but still there are many, in the aggregate, who can
trace their hope of heaven to a fit of sickness, or to the death of a friend.
(3) Conversation is one of the means by which sinners are called into the kingdom of
God. In some states of mind, where the Spirit has prepared the soul like mellow ground
prepared for the seed, a few moments’ conversation, or a single remark, will do more to
arrest the attention than much preaching.
(4) Reading is often the means of calling people into the kingdom. The Bible is the
great means - and if we can get people to read that, we have very cheering indications
that they will be converted. The profligate Earl of Rochester was awakened and led to the
Saviour by reading a chapter in Isaiah. And who can estimate the number of those who
have been converted by reading Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted; Alleine’s Alarm; the
Dairyman’s Daughter; or the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain? He does “good” who places a
good book in the way of a sinner. That mother or sister is doing good, and making the
conversion of a son or brother probable, who puts a Bible in his chest when he goes to
sea, or in his trunk when he goes on a journey. Never should a son be allowed to go from
home without one. The time will come when, far away from home, he will read it. He will
read it when his mind is pensive and tender, and the Spirit may bear the truth to his
heart for his conversion.
(5) The Spirit calls people into the kingdom of Christ by presiding over, and directing
in some unseen manner their own reflections, or the operations of their own minds. In
some way unknown to us, he turns the thoughts to the past life; recalls forgotten deeds

and plans; makes long past sins rise to remembrance; and overwhelms the mind with
conscious guilt from the memory of crime. He holds this power over the soul; and it is
among the most mighty and mysterious of all the influences that he has on the heart.
“Sometimes” - a man can hardly tell how - the mind will be pensive, sad, melancholy;
then conscious of guilt; then alarmed at the future. Often, by sudden transitions, it will
be changed from the frivolous to the serious, and from the pleasant to the sad; and often,
unexpectedly to himself, and by associations which he cannot trace out, the sinner will
find himself reflecting on death. judgment, and eternity. It is the Spirit of God that leads
the mind along. It is not by force; not by the violation of its laws, but in accordance with
those laws, that the mind is thus led along to the eternal world. In such ways, and by
such means, are people “called” into the kingdom of God. To “walk worthy of that
calling,” is to live as becomes a Christian, an heir of glory; to live as Christ did. It is:
(1) To bear our religion with us to all places, companies, employments. Not merely to
be a Christian on the Sabbath, and at the communion table, and in our own land, but
every day, and everywhere, and in any land where we may be placed. We are to live
religion, and not merely to profess it. We are to be Christians in the counting-room, as
well as in the closet; on the farm as well as at the communion table; among strangers,
and in a foreign land, as well as in our own country and in the sanctuary.
(2) It is to do nothing inconsistent with the most elevated Christian character. In
temper, feeling, plan, we are to give expression to no emotion, and use no language, and
perform no deed, that shall be inconsistent with the most elevated Christian character.
(3) It is to do “right always:” to be just to all; to tell the simple truth; to defraud no
one; to maintain a correct standard of morals; to be known to be honest. There is a
correct standard of character and conduct; and a Christian should be a man so living,
that we may always know “exactly where to find him.” He should so live, that we shall
have no doubts that, however others may act, we shall find “him” to be the unflinching
advocate of temperance, chastity, honesty, and of every good work - of every plan that is
really suited to alleviate human woe, and benefit a dying world.
(4) It is to live as one should who expects soon to be “in heaven.” Such a man will feel
that the earth is not his home; that he is a stranger and a pilgrim here; that riches,
honors, and pleasures are of comparatively little importance; that he ought to watch and
pray, and that he ought to be holy. A man who feels that he may die at any moment, will
watch and pray. A man who realizes that “tomorrow” he may be in heaven, will feel that
he ought to be holy. He who begins a day on earth, feeling that at its close he may be
among the angels of God, and the spirits of just men made perfect; that before its close
he may have seen the Saviour glorified, and the burning throne of God, will feel the
importance of living a holy life, and of being wholly devoted to the service of God. Pure
should be the eyes that are soon to look on the throne of God; pure the hands that are
soon to strike the harps of praise in heaven; pure the feet that are to walk the “golden
streets above.”
CLARKE, "I therefore - Therefore, because God has provided for you such an
abundant salvation, and ye have his testimonies among you, and have full liberty to use
all the means of grace;
The prisoner of the Lord - Who am deprived of my liberty for the Lord’s sake.
Beseech you that ye walk - Ye have your liberty, and may walk; I am deprived of
mine, and cannot. This is a fine stroke, and wrought up into a strong argument. You who
are at large can show forth the virtues of him who called you into his marvellous light; I

am in bondage, and can only exhort others by my writing, and show my submission to
God by my patient suffering.
The vocation wherewith ye are called - The calling, κλησις, is the free invitation
they have had from God to receive the privileges of the Gospel, and become his sons and
daughters, without being obliged to observe Jewish rites and ceremonies. Their
vocation, or calling, took in their Christian profession, with all the doctrines, precepts,
privileges, duties, etc., of the Christian religion.
Among us, a man’s calling signifies his trade, or occupation in life; that at which he
works, and by which he gets his bread; and it is termed his calling, because it is
supposed that God, in the course of his providence, calls the person to be thus employed,
and thus to acquire his livelihood. Now, as it is a very poor calling by which a man
cannot live, so it is a poor religion by which a man cannot get his soul saved. If, however,
a man have an honest and useful trade, and employ himself diligently in labouring at it,
he will surely be able to maintain himself by it; but without care, attention, and industry,
he is not likely to get, even by this providential calling, the necessaries of life. In like
manner, if a man do not walk worthy of his heavenly calling, i.e. suitable to its
prescriptions, spirit, and design, he is not likely to get his soul saved unto eternal life.
The best trade, unpractised, will not support any man; the most pure and holy religion of
the Lord Jesus, unapplied, will save no soul. Many suppose, because they have a sound
faith, that all is safe and well: as well might the mechanic, who knows he has a good
trade, and that he understands the principles of it well, suppose it will maintain him,
though he brings none of its principles into action by honest, assiduous, and well-
directed labor.
Some suppose that the calling refers to the epithets usually given to the Christians;
such as children of Abraham, children of God, true Israel of God, heirs of God, saints,
fellow citizens with the saints, etc., etc.; and that these honorable appellations must be a
strong excitement to the Ephesians to walk worthy of these exalted characters But I do
not find that the word κλησις, calling, is taken in this sense any where in the New
Testament; but that it has the meaning which I have given it above is evident from 1Co_
7:20 : Εκαστος εν τη κλησει ᇌ εκληθη, εν ταυτᇽ µενετω· Let every man abide in the calling to
which he hath been called. The context shows that condition, employment, or business
of life, is that to which the apostle refers.
GILL, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you,.... Or "in the Lord";
that is, for the Lord's sake; See Gill on Eph_3:1. Some connect this phrase, "in the Lord",
with the following word, "beseech": as if the sense was, that the apostle entreated the
believing Ephesians, in the name of the Lord, and for his sake, to take heed to their walk
and conversation, that it be as became the calling by grace, and to glory, with which they
were called: and this exhortation he enforces from the consideration of the state and
condition in which he was, a prisoner, not for any wickedness he had been guilty of, but
for the Lord's sake, which seems to be the true sense of the word; and that, if they would
not add afflictions to his bonds, as some professors by their walk did, he beseeches them,
as an ambassador in bonds, that they would attend to what he was about to say; and the
rather, since such doctrines of grace had been made known to them, which have a
tendency to promote powerful godliness; and since they were made partakers of such
privileges as laid them under the greatest obligation to duty, which were made mention
of in the preceding chapters.

That ye walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called; by which is meant,
not that private and peculiar state and condition of life, that the saints are called to, and
in: but that calling, by the grace of God, which is common to them all; and is not a mere
outward call by the ministry of the word, with which men may be called, and not be
chosen, sanctified, and saved; but that which is internal, and is of special grace, and by
the Spirit of God; by whom they are called out of darkness into light, out of bondage into
liberty, out of the world, and from the company and conversation of the men of it, into
the fellowship of Christ, and his people, to the participation of the grace of Christ here,
and to his kingdom and glory hereafter; and which call is powerful, efficacious, yea,
irresistible; and being once made is unchangeable, and without repentance, and is holy,
high, and heavenly. Now to walk worthy of it, or suitable to it, is to walk as children of
the light; to walk in the liberty wherewith Christ and his Spirit make them free; to walk
by faith on Christ; and to walk in the ways of God, with Christ, the mark, in their view,
and with the staff of promises in their hands; and to walk on constantly, to go forwards
and hold out unto the end: for this walking, though it refers to a holy life and
conversation, a series of good works, yet it does not suppose that these merit calling;
rather the contrary, since these follow upon it; and that is used as an argument to excite
unto them: but the phrase is expressive of a fitness, suitableness, and agreeableness of a
walk and conversation to such rich grace, and so high an honour conferred on saints.
HE RY, "This is a general exhortation to walk as becomes our Christian profession.
Paul was now a prisoner at Rome; and he was the prisoner of the Lord, or in the Lord,
which signifies as much as for the Lord. See of this, Eph_3:1. He mentions this once and
again, to show that he was not ashamed of his bonds, well knowing that he suffered not
as an evil doer: and likewise to recommend what he wrote to them with the greater
tenderness and with some special advantage. It was a doctrine he thought worth
suffering for, and therefore surely they should think it worthy their serious regards and
their dutiful observance. We have here the petition of a poor prisoner, one of Christ's
prisoners: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you,” etc. Considering what
God has done for you, and to what a state and condition he has called you, as has been
discoursed before, I now come with an earnest request to you (not to send me relief, nor
to use your interest for the obtaining of my liberty, the first thing which poor prisoners
are wont to solicit from their friends, but) that you would approve yourselves good
Christians, and live up to your profession and calling; That you walk worthily,
agreeably, suitably, and congruously to those happy circumstances into which the grace
of God has brought you, whom he has converted from heathenism to Christianity.
Observe, Christians ought to accommodate themselves to the gospel by which they are
called, and to the glory to which they are called; both are their vocation. We are called
Christians; we must answer that name, and live like Christians. We are called to God's
kingdom and glory; that kingdom and glory therefore we must mind, and walk as
becomes the heirs of them.
JAMISO , "Eph_4:1-32. Exhortations to Christian duties resting on our Christian
privileges, as united in one body, though varying in the graces given to the several
members, that we may come unto a perfect man in Christ.
Translate, according to the Greek order, “I beseech you, therefore (seeing that such is
your calling of grace, the first through third chapters) I the prisoner in the Lord (that is,
imprisoned in the Lord’s cause).” What the world counted ignominy, he counts the

highest honor, and he glories in his bonds for Christ, more than a king in his diadem
[Theodoret]. His bonds, too, are an argument which should enforce his exhortation.
vocation — Translate, “calling” to accord, as the Greek does, with “called” (Eph_4:4;
Eph_1:18; Rom_8:28, Rom_8:30). Col_3:15 similarly grounds Christian duties on our
Christian “calling.” The exhortations of this part of the Epistle are built on the conscious
enjoyment of the privileges mentioned in the former part. Compare Eph_4:32, with
Eph_1:7; Eph_5:1 with Eph_1:5; Eph_4:30, with Eph_1:13; Eph_5:15, with Eph_1:8.
CALVI , "The three remaining chapters consist entirely of practical exhortations.
Mutual agreement is the first subject, in the course of which a discussion is
introduced respecting the government of the church, as having been framed by our
Lord for the purpose of maintaining unity among Christians.
1.I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord. His imprisonment, which might have been
supposed more likely to render him despised, is appealed to, as we have already
seen, for a confirmation of his authority. It was the seal of that embassy with which
he had been honored. Whatever belongs to Christ, though in the eyes of men it may
be attended by ignominy, ought to be viewed by us with the highest regard. The
apostle’ prison is more truly venerable than the splendid retinue or triumphal
chariot of kings.
That ye may walk worthy. This is a general sentiment, a sort of preface, on which all
the following statements are founded. He had formerly illustrated the calling with
which they were called, (138) and now reminds them that they must live in
obedience to God, in order that they may not be unworthy of such distinguished
grace.
(138) Τὢς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε “ Epict. page 122, 1. 3, says, καταισχύνειν τὴν
κλὢσιν ἣν κέκληκεν, ‘ disgrace the calling with which he has called thee.’ He is
speaking of a person, who, when summoned to give his testimony, utters what is
contrary to that which was demanded or expected from him.” — Raphelius.
ISBET, "VOCATIO
‘I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called.’
Eph_4:1
The vocation or calling here referred to was the name, the status, the dignity, the
privileges, flowing from admission to the Church of Christ.
If we are true citizens of the Kingdom of Christ Jesus we have assuredly our work to

do.
I. We have each of us to use our earthly citizenship, our civil rights to leaven public
and social life with the influence of the laws of Christ’s Kingdom.
(a) We have to discourage the rudeness and coarse frivolity, and clever impudence,
and unscrupulous exaggeration and distortion of the truth, which are far too much
tolerated and applauded in our day.
(b) We have to crush, by manly effort, the lawless licentiousness and fiendish lust
which seethe beneath the surface of society, and poison the fountains of national life.
(c) We have to rebuke the prurient indecency which publishes without reserve or
modesty the things of which it is a shame to speak.
(d) We have to foster the delicate reserve and sensitive shrinking from all whisper of
uncleanness which used to be the instinct and the law of chaste womanhood.
(e) We have to rescue our cities from worldliness and profligacy, our villages from
irreligion, and lethargy, and sloth.
II. We have by well-doing to put to silence the ignorance of those who speak foolish
things against the religion and the Church of Christ.
III. We have to deepen the religion of our homes by the silent suasion that proceeds
from hearts which are themselves filled with the love of Jesus.
IV. We have to discipline our own lives in growing conformity to the mind of Christ.
Thus, by making the most of our lives, we shall walk worthy of what God has
bestowed on us, and accomplish the vocation that He intends.
—
Bishop James Macarthur.
BURKITT, "As if he had said, "Seeing the riches of God's grace in Christ have so
abounded towards you, who were once Ephesian idolaters, but now converted
Gentiles, I Paul, who am a prisoner for preaching the gospel, and for declaring this
grace to you, do most affectionately exhort you, that ye live answerably to your
profession, and according to the great obligation of your high and holy vocation
from heathenism to Christianity."
Here note, 1. The person exhorting and beseeching, I Paul, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you; I that am in bonds for Christ, I that am imprisoned for preaching the

gospel to you, and for proselyting you by it to Christianity. othing can more oblige
a people to hearken to the exhortations of the ministers of Christ, than this
consideration, that the truths which they deliver to them, they stand ready both to
suffer for and to seal with their precious blood: I, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you.
ote, 2. The comprehensive duty exhorted to, That ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called; worthy, that is, beseeming and becoming your holy
profession, answerable to the dignity and obligation of your Christian name; or, as
he exhorteth the Philippians, Php_1:20, "walk as becometh the gospel of Jesus
Christ."
But when may we be said so to do:
Ans. When we walk according to the precepts and commands of the gospel;
answerable to the privileges and prerogatives of the gospel; answerable to that
grand pattern of holiness which the gospel sets before us, the example of Jesus
Christ; answerable to the helps and supplies of grace which the gospel affords.
Finally, to walk worthy or our vocation, is to walk answerable to those high and
glorious hopes which the gospel raises the Christian up to the expectation of.
SIMEO , "A CO SISTE T WALK E JOI ED
Eph_4:1-3. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of
the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-
suffering, forbearing one another in lore; endeavouring to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace.
THE end of all true religion is practice: and the perfection of practice is a habit of
mind suited to the relations which we bear to God and man, and to the
circumstances in which from time to time we are placed. It is not by external acts
only that we are to serve God: the passive virtues of meekness, and patience, and
long-suffering, and forbearance, are quite as pleasing in his sight, as the most active
virtues in which we can be engaged. Hence St. Paul, in entering on the practical part
of this epistle, entreats the Ephesian converts to pay particular attention to these
graces, and to consider them as the clearest evidences of their sincerity, and the
brightest ornaments of their profession. He was at this time a prisoner at Rome: but
no personal considerations occupied his mind. He had no request to make for
himself; no wish for any exertions on their part to liberate him from his
confinement: he was willing to suffer for his Lord’s sake; and sought only to make
his sufferings a plea, whereby to enforce the more powerfully on their minds the
great subject which he had at heart, their progressive advancement in real piety.
With a similar view we would now draw your attention to,

I. His general exhortation—
First, let us get a distinct idea of what the Christian’s “vocation” is—
[It is a vocation from death to life, from sin to holiness, from hell to heaven.
Every Christian was once dead in trespasses and sins [ ote: Eph_2:1. Tit_3:3.] —
— — But he has heard the voice of the Son of God speaking to him in the Gospel
[ ote: Joh_5:24-25. 1Th_1:5.] — — — and, through the quickening influence of the
Holy Spirit, he “has passed from death unto life [ ote: 1Jn_3:14.];” so that, though
once he was dead, lie is now alive again; and though once lost, he is found [ ote:
Luk_15:24.] — — —
From the time-that he is so quickened, he rises to newness of life [ ote: Rom_6:4-5.].
Just as his Lord and Saviour “died unto sin once, but, in that he liveth, liveth unto
God,” so the Christian is conformed to Christ in this respect, “reckoning himself
dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ [ ote: Rom_6:9-11.].” By his
very calling he is “turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan
unto God [ ote: Act_26:18.];” and engages to be “holy, even as God himself is holy
[ ote: 1Pe_1:15-16.]” — — —
Once the believer was a “child of wrath, even as others [ ote: Eph_2:2.];” and, had
he died in his unconverted state, must have perished for ever. But through the blood
of Jesus he is delivered from the guilt of all his sins, and obtains a title to the
heavenly inheritance — — — Hence he is said to be “called to the kingdom and
glory of his God,” and “to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ [ ote:
1Th_2:12 and 2Th_2:13-14.].”
Thus is the Christian’s “a high,” “a holy,” and “a heavenly calling.”]
Such, believer, being thy vocation, thou mayest easily see what kind of a walk that is
which is suited to it—
[Dost thou profess to have experienced such a call? “Walk worthy of the” profession
which thou makest, the expectations thou hast formed, and the obligations which
are laid upon thee.
It is not any common measure of holiness that befits a person professing such things
as these. How unsuitable would it be for one who pretends to have been “born from
above,” to be setting his affections on any thing here below; or for one who is “a
partaker of the Divine nature,” to “walk in any other way than as Christ himself
walked!” — — —
And, seeing that you “look for a better country, that is, an heavenly,” should you not
aspire after it, and “press forward towards it, forgetting all the ground you have
passed over, and mindful only of the way that lies before you? — — — Should not
“your conversation be in heaven,” where your treasure now is, and where you hope

in a little time to be, in the immediate presence of your God?
If you have indeed been so highly distinguished, should you not “live no longer to
yourselves, but altogether unto Him who died for you and rose again?” Should any
thing short of absolute perfection satisfy you? Should you not labour to “stand
perfect and complete in all the will of God [ ote: Col_4:12.]?”
This then is what I would earnestly entreat you all to seek after, even to walk worthy
of your high calling, or rather, “worthy of the Lord himself,” who hath “called you
out of darkness into his marvellous light.”]
But that we may come more closely to the point, we will call your attention to,
II. The particular duties he inculcates—
In order to adorn our Christian profession, we must especially keep in view,
1. 1. The cultivation of holy tempers in ourselves—
[Without this, nothing can ever prosper in our souls. “Lowliness and meekness” are
unostentatious virtues; but they are of pre-eminent value in the sight of God [ ote:
1Pe_3:4.]. They constitute the brightest ornament of “the hidden man of the heart,”
which alone engages the regards of the heart-searching God. In the very first place,
therefore, get your souls deeply impressed with a sense of your own unworthiness,
and of your total destitution of wisdom, or righteousness, or strength, or any thing
that is good. o man is so truly rich as he who is “poor in spirit;” no man so
estimable in God’s eyes, as he who is most abased in his own. With humility must be
associated meekness. These two qualities particularly characterized our blessed
Lord [ ote: 2Co_10:1.]: of whom we are on that account encouraged to learn [ ote:
Mat_11:29.]; and whom in these respects we are bound to imitate, “having the same
mind as was in him [ ote: Php_2:5.].” Let these dispositions then be cultivated with
peculiar care, according as St. James has exhorted us; “Who is a wise man and
endued with knowledge amongst you? let him shew out of a good conversation his
works with meekness of wisdom [ ote: Jam_3:13.].”
And whilst we maintain in exercise these graces, let us also be long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love. However meek and lowly we are in ourselves, it
cannot fail but that we must occasionally meet with things painful from others. The
very graces which we manifest will often call forth the enmity of others, and cause
them to act an injurious part towards us. But, if this should be the case, we must be
long-suffering towards them, not retaliating the injury, nor harbouring resentment
in our hearts, but patiently submitting to it, as to a dispensation ordered by Infinite
Wisdom for our good. But, where this is not the case, there will still be occasions of
vexation, arising from the conduct of those around us: the ignorance of some, the
misapprehensions and mistakes of others, the perverseness of others, the want of
judgment in others, sometimes also pure accident, will place us in circumstances of
difficulty and embarrassment. But from whatever cause these trials arise, we should

shew forbearance towards the offender, from a principle of love; not being offended
with him, not imputing evil intention to him, not suffering our regards towards him
to be diminished; but bearing with his infirmities, as we desire that God should bear
with ours.
ow it is in preserving such a state of mind in ourselves, and manifesting it towards
others, that we shall particularly adorn the Gospel of Christ: and therefore, in our
endeavours to walk worthy of our high calling, we must particularly be on our
guard, that no temper contrary to these break forth into act, or be harboured in the
mind.]
2. The promotion of peace and unity in all around us—
[As belonging to the Church of Christ, we have duties towards all the members of
his mystical body. There ought to be perfect union amongst them all: they should, if
possible, be “all joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment [ ote:
1Co_1:10.].” But, constituted as men are, it is scarcely to be expected that all who
believe in Christ should have precisely the same views of every doctrine, or even of
every duty. But whatever points of difference there may be between them, there
should be a perfect unity of spirit: and to preserve this should be the constant
endeavour of them all. All should consider themselves as members of one family,
living under the same roof: if the house be on fire, they all exert themselves in
concert with each other, to extinguish the flames: they feel one common interest in
the welfare of the whole, and gladly unite for the promotion of it. Thus it should be
in the Church of Christ. Every thing tending to disunion should be avoided by all;
or if the bonds of peace be in any degree loosened, every possible effort should be
made to counteract the evil, and re-establish the harmony that has been interrupted.
A constant readiness to this good office is no low attainment; and, when joined with
the graces before spoken of, it constitutes a most useful and ornamental part of the
Christian character. Attend then to this with great care. Shew that you “do not
mind your own things only, but also, if not chiefly, the things of others.” Shew, that
the welfare of the Church, and the honour of your Lord, lie near your heart: and let
no effort be wanting on your part to promote so glorious an object. Be willing to
sacrifice any interest or wish of your own for the attainment of it; even as Paul
“became all things to all men,” and “sought not his own profit, but the profit of
many, that they might be saved.”]
And now, let me, like the Apostle, make this the subject of my most earnest and
affectionate entreaty. Consider, “I beseech you,”
1. Its aspect on your own happiness—
[It is the consistent Christian only that can be happy. If there be pride, anger, or any
hateful passion indulged, “it will eat as doth a canker,” and destroy all the comfort
of the soul; it will cause God to hide his face from us, and weaken the evidences of
our acceptance with him. If then you consult nothing but your own happiness, I
would say to you, “Walk worthy the vocation wherewith ye are called; and

especially in the constant exercise of humility and love.”]
2. Its aspect on the Church of which you are members—
[It is impossible to benefit the Church, if these graces be not cultivated with the
greatest care. In every Church there will be some, who, by unsubdued tempers, or
erroneous notions, or a party-spirit, will be introducing divisions, and disturbing the
harmony which ought to prevail. Against all such persons the humble Christian
should be on his guard, and oppose a barrier. And it is scarcely to be conceived how
much good one person of a humble and loving spirit may do. If “one sinner
destroyeth much good,” so verily one active and pious Christian effects much. Let
each of you then consider the good of the whole: consider yourselves as soldiers
fighting under one Head. Your regimental dress may differ from that of others; but
the end, and aim, and labour of all, must be the same; and all must have but one
object, the glory of their common Lord.]
3. Its aspect on the world around you—
[What will the world say, if they see Christians dishonouring their profession by
unholy tempers and mutual animosities? What opinion will they have of principles
which produce in their votaries no better effects? Will they not harden themselves
and one another in their sins, and justify themselves in their rejection of the Gospel,
which your inconsistencies have taught them to blaspheme? But if your deportment
be such that they can find no evil thing to say of you, they will be constrained to
acknowledge that God is with you of a truth, and to glorify him in your behalf.
Especially, if they see you to be one with each other, as God and Christ are one, they
will know that your principles are just, and will wish to have their portion with you
in a better world [ ote: Joh_17:21-23.].]
4. Its aspect on your eternal welfare—
[In all the most essential things, all the members of Christ’s mystical body are of
necessity united: there is “one body,” of which you are members: “one Spirit,” by
which you are animated; one inheritance, which is the “one hope of your calling;”
“one Lord,” Jesus Christ, who died for you; “one faith,” which you have all
received; “one baptism,” in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, of which you have all partaken; one God and Father of all, who “is above
all,” by his essential majesty, and “through all,” by his universal providence, “and
in you all” by his indwelling Spirit [ ote: ver. 4–6.]: and shall you, who are one in so
many things, be separated from each other so as not to be one in Christian love? It
cannot be: your love to each other is the most indispensable evidence of your union
with him: and, if you are not united together in the bonds of love in the Church
below, you never can be united in glory in the Church above. If ever then you would
join with that choir of saints and angels which are around the throne of God, be
consistent, be uniform, be humble; and let love have a complete and undisputed
sway over your hearts and lives.]

MACLARE ,"THE CALLI G A D THE KI GDOM
Eph_4:1; Rev_3:4
The estimate formed of a centurion by the elders of the Jews was, ‘He is worthy for
whom Thou shouldst do this’ and in contrast therewith the estimate formed by
himself was, ‘I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof.’ From these
two statements we deduce the thought that merit has no place in the Christian’s
salvation, but all is to be traced to undeserved, gracious love. But that principle, true
and all-important as it is, like every other great truth, may be exaggerated, and may
be so isolated as to become untrue and a source of much evil. And so I desire to turn
to the other side of the shield, and to emphasise the place that worthiness has in the
Christian life, and its personal results both here and hereafter. To say that
character has nothing to do with blessedness is untrue, both to conscience and to the
Christian revelation; and however we trace all things to grace, we must also
remember that we get what we have fitted ourselves for.
ow, my two texts bring out two aspects which have to be taken in conjunction. The
one of them speaks about the present life, and lays it as an imperative obligation on
all Christian people to be worthy of their Christianity, and the other carries us into
the future and shows us that there it is they who are ‘worthy’ who attain to the
Kingdom. So I think I shall best bring out what I desire to emphasise if I just take
these two points-the Christian calling and the life that is worthy of it, and the
Christian heaven and the life that is worthy of it.
I. The Christian calling and the life that is worthy of it.
‘I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.’ ow,
that thought recurs in other places in the Apostle’s writings, somewhat modified in
expression. For instance, in one passage he speaks of ‘walking worthily of the God
who has called us to His kingdom and glory,’ and in another of the Christian man’s
duty to ‘walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing.’ There is a certain vocation to
which a Christian man is bound to make his life correspond, and his conduct should
be in some measure worthy of the ideal that is set before it. ow, we shall best
understand what is involved in such worthiness if we make clear to ourselves what
the Apostle means by this ‘calling’ to which he appeals as containing in itself a

standard to which our lives are to be conformed.
Suppose we try to put away the technical word ‘calling’ and instead of ‘calling’ say
‘summons,’ which is nearer the idea, because it conveys the notions more fully of the
urgency of the voice, and of the authority of the voice, which speaks to us. And what
is that summons? How do we hear it? One of the other Apostles speaks of God as
calling us ‘by His own glory and virtue,’ that is to say, wherever God reveals
Himself in any fashion, and by any medium, to a man, the man fails to understand
the deepest meaning of the revelation unless his purged ear hears in it the great
voice saying, ‘Come up hither.’ For all God’s self-manifestation, in the creatures
around us, in the deep voice of our own souls, in the mysteries of our own personal
lives, and in the slow evolution of His purpose through the history of the world, all
these revelations of God bear in them the summons to us that hear and see them to
draw near to Him, and to mould ourselves into His likeness. And thus, just as the
sun by the effluence of its beams gathers all the ministering planets, as it were,
round its feet, and draws them to itself, so God, raying Himself out into the waste,
fills the waste with magnetic influences which are meant to draw men to nobleness,
goodness, God-pleasingness, and God-likeness.
But in another place in this Apostle’s writings we read of ‘the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.’ Yes, there, as focussed into one strong voice, all the summonses are
concentrated and gathered. For in Jesus Christ we see the possibilities of humanity
realised, and we have the pattern of what we ought to be, and are called thereby to
be. And in Christ we get the great motives which make this summons, as it comes
mended from His lips, no longer the mere harsh voice of an authoritative legislator,
but the gentle invitation, ‘Come unto Me, ... and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’
The summons is honeyed, sweetened, and made infinitely mightier when we hear it
from His gracious lips. It is the blessed peculiarity of the Christian ideal, that the
manifestation of the ideal carries with it the power to realise it. And just as the
increasing strength of the spring sunshine summons the buds from out of their folds,
and the snowdrops hear the call and force themselves through the frozen soil, so
when Christ summons He inclines the ears that hear, and enables the men that own
them to obey the summons, and to be what they are commanded. And thus we have
‘the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’
ow, if that is the call, if the life of Christ is that to which we are summoned, and
the death of Christ is that by which we are inclined to obey the summons, and the
Spirit of Christ is that by which we are enabled to do so, what sort of a life will be
worthy of these? Well, the context supplies part of the answer. ‘I beseech you that ye
walk worthy of the vocation ... with all meekness and lowliness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love.’ That is one side of the vocation, and the life that is

worthy of it will be a life emancipated from the meanness of selfishness, and
delivered from the tumidities of pride and arrogance, and changed into the
sweetness of gentleness and the royalties of love.
And then, on the other side, in one of the other texts where the same general set of
ideas is involved, we get a yet more wondrous exhibition of the life which the
Apostle considered to be worthy. I simply signalise its points of detail without
venturing to dwell upon them. ‘Unto all pleasing’; the first characteristic of life that
is ‘worthy of our calling’ and to which, therefore, every one of us Christian people is
imperatively bound, is that it shall, in all its parts, please God, and that is a large
demand. Then follow details: ‘Fruitful in every good work’-a many-sided
fruitfulness, an encyclopaediacal beneficent activity, covering all the ground of
possible excellence; and that is not all; ‘increasing in the knowledge of God,’-a life of
progressive acquaintance with Him; and that is not all:-’strengthened with all might
unto all patience and long-suffering’; nor is that all, for the crown of the whole is
‘giving thanks unto the Father.’ So, then, ‘ye see your calling, brethren.’ A life that
is ‘worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called’ is a life that conforms to the
divine will, that is ‘fruitful in all good,’ that is progressive in its acquaintance with
God, that is strengthened for all patience and long-suffering, and that in everything
is thankful to Him. That is what we are summoned to be, and unless we are in some
measure obeying the summons, and bringing out such a life in our conduct, then,
notwithstanding all that we have to say about unmerited mercy, and free grace, and
undeserved love, and salvation being not by works but by faith, we have no right to
claim the mercy to which we say we trust.
ow, this necessity of a worthy life is perfectly harmonious with the great truth that,
after all, every man owes all to the undeserved mercy of God. The more nearly we
come to realise the purpose of our calling, the more ‘worthy’ of it we are, the deeper
will be our consciousness of our unworthiness. The more we approximate to the
ideal, and come closer up to it, and so see its features the better, the more we shall
feel how unlike we are to it. The law for Christian progress is that the sense of
unworthiness increases in the precise degree in which the worthiness increases. The
same man that said, ‘Of whom {sinners} I am chief,’ said to the same reader, ‘I have
kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.’ And so
the two things are not contradictory but complementary. On the one side ‘worthy’
has nothing to do with the outflow of Christ’s love to us; on the other side we are to
‘walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.’
II. And now, let us turn to the other thought, the Christian heaven and the life that
is worthy of it.

Some of you, I have no doubt, would think that that was a tremendous heresy if
there were not Scriptural words to buttress it. Let us see what it means. My text out
of the Revelation says, ‘They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.’ And
the same voice that spake these, to some of us, astounding, words, said, when He was
here on earth, ‘They which shall be counted worthy to attain to the life of the
resurrection from the dead,’ etc. The text brings out very clearly the continuity and
congruity between the life on earth and the life in heaven. Who is it of whom it is
said that ‘they are worthy’ to ‘walk in white’? It is the ‘few names even in Sardis
which have not defiled their garments.’ You see the connection; clean robes here
and shining robes hereafter; the two go together, and you cannot separate them.
And no belief that salvation, in its incipient germ here, and salvation in its fulness
hereafter, are the results ‘not of works of righteousness which we have done, but of
His mercy,’ is to be allowed to interfere with that other truth that they who are
worthy attain to the Kingdom.
I must not be diverted from my main purpose, tempting as the theme would be, to
say more than just a sentence about what is included in that great promise, ‘They
shall walk with Me in white’ And if I do touch upon it at all, it is only in order to
bring out more clearly that the very nature of the heavenly reward demands this
worthiness which the text lays down as the condition of possessing it. ‘They shall
walk’-activity on an external world. That opens a great door, but perhaps we had
better be contented just with looking in. ‘They shall walk’-progress; ‘with me’-
union with Jesus Christ; ‘in white’-resplendent purity of character. ow take these
four things-activity on an outward universe, progress, union with Christ,
resplendent purity of character, and you have almost all that we know of the future;
the rest is partly doubtful and is mostly symbolical or negative, and in any case
subordinate. ever mind about ‘physical theories of another life’; never mind about
all the questions-to some of us how torturing they sometimes are!-concerning that
future life. The more we keep ourselves within the broad limits of these promises
that are intertwined and folded up together in that one saying, ‘They shall walk
with Me in white,’ the better, I think, for the sanity and the spirituality of our
conception of a future life.
That being understood, the next thing clearly follows, that only those who in the
sense of the word as it is used here, are ‘worthy,’ can enter upon the possession of
such a heaven. From the nature of the gift it is clear that there must be a moral and
religious congruity between the gift and the recipient, or, to put it into plainer
words, you cannot get heaven unless your nature is capable of receiving these great
gifts which constitute heaven. People talk about the future state as being ‘a state of
retribution.’ Well! that is not altogether a satisfactory form of expression, for
retribution may convey the idea, such as is presented in earthly rewards and

punishments, of there being no natural correspondence between the crime and its
punishment, or the virtue and its reward. A bit of bronze shaped into the form of a
cross may be the retribution ‘For Valour,’ and a prison cell may be the retribution
by legal appointment for a certain crime. But that is not the way that God deals out
rewards and punishments in the life which is to come. It is not a case of retribution,
meaning thereby the arbitrary bestowment of a certain fixed gift in response to
certain virtues, but it is a case of outcome, and the old metaphor of sowing and
reaping is the true one. We sow here and we reap yonder. We pass into that future,
‘bringing our sheaves with us,’ and we have to grind the corn and make bread of it,
and we have to eat the work of our own hands. They drink as they have brewed.
‘Their works do follow them,’ or they go before them and ‘receive them into
everlasting habitations.’ Outcome, the necessary result, and not a mere arbitrary
retribution, is the relation which heaven bears to earth.
That is plain, too, from our own nature. We carry ourselves with us wherever we go.
The persistence of character, the continuity of personal being, the continuity of
memory, the unobliterable-if I may coin a word-results upon ourselves of our
actions, all these things make it certain that what looks to us a cleft, deep and broad,
between the present life and the next, is to those that have passed it, and see it from
the other side, but a little crack in the soil scarcely observable, and that we carry on
into another world the selves that we have made here. Whatever death does-and it
does a great deal that we do not know of-it does not alter, it only brings out, and, as
I suppose, intensifies, the main drift and set of a character. And so they who ‘have
not defiled their garments shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.’
Ah, brethren! how solemn that makes life; the fleeting moment carries Eternity in
its bosom. It passes, and the works pass, but nothing human ever dies, and we bear
with us the net results of all the yesterdays into that eternal to-day. You write upon
a thin film of paper and there is a black leaf below it. Yes, and below the black leaf
there is another sheet, and all that you write on the top one goes through the dark
interposed page, and is recorded on the third, and one day that will be taken out of
the book, and you will have to read it and say, ‘What I have written I have written.’
So, dear friends, whilst we begin with that unmerited love, and that same unmerited
love is the sole ground on which the gates of the kingdom of heaven are by the Death
and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ opened to believers, their place
there depends not only on faith but on the work which is the fruit of faith. There is
such a thing as being ‘saved yet so as by fire,’ and there is such a thing as ‘having an
entrance ministered abundantly unto us’; we have to make the choice. There is such
a thing as the sore punishment of which they are thought worthy who have rejected
the Son of God, and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing; and there is

such a thing as a man saying, ‘I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come unto me,’
and Christ answering, ‘He shall walk with Me in white, for he is worthy’ and we
have to make that choice also.
BIBILICAL ILLUSTRATOR
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called.
Calling and conduct
I. The behaviour of Christians should correspond with their vocation.
1. From a sense of gratitude.
2. The Divine sentiment from which the vocation sprang should possess them.
II. Certain virtues specially become the Christian vocation.
1. Because of what they are in themselves.
2. Because of the great end they promote--“the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace.” This reveals the real grandeur of these virtues. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The obligations of the Christian calling
I. The nature of the obligations resting on Christians.
1. They spring from the circumstances of the Divine call.
(1) It exhibited unparalleled condescension and mercy on the part of God.
(2) It witnessed to a Divine unity in mankind. Christ was no apostle of Judaism; no
national hero; but the Hope of Humanity.
2. They are determined by the fact of the Divine call Having been summoned by that

call into a spiritual separation from “the world,” the followers of Jesus were at the
same time constituted into a “calling” or profession by themselves.
(1) Its historic reputation had to be sustained.
(2) It was a “holy” and a “heavenly” calling (2Ti_1:9; Heb_3:1; Php_3:14).
(3) The spiritual unity it had called into existence should not be lost.
II. How these obligations of the Christian calling are to be satisfied.
1. By humility and gentleness.
2. The root and sustaining principle of these is love.
The lover of mankind will subordinate his own pleasure and advantage to the
welfare of others. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The nature and obligation of a Christian’s calling
I. The nature of a Christian’s calling.
1. It is a holy calling (2Ti_1:9).
2. It is an honourable calling (Php_3:14).
3. To serve an honourable Master (1Ti_1:17).
4. Hence it is a profitable calling (1Ti_4:8).
II. The obligation of the calling.
1. We must first study the principles of our calling (Eph_1:17).
2. We must be emulous to claim the privileges of the calling (Eph_3:16-19).
3. We must cultivate the spirit of the calling (Eph_4:2-3).
4. We must perform the duties of the calling (Joh_14:23).

(1) In civil life (Eph_4:25).
(2) In religious life (Eph_4:24).
(3) In domestic life (Eph_6:1-9).
III. The dignity of the calling (1Th_2:12).
IV. The object of the calling (1Pe_5:10). (T. B. Baker)
.
Walking worthy of our calling
How comes it to pass, that one half of this Epistle is made up of exhortation? Does
not this force itself on one’s conviction as its cause--that the saints of God need it?
They want not only to be comforted, they want not only to be taught, but they want
to be roused.
I. First as it regards their privilege. Beloved, it is one of the greatest that can be
communicated to a fallen sinner. My dear hearers, in one sense, there is not a
creature on earth, but what has a call of God to serve Him. There never could be a
state in which there could be no law, because the very law of creation puts a man
under obligation to serve God. But this is an especial calling; a call of a higher
order, a covenant calling, an effectual calling: secured by the certainty of the Divine
counsel, and never to be frustrated by man. We find in the fifth chapter of the
Epistle to the Galatians, that it is a call to liberty; “brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty.” Ah! man, with all his fond ideas of liberty, knows nothing of liberty,
till he is under the teaching of God the Holy Ghost; for man, by nature, is a bond
slave. Oh! the liberty of a free spirit; that can look death in the face, that can look
quietly from the troubles of life to the God that ordained them, and find peace and
rest in the midst of them! But observe, they are described as having been called into
the holy fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ (1Co_1:9)--“God is faithful, by whom
ye were called unto the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ.” But they are also called
to glory, to His kingdom.
II. Let us now, secondly, speak of the exhortation that stands based on this glorious
privilege. “I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles”: “I therefore

beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” He does
not beseech them to be worthy of that vocation. But he beseeches them to walk
worthy of their vocation, their calling, because they have received such wondrous
mercy. And if you ask me how they could do it?--in proportion as you walk in holy
liberty, as you walk in the peace of the gospel, as you walk in the fellowship of
Christ, as you walk in the path of holy walking. But I would remark, beloved, by
way of concluding observation--see what place humility of soul occupies in this
passage before us. Observe, “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
with all lowliness.” He did place it first; and it is its right place; it is the great place,
next to faith, hope, and love. The more a man knows of the crucified One, the lower
he lies; the more he knows of the depth of God’s grace, the more he abases himself.
Observe, too, what great stress is laid here upon what are the passive graces of the
spirit. We ought to contend for activity; we live in days in which activity is required;
not only activity of opposition, but activity of dispersion of God’s truth. But if you
ask, What ought to be in the front?--it is the passive graces of the Holy Ghost. “All
lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another in love, and
endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” But observe that
the basis of all is privilege. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
On the Christian’s vocation
This exhortation takes in the whole circle of our duties. In effect, if we exhort a man
of noble birth, or of distinguished rank in life, not to do anything unworthy of
himself, disgraceful to his family, or unbecoming his high station, we say everything
that can be said.
1. There is not any truth more evidently expressed, nor more frequently repeated, in
the sacred Scriptures, than that the first object of our vocation to Christianity is to
disengage us from the world, to break the chains which bind our affections to
creatures. You are Christians: and therefore, when you appear among men, you are
to make yourselves distinguished by charity, purity, and every virtue.
2. It is therefore a most destructive illusion to reason as Christians are sometimes
heard to do: “I am a man of the world; I must live as the world does; I must
conform to its manners.” “I am a Christian; therefore I am not of this world;
therefore I cannot live as the world does, cannot conform to its manners.” Reason in
this manner, and your determination will be conformable to the spirit and to the
grace of your vocation. You must take notice that there are two kinds of separation
from the world: the one corporal and exterior; the other, a separation in heart and
in spirit. Withdraw yourselves from the world, before the world retires from you.
You must quit the world by choice, and by an effort of virtue, or be torn from it at
length by force and violence. Follow, therefore, now the sweet attractions of Divine
grace. (J. Archer.)

The Christian’s calling
What is the kle?sis, vocation, or calling, of which the Scripture speaks so often?
Take the following hints:
1. It is the calling of God (Rom_11:29; Php_3:14; comp. 2Th_1:11, 2Ti_1:9, Heb_
3:1, 2Pe_1:10, Eph_1:18), because it is God Himself who calls us from darkness to
light, and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of His dear Son.
2. It is a high calling (Php_3:14), for the prize attached to it is eternal life.
3. It is a holy calling (2Ti_1:9), because the end and purpose of it (at least on earth)
is holiness.
4. It is a heavenly calling (Heb_3:1), for it comes from and draws us to heaven.
5. The hope of our calling (Eph_4:4) is the hope which those called by God to serve
Him may cherish. It belongs to the brethren alone, and proceeds entirely from God
(1Co_1:26). This is what our fathers termed effectual calling, and it occupies a
prominent place in all our systems of theology. The doctrine is based upon, or takes
for granted the following principles--
(1) That the human race is fallen, and needs to be restored to God.
(2) That even this fallen and redeemed race cannot of itself return to God, but needs
the assistance of a Divine call.
(3) That the election and the calling are co-extensive.
(4) That, therefore, the salvation of the Church is, in its origin, means, and end, to
be ascribed to the pure and sovereign will of God. Our walk should be worthy of
this vocation. There ought to be some relation between our conduct and our hopes,
between our character and the promised reward. If His love has opened up to us
glorious and immortal hopes, should not our service correspond to them? Worthy of
His calling? It is a great, high, noble principle. It is a rule of life which lifts us from
the dust, and gives us the position, hopes, and fears of immortal creatures. (W.
Graham, D. D.)
Christian consistency
A writer on Christian consistency, says: “History records that in the days of
Tiberius it was thought a crime to carry a ring stamped with the image of Augustus
into any mean or sordid place, where it might be polluted! How much may those
who profess to be a holy people learn even from a heathen!” (From “The Epworth

Bells.”)
Apostolic exhortation
I. Consider, in the first place, that “therefore” of his and what it implies. For there
are many reasons for not exhorting people to walk earnestly and carefully, and
worthily of their high name and knowledge. It is much pleasanter to dwell
exclusively upon the privileges and blessings of Christianity, and to leave its heavy
responsibilities and penalties out of sight. But this “therefore” was something that
moved the apostle, even from his prison, to fill half his Epistle with earnest,
importunate, and pointed admonitions. A very potent “therefore” it must have
been--but what was it? It does not appear to have been any one statement or fact in
particular, but rather all that has gone before; as if, pausing at the end of the third
chapter, he had been reading over what he had written, and had been so moved by
it that he felt compelled, constrained, to break off into this exhortation. It is this
strong feeling in his mind which finds expression in that word “therefore.” And
what was it that he had been writing about? Why, it was the marvellous grace and
loving kindness of God towards the Gentiles revealed to him, and preached by him;
their fellowship in Christ, their union with the remnant of Israel and with one
another in one divinely constituted body, their eternal predestination to this grace
and adoption in Christ.
II. Consider, in the second place, the title which St. Paul here assumes in order to
give force to his exhortation: “I, the prisoner of (or rather in) the Lord.” Himself a
prisoner, enduring a painful captivity for the Master’s sake, how properly might he
exhort them in liberty to be true to their colours and to the standard of Christ. And
this may lead us to reflect how universally true it is that Christianity needs example
in order to be believed and obeyed. It is too weighty to be accepted on its own
strength, too little favourable to the natural pride and indolence of men, too
tremendous in its promises, revelations, claims, and assumptions. Men are
beginning to perceive that the Christianity of Christ and His apostles was intended
to be a life--a supernatural life, indeed, because the life of Christ Himself, and yet a
life to be lived amongst men by ordinary people, and to be readily distinguished by
certain palpable differences from the natural life of men.
III. Consider, in the third place, what it was of which they were to walk worthy.
Their “calling,” or “vocation”--what was it? ot anything which we speak of now as
a “calling,” such as we follow for gain, or honour, or convenience, or even for duty:
this calling whereof the apostle speaks is of God. It is, in fact, His invitation, which

He has addressed to each one of us as inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. (R.
Winterbotham, M. A.)
The prison house
I. Let us think first of the place and manner of St. Paul’s imprisonment. The place
was Rome, the capital of the world. A city full of glorious memories of the past, and
famous in the present for art, and eloquence, and learning. Its soldiers could boast
that they had conquered the world, and could point out the tombs of Pompey and of
many another hero along the Appian Way. Its streets had been trodden by some of
the greatest of poets, and its Senate-House had echoed with the burning words of the
first orators of the world. Rome was full of contrasts, wealth and beggary, beauty
and squalor, the palace of Caesar, and the haunt of vice and shame, were close
together. The city was ruled over by a cruel tyrant, at once a hypocrite and a
monster of iniquity. It was in such a place, so glorious and so shameful, that St. Paul
was a prisoner. He was not, however, confined in a dungeon. By the favour of the
Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, whose duty it was to take charge of all prisoners
awaiting trial before the Emperor, the apostle was allowed to live in a hired house of
his own, to have free access to such friends as he had, and to preach the gospel freely
to those who would hear him. But still St. Paul was a prisoner. After the Roman
fashion, he was chained to a soldier, and at night probably two soldiers were linked
to him. Yet, although an exile, a prisoner, waiting for a trial where he would have
little chance of justice, knowing that the sword hung above his head ready to fall at
any moment, St. Paul utters no complaint, no murmur of discontent. On the
contrary, he bids his hearers rejoice in the Lord alway; he himself thanked God,
and took courage; he tells his disciples that he has learnt in whatsoever state he is, to
be content. He is poor, yet making many rich. The heathen tyrant can make him a
prisoner, but his chains cannot keep him from the glorious freedom of the sons of
God. And now what lesson can we learn from the prison house at Rome? We can
learn this, that this world in which we live is in one sense a prison house to all.
1. It is a prison house of hard work. In our great cities the roar of traffic, the rattle
of machinery, the shriek of the steam whistle, the eager crowds flocking to office and
bank and exchange all mean one thing--work. Every man’s talk is of business; he is
in the prison house, and he is chained to his work.
2. ext, this world is a prison house of sorrow and trial. Everyone who has lived any
time in the world can show you the marks of his chain. Everyone whom we meet is
wearing a crown of thorns. It is hidden under the scanty white locks of the old, and
the sunny tresses of youth. Specially is this world a prison house to those who strive
to do their duty, and help their fellow men. For them in all ages there have been
prison bars, and chains of persecution. If we would look on some of the greatest
teachers, philosophers, and benefactors of mankind, we must look for them in a

prison house. Socrates, when seventy-two years old, was a prisoner, and condemned
to drink poison, because he taught higher lessons than the mob could understand.
Bruno was burnt at Rome, because he exposed the false philosophy of the day.
When Galileo, an old man of seventy, taught the truth about the earth’s motion,
they cast him into the dungeons of the Inquisition, and after death the Pope refused
a tomb for his body. And so for many others who dared to do their duty and to
speak the truth. But the stonewalls could not confine the mind; the iron chain could
not bind the truth. Some of the most glorious works in literature were composed in
prison. The prison house at Rome has given us some of those Epistles of St. Paul
which have gone far to convert the world; and the finest allegory in the English
language was written in Bedford gaol. “If we suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy
are we.” There are prisoners who are not the Lord’s. There are some fast bound in
the misery and iron of bad habits, and habitual sin. These are lying in the
condemned cell, bound hand and foot with the devil’s chain. And I tell you that you
will often find this life a prison house, where you must give up your own will, deny
yourselves, learn to endure hardness, and to bear the chain which suffering, or
neglect, or ignorance put upon you. If you are indeed the prisoners of the Lord, the
iron of your chain will make you brave to suffer and be strong. (H. J. Wilmot-
Buxton, M. A.)
Freedom in bonds
This prisoner has more freedom than any emperor ever had. External freedom, with
internal bonds, is but an affectation, and a mockery of freedom. A man flattered
and deceived by an ostentation of bodily freedom, while his spirit is held in the
heavy chains of his own lusts and fears, is as melancholy a spectacle as any under
the sun. The evil spirit laughs to see his slave enjoying the fond delirious conceit that
he is a free man. The slavery is then perfect. Paul’s prison lies open to all heaven. In
spirit, he walks at large, in boundless light. The prisoner writing to those who are
worthy to know the secret, says: “I am surrounded by innumerable angels,” I walk
in paradise with “the spirits of just men made perfect,” I am entertained with
“unspeakable things.” Chrysostom says: “Were any to ask, whether he should place
me on high with the angels, or with Paul in his bonds, I would choose the prison.”
According to his own showing, he was less in peril in prison, than in the third
heavens. As a safeguard against his ecstasy, he must needs have some messenger of
Satan, to buffet him. In prison he found no such temptation. His bonds were a
precious means of grace to him. Finding an unspeakable peace in “lowliness of
mind,” he commends the same to his brethren in Christ. (J. Pulsford.)
The privilege and duty of the Christian calling

I. The privilege declared. Their “vocation,” i.e., calling. Men have callings in the
world--their business, profession, temporal office. The apostle speaks of “the calling
of God.” There are different callings spoken of. There is--
1. An external calling--the invitation to gospel privileges.
2. An official calling--the appointment to administration in the Church.
3. An internal and effectual calling by the Spirit of God. This is
(1) an enlightening calling.
(2) A sanctifying calling.
(3) A uniting calling. It binds to
(a) Christ (1Co_1:9).
(b) The Church (Eph_4:4; Eph_1:18-22).
(4) A saving calling (1Th_2:12).
II. The duty urged. How can anyone walk “worthy”? It means suitably, in a manner
somewhat becoming those who enjoy such privileges. As if the apostle would say:
Have you--
1. A call to knowledge? Walk wisely.
2. A call to holiness? Walk unblameably.
3. A call to fellowship? Walk lovingly.
4. A call to glory? Walk happily.
Conclusion: These things--
1. Should put us on examination.
2. Should move us to diligence. (H. Parr.)
The life worthy of the calling
I do not think that St. Paul would consider, or have a right to consider, that his

bondage was then his “vocation”; but an affliction, a sickness, an inability even to
move, may be as much a “vocation” as anything that may happen in life. But he
urges the Ephesians to use “worthily”--while they have it--their “vocation to walk.”
To “walk” ought to be used as the emblem of a Christian life; and for this reason,
because “walking” alone of all our actions places the whole man in motion, and that
motion is a progressive one. It was “a calling”! Then there must be a caller. Who
was the Caller? Was there not a Providence in the fact of your “calling”?
1. In the first place remember that “call” came from the Holy Trinity. The Father
willed it, the Son mediated to obtain it, the Holy Ghost applied it. Is it then a fact
that you have been thought worthy of the notice, the remembrance, the power, the
love of each Person in that holy blessed Trinity? What a sacred, what a solemn thing
that “call” must be!
2. Each Person in that mysterious Three is love, perfect love. That “call” then was
the call of infinite, unspeakable love. Have you been walking “worthy of the
vocation” of love? Could you say that your life is a life of love. Your walk, your
walk! does it drop love at every step? Remember what you were when you had a call
of love. You were unloving and unlovable.
3. But there is another particular characteristic of that love wherewith you were
called. It was a call of forgiveness. The whole Trinity had combined to make that
forgiveness. ow let me ask, Is there anyone at this moment in the whole world
whom you have not forgiven? If so, then you are not walking worthy of the vocation
wherewith you are called.
4. But there was another predominant characteristic in your call--it was a call to
holiness. “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” ow are you walking every day a holy walk?
Moreover, your call was a call to activity; also a call to a higher life. Are you
walking worthy of it? (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Calling and walk
1. I feel sure that I shall carry along with me the experience of every child of God,
when I say that his call, however it came to him, was very humbling. God has
thousands of methods by which He draws souls to Himself, but in one respect, there
is no difference between them all--He never calls a soul without humbling it. It is
very likely that the instrument which effected your call was not one that the world
would call great. It is very likely that the providences which attended it were very
humbling providences. But however this may be--however it may be in respect of
outward things, I am quite sure that as the grace of God began to take effect upon
your heart, your soul passed into very low places, down into the very dust. You
began to see yourself in a very different light from any in which you ever saw
yourself before. And let me say, that I believe one of the chief reasons why many
young Christians are happier than other Christians, is that in the first stages of

grace, there is a more realizing, deep sense of nothingness, and sin.
2. But if it was an humbling call, I am sure it was a very kind one. Perhaps in the
recollection of what took place then, now the thought is “Through what exercises of
mind you passed”; but at the time itself, the chief feeling with you was--“How very
kind this is of God! what wonderful patience God has been exercising towards a
poor, miserable sinner!”
3. And let me further remind you, brethren, that your call was a very personal
thing. It was characterized by individuality: each soul is singled out by itself by God.
As respects “walking,” the apostle uses the figure for two reasons: one because it is
distinctly a progressive motion, in all places progress; and secondly, it is the only
movement which engages and puts in action the whole man. But as was the
“calling,” so must be the “walk,”--humble, tender, earnest, holy, heavenly.
Whatever progress you have made, still remember, that whatever cause there was
for humility at the beginning, there is more cause now. For now, a wrong thought is
worse than once a wrong action, because you are more responsible. Walk in the
valley. That is an unworthy thought which ever lifts itself too high, either to God or
man. And was God very kind, very patient, very long suffering, to bear with you, to
choose you, to call you? Then be you just like that to every poor fellow sinner. And
never forget what a real, personal, earnest matter between your soul and God, your
“call” was. You have nothing to dread more than for religion to become a
generality. As many as have felt God’s callings, know the exceeding weight and
moment of every little thing. By little things you were made, by little things you were
called. Therefore, again, if you would not frustrate the grace of God, you must be
holy. “He hath called you, not to uncleanness, but to holiness.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Walking worthy of one’s vocation
I. The vocation wherewith a believer is called.
1. It is God’s speaking to the heart of a sinner in and by His word (2Co_4:6; Joh_
5:25).
2. It is to the enjoyment of the greatest privileges (Isa_61:1; 2Co_3:17; Gal_5:1;
Gal_5:13).
3. It is various, and yet the same, to all believers.
(1) Various--as to age, instruments, manner.
(2) Same--as to tendency.

4. It is of the sovereign goodwill of God (Rom_9:19-24).
5. God never repents and revokes this calling (Rom_11:29).
6. It is the duty and privilege of professors to make it sure to themselves.
II. What it is to walk worthy of this vocation. In general: When there is a
suitableness in the walk to the nature of the calling. Particularly--
1. When it is such as has been exemplified in Christ and His Church.
2. When it tends to the edification of those about us--saints and sinners.
3. When such as God approves in His Word.
III. The manner in which the apostle enforces his exhortation. “I, the prisoner,” etc.
(H. Foster, M. A.)
Mission of the saints
Each of God’s saints is sent into the world to prove some part of the Divine
character. Perhaps I may be one of those who shall live in the valley of ease, having
much rest, and hearing sweet birds of promise singing in my ears. The air is calm
and balmy, the sheep are feeding round about me, and all is still and quiet. Well,
then I shall prove the love of God in sweet communings. Or perhaps I may be Called
to stand where the thunder clouds brew, where the lightnings play, and tempestuous
winds are howling on the mountain tops. Well, then I am born to prove the power
and majesty of our God: amid dangers He will inspire me with courage: amid toils
He will make me strong. Perhaps it shall be mine to preserve an unblemished
character, and so prove the power of sanctifying grace, in not being allowed to
backslide from my professed dedication to God. I shall then be a proof of the
omnipotent power of grace, which alone can save from the power, as well as from
the guilt of sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Worthy walkin
g:--There is a seemliness appertaining to each calling. So here. We must walk nobly,
as becometh the heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Luther counsels men to
answer all temptations of Satan with this word, “I am a Christian.” They were wont

to say of cowards in Rome, “There is nothing Roman in them.” Of many Christians
we may say, “There is nothing Christian in them.” It is not amiss before we serve
the world to put Alexander’s questions to his followers, that would have persuaded
him to run at the Olympic games. “Do kings use to run at the Olympics?” Every
believer is higher than the kings of the earth. He must therefore carry himself
accordingly. (J. Trapp.)
What are we called to
1. The knowledge of God (1Pe_4:9).
2. The faith of Christ (1Co_1:9; Gal_2:6).
3. Holiness of life (1Th_4:7; Rom_7:1).
4. Peace (1Co_7:15).
(1) With God (Rom_5:1).
(2) With our consciences (Act_24:16).
(3) With one another (Eph_4:2).
5. Eternal life (1Pe_3:9; 1Pe_5:10; 1Th_2:12). (Bishop Beveridge.)
What is it to walk worthy of our calling
1. Generally, to carry ourselves as becometh Christians (Php_1:27; Col_1:10; 1Th_
2:12).
2. Particularly--
(1) To believe what Christ asserts (1Jn_5:10).
(2) To trust in what He promiseth (2Co_1:20).
(3) To perform what He commands (Joh_14:15). (Bishop Beveridge.)
Why walk worthy of our calling
1. Otherwise we sham our profession (Heb_6:5).

2. We lose the comfort of our calling (Psa_19:11).
3. We shall lose its end (Heb_12:14). (Bishop Beveridge.)
Our walk is watched
A gentleman in England said that he owed his conversion mainly to the marked
consistency of a merchant who lived not far from him. His neighbour was a
Christian, and professed to carry on his large business on strictly Christian
principles. This surprised him; but not being sure of its reality, he determined to
watch him for a year, and if at the end of that time he found that he was really what
he professed to be, he would become a Christian also. All the year he watched
without finding any flaw or inconsistency in his dealing. The result was a thorough
conviction that the merchant was a true man, and that religion was a reality.
BARCLAY 1-3, "With this chapter the second part of the letter begins. In Eph. 1-3
Paul has dealt with the great and eternal truths of the Christian faith, and with the
function of the Church in the plan of God. ow he begins to sketch what each
member of the Church must be if the Church is to carry out her part in that plan.
Before we begin this chapter, let us again remind ourselves that the central thought
of the letter is that Jesus has brought to a disunited world the way to unity. This
way is through faith in him and it is the Church's task to proclaim this message to
all the world. And now Paul turns to the character the Christian must have if the
Church is to fulfil her great task of being Christ's instrument of universal
reconciliation between man and man, and man and God within the world.
WORTHY OF OUR CALLI G
Eph. 4:1-10
So then, I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to behave yourselves in a way that is
worthy of the calling with which you are called. I urge you to behave with all
humility, and gentleness, and patience. I urge you to bear with one another in love. I
urge you eagerly to preserve that unity which the Holy Spirit can bring by binding
things together in peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been
called with one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. one
God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all. To each one of
you grace has been given, as it has been measured out to you by the free gift of
Christ. Therefore scripture says, "He ascended into the height, and brought his
captive band of prisoners, and gave gifts to men." (When it says that "he ascended."
what else can it mean than that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He who descended is the same person as he who ascended above all the heavens,
that he might fill all things with his presence.)
THE CHRISTIA VIRTUES
Eph. 4:1-3
So then, I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to behave yourselves in a way that is

worthy of the calling with which you are called. I urge you to behave with all
humility, and gentleness, and patience. I urge you to bear with one another in love. I
urge you eagerly to preserve that unity which the Holy Spirit can bring by binding
things together in peace.
When a man enters into any society, he takes upon himself the obligation to live a
certain kind of life; and if he fails in that obligation, he hinders the aims of his
society and brings discredit on its name. Here Paul paints the picture of the kind of
life that a man must live when he enters the fellowship of the Christian Church.
The first three verses shine like jewels. Here we have five of the great basic words of
the Christian faith.
(i) First, and foremost, there is humility. The Greek is tapeinophrosune (GS 5012),
and this is actually a word which the Christian faith coined. In Greek there is no
word for humility which has not some suggestion of meanness attaching to it. Later
Basil was to describe it as "the gem casket of all the virtues"; but before
Christianity humility was not counted as a virtue at all. The ancient world looked on
humility as a thing to be despised.
The Greek had an adjective for humble, which is closely connected with this noun--
the adjective tapeinos (GS 5011). A word is always known by the company it keeps
and this word keeps ignoble company. It is used in company with the Greek
adjectives which mean slavish (andrapododes, doulikos, douloprepes), ignoble
(agennes), of no repute (adoxos), cringing (chamaizelos, which is the adjective which
describes a plant which trails along the ground). In the days before Jesus humility
was looked on as a cowering, cringing, servile, ignoble quality; and yet Christianity
sets it in the very forefront of the virtues. Whence then comes this Christian
humility, and what does it involves
(a) Christian humility comes from self-knowledge. Bernard said of it, "It is the
virtue by which a man becomes conscious of his own unworthiness. in consequence
of the truest knowledge of himself."
To face oneself is the most humiliating thing in the world. Most of us dramatize
ourselves. Somewhere there is a story of a man who before he went to sleep at night
dreamed his waking dreams. He would see himself as the hero of some thrilling
rescue from the sea or from the flames; he would see himself as an orator holding a
vast audience spell-bound; he would see himself walking to the wicket in a Test
Match at Lord's and scoring a century; he would see himself in some international
football match dazzling the crowd with his skill; always he was the centre of the
picture. Most of us are essentially like that. And true humility comes when we face
ourselves and see our weakness, our selfishness, our failure in work and in personal
relationships and in achievement.
(b) Christian humility comes from setting life beside the life of Christ and in the
light of the demands of God.
God is perfection and to satisfy perfection is impossible. So long as we compare
ourselves with second bests, we may come out of the comparison well. It is when we
compare ourselves with perfection that we see our failure. A girl may think herself a
very fine pianist until she hears one of the world's outstanding performers. A man
may think himself a good golfer until he sees one of the world's masters in action. A
man may think himself something of a scholar until he picks up one of the books of
the great old scholars of encylopaedic knowledge. A man may think himself a fine

preacher until he listens to one of the princes of the pulpit.
Self-satisfaction depends on the standard with which we compare ourselves. If we
compare ourselves with our neighbour, we may well emerge very satisfactorily from
the comparison. But the Christian standard is Jesus Christ and the demands of
God's perfection--and against that standard there is no room for pride.
(c) There is another way of putting this. R. C. Trench said that humility comes from
the constant sense of our own creatureliness. We are in absolute dependence on
God. As the hymn has it:
"`Tis Thou preservest me from death
And dangers every hour;
I cannot draw another breath
Unless Thou give me power.
My health, my friends, and parents dear
To me by God are given;
I have not any blessing here
But what is sent from heaven."
We are creatures, and for the creature there can be nothing but humility in the
presence of the creator.
Christian humility is based on the sight of self, the vision of Christ, and the
realization of God.
THE CHRISTIA GE TLEMA
Eph. 4:1-3 (continued)
(ii) The second of the great Christian virtues is what the King James Version calls
meekness and what we have translated gentleness. The Greek noun is praotes
(GS 4236), the adjective praus (GS 4239), and these are beyond translation by any
single English word. Praus has two main lines of meanings.
(a) Aristotle, the great Greek thinker and teacher, has much to say about praotes
(GS 4236). It was his custom to define every virtue as the mean between two
extremes. On one side there was excess of some quality, on the other defect; and in
between there was exactly its right proportion. Aristotle defines praotes (GS 4236)
as the mean between being too angry and never being angry at all. The man who is
praus (GS 4239) is the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry
at the wrong time. To put that in another way, the man who is praus (GS 4239) is
the man who is kindled by indignation at the wrongs and the sufferings of others,
but is never moved to anger by the wrongs and the insults he himself has to bear. So,
then, the man who is (as in the King James Version), meek is the man who is always
angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time.
(b) There is another fact which will illumine the meaning of this word. Praus
(GS 4239) is the Greek for an animal which has been trained and domesticated
until it is completely under control. Therefore the man who is praus (GS 4239) is
the man who has every instinct and every passion under perfect control. It would
not be right to say that such a man is entirely self-controlled, for such self-control is
beyond human power, but it would be right to say that such a man is God-
controlled.
Here then is the second great characteristic of the true member of the Church. He is
the man who is so God-controlled that he is always angry at the right time but never
angry at the wrong time.

THE U DEFEATABLE PATIE CE
(iii) The third great quality of the Christian is what the King James Version calls
long-suffering. The Greek is makrothumia (GS 3115). This word has two main
directions of meaning.
(a) It describes the spirit which will never give in and which, because it endures to
the end, will reap the reward. Its meaning can best be seen from the fact that a
Jewish writer used it to describe what he called "the Roman persistency which
would never make peace under defeat." In their great days the Romans were
unconquerable; they might lose a battle, they might even lose a campaign, but they
could not conceive of losing a war. In the greatest disaster it never occurred to them
to admit defeat. Christian patience is the spirit which never admits defeat, which
will not be broken by any misfortune or suffering, by any disappointment or
discouragement, but which persists to the end.
(b) But makrothumia (GS 3115) has an even more characteristic meaning than
that. It is the characteristic Greek word for patience with men. Chrysostom defined
it as the spirit which has the power to take revenge but never does so. Lightfoot
defined it as the spirit which refuses to retaliate. To take a very imperfect analogy--
it is often possible to see a puppy and a very large dog together. The puppy yaps at
the big dog, worries him, bites him, and all the time the big dog, who could
annihilate the puppy with one snap of his teeth, bears the puppy's impertinence with
a forbearing dignity. Makrothumia (GS 3115) is the spirit which bears insult and
injury without bitterness and without complaint. It is the spirit which can suffer
unpleasant people with graciousness and fools without irritation.
The thing which best of all gives its meaning is that the ew Testament repeatedly
uses it of God. Paul asks the impenitent sinner if he despises the patience of God
(Rom.2:4). Paul speaks of the perfect patience of Jesus to him (1Tim.1:16). Peter
speaks of God's patience waiting in the days of oah (1Pet.3:20). He says that the
forbearance of our Lord is our salvation (2Pet.3:15). If God had been a man, he
would long since in sheer irritation have wiped the world out for its disobedience.
The Christian must have the patience towards his fellow men which God has shown
to him.
THE CHRISTIA LOVE
(iv) The fourth great Christian quality is love. Christian love was something so new
that the Christian writers had to invent a new word for it; or, at least, they had to
employ a very unusual Greek word--agape (GS 0026).
In Greek there are four words for love. There is eros (compare GS 2037), which is
the love between a man and a maid and which involves sexual passion. There is
philia (GS 5373) which is the warm affection which exists between those who are
very near and very dear to each other. There is storge (compare GS 0794) which is
characteristically the word for family affection. And there is agape (GS 0026),
which the King James Version translates sometimes love and sometimes charity.
The real meaning of agape (GS 0026) is unconquerable benevolence. If we regard a
person with agape (GS 0026), 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 agape (GS 0026) is a thing, not only of the
emotions, but also of the will. It is the ability to retain unconquerable good will to
the unlovely and the unlovable, towards those who do not love us, and even towards
those whom we do not like. Agape (GS 0026) is that quality of mind and heart
which compels a Christian never to feel any bitterness, never to feel any desire for
revenge, but always to seek the highest good of every man no matter what he may
be.
(v) These four great virtues of the Christian life--humility, gentleness, patience,
love--issue in a fifth, peace. It is Paul's advice and urgent request that the people to
whom he is writing should eagerly preserve "the sacred oneness" which should
characterize the true Church.
Peace may be defined as right relationships between man and man. This oneness,
this peace, these right relationships can be preserved only in one way. Every one of
the four great Christian virtues depends on the obliteration of self. So long as self is
at the centre of things, this oneness can never fully exist. In a society where self
predominates, men cannot be other than a disintegrated collection of individualistic
and warring units. But when self dies and Christ springs to life within our hearts.
then comes the peace, the oneness, which is the great hall-mark of the true Church.
2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient,
bearing with one another in love.
BAR ES, "With all lowliness - Humility; see the notes on Act_20:19, where the
same Greek word is used; compare also the following places, where the same Greek word
occurs: Phi_2:3, “in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves;”
Col_2:18, “in a voluntary humility;” Col_2:23; Col_3:12; 1Pe_5:5. The word does not
elsewhere occur in the New Testament. The idea is, that humility of mind becomes those
who are “called” Eph_4:1, and that we walk worthy of that calling when we evince it.
And meekness - see the notes on Mat_5:5. Meekness relates to the manner in which
we receive injuries. We are to bear them patiently, and not to retaliate, or seek revenge.
The meaning here is, that; we adorn the gospel when we show its power in enabling us to
bear injuries without anger or a desire of revenge, or with a mild and forgiving spirit; see
2Co_10:1; Gal_5:23; Gal_6:1; 2Ti_2:25; Tit_3:2; where the same Greek word occurs.
With longsuffering, ... - Bearing patiently with the foibles, faults, and infirmities of
others; see the notes on 1Co_13:4. The virtue here required is that which is to be

manifested in our manner of receiving the provocations which we meet with from our
brethren. No virtue, perhaps, is more frequently demanded in our contact with others.
We do not go far with any fellow-traveler on the journey of life, before we find there is
great occasion for its exercise. He has a temperament different from our own. He may be
sanguine, or choleric, or melancholy; while we may be just the reverse. He has
peculiarities of taste, and habits, and disposition, which differ much from ours. He has
his own plans and purposes of life, and his own way and time of doing things. He may be
naturally irritable, or he may have been so trained that his modes of speech and conduct
differ much from ours. Neighbors have occasion to remark this in their neighbors;
friends in their friends; kindred in their kindred; one church-member in another.
A husband and wife - such is the imperfection of human nature - can find enough in
each other to embitter life, if they choose to magnify imperfections, and to become
irritated at trifles; and there is no friendship that may not be marred in this way, if we
will allow it. Hence, if we would have life move on smoothly, we must learn to bear and
forbear. We must indulge the friend that we love in the little peculiarities of saying and
doing things which may be important to him, but which may be of little moment to us.
Like children, we must suffer each one to build his play-house in his own way, and not
quarrel with him because he does not think our way the best. All usefulness, and all
comfort, may be prevented by an unkind, a sour, a crabbed temper of mind - a mind that
can bear with no difference of opinion or temperament. A spirit of fault-finding; an
unsatisfied temper; a constant irritability; little inequalities in the look, the temper, or
the manner; a brow cloudy and dissatisfied - your husband or your wife cannot tell why -
will more than neutralize all the good you can do, and render life anything but a blessing.
It is in such gentle and quiet virtues as meekness and forbearance, that the happiness
and usefulness of life consist, far more than in brilliant eloquence, in splendid talent, or
illustrious deeds, that shall send the name to future times. It is the bubbling spring
which flows gently; the little rivulet which glides through the meadow, and which runs
along day and night by the farmhouse, that is useful, rather than the swollen flood or the
roaring cataract. Niagara excites our wonder; and we stand amazed at the power and
greatness of God there, as he “pours it from his hollow hand.” But one Niagara is enough
for a continent or a world; while that same world needs thousands and tens of thousands
of silver fountains, and gently flowing rivulets, that shall water every farm, and every
meadow, and every garden, and that shall flow on, every day and every night, with their
gentle and quiet beauty. So with the acts of our lives. It is not by great deeds only, like
those of Howard - not by great sufferings only, like those of the martyrs - that good is to
be done; it is by the daily and quiet virtues of life - the Christian temper, the meek
forbearance, the spirit of forgiveness in the husband, the wife, the father, the mother, the
brother, the sister, the friend, the neighbor - that good is to be done; and in this all may
be useful.
CLARKE, "With all lowliness - It is by acting as the apostle here directs that a
man walks worthy of this high vocation; ταπεινοφροσυνη signifies subjection or humility
of mind.
Meekness - The opposite to anger and irritability of disposition.
Long-suffering - Μακροθυµια· Long-mindedness - never permitting a trial or
provocation to get to the end of your patience.
Forbearing one another - Ανεχοµενοι αλληλων· Sustaining one another - helping to

Ephesians 4 1 16 commentary

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Ephesians 4 1 16 commentary