Paul sets out to establish some facts about who we are in Christ. This is a doctrinal, or theological declaration of who we are.
As Christians there are there are three basic characteristics that identify us.

1. We are Blessed. 1:3 We have every spiritual blessing in Christ. All power, all potential, all provision.

2. We are Blameless. 1: 4 & 7 His purpose for us is to live our lives in a way that is consistent with the fact that Christ's blood has cleansed us from every sin, and that in the sight of God we are holy and blameless. There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

3. We are Bonded. 1:5 Through Christ we have become connected with God and each other as His adopted sons and daughters. There is no difference between us and any other child of God, no matter what color, culture, or creed. This bond is established by God and can never be broken.

Next, in chapter 4 we see:

Our Purpose Described.
Knowing now that these are the facts of our new life in Christ, he sets out a pattern according to which our lives should conform. A pattern which tends to defy human logic, but is absolutely consistent with the life of Christ who is our supreme example.

In carrying out our purpose as believers we are not consumed by our circumstances, but rather, we:

I. Concede to the Sovereignty of God.

4:1 "As a prisoner of the Lord then…"

Paul saw beyond the shipwreck off Caerarea, beyond the chains and the guard and the imperial process, to the controlling of Jesus Christ behind all things. Not fettered by his chains, and neither fretting about his limitations and sufferings. His guiding philosophy of life was "All things work out for the good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose."

Behind everything that is visible. Behind that which we may see, the invisible is always at work. Paul said, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard of the things which God has in store for those who love Him." So we must take our eyes off the circumstances, and look to Jesus, the one who began this faith in us and the one who will see it through to the very end. In spite of the way things seem to be.

Anytime we look to that which is seen: social injustice, political corruption, national sin, and try and come up with our own set of solutions, we are addressing the superficial. In Christ all the answers are brought to bear. We must remember that we are seated with Him in the heavenlies and that His purpose is paramount. He would have us not look at the superficial, but to focus on the one thing that He died for and that is that lost men and women may come to know Him, repent from their sins, and be born again. That is the only action that will cut to the root of the superficial symptoms that consume all of our energy at the expense of the gospel.

Thoreau once gave a solemn warning in regard to this when he said that" There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to every one that is hacking at the root."(Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings, pp 161)

Are we hacking at the superficial branches and leaving the roots untouched?

Paul would say that we must remember that God is in control and so we must be consistently tuned into His heart so that we may effectively be the instruments that carry out His purpose.

The instruments that He chooses us to be were described by Jesus when He said that we are salt and light. Interesting that Jesus should have use items that normally one would take so for granted, yet if they ceased to exist tomorrow, life would never be the same.

It is because God is sovereign in all things that we must be careful to do as He pleases and not as we please. And the way that we do that according to Ephesians, is we model our lives after the life of Christ. So we see that in addition to conceding to the sovereignty of God, our lives must be:

II. Consistent with the character of Christ.

Live a life that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called. In other words, as we are called to be Christ's disciples, we must understand that this means that we die to our own will and are consumed with the will and nature of Christ. Not simply on Sundays, or when there is a crisis in our lives, but every single day.

Christ did not come to set in order the most fragmented parts of our life. He came to absorb all of it, family, job, talents, dreams, ministry, circumstances, into Himself, and to impress His mark upon. Does your life, every part of it, bear the fingerprint of Christ?

Paul's obvious center is Christ.

His writings never digress from that. They are a steady, predictable hammer, pounding at the very anvil of life. Life is in Christ, of Christ, through Christ, by Christ, with Christ, for Christ, from Christ, to live is Christ, and to die is more of Christ! That is what it means to live a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called!

The way the church will win is when we become salt that brings preservation and savor to life so that lost men and women will be drawn to the Father and be able to taste of Him and see that He indeed is good. So that they may know of this goodness and kindness of which the writer of Romans wrote in 2:4, that leads to repentance.

The way the church will succeed in it's mission is when we become light in a world that is so full of darkness, so that lost men and women will be drawn to that light because it is better than the darkness in which they are presently living.

This was the way of Christ. "Friend of sinners" they called Him. You never heard of Him having to go out and promote His crusades. The lost crowds were drawn to Him by their thousands. And they were changed more by His life than by His words.

Oh, that the church would be the church. That we would come to that place of surrender to His purpose for our being. That we would be come once again yielded, empty instruments for His use.

In Scripture the primary message that the church has for the world is the gospel. It has little to say about politics and nothing to say about substandard housing except to say that Jesus never had one. The Bible does not say much about civil rights or affirmative action or anything of the sort.

Not because Christians are unconcerned in this realm. Obviously you cannot have a heart filled with love for fellow human beings and not be concerned. The attitude that shrugs its shoulders and says, "I am indifferent to these things," is horribly sub-Christian. No, the church says little about these things because the Christian knows that the best way to really help in these problems is to introduce a new dynamic, the life of Jesus Christ. This is what men need. When those involved in these problems experience this, the testimony of history again and again has been that the problems begin to be solved. They are worked out by the dynamic of a new life that has been introduced into the situation.

What does it mean to be salt and light.

Paul now becomes specific in describing ways that we must live that are consistent with our calling.

Vs.2

To what extent have we risen to this call? I know that speaking for myself I find myself humiliated and ashamed when I realize how far short I fall of this mark. Every word that Paul speaks here drives itself home in my heart and brings me to the place of repentance before my Father.

The first word Paul uses to describe a worthwhile life is the word

Modesty The text says, "Being completely humble" The word actually means "modesty". It means that we ought to carry ourselves without any self assertiveness. Something which is so opposite of which we wish to do as fallen creatures. It is in our nature to want to be the life of the party. To want to get the attention when we walk into the room.

This word in the Greek is found only once more in the New Testament and that is in the Epistle to the Philippians Ch. 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."

That is the definition of humility.

We have nothing to be proud of and yet there are times when we are proud of our crudity and ignorance.

ILL

There was a young preacher once at a minister's conference who had apparently become intimidated by the many scholarly experienced pastors who were present. He stood up and said, "I am against education. I read no books except the Bible. I know nothing about literature, or anything of that kind. I am just an ignorant man, yet the Lord is taking me up and using me", To which one of the older, wiser pastors answered, "If it's your ignorance that you are proud of, you have an awful lot of which to be proud."

This is not the kind of humility Paul was speaking of. He was speaking of a natural out flowing of humility. The kind that you need not speak of.

You see, Paul can say that this ought to be our character, because it is the character of the one who lives in us. And it is the one who lives in us that wants to live His life through us. This is the key. This is why he prayed in the previous chapter that Christ would dwell in our hearts. Unless He is in us, He cannot live through us. Philip. 2:13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Col. 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And for Him to dwell in us, requires that we dwell on Him.

When we have the assurance of His presence and His power, we have nothing to prove. And when you have nothing to prove, humility is easy

Rick reminded us on Wednesday night that there are some people and things that never have to announce their arrival or inform of their qualities. Two of those are Battle Ships, and Beauty Queens. You don't have to tell the enemy that there is a big old battleship off shore with it's guns trained. Everyone knows it. You don't hear that Battleship honking out the message, "I am a big American Battleship and I have arrived in your neighborhood so you had better watch out!" No, you know it without the announcement. The same with the beauty queen. She walks into the room and everyone knows that she is a woman of exquisite beauty. She does not have to bring attention to her beauty.

That is the principal here of living your life worthy of the calling. It comes down to knowing who we are in Christ. When we realize who lives in us, and what our potential is in Him, and we live our lives accordingly, you will never have to tell anyone how powerful, and how humble, and how gracious, and patient you are. You life will be a worthy trophy of praise and glory to your heavenly father.

Modesty.

Then the second word he uses is the word:

Gentle - from the root word for "humility" An attitude that never takes offence.

Found 8 times in the New Testament, perhaps the most significant one being Mt. 11:29 "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Jesus modeled that meekness in His life.

They told Him that He had a devil, and He meekly endured it. They said, "Say we not right that you are a Samaritan?" and He answered them not. And then, when He was at that place where the multitudes had completely turned against Him, and scoffed at Him and cursed Him, "He was reviled yet He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not." That is meekness. Knowing you can, yet you don't.

So Paul writes, "Let this mind be in you!

Then the word,

Patient - Found twelve times in the NT. Used twice by the apostle Peter. It means literally, to endure with unruffled temper."

Do you know very much about longsuffering? Are you patient, or do you lose your temper?

The last word is

Forebearance "Bearing one another in love." That's the only way you can forebear anyone. It must be in, or rather, because of love. That is the fruit of Christ's love in us. It covers a multitude of sins, and faults and warts and idiosyncrasies. It actually means to "put up with". Used only one other time in the NT in Col. 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

All of this sounds like a tall order. It sounds impossible. Well, in the flesh it is. Like everything else related to the Cross Road. The disciple thought so too. In fact when Jesus spoke the truth about the Kingdom to the rich young ruler, listen to what the disciples replied. Matthew 19:22-26

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"

26Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

There is the key. Once again the need for the Spirit filled life is brought to bear. While we are striving to do, we will continue to miss the mark. It is only when He is vitally dwelling in us and consuming every part of our lives that we will meet the standard. Not because of us, but because of He who is in us!