Walking in Humility (Ephesians 4:1-4)

This Podcast is part of a 10-year project to complete an in-depth, daily study of the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Episode Notes:  Walking in Humility (Eph 4: 1-4)

Welcome back, friends; it’s great to have you with me again as we begin the next stage of our journey through the second half of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

For three chapters, Paul has carried us along on the moving walkway of God’s grace, lifting us, blessing us, teaching us who we are in Christ, showing us the riches of His love, and strengthening us in the inner being.

 But now, as chapter 4 begins, it’s as if Paul stands at the end of that moving walkway, holds up a sign, and says: “Now… begin walking.” And the very first step in that walk, the first movement of a life worthy of our calling, is humility.

 So today, we’re going to explore what it means to walk in humility as Paul describes it in Ephesians 4:1–4. 

 What does humility look like in real life?

Why does Paul put it first?

And how does humility become the foundation for unity, peace, and spiritual maturity?

 Let’s begin walking together….

Transcript

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Okay, before we begin today, just a quick heads up. You will notice a name change, a very slight name change, starting to appear in my descriptions and my introductions to this. Changing from the Bible Project Daily Podcast to the Bible Journey Daily Podcast. This change I'm making to avoid conclusion with a very with another very well known YouTube channel and podcast creator out there. When I launched this podcast, I didn't even know they existed. I did discover their YouTube channel after about a year, so I decided straight away on my own volition to actually put the word daily in the title to create that differential. But recently they reached out to me and asked if I would consider a name change to avoid any confusion, which, based on the fact that they have registered name before I did, even though I've been podcasting way, way longer, they had registered the name, the Bible Project, way before I did. So I felt it only fair and reasonable that I begin to make those changes. Now you won't see any different from your end. You'll just hear me introducing slightly differently, and you will begin to see the change the name of the podcast change in that slight way wherever you're getting your podcast from. The RSS feed remains the same, which from a technical point of view means you'll still, if you're subscribed or following, get it in your inbox wherever you get your podcast from. So it should be seamless there. The clip art logo for the podcast will stay the same and it should be a seamless thing. It may take a little while to appear on all those podcast platforms out there because it can take different podcast providers have different time frames and how they approach changes like that. So thank you for being with me. I appreciate your prayers for any of you who would help who would want to pray about supporting this transition so it is seamless, so though so that those tens of thousands of people around the world who have chosen to study the Bible together in some depth every day can continue to do it and continue to find my work. And we can continue to grow as a community that coalesces and loves to do so round the Word of God every day. Thanks for being with me. And now on with the podcast. Now, before we get serious, let me start with something a little lighter. Have you ever been in one of those horizontal moving walkways that you find in an airport? You step on it and you suddenly feel like royalty. You're gliding along, hands in your pockets, looking rather smug, as you effortlessly sail past the poor souls dragging their suitcases alongside you. The last time I was on one, I reached the end and I noticed a sign hanging above the end of it said begin walking. And I thought, really? They need to tell us that? Some people need to be reminded. Do they think we've forgotten how to walk and we now expect to spend the rest of our lives being carried around by moving footpaths? But then it struck me that sign is actually a pretty good picture of what Paul is doing here in Ephesians chapter four. You see, for three chapters Paul has carried us along on the moving walkway of God's grace, carrying us forward, lifting us up, blessing us, teaching us who we are in Christ, showing us the riches of his love and strengthening us in our inner being. But now, as chapter four begins, it's as if Paul stands at the end of that moving walkway, holds up a sign, and says, Now begin walking. Walk in the truth you have just received. Walk in the calling you've been given, walk in the character, walk in the character Christ has formed in you, walk in a way that reflects the gospel to the world. And the very first step in that walk, the first movement of a life worthy of our calling is walking in humility. So today we're going to explore what it means to do just that, as Paul describes it in the opening four verses of Ephesians chapter four. What does humility look like in real life? Why does Paul put it first? And how does humility become the foundation for unity, peace, and indeed spiritual maturity? So today let's step off that moving walkway of grace and begin walking together through this passage. Thanks for joining me today. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of your calling, of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. So, begin walking. It's that sign you might expect at the end of the airport walkway, but it's also a sign that could be easily paced right here at the start of this Ephesians chapter 4. Up to this point in the letter, Paul has been giving us the great truths we need to know if we're going to live this Christian life well. He has lifted our eyes to the heavenly realms, shown us who we are in Christ, and reminded us of the grace, the calling, and the spiritual riches that belong to every believer. But now in the main chapter, Paul says, begin walking in that. Start living out what you've learned, start expressing in daily life what God has done in your heart, and start allowing your calling to shape your conduct. Now the word walk is of course a figure of speech. It means the way we live our lives, the way we behave, the way we express our faith in the ordinary, everyday rhythms and situations of life. And the very first step in that walk, he says here is humility. Paul will go on to talk about walking in unity, walking in righteousness, walking in love, walking in light, walking in wisdom, walking in submission, and then finally walking in strength. So there's a lot of practical walking ahead of us over these next days and weeks, but today we're going to begin with that first step and that's setting off, walking in humility. And in today's short passage introduction, those few verses begin by reminding us again that he is a prisoner of the Lord. He is writing from confinement, yet he speaks with freedom. He is chained, yet his words are free. And he says, I urge you to live a life worthy of this calling you have received. That immediately raises a vital question. What does a life worthy of our calling actually look like? The question is answered in the next verses. Now in the previous episode we looked at these qualities from a high level, but now we begin to explore them in practice. Paul initially lists four virtues humility, gentleness, patience, and love. But then he adds a fifth piece, being that that is the atmosphere in which all these other virtues can flourish. Now on the surface these words seem simple, but each one carries a huge depth of meaning that challenges us to examine our own hearts. It's easy to hear these words and think of other people, but Paul wants us to look towards ourselves, inward, to ask ourselves, which of these virtues do I see in my life? And more importantly, which ones do I lack? And where do I need the Spirit's help to develop them? This is not about judging other people, it's about allowing the Word of God to search us and judge us and help us find a way forward. Most of us think we know what humility looks like, but biblical humility is not about our posture or tone of voice. It's not about walking around with your head bowed or speaking softly or always saying self-deprecating things. Humility is not something you perform, it's something you believe. It's a way of thinking, it's a frame of mind, a posture of the heart. And of course, we know it's the opposite of pride. Pride will say I don't need God, I can manage my life on my own, I can rely on my own strength, my own wisdom, my own ability, but humility says I need to depend on God for everything. I cannot live this life without Him. I need His grace, His wisdom, and His strength. B. F. Westcott put it beautifully. Humility is a thankful sense of dependence upon God. That is the heart of humility. Pride, that is a subtle sin. It's the opposite of this. It hides in our motives, it disguises itself as confidence. It tells us we are self-sufficient. It convinces us that our di that our ideas are best, our plans are wise, our perspective is superior to others, and pride is dangerous because it pushes God to the margins of our life and puts us at the centre. William Carey, the man who's credited as being the father of modern missions, understood this deeply. Near the end of his life it is written that he was lying weak on the lower deck of a ship sailing near the coast of Singapore, and he overheard his friends praying for him and praising him for all his accomplishments. He interrupted them and said, Don't talk about William Carey, talk about William Carey's Saviour. And on his tombstone today in Seramapur, India, you can still read the words that he requested a poor, weak, helpless worm on his arm I fall. That is humility, not self-hatred, but dependence on God. Not thinking less of yourself, but correctly thinking of yourself in the presence of a holy God. But it also says be completely humble and gentle. So gentleness, well, gentleness is humility in action. Gentleness is not a weakness, it's a sort of controlled strength. The biblical picture used by James of it is he talks about it being like a powerful horse brought under the control of its master. The horse itself is not weak, it's strong. But its strength is directed, guided, restrained even. It's the strength of a person who does not need to dominate others, does not need to win every argument, and does not need to assert themselves because their confidence is in God. Many times in the gospel account we're told that Jesus was meek. But was he weak when he overturned the money changers' tables in the temple? He was anything but weak. Was he weak when he set his face toward Jerusalem and walked the lonely road to the cross? He was anything but weak. Jesus was gentle always but never weak. His gentleness was a quiet, resilient inner strength, a strength held under perfect control, a strength that would and could confront injustice, endure suffering, and still respond with love. Leonard Ravenhill once described biblical gentleness like this. He said it is an unresisting, uncomplaining disposition of mind which enables us to bear without irritation or resentment the false and misdirected energies of others. I like that definition. It's not timidity, it's not passivity, it's that strength under control I talked about. The Book of Proverbs tells us that a soft answer turns away wrath, and isn't that true? When someone comes at you with anger, aggression, or hostility, the natural instinct sometimes is to match their tone, to defend yourself and to push back, maybe even raise your voice. But gentleness does the opposite. Gentleness diffuses, it disarms, it protects, and this becomes even more important when someone is not only angry but unstable, perhaps under the influence of alcohol or drugs, perhaps even paranoid, delusional, unpredictable. In those moments the only thing that works is truth spoken gently, firmly, and without judgment. Never flippancy, never sarcasm, never dishonestly and certainly not with condescension. Gentleness is not weakness, when correctly utilized, it is wisdom. Many years ago, when I was a much younger man than I am today, I worked for a while as a doorman at a nightclub in a town called Swindon in the south of England. During that time I came regularly face to face with people who were very drunk, sometimes very digressive, and sometimes just determined to get in the club. Now this was way back in the 1980s, but one night an absolutely huge man, a man well known in the town for his acts of violence, approached the doors in a very drunk, inebriated state. Everyone knew this guy. Everyone knew he'd attacked a doorman recently at another club and put him in hospital. In fact he was waiting awaiting trial for that. The owner of the nightclub turned to me and said, Tell him he can't come in. Now I have never been observed more intensely than I was in that moment by that man. He stared at me eyeball to eyeball and said, I want to come in. We were only eyeball to eyeball because I was standing one step higher than him, by the way. He stood waiting, watching to see what I would say. He was waiting for me to show the slightest hint of judgment, the slightest tone of disrespect, the slightest word that might offend him, and if I did I was toast. And I think, I think I remember saying something like, I can't let you in, I think you've had too much to drink tonight. The response was silence. He just kept staring. I continued, I'm worried that if I let you in, you might end up getting thrown out, or even worse, getting into a fight, and that might make things worse for you when you go to court. More silence as he tried to interpret what I said, still staring, eye to eye, face to face. Then suddenly his face softened, and he shrugged drunkenly, and he said, Yeah, probably right and off he went, staggering his way home. For me, a soft answer really did turn away wrath that night, and shaking somewhat I breathed a sigh of relief and probably nearly crumpled to the floor. But gentleness, truth spoken, without a sense of judgment, probably saved my skin that night. Moving on, Paul's next word is patience, or as the King James better puts it, long suffering. Long suffering is best thought of as the opposite of being short tempered. It is patience under pressure or provocation, and it's also patience with difficult people. It's the ability to endure without resentment or irritation and without giving up on someone. It's patience with circumstances and patience with people. We are all called to bear with one another in love, not to tolerate one another, but to bear with one another, carry one another, and give grace to one another. Now there's a beautiful old story from the early Jewish writings, something called the Tinak, that illustrates this perfectly. One day it is said that Abraham was sitting outside his tent when he saw an old man approaching, a man who was weary from a long journey. Abraham welcomed him, washed his feet, and offered him food and drink. But the old man took the food and began eating without offering any form of blessing. Abraham asked, Do you not worship God? And the old man replied, I worship fire only, and I show no reverence for any other God. Abraham was furious. He grabbed the old man by the shoulders and threw him out of the tent into the night. Later it is said that night God spoke to Abraham and asked, Where is the stranger I sent you? And Abraham replied, I forced him out because he did not worship you. And God said, I have endured that man for eighty years, and I have done that though he dishonours me. Could you not endure him for one night? Now that's not a story from the Bible, but it still helpfully illustrates the point. That is long suffering. What God was asking of Abraham was indeed long suffering, that is the bearing of another in love. Gentleness is strength under control, patience is strength under pressure, and together these form the character of God. Jesus was gentle with sinners and patient with those slow to learn disciples. He bore the weak and endured the proud, he forgave the stubborn and he welcomed the broken. And Paul is saying here, walk like that. Walk in humility, walk in gentleness, walk in patience, long suffering, and walk in love. That is what it means to walk worthy of the calling we have received. Has God been patient with you? Of course he has. Patient beyond measure, patient beyond reason, patient way beyond anything that we actually deserve. And if God has been patient with us, then surely we must be patient with other people. And that is another way we walk in a manner worthy of a calling. Not by simply putting up with people, but by bearing them and bearing them in love. These other people may be difficult sometimes, awkward, frustrating, offensive, or even hostile, which is why some of the translations use that lovely word, forbearance. Because, as 1 Corinthians 13 says, love suffers long and love bears all things. That means even when someone wounds you, you still seek their good. Even when someone is difficult, you still choose to love them. And like you, I'm still having to work on that one every day. I suspect we all are. And then verse 3 says, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. This tells me that unity does not maintain itself. Peace does not preserve itself. We must strive for these things. John Copeland once said, in the essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, charity. The essentials, the core of the faith, are the things that unite us. Things like Jesus is Lord, He is the Son of God, He died for our sins, He rose from the dead, He is our only hope of salvation. These are the necessary things of our faith. But there are many other things, traditions, preferences, even some interpretations are not essential, and in those things we must give one another a certain amount of freedom, of liberty. But in all things necessary or unnecessary, we must always show love. That is how you maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that this passage is describing. Christians who share the basics should lovingly tolerate one another in these other areas that are not foundational. As Francis of Assisi prayed, when approaching all things, Lord make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is offence, let me bring pardon, and where there is discord, let me bring union. That is the spirit of Ephesians 4. It's about looking inward, not outward. Now at the beginning of the chapter, I encourage you to do just that, to look at yourself rather than think of other people. So let me ask you gently, truthfully, did you manage to resist the temptation to apply these verses to someone else as you heard them? Or did you see areas in your own life where humility needs to grow? Are there any places where gentleness is lacking? Are there any relationships you have where your patience is wearing thin? Are there any situations where love between you and other people has cooled? Now these are not questions meant to prompt guilt, they are invitations to press into the grace of God. Because the big question this passage asks us is do you want to live this life worthy of this calling, of your calling? And if you do, that means initially become a little more humble, a little more gentle, a little more patient, and a little more committed to keeping the unity of the Holy Spirit in the bond of peace. And in our final verse today, it just summarizes it by saying and reminding us there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One body, one spirit, and one hope. We all belong to one family. We all, as Christians, share one salvation and we walk one path. And if we are to walk it well, we must walk it together with humility, with gentleness, and with patience. Always bearing one another in love. Because that, my friend, is living and walking a life worthy of the Lord. Thanks for being with me today. If you want to connect more deeply, or just support me prayerfully in any other way in this work. I really couldn't do it without you. Thank you for joining me today. Next time, tomorrow, we'll continue our journey through Ephesians chapter 4, and we'll explore what it means to walk in this unity. Not uniformity, not sameness, but spirit-given unity rooted in the very nature of God Himself. But until then, may the Lord help you walk humbly. May He help you love deeply and live in the bond of His peace. Thanks for being with me, Baba Fanaha.