#DailyDevotion The Christian Life Is Emulating The Life Of The Trinity
Ephesians 4:1–6 So I, a prisoner in the Lord, urge you to live as people whom God has called should live. 2 Be humble and gentle in every way, be patient, and lovingly bear with one another. 3 Do your best to keep the oneness of the Spirit by living together in peace: 4one body and one Spirit – even as you have been called to share one hope – 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, Who rules over us all, works through us all, and lives in us all.
For three chapters Paul has been telling us all the good things God the Father has done for us in Christ Jesus. How he chose us before the world began to be his children. The Father out of his grace for us in Christ Jesus justified us, declared us righteous on account of Jesus’ work and how we received this through faith. The Father grants us access to the throne of his grace and bestows upon us great spiritual things even without us asking for we don’t even know what we should ask for. Now Paul begins to tell what sort of lives we should live if we believe all this this true and by the power of the Good News of Jesus Christ, we will begin to live our lives like this.
The first way we should live as people whom God has called is being humble and gentle in every way. This is not the way of the world. The way of the world is power, force, and look at me, see how great I am and what I have done. But what does Jesus say in Mark 10? 43”But among you it’s different. Anyone who wants to become great among you will have to serve you, 44and anyone who wants to be first among you will have to be everyone’s slave. 45Why, even the Son of Man didn’t come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many people.” Such is the way for God’s people to emulate Jesus in his humility. We are called to put others needs first. We follow Christ and are considered great by serving one another.
As disciples of Christ, who believe the Good News, we are called to be patient and lovingly bear with one another. Actually the force of that ‘lovingly’ and ‘one another’ covers the two pairs of words: humble and gentle, patient and bearing. It is we do these four things ‘in love’ i.e. ‘in Jesus’ (cf. Chapter 1 opening statements ‘in love’). I really prefer “put up with” rather than “bear with” probably because when I don’t want to, when I need to be reminded it, I am not ‘feeling love’ at the moment, but I am recalled to do that ‘in love’ i.e. ‘in Christ’ for the other. Note while it is great if we can extend this to the general population, Paul is particularly talking about being this way with our Christian population, the people in our congregation. Jesus’ commandment to his disciples is to love one another as he has loved us. His commandment to the world is love your neighbor as yourself.
We are called to keep the oneness of the Spirit by living together in peace. Paul then shows the oneness of the Christian and divine life. There is oneness in the life of the Trinity. We have been called live out that oneness, as the image of God, in our Christian lives with one another. The oneness of the body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, God and Father, (did you see the Trinitarian reference there Spirit, Lord, Father?) pours forth in our life as the Church and members of that same. The economy of the Trinity and the Church are mirrored as one flows into the other.
Heavenly Father, as you have called us as one Church in the image of the Trinity, give us your Spirit that we may demonstrate your oneness and love in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.