Walk worthy
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3).
Paul never saw imprisonment as a restriction to his service for the Lord, but as part of that service. Paul was a prisoner of the Lord. He discovered in Philippi, with his friend Silas, that a prison cell, however dark, could become a place of prayer, praise and witness. At the beginning of His Galilean ministry in Luke 4, the Lord Jesus speaks of coming to heal the broken-hearted and to set captives free. It was not Paul and Silas who were broken-hearted and captive that night in the jail at Philippi in Acts 16; it was the Philippian jailer. As the love of God flooded into his heart, it was healed, and he was set free from sin. Paul knew what God could do in prison.
Paul’s imprisonment became a ministry which went far beyond even his own extensive travels. But this did not mean he didn’t suffer as a prisoner. At the end of his life, Paul writes to Timothy about suffering in chains like a criminal but adds that God’s word cannot be chained (2 Timothy 2:9). His prison ministry was painful, but God uses it to teach us about the liberty we have in Christ. And as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus, Paul lived in the dignity of his heavenly calling; he walked worthy. And he appeals to us to do the same. We are taught by God to live before Him in a way which honours Him whatever our status in life. John F. Kennedy, former president of the United States of America, visited the NASA space station when the plan to put a man on the moon was being developed. In the washroom he met a cleaner and asked what the man did. The man replied, “I am helping to put a man on the moon!” That man saw his menial job in the context of a great endeavour. We have to see our lives in the context of the will and glory of God. As the people of God, we are not merely cleaners or scientists, we are God’s cleaners and God’s scientists.
W.E. Vine explains that the word Paul uses for “calling” is always used in the New Testament of a calling which has a heavenly origin, nature and destiny. It brings us into all the blessing of God’s love and grace, and it imparts a spiritual dignity to our lives. As such we are the children of God and we are to be characterised by the features of the Son of God: lowliness, gentleness and longsuffering. We are to bear with one another in love. God’s love is displayed by our love for one another. We are to love each other as Christ loves us (John 13:34-35). And we are to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because Jesus prayed to the Father that His disciples would be one, “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21).
By the power of the Holy Spirit and by expressing the unity and peace of the fellowship of life He has brought us into, we walk worthy to demonstrate Christ’s love toward one another. In doing so, we glorify our Saviour and our Father in the world.
