Ephesians 4:1-16

1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Paul states in next three verses what some of the prerequisites are for living a life worthy of the calling. When you are called by God, God has certain tasks in mind for you to perform. The Son of God was sent to the earth as a flesh to reveal the mystery of God.

At the same time, the Spirit of God was sent to us as a gift so that we can carry out the message of the good news. Are we actually living a life worthy or are we just paying a lip service?

2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

As a man of God, you should be completely humble, gentle, patient, and engage with one another in love. In addition, you should make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit with love. There should be one church (the body of Christ) and one Spirit to which each of our spirits defers. And we have one hope in heaven. One Jesus Christ, faith in God and born-again experience… There is one God who is the father of all and oversees us all who are his children. Keeping unity and being one in God is not a simple task and it takes a lot of effort and struggle. If we discontinue this struggle, our faith drifts, so does the unity of the body.

7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it^[a] says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."^[b] 9(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions^[c]? 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

The Son of God appointed some to be apostles, teachers, prophets, and so on (Notice that the appointed ones are the messengers of God). They are the ones who witness of Jesus Christ, that he is God and that Jesus Christ is the act of God’s love for us all. They should not be the only ones who carry out the works of service. Every one of us should be a minister of the good news. When we obey his commands and act out our faith, our church will grow in spirit and be able to reach out to the Gentiles who are ignorant of Jesus Christ. This process will continue till the day that we become the likeness of Christ Jesus.

14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

When we become God’s children, we are no longer infants. When you become a child of God, you become cognizant of who your father is (That is the essence of difference between an infant and child. An infant is not old enough to walk and talk nor can it make an independent judgment. If one is a child of God, that child is able to communicate with the father and love him back).

The recognition of our father is not realized unless we see the Son of God who is Jesus Christ who is in the image of God. In other words, we cannot know God by ourselves nor can we communicate with him because of the severance of our loving relationship between our father and us due to the wage of sin. That severance was bridged by Jesus Christ. God is loving and sinless. Unless we are packaged in Christ, so that our sin looks invisible to God, we cannot directly know God. Only in and through Christ, we can have a glimpse of how God is like and how much God loves us.

That is the reason that we study the Bible, which is about Jesus Christ (the Word was God and the Word became flesh). In the book of Genesis, we see the Word has the power to create the world as well as living things. As we study the Word, we are able to know and understand who Jesus Christ is because he is the Word which witnesses of God the Father. As we learn more and more of the Word (Jesus Christ), we can build the knowledge of God the Father.

Through the image of the Word (Jesus Christ), we become confident and free in knowing that our father will be with us and protect us from harm’s way. In order for us to have the loving relationship with God, we need to be in the body (i.e. church) of Christ and we need to be fed from Christ (the Head, the Word) spiritually and through the word of God (biblical teaching). When we are properly nourished, then we can grow as one body in Christ. When the works of service done by each body part is worthy of the calling, the body will build itself up in love.