5-14-23 Willisburg Bulletin
Walking Worthy
The focus of Ephesians is all about the Christian’s walk and in the verse above, there are three ways listed to walk worthy of being a Christian. We will discuss the last one this week: preserve the unity of the Spirit with peace.
Unity
Paul asked the Ephesians to preserve unity by pursuing peace. That word pursue/endeavoring is the same Greek word that is used when talking about persecuting Christians. It’s the idea of chasing after/doing all it takes. If you neglect to do everything you can to preserve unity and peace, you will rot. There’s no neutrality towards unity! You are either gathering for God’s glory or you are gathering for worse (like the Corinthians were). Some may be asking what is there to preserve? When you became a Christian, you immediately were given responsibilities and a whole lot to preserve. Unity is preserved by the continual gathering together for spiritual reasons, also known as fellowship. It’s the enduring eternal togetherness in Christ. By partnering together with Christ’s family, we share in the mutual source of strength, encouragement, and comfort from God. However, there is always some people we was unity. The same applies to us. There will be people we will have on our “Jonah list” but through God we will share unity with them. That means our attitude towards them has to change. We can’t look at them like we used to so let’s address how we can look at them as God does to create true unity.
Philippians 1:3-11
Paul says, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you…” If you continue reading, Paul mentions different things he has done for them in his thoughts and prayers. I want to apply them to ourselves. We all have someone we aren’t as fond of. Try these. . . Thank God for someone you want to be closer to. Remember the good things about them, not “remember when she did this…” Find joyful things to pray about them. Participate with them. Mutually share with them. Constantly think about them. Look at their life and how they’ve grown in the Lord. Find new ways to connect with that sister or brother in Christ. Take the opportunities to actually talk to them and not just avoid them. Be aware of those on your Jonah list! Think about who’s on that list and make an effort to make a godly change. I’m sure Paul had people that gave him the side eye or didn’t want to talk to him, but Paul was one to pray for all, speak to them about the gospel, and share in the unity of Christ with them. Let’s follow in Paul’s example.