With All Lowliness
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, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1–3
Having laid such a great doctrinal foundation to our redemption — Ephesians chapter 1 dealt with God’s choice and His Spirit’s blessing, chapter 2 dealt with spiritual life and the greater Christian fellowship, chapter 3 dealt with wonderful mystery of Gentile inclusion in the family of God by grace through faith — Paul then turns to call us how to live out this inward spiritual reality.
There is great significance in his words, that we do not live worthily in order to gain this new spiritual life. Rather because we have by grace through faith, according to the election of God, already gained this life, we are called to walk or to live out in our lives through our thoughts, choices, and actions.
The first thing he mentions is the attitude of humility, gentleness, and longsuffering toward one another. Impatience reveals an inflated estimation of ourselves. We are to see ourselves with “all lowliness” — we have received the highest calling imaginable — to be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6) — so this position lifts us in our estimation of ourselves. But we received it by grace, nothing in us to boast of its achievement, so we receive it with all humility as well. This is the meaning of the central biblical theme of the grace of God, that we have received it freely.
A scene from the movie Ben Hur illustrates this point. Judah Ben Hur had been unjustly chained to an oar as a slave for several years. Through a series of incredible events he saves the captain of his ship in a battle at sea. The captain is indeed the commander of the entire Roman Navy and out of gratitude frees Ben Hur, and as he goes to his freedom on another ship, he dramatically stops to see the galley slaves beneath still chained to their oars. He cannot forget his past.
Different from Ben Hur, we actually deserved our condemnation, and have been brought out of the dungeon of enslavement to sin into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We cannot forget where we have come from. In all lowliness of heart and mind we must come together with our fellow believers, to love them and be gentle with them, with longsuffering, and forebearance. “Bearing with one another in love” describes the divinely enabled capacity to patiently go the second mile and the third mile in dealing with one another, and to do so without showing annoyance or intolerance.
The Spirit draws us toward one another. He has formed the unity, has sealed the bond that connects us, and this bond is one of peace. Formerly, as Paul reminds us, the members of the church at Ephesus had come from different backgrounds — Jew and Gentile, but even among the Gentiles there were many differences, just as their were among the Jews. Ethnic differences were not the only ones, nor are the always the most important ones. Experience, personality, preferences, educational level, income level, married versus single, with children or without, political opinions, etc. — all of these can be potential separators in the church.
But the Spirit has formed more than a spiritual bond, more than a theoretical or theological bond, but a real and experiential bond. A very important test of our faith is our love and patience toward one another, toward our fellow Christian.
Who do you have trouble with? Who do you feel superior to? Who are you prone to be impatient with? Who rubs you the wrong way? Pray that God would help you to love them, just as He has loved you. In “all lowliness” means that we should repent of any sense of pride that makes us feel that others are not worth our time or our compassion. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
