A Life Worthy of the Calling We Have Received

Paul writes this to open the fourth chapter of Ephesians:

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

When I was a camper attending Quest, where I now serve as a counselor, the theme one summer was 24/7.  It was about focusing on and living out your calling in Christ constantly - all day, every day, in all that you do.  As a high school student I remember how intense I thought that was.  At camp that week I would be in a Christ-centered community, surrounded by other believers and our time and energy would be focused on growing our relationships with Christ.  I could do it there.  But when I was done with camp for the year, how would that work?  As the years have passed Paul's words and the idea of living a Christ-like existence 24/7 have stuck with me, and have begun to take a new shape in my life.

The Carpenter Who Cleared the Temple

The passage in the gospels where Jesus turns over tables in the temple has long been one of my favorites.  I saw Jesus getting upset with people for their bad behavior.  There is a sense of comfort in the idea that your savior can experience the same emotions that you do.  I thought Jesus was angry because the buys and the sellers had defiled God's temple - a place of worship.  A meeting at my college church group a few weeks ago shed new light on this story.  Jesus isn't mad at the buyers and sellers in the temple for the buying and the selling.  They are there to do what they need to do so that travelers can exchange currency and animals can be bought for sacrifice.  He's frustrated because when those people leave the temple their actions and behaviors are are anything but Christ-like.  They only bear good fruit within the temple, and forsake it all outside the walls.

The Whole World In His Hands

Sometimes when we step off the grounds of our summer camps, outside of our churches, away from our Bible studies, away from our friends and family who hold our faith lives accountable, we become just like the buyers and the sellers in the temple.  The truth is, when you step outside of those places, you are stepping into a bigger sanctuary and a bigger mission field.  We have not stepped outside of God's protection or His will for us to live in a Christ-like way.  Jesus tells the woman at the well that worshiping God only in the temple is a thing of yesterday.  He tells her that we will be called beyond that.  Scripture also tells us that our body is a temple.  If the body is a temple where our soul dwells, there is no place where we are not called to bring glory to God, and to live out a Christ-like existence.

Disonance

Brennan Manning, the author of the Ragamuffin Gospel and several other books, once said this: "The temptation of the age is to look good without being good."  Our foot is snared by this trap often.  If we are Christ-like in places where it is likely to be acknowledged and even praised or rewarded, but struggle to be that way in places where it is often passed over, then the first striving is in vain. My campers only see me one week out of the year.  My church family only sees me one day out of the week.  But God sees me always.  It matters how I treat my classmates, people I ride the bus with.  It matters what activities I choose to fill my weekend with.  It matters what I post on Facebook and any other social media.  It's about bringing glory to God.  That isn't a 9 to 5 job and it isn't just a summer or a Sunday job.  It is truly 24/7.

It is hard.  It doesn't come without struggle.  The temptation in this world to forsake Paul's urge for us and cave into pressures is great.  However, God equips us for those struggles by giving us community, the opportunity for prayer and conversation with Him, as well as renewal and redemption.  God wants us to push each other every day to live a life worthy of His calling for us - that is the purpose of a Christ-centered community and a Christ-centered life.

~SP