Humble Beginnings of the Path to Peace
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:1-6 ESV
Sometimes there are lists in the Bible sound redundant. The fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) can be a list of a bunch of good things that are all practically synonyms and we skim over them.
Other times we see a list and they all become one big blob of words, like some names we can’t pronounce. In today’s passage, what if we took them as a progression, from one item to the next?
Walk in a manner worthy of your calling
With humility
With gentleness
With patience
With loving forbearance
Eager for unity
Bonded with peace
It looks different when it’s listed like that, doesn’t it? It really does stack up like a progression, especially if we top it all off with Jesus’ words that our love for one another is how all men will know that we are His disciples. None of these things are the natural fruit of the person living according to their flesh. If I walk in my flesh I will not regard my calling into the family of the children of God and will give no respect the name of Christian that I have taken upon myself. The first rotten fruit to come out of that is pride, as I defend and justify myself and my rotten actions. That of course has no place for gentleness, so in my anti-humility I go into jerk mode.
You can see how this doesn’t get better if we follow the other path.
But if we start with grasping our calling and recognize the sin, death, punishment, and horror that we are purchased out of, humility sets in. We can be gentle with others because we know we are not the Judge of All People, but that we were shown mercy by the Judge of All People. We can be patient with those that struggle, knowing that tomorrow we might need them to be patient with us, and we love one another as the Holy Spirit re-creates us to be led by the living God in our actions, wishes, moods, and reactions.
With all of this love and forbearance and patience and gentleness going on, unity happens because suddenly issues fade away to be issues and people become real people. Instead of an anonymous yellow ribbon, a vet becomes your old friend Jose and you can pat him on the back. Instead of a blue band across a Facebook profile, Anthony becomes a real guy driving through your neighborhood and you flag him down for a handshake and a thank you. Instead of a scary thug, Darrelle becomes one of your kids’ favorite grown-up friends because of the way he tells Bible stories.
None of this stuff happens overnight or on a single lunch break, but if we start with the worthiness of our calling, the rest will unfold on the path that Jesus has marked out for us.