Responsible-
In His Word 7-30-18
While
spending the past week and a half with a great group of young Christians
leading a Vacation Bible Day camp we had the chance to study the relationships
and responsibilities of being a Christian. The works we must do once we are
saved.
Now
some would jump in here and say we are not saved by works but by grace, we
don’t have to do anything!
This
is true, to get saved; to be saved we can do nothing but accept it.
Though
it does not just stop there, anymore than getting married by saying “I do” is
all that we do to be married happily ever after.
In
following a study of Ephesians we went through with our church this summer I
found some interesting tidbits about these things.
We
as Christians have the responsibility to keep the unity of the Spirit. You can
find this in Ephesians 4:3-6, to use our abilities for the church’s benefits as
apposed to just our own, is found in the same chapter in the next set of
scriptures.
But to
each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore
He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
and gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also [d]first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the [e]edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:7-16
and gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also [d]first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the [e]edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:7-16
So
in other words we need to acknowledge that we are as ready as He wants us to be
for any given notice because we have His spirit with us. He has gone before us and planned out our
steps so that we c figure out where to go when the time comes for us to be
gifted to people and to help them to find new life in Christ as well.
During
our VBS we took day trips; our host family planned out daily trips to give us
enjoyment and cool downs in the hot afternoons of the town we were serving in.
They
planned ahead for us to have a place to stay as well as food to eat. God does this
every day for us!
Our
responsibility is to encourage, to speak the truth, to follow his steps and to
understand that if He stops our path there is a reason. He does these things to
help us to grow in His spirit that we may be able to understand what is
edifying to one another and that we may indeed encourage one another to do good
things.
The
thing is none of this can be done unless we have indeed learned Christ via the
Bible, we must study it to understand it; the Holy Spirit will be our teacher
if we allow Him to. He will protect us, if we read an learn how to understand
when God is stopping us for a reason and not always ask why. Just doing the
maturing and growing up in the Word mentioned in Chapter 4 verse 14 gives us
leaps and bounds in living an honest and pure life!
The
whole idea is for us to live as Christ lived, walk as He waked and well, let me
cut an paste from my notes taken from the book of Ephesians side notes in my
Bible.
The
following is portioned from a list that is in the specific notes at the bottom
of my Study Bible.
The Responsibilities Christians Have
To
keep the unity of the Spirit 4:3-6
To
use our abilities for the church’s benefits 4:7-13
To
keep growing and maturing 4:14
To
put away old sinful ways 4:17-24, 5:2-14
To
speak honesty and purely 4:25&29
To
do what the Spirit leads us to do 4:30
To
imitate God 5:1
To
walk in love 5:1
To
fin out what is acceptable to the Lord 5:10
To
make the most of our time 5:16
To
be filled with the Spirit 5:18
To
submit to one another 5:21
To
have marriage that honors God 5:22
To
honor God in our families 6:1-4
To
demonstrate integrity in the workplace 6:5-9
To
stand strong against the forces of evil 6:10-18
And
we do want to stand strong! When we step
out in faith trusting God to help us teach or lead the enemy wants to strip us
up. Our job is to know the scriptures to do battle with; it is our
responsibility to know the Word and do the Word
Dear
heavenly Father, thank you for today, Bless us with your understanding of the
Word and help us to be obedient to You in Jesus name, amen.
Suggested
Reading: Ephesians 4: 1-32, Ephesians
5:1-34, 6:1-24. and Ephesians 3:1-21