The Divine Strategy

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-3

What does the apostle say to the Ephesian church in the face of so many desperate cries of human need? What is his answer to the pleas for justice and relief from oppression all around him? Simply this: Live a life worthy of the calling you have received!

We desperately need this practical admonition of the apostle. The One who has called us sees life much more clearly than we do. He has devised a strategy that will actually remove the root cause of human darkness and misery — not just cover the cancer of sin with a Band-Aid. When the church is faithful to its calling, it becomes a healing agency in society, able to lift a whole nation or an empire to a higher plateau of healthy, wholesome living.

In his monumental history of the world, The Story of Civilization, Will Durant compares the influence of Caesar and Christ. He says of Jesus: The revolution he sought was a far deeper one, without which reforms could be only superficial and transitory. If he could cleanse the human heart of selfish desire, cruelty, and lust, utopia would come of itself, and all those institutions that rise out of human greed and violence, and the consequent need for law, would disappear. Since this would be the profoundest of all revolutions, beside which all others would be mere coup d'etats of class ousting class and exploiting in its turn, Christ was, in this spiritual sense, the greatest revolutionist in history.

The true church is here to effect that revolution. The false church is here to oppose it. But true Christians actually promote the cause of false Christianity when, through ignorance or mistaken zeal, they deviate from the divine strategy and disobey their divine calling. We mere humans cannot improve on the divine program. Nor are we left in doubt as to what that calling is. If Christians are to give intelligent obedience to their Lord, they must give highest priority to understanding what He wants them to be and do.

Father, remind me of my true calling and give me strength to live it out in my daily life. Keep me focused on living out what Scripture and the Spirit have made clear about the Christian walk.