Ephesians 4-5

"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worth of the calling you have received."  Ephesians 4:1

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as deeply loved children."  Ephesians 5:1

In the Lord Jesus we have full forgiveness of our sins through His precious blood!  Our forgiveness and salvation had been fully attained for us on the cross.  There is nothing we can and need do to earn our salvation.  It is all of grace!  Praise His name!  If we are His children, however, we will show evidence of it in our lives.  This is because Christ sends His Holy Spirit into our lives to give us the power and desire to live for the Lord.

God chose us from all eternity to be His child!  As His children we were chosen for a purpose, however.  That purpose according to Ephesians 1:12b was that we "might be for the praise of His glory."  We were put on this earth to bring glory and praise to the Lord.  Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Christ redeemed us and washed away our sins.  The Lord then recreated us and is shaping us to become more like Him.  This is so we can serve Him and bring glory and honor to Him in our lives.  This is the purpose and goal for our lives.

The Lord's love for us is infinite and unmeasurable.  He seeks to live and work in our lives.  The Lord wants us to grow in our passion for serving Him and in bringing glory to His name.  Ephesians 4:1b tells us that the Lord desires that we "live a life worthy of the calling" which we have received as His children.  Our lives must be filled with humility, patience, gentleness, and love.  Our characters must be maturing to be more like the character of Christ.  Ephesians 4:13b says we must "become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."  We need to live as children of the light.  Ephesians chapter four verses twenty-two through twenty-four tells us we must put off our old selves of sin and self-absorption,  "be made new in the attitude" of our minds, "and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

With the Holy Spirit's help we need to eradicate anything in our lives that is not pleasing to the Lord.  Instead we need "to put on the new self."  We need to act like children of the Lord instead of children of the world and of the devil.  Ephesians 5:1 says we need to "be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children."  Our lives and speech should be filled with thanksgiving for His grace to us.  Ephesians 5:8-9 reminds us that we need to show we are the Lord's children by our kindness, compassion, love, and forgiveness for each other.  We must also show we are the Lord's children by our righteous living and by our personal integrity.  Our lives need to show that we are children of God!

Our salvation is all of grace.  We can not add or contribute to our salvation.  We were not saved, however, to go on with our empty, selfish lives of sin, as if nothing was changed in our lives.  We are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in His work to conform us to become more like Jesus.  We are to seek the Holy Spirit's power to always live our lives for the Lord's glory.  This is the purpose for which we were placed on this earth.  It must become our passion and joy to serve the Lord with all our hearts!