Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20130428.htm

THE PRISON EPISTLES: NURTURE FOR OPPRESSED BELIEVERS
I. Ephesians: Nurture In Living Focused On God's Eternal Purpose For Christians
C. Nurture In Applying The Believer's Positional Truth To Life And Ministry
1. Nurture In Relating In Unity With Fellow Believers In The Local Church
(Ephesians 4:1-6)
  1. Introduction
    1. When Paul wrote the "Prison Epistles" of Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon, the fact that he was in prison troubled believers, Philippians 1:12-13; Colossians 2:1-2; 4:7-8 and Philemon 22; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672, "Introduction to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians."
    2. To nurture his readers, Paul urged them to apply their edifying positional truths in Christ to how they related to one another, that they preserve the positional unity the Holy Spirit had produced in the Church.
    3. We view this instruction for our edification as a local body of believers (as follows):
  2. Nurture In Relating In Unity With Fellow Believers In The Local Church, Ephesians 4:1-6.
    1. The inferential particle, oun ["therefore"] Ephesians 4:1 in the wider context of the epistle implies that all Paul has written in Ephesians 1-3 has obligatory consequences for his readers beginning at chapter 4, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 671; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 597)
    2. Since Ephesians 1-3 deals with the believer's position "in Christ," Ephesians 4:1 starts to apply that truth to the Christian life, with the FIRST application dealing with the need for believers to strive to preserve the practical unity the Holy Spirit has positionally produced in the Church body, Ephesians 4:1-6:
      1. Paul mentioned that he was a prisoner of the Lord in Ephesians 4:1 right after giving a prolonged section on the fact that his imprisonment occurred for the sake of Gentile believers like his readers in that he suffered for upholding their position in the Church along with Jewish believers, Eph. 3:1-21.
      2. Accordingly, as Christ's prisoner for the sake of his Gentile Christian readers, Paul urged them to walk "worthy" of their calling in the Lord, the word "worthy" rendering the Greek word axios, "bringing up the other beam of the scales into equilibrium," Theol. Dict. of the N. T., v. I, p. 379-380.
      3. Namely, their lives were to match their position, and that FIRST in the realm of unity, Eph. 4:2-3:
        1. Paul's readers, be they Jewish or Gentile, were to "take pains, make every effort" (spoudazo, Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 771) to keep the practical unity that the Holy Spirit had spiritually created in placing Jewish and Gentile believers in one body (Ephesians 2:11-22), having saved them from a formerly helpless state (Ephesians 2:1-10), all in the bond of positional peace in Christ, Eph. 4:3.
        2. The specific pains to be taken toward this practical unity were the adoption of the attitudes of (1) all "humility" (tapeinophrosune, Ibid., p. 812), (2) all "gentleness, considerateness" (prautes, Ibid., p. 705-706) with (3) all "patient holding out under trial" (makrothumia, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.; Richard C. Trench, Synonyms of the N. T. , 1973, p. 196) and (4) all "putting up with, enduring" (anecho, Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 65) one another in the love of God, Eph. 4:2 with 3:17-19.
      4. To emphasize the positional truths behind this directive, Paul then briefly itemized the ways all believers had been postionally united in Christ in Ephesians 4:4-6 as follows:
        1. In Christ, all believers are positioned by God into one spiritual body, the Church, Ephesians 4:4a.
        2. In Christ, all believers are indwelt by one Holy Spirit in one body, the Church, Ephesians 4:4b.
        3. In Christ, all believers are called in one hope of eternal life and eventual glorification with Christ in heaven in their calling, Ephesians 4:4c.
        4. In Christ, all believers are related to the same Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 4:5a.
        5. In Christ, all believers are of one true doctrinal body of truth, one "faith," Ephesians 4:5b.
        6. In Christ, all believers are baptized by one baptism by the Holy Spirit, Eph. 4:5c; 1 Cor. 12:13.
        7. In Christ, all believers have one God and Father of all of them, Who is above all of them, Who is through all of them and Who is in all of them, Ephesians 4:6.
Lesson: Due to God's great deliverance of each believer from a humanly hopeless state of damnation, and due to God's gracious, extensive work at salvation positionally to unite him with every other believer, each believer is obliged to take pains to try to coexist with every other believer in life.

Application: May our walk match our position in the realm of unity as we depend upon the Holy Spirit.