Walk the Talk. [Eph. 4]
Ephesians 4: 1 – 16
Are you walking your Christian vocation or just talking it?
‘Walk the talk’ basically means to perform actions that are consistent with our claims. The phrase ‘walk the talk’ is a 20th Century phrase. The notion of walking the talk goes back in time. E.g. In Shakespeare’s Richard III the 1st Murderer says; “Fear not, my Lord, we will not stand to prate; talkers are no good doers: be assured we come to use our hands and not our tongues.” This distinction between talkers and doers is as old as the hills.
Paul in Ephesians encourages us to ‘walk the talk’, writing walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you have been called [KJV 4:1]. He says the same thing 4 times in chapter four. [Note that in modern translations the verb ‘to live’ is used instead of ‘walk’.]
In Ephesians chapter 4 we come to the practical side of the faith. The first three chapters have explained the basis of the Faith, which is that we are saved by God’s grace through the faithfulness of Jesus [3:12]. God’s grace redeems, heals and transforms us into the people God wants us to be. That wonderful song written by the converted slave-ship captain, John Newton, says it all.
Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see.
`Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!
Ephesians describes the wonders of the faith. God loves us and God rescues us through Christ. God rescues us from the powers of evil and our destructive selfishness. Rescued we become the Church. The church is not something we belong to like a club membership. Rather we are gathered through Christ into a unique group, which represents Christ on earth. We are Christ’s body on earth. We are the Church. As the Church – the community of Christ, we form the Temple of God. God dwells in this Temple, the body of Christ Jesus on earth. That is what God’s grace has done for us – made us a new instrument of peace.
Now we are asked to ‘walk it’ – to live out our lives with actions consistent with these truths. Our lives must exhibit the unity and the corresponding peace that belongs to the body of Christ on earth – the Church. We are not encouraged to follow a set of rules. That is not the point of ‘walking the talk’ in Christianity. The whole point is that we maintain the unity of the faith. We Christians are to put every effort into maintaining the unity of the faith [4: 3]. We have been told in chapters 1 and 3 that the great secret plan of God is to bring all things in heaven and earth into a unity so that there can be peace [1: 9-10; 3: 3-10]. God’s grace doesn’t mean we have a guaranteed seat on the heavenly train. God’s grace means that we have been recruited to be God’s witnesses – God’s people with a special task that involves maintaining unity in the Church, Christ’s body on earth, and promoting peace to all peoples.
God’s intention is to reconcile all things so that we can have peace [1: 9-10]. Peace is the very thing we don’t have in this world. We don’t have personal peace. We are restless creatures. We don’t have peace with others. We have fractured relationships. We don’t have peace with other peoples. Tribalism constantly tears us apart. What is important to note is that peace comes as a result of unity. When we are united we are naturally at peace with each other.
If God calls us into unity in Christ Jesus then we are also called to maintain the unity. This is what we are to do – maintain the unity in the Church. Unity needs to be maintained, because we always default to some kind of disunity. To maintain the unity we need the right attitude. The attitudes that foster unity are humility, gentleness, patience, and lovingly caring for each other. Our attitude is crucial to peacemaking and unity. So Paul writes; I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life [walk worthily] worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace [4: 1-3]. Maintaining the unity of the Church is our chief focus through developing our fellowship and maturing into compassionate agents of grace. Right actions flow from our unity.
We need more than the right attitude. We need the right attributes. The essential attribute of God is God’s oneness. Whenever the Scriptures speak of God the underlying thought is that God is one. So when we speak of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we speak of an undivided unity. When we speak of God as the Creator we read that Christ is the co-Creator and it is the Spirit who forms order out of the chaos [Gen 1: 1-3; Jn 1:1-4]. Creation is the work of the Trinity.
We need the right gifts to build up the Church. God gives us those gifts. They are named in Ephesians. They are the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. God gifts us with these tasks, which builds and renews the Church. The Church needs not only the right attitude and attributes, but needs the right gifts for growth so that the Church can fulfil its task.
We might find it easier to be gentle, remain patient, caring for each other, if we remember that our task is to develop our unity. Focused on unity we will naturally take these attitudes and attributes into our daily living.
I offer a story to illustrate our need to continue to strive for unity in the Church. It’s a simple story. Let us hear it with an open heart and mind.
Once upon a time a flock of quail lived near a marsh and they would fly to the nearby fields every day to feed. The only problem was that there was Bird Hunter who lived nearby. He was very successful in catching the quail and selling them in the local market. The reason he had grown so successful in catching them was that he had learned to imitate perfectly the call of the quail Leader. The Bird Hunter gave the call and the quail, thinking it was the leader, flew to where the Bird Catcher was waiting. They landed and he easily cast his net capturing many.
One day the Leader called all the quails together for a conference. He said, “We are becoming decimated! Soon there will be none of us left. The Bird Hunter is catching us all. But I have found out how he does it. He has learned to imitate my call and that deceives you.”
“But I have a plan. The next time you hear what you think is my call and fly to the area and when the Bird Hunter throws his net on top of you, here is what you are to do: all together you stick your heads through the openings in the net and in one motion fly up with the net and land on the thorn bush. The net will stick there. Then you can extricate yourselves the Bird Hunter will have to spend the day freeing his net.”
This is what they did. The Bird Hunter came, gave the imitation call and the quail came. When the net was thrown over them they stuck their heads through the openings and together flew to the thorn bush. They left a frustrated Hunter extricating his net off the thorn bush.
This went on for some time resulting in the Bird Hunter’s income declining as he caught fewer and fewer quail. The Bird Hunter’s wife complained bitterly about the loss of income and wanted to know what he was going to do about it. The Bird Hunter explained to his wife what was happening and said; “Be patient the birds will begin to quarrel and then I will catch them again.”
Well it happened. One day when the Bird Hunter made his call all the quail rose up and flew to the area where he was. But as they were flying one quail accidentally brushed against another. “Watch out where you’re going, clumsy!” cried the quail. The 1st quail quickly explained that it was an accident. “An accident!” cried the 2nd quail. “If you watched where you were going it wouldn’t have happened in the first place.” Well, the 1st quail that had bumped the other one was annoyed with the ungracious response of the 2nd quail. They began to argue. Other quail got involved taking sides, as you would.
Meanwhile when they landed this time the quail were uneasy. This time when the Bird Hunter threw the net over them they were still murmuring and agitated, forgetting to focus on working together. Some quail cried out, “Stop bickering! Let us work together!” Some quail cried out, “ Come, let us fly together this way.” But other quail wanted to fly the other way. Some even muttered that they were tired of doing what others wanted.
While they were arguing the Bird Hunter came up and gathered them up and took them to market, making a good few dollars that day. [‘Stories for Sharing’ p. 60.]
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 07/10/2018
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org
