Lesson 12 – Walking in Obedience
Read Ephesians 4:1-16 - https://www.bible.com/bible/59/eph.4.esv

In our last lesson we read how we walk worthy because we are worshipers of Jesus Christ – God. In this lesson we look at walking worthy because we are obedient.

Verse 1 gives us an interesting word – Paul is a prisoner for Jesus. Does our walking worthy depend on our circumstances? Absolutely not! If being a prisoner didn’t affect Paul’s walk with the Lord, then nothing in our lives should deter us from that worthy walk.

We are called to walk worthy because we are unified with other believers. We are unified – one – with every other person in the world who believes in Jesus Christ as eternal God. We will look at that a little deeper in our next lesson. First we need to see what this calling to walk worthy means from us – because we always address issues from our own standpoint before doing so from someone else’s. This is a principle Jesus gave us in Matthew 7:1-5.

Our first responsibility is humility. Humility is not telling everyone we are worthless. Romans 12:3 tells us to not “think more highly of [ourselves] than [we] ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted..” That simply means we look at ourselves, recognize what we do poorly or well, and know that what we do well is a gift from God rather than our own work. Humility compares me to God rather than to another person.

Gentleness - means we are never arrogant or think of ourselves as better than the next person.

Patience – means allowing the other person to do the best THEY can, rather than trying to meet our standards. In my culture we say we must be willing to walk a mile in their shoes.

Bearing with one another in love – do you see how all these things are tying together? Love God’s way is not a feeling, it is a choice. We choose to look out for what is best for the other person.

Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace - means we don’t just sit back with crossed arms and say, I won’t fight with you anymore, you’re not listening to me anyway so do what you want. So if a group in your church has come to an agreement over something and one or two others insist it be done their way instead, how do you deal with that? Those of you in agreement must pray to God and ask for this humble, gentle, patient, loving spirit before you approach the others to ask them to be willing to do the same and come sit down with you to talk about it in that same spirit. If they are unwilling to do so, after prayer, it is Godly to ask them to step away from this situation or decision so that the unity of the body is not affected.

Look at Galatians 5:22-23 to see where these qualities of humility, gentleness, patience, and love truly come from.
*Who are we unified in Christ with? 
*To whom does humility compare you? 
*Love God’s way is a feeling. True or false.