Ephesians 4
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. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.8 This is why it[a] says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?
He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
God called us to be one in everything. He called us to love and accept each other’s differences. He called us to humble ourselves and not consider us better than any of the members of the body of Christ.
Our faith has one distinct identity from any other faith that is practiced in the world. That is we are all one part of the body of Christ and we all have equal significance for the body. And there is only one governor/head and that is Christ himself.
We are not called to be the boss of our sisters or brothers. God values us equally and we should have the same perspective. We think we have power and that power basically makes us above others. Whether we are minsters of the gospel of God or well educated with the things of the world, it is only useful when we use the same knowledge to educate and change people’s lives.
It is not good when we use it to express our superiority over others. We are not super or smarter than others. Whatever we have is given to us as a gift from God to serve him and others. There is no other effective way of destroying our unity in Christ than pride, unforgiveness, hate, gossip, bitterness, anger, malice.
These are all against the love and respect we should have for one another. If we are humble, kind, polite and gentle for one another, we would develop love for one another as these are the characteristics of Love. Peace is the byproduct of living a righteous and godly life that is according to the will and word of God driven by the Holy Ghost.
The peace we have inside and the peace we have in the outside world. As Christians we may manage to keep it peaceful within ourselves but sometimes it is very difficult to be in peace with everybody since there are always conflicts of interest.
It is one thing to resolve our conflicts by avoiding the things that hurt us and find a common ground to stand together, but it completely another thing to fight for every instance of conflict and make matters worse. It is very important as Christian to negotiate a deal that will benefit us and glorifies God in Christ. We shouldn’t focus on selfish desires. Rather, we should be able to honor one another and give praise to God who is the author of our salvation.
The bondage of love we all should have in Christ actually holds the body of Christ together. The utterance of love and forgiveness with patience and hope in the spirit of God should be the only thing that should come out our mouth.
We should be able to stand against the force of darkness that comes between us and our brother/sister by covering him/her wrong doings.
It is so unfortunate to have the so called pastors and prophets now a days who are money driven and don’t worry about the flock. Their job was supposed to be workers to train people in to being grown in the body of Christ and bring them to the fullness of the faith in Christ- Not to rob them and take every bit of advantage they can get from the people of God.
The people of God is precious and deserves a lot more respect than these people give now a days. The people of God need to know their value and worthiness in the eyes of God and stop being a victim of this outrageous deceit and blasphemy. Jesus Christ has paid the ultimate sacrifice for his people. That shows how valuable the people of God is.
They deserve to be treated better. They deserve a lot more respect. Cheating and lying is from the devil and should never be used to win the hearts of the people. The drama they are making in front of these people are to be caught and make known to them that they are in fact cheating. There is nothing that will be hidden as God himself will make everything known in its due time for his glory as they are not just fooling his people but dishonor the Spirit of God by using his name wrongly to fill their stomach.
May God bring justice quickly for the sake of his people and raise faithful servants that will rebuild the broken hearted and body of Christ to bring unity and love among his people. Amen!!!