Bible Verse of the Day Saturday August 19th, 2023

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

Paul penned this letter to the Church at Ephesus from Roman incarceration; however, he did not see himself as a prisoner of the Roman government but as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Paul was constantly communicating with the Lord Jesus and strived to carry out the mission God had called him to, no matter what bonds and chains the world attempted to hold him with. Paul was in prison because of his firm beliefs and tenacious desire to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. He believed that the message Jesus left the few disciples with when he ascended back to heaven applied to him as well as all who follow Christ (Acts 1:8). Those that did not know Christ as their Lord and Savior viewed Paul’s incarceration as scandalous and disgraceful however Paul considered it a grand honor to be in chains for the Lord. Paul did not pen this letter to the Christians at Ephesus to gain their sympathy or solicit monetary support but to show them and the world that he counted it worthy to suffer for Jesus’ sake. The Apostle Paul was encouraging all whose eyes fell upon this writing, in that day and throughout history, that we, as Christians, have a calling from the Lord: to spread his gospel to all people in our sphere of influence. Paul is urging us, as Christians, to live our lives so that all we encounter will be able to see Jesus as us.

Before we knew Jesus as our Lord and Savior and accepted His sacrifice on the Cross as the only way to eternal life, we lived dead in our sins. We were walking along the path of disobedience just as Satan had mapped out for us, so we surrendered to everything our natural urges led us to do. Most of humankind is entirely satisfied with that status, as are we. Sin did not seem like servitude or death. We seemed alive in our sins and enjoyed our freedom to accomplish whatever we pleased; however, as well as we might have enjoyed our lost, sinful condition, we were under God’s wrath and Satan’s control.

What is the calling we have received? The first thing we must reconcile is before we came to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were dead in our sins. However, since we were introduced to and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are not under the wrath of God; we are members of His Royal Family. However, some responsibilities accompany being a member of the Royal family. The most critical responsibility is being a diplomat to wherever God has placed us. We are responsible for spreading the Word of God to wherever our sphere of influence might be. We might believe we are where we are because that is where we want to be. However, God places us in the location we are in because there are many people there that need to know about Jesus. We must not think that there are plenty of others in our area of influence that can spread the Word of God better than we can. There will not be a day that passes that God will not put us in a situation where we can witness for Him and help others get to Know Jesus on the same personal level that we do.