Grace: Living Worthy Of Our Calling

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Ephesians 4:1

A young man returned from the war in Vietnam. The destruction he witnessed left him disturbed, somehow unbalanced. He could not shake the aftermath of the depraved images he had observed firsthand. He had participated in the confusing ways of this broken world, and he despaired of the evil which men do to each other.

Not long after his return stateside, he received the calling to trust Christ for his salvation—a call to which he said yes. As he prayed “Lord Jesus, I need you,” his body began to twitch and tremble uncontrollably. He had been born, and now he was born again. The instability of his disturbed world was replaced by the stability of the kingdom of God.

Over the next several years, he struggled to live a life worthy of the calling he had received, but he did not. The psychological trauma of Vietnam haunted him; people strained his edgy temperament. Eventually he became a commercial fisherman, finding solace in the lonely life of the sea.

Years later we saw each other again, and I asked him how things were going on his spiritual pilgrimage. “Well, I still believe,” came his reply, “but it’s really hard for me.”

One morning three months later I received a phone call. After returning from two weeks at sea, this young man followed his weathered, crusty comrades to the local tavern. He soon passed out. His mates grabbed his arms and legs and carried his limp, languid body into the back room and flopped him like a frumpy, oversized rag doll onto the cold, bare floor. Even though he was turning blue, they turned and walked away. He never regained consciousness. Several hours later he was found dead from a drug and alcohol overdose. He was my younger brother.

Not everyone has the strength of courage and character to live a life worthy of the calling they have received. To live up to our calling is itself a gift from God. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (Ephesians 4:7). Some of us are impeded from living up to Christ. It may be a troubled childhood, a tough marriage, difficult children, or, like my brother, you may have seen too much evil.

Apply Your Grace

If Christ has apportioned you with enough grace to live a life worthy of the calling you received, are you applying it? If not, should He let you keep it? Or should He take it away and give it to someone who will make full use of it? Many Christians under-apply their grace. It is such a waste.

If you are living a life worthy of the calling you received, how do you treat your weaker brother? Do you look in disgust at another who can’t quite seem to get his act together? Does your mind get stuck thinking about how weak he is? Pray for him, that God’s grace to him may increase. Fall to your face and implore God to have mercy on your weaker brother or sister with tears of remorse. Thank Him with tears of gratitude that He has mercifully given you so much grace. Why should it be the other person and not you that is weak? There is no reason except the grace Christ has apportioned to you at His sole discretion. “But for the grace of God, there go I.”

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters” (Romans 14:1).

Every Christian is one for whom Christ died. If Jesus thought that person was worth dying for, why do you despise him? “You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat” (Romans 14:10).

Let us, therefore, concentrate on living up to the calling we have received. Part of our calling is to bear with our weaker brothers, to not revel in the smug satisfaction that we overcome but they don’t. If we overcome, it is because of the grace apportioned to us. And if we ourselves are not living a life worthy of our calling, then ask for more grace. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, but know that the strength of courage and character to do so comes from the grace apportioned to you.

I SURRENDER

Dear God, I am ashamed of the ways I have thought of and treated my weaker brothers and sisters. I have looked down on them, but now I see how it is my own weakness. Give the one I have disdained more grace. I praise and thank You for the grace You have apportioned to me, Lord Jesus. God, where I am the weaker one, I pray that You would have mercy and compassion on me and grant me grace that I may live a life worthy of the calling I have received. Amen.