Ephesians 4: On a Mission from God - Be Like Jesus

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working through the first 3 chapters of the letter to the Ephesians – there are a few recurring themes Paul touches on that jump out at me:

• We are each called to live for the praise of His glory – namely, to make Him famous
• God, in His mercy has saved us by His grace through our faith in Christ, not by our works, so no one can boast about it
• We are God’s handiwork (His masterpiece), created new in Him to do good in His Name wherever we go
• We are ALL on a mission from God – to do what Jesus would be doing if He was walking in our shoes

In Ephesians 4, Paul reveals that a key element necessary for us is that we would grow up to full maturity – & the standard God uses for full maturity is Christ Himself (Eph. 4:13). In effect, he’s stating that in order to fulfill our “mission from God,” we have to be Christ-like in our attitudes, thoughts, actions, & interactions with others. We can’t do this by simply trying harder or having good will-power to ‘do good.’ Rather, we are to put off our pre-Christ self (with its deceit, hardness of hearts, selfishness, & pursuit of sensuality,) & be renewed in the spirit of our minds (v.22), looking for ways that we can be like Christ in every area (vv.23-24).  Practically speaking, it’s a day to day growing process where we submit ourselves to God, & then begin to live our lives following Christ’s example. For our mission to be a success, we gotta grow to be like Jesus.