Ephesians 4:2

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

(v2, NIV)

How do we live a life worthy of the calling we have received? In the last verse, Paul urges the believers at the church in Ephesus to live a life worthy of their calling. The first thing is that we are to be humble and gentle. Humility is encouraged by Paul in the beginning of Philippians chapter 2.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

(Philippians 2:3-4, NIV)

We are not to consider ourselves to be better than others. Being prideful of ourselves and boastful of ourselves is the opposite of humility. Being worthy of the calling calls for humility.

Gentleness and patience are the other two things that are required to live a life worthy of our calling. These two are included in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

(Galatians 5:22-23, NIV)

Gentleness is the opposite of being harsh. So we must be gentle in order to live up to our calling, which means we shouldn't be too harsh or too abrasive. In the same way, we are to be patient. We shouldn't be unable to wait. Sometimes we will be waiting a long time, but we need to be patient. God works in his own timing. Often, we get impatient. Sometimes we'll come to God with a request and we don't see it answered right away. Maybe we're waiting for days, weeks, months, maybe even years and we start to get impatient. I think patience requires faith. If you don't have faith in God, why would you wait?

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

(Hebrews 11:1, NIV)

So, if you have faith in God, you are sure of what you hope for in God and certain of what we do not see. God is not like us humans. If you put your faith in humans, you'll eventually be let down. Put your faith in God, and he will not let you down. Now, as I say that, I realize some may try to come up with objections. I realize that you may feel as though God let you down sometimes. When I say that God won't let you down, I don't mean that you won't feel let down. Sometimes we feel let down by God, but God does not in fact let people down. We let down God. In our sinfulness we turn away from God. It is also in our sinfulness that we sometimes feel let down by God. We may sinfully feel as though God owes us something. What we deserve is death and destruction and eternal separation from God. However, God lovingly gave us a way to be saved. It's not something we deserve and it's not something God owes us. Therefore, if anyone receives it, they receive it as a gift. Therefore, if someone receives this gift, another person can't complain because they didn't receive it because of they deserved it. If we received salvation because we deserved it, then everyone else could argue that they deserve it too. However, we don't deserve it.

Wow, that was a long tangent. Be humble, patient and gentle.