I will walk with dignity as my calling requires, and I will stay united to the body

From: Feb. 28 to March 6, 2006 Study: # 433

TOPIC: “I will walk with dignity as my calling requires, and I will stay united to the body” Ephesians 4:1-6 We need to walk worthy of our calling (vocation), according to what God has distributed to each one. God wants each one of us to have a calling and to be useful. It is necessary for us to be useful in fulfilling the calling which God has given us and that is why God demands from us that we demonstrate it in our walk every day doing our work, ministry and living our lives with the dignity that our calling deserves. We are members of the body of Christ. Christ is the head. None of us can be the head but only a part of the body. With our physical body we do what we please, but the problem is that we are in Christ's mystic Body, which is the Church. If we are able to understand that we are part of Christ's Body we will know that we are united to Him, to our Lord. Let us be careful and let no one come to steal the life of Christ in us. We are part of His Body, so let us not allow any one to steal this from us. Each one of us must understand clearly in whom we have believed, this is fundamental. There can never be two walking together if they do not agree, as Amos 3:3 says. In order for two persons to walk together it is necessary for them to agree. If they do not, they will never be able to walk together. To walk together it is necessary for us to love. Love unites us, love ties us in unity. But, regrettably here is where many sin. Any one can say that he or she loves, but love comes from deep inside, from our innermost being, it is the most courageous act that can come from us towards the other person. Love is. Many Christians can not live in unity because of the lack of love in their lives. They are possessed by other things, other interests that are contrary to Gods calling. This way they break the unity of the Body which is infected and will affect the rest of the body. Watch out beloved for this dangerous and harmful evilness! God chooses, adding to the Body and begins to unite those who think the same. We all work in favor of the Body and this is why we must have communion. Prayer is very important because we get to know Gods plans. Let us walk according to the calling that has been given to us. When there is unity we give ourselves to the fellowman and we don't wait for him to give himself to us. We have to be worthy of this calling because we are the body of Christ. We all should have humility, meekness, patience and know how to support each other. Ephesians 4: 2 Sometimes we demand from every one, but we don't open up ourselves to have meekness and humility. We are all placed in the body of Christ. Something that should really be in our lives is the conviction of having the same thoughts of Christ. We sometimes trip on silly things and this will allow us to see that we have not grown in love or unity. Humbleness is a virtue that makes us aware of our poverty, of our human condition. When we recognize our human poverty we learn how to be humble and we will begin to see that others are better than us, because we are all mortals. Arrogance makes some people distant from others and for that reason there is no unity. Thinking that we are above others only allows us to see that we don't have humility and that we have not recognized our poverty as humans. To be meek, to live in meekness is the attitude that takes us to surrender to Gods treatments without rebellion and to man's

treatments without vengeance. Meekness is what is inside of us, what make us capable to accept and tolerate when God is dealing with our lives. We cannot have vengeance with others because it is God who is dealing with us. Then we should manage and try to be worthy of our calling. Patience is always having a uniform disposition and a spirit of patience when we are provoked. Let us stop trying to fix everything, let us live in meekness. Let us learn how to have all that the Scriptures say. This means forgiving the errors of others and learning how others are and the different temperaments of each one. We should be solicitous in keeping the unity in perfect bond of peace. Ephesians 4: 3 When we don't live in peace we don't keep unity. Unity doesn't belong to men but to the Spirit. We should maintain peace in all that surrounds us. We belong to the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in us, and He wants us to live in unity. Peace is the bond, the union of a member with the body. In spite of our wide natural differences we must be capable to destroy evilness. Not having unity due to our own greediness can destroy and ruin a Church. We are one body, one Spirit, one hope, one baptism, and one faith, one Lord, one God and one Father of all. Ephesians 4:5 We all are one body. Jesus is the everything that forms the body. In us there is the same hope, and the same Holy Spirit. It is not what we eat or what we dress, or the external things that harm, but breaking the unity that will also break the faith. If we maintain our unity God begins to move and prophets will raise, pastors, teachers, etc. Ephesians 4:11 Because no one can maintain a gift of God without love. If there is no love the Church will begin to lack what it should have in abundance. For this reason we must fight with all our strength for love and unity. In order to arrive where we should we must maintain the unity. Here we can not work as we desire, but rather we must work in the same way and for the same purpose. We are working in Gods business. To be able to say that we are teachers or pastors it is necessary to love and to have unity. When God sees that our love is stronger than any struggle, he sees our peace and sees our desire to serve, and then he will give us more gifts and qualifies us. We need to understand that we are one, and that there is much to struggle for and that we must continue to grow. Let us stop living for ourselves. Let us seek for a useful growth of the Body. We are a body and we need each other. Let us be worthy of Gods calling, let us always maintain unity, and the only way it can be done is by loving. Colossians 2:2 Our unity is with the body to comfort each other in times of need. And the only way that we can comfort others is by maintaining unity in the body. To know everything about God and His great mysteries, can only be accomplished by being united in love. The more we love, the more God will show us His great mysteries. Let us maintain the unity so that false things won’t enter and get us confused. By staying in unity and loving each other we will be leaded through the right path, and we will conquer. Amen.