Living in Unity and Maturity: A Reflection on Ephesians 4
Encouragement from Ephesians 4 to live in humility, gentleness, and patience, preserving unity with love and growing into maturity in Christ. Emphasis on the oneness we share as a body of believers, equipped for service and building each other up, speaking truth in love, and growing in Christ together.
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Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all. 6, 11- -16 16 Ephesians 4:1- -6, 11 Ephesians 4:1
6, 11- -16 16 He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. His purpose was to equip God s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God s Son. God s goal is for us to become mature adults to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:1- -6, 11 Ephesians 4:1
As a result, we arent supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let s grow in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part. 6, 11- -16 16 Ephesians 4:1- -6, 11 Ephesians 4:1
OPENING PRAYER God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might led us into the light: keep us forever on Thy path we pray. God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come: we gather in Your Name thankful for Your abiding presence. You ve breathed Your dignity into our very essence and we move in response to Your voice. Thank You for being our Great Hope among the adversities, joys, and stony paths of life.
OPENING PRAYER Thank You for claiming each one of us and for giving us great purpose and identity in You. In this time together, incline our hearts to Your testimonies, give us a teachable heart and the ability to do all that You ask of us. Establish Your word and confirm Your promises in this moment. Speak the truths that You would have us echo. Bless us in this time together and enable us to wholly focus on and be strengthened by all that is You. In Jesus Name, we pray and ask it all. Amen.
WHO ARE WE AFFIRMATION In the gift of this moment, we affirm We are the children of God children of God. Together Together, we will learn learn from the actions and words of one another. Christ Christ s lessons on love are centered centered in how we treat others and in how we treat ourselves. We will exercise courage courage in this study as we share stories of struggle We will stay at the table stay at the table and receive those stories with grace. We will not be afraid to launch into the deep launch into the deep. We will commit commit to the vulnerability necessary to allow God We will set and respect respect boundaries and honor honor confidentiality together. When uncertainty arises, we will remember the Spirit of peace intercede for us. We will remember remember that even when we don t feel United, the uniting love of Christ uniting love of Christ can reveal a pathway to greater wisdom wisdom and mutual respect. No matter what, there is a place for each one there is a place for each one of us in this study together. Let us hold each other up hold each other up in prayer, hold each other accountable trust trust that our God is making all things new. all things new. Thank you for the gift of Thank you for the gift of being present being present to one another in this holy time. to one another in this holy time. we affirm that we are divinely loved and lovable. struggle and strength strength. to allow God to break us open. Spirit of peace that passes our own understanding and can accountable in love, and
LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING Lift every voice and sing Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; God of our silent tears, Till earth and heaven ring, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Yet with a steady beat, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Have not our weary feet Thou who hast by Thy might Let our rejoicing rise Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? Led us into the light, High as the listening skies, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Out from the gloomy past, Shadowed beneath Thy hand, Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Till now we stand at last May we forever stand. Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. Let us march on till victory is won. True to our God, Stony the road we trod, True to our native land. God of our weary years, Bitter the chastening rod,
BISHOP FORREST STITH AND REV. SARAH SCHLIECKERT
2.How do we as Methodists come to grips with the fact that the creation of the Central Jurisdiction represented institutionalized racism within our denomination? In what ways is that racism still shaping United Methodism today?
3.What must we learn from the sin of creating a hierarchy of human worth?
