The Heavenly Calling: What Is It to Be Worthy of It?

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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The Epistle to the Ephesians, after blessedly unfolding the mystery of the church, continues: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph. 4:11I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (Ephesians 4:1)). Law made standing to depend on walk. Grace makes walk to depend on standing. It sets us in heavenly places in Christ, and then urges a walk worthy of the position. This is God’s present way, and it is as remote from legalism on the one hand as it is from antinomianism (a wrong doctrine, teaching that Christians are freed from obedience to any moral law, having supposedly been set free by grace, as presented in the gospel) on the other. The walk of the individual Christian then must be suited to his calling in Christ. As a member of His body, he must behave consistently. If the body is not of the world, he is not of the world; if the body is heavenly, he is heavenly. As the whole body should manifest its true character, so should each member. Now the church is separate from the world, united with Christ in heaven, and indwelt by the Spirit. If then the believer is to walk worthy of his vocation, such is the character which he is to exhibit in the world.
Severed From the World
Looking at the matter from this point of view, what is the walk which would befit a Christian? Having a heavenly calling, how could he mix himself with the pleasures, the politics, the vanities, and the ambitions of the world? Worldly pleasures would be avoided, not because natural conscience condemned them, but as inconsistent with the believer’s vocation. Are such scenes, he would ask, suited for one who is associated with Christ in death and resurrection, who belongs to heaven, and is awaiting the return of the Savior to take him there? How can I enjoy the pleasures and frivolities of a world from which I am severed by my heavenly calling—a world which hates my heavenly Head and contemns my heavenly hope, and which is rushing on to the fearful judgments that precede the day of the Lord? Would the honors, the applause, or the high places of such a doomed world attract his heart? Would he not say like Daniel as he saw the judgment of Babylon traced by God’s finger on the wall, “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation”? (Dan. 5:1717Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. (Daniel 5:17)).
What would Belshazzar and his lords have thought of Daniel’s interpretation if they had seen him clutching at power and a place in the city whose overthrow he had foretold? And what can the world think as it sees believers grasping at the empty distinctions of a scene on which the shadow of approaching judgment already rests? Surely it is for those who can read the handwriting to be solemnly warning the world instead of chasing its fleeting honors or seeking for its worthless applause.
T. B. Baines (adapted)