Ephesians 4 and verse 1 reads.
Eph.4:1] I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Some are called and some are chosen.
Eph.4:2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Be humble when serving God, and have patience for your fellow man.
Eph.4:3] Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Unified with one another in the Spirit of God.
Eph.4:4] There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
The church is the body of Christ, you are called into his service.
Eph.4:5] One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Don’t overlook this one baptism, if when you were baptized don’t be baptized again, it’s like crucifying Jesus twice. When you are old enough to know the reason for baptism, then get baptized once. It’s between you and the Lord, not with the church.
Eph.4:6] One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Let’s go to Ezekiel 18:4 and read.
Eze.18:4] Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
All souls belong to the Father. He created and He can destroy. Back to Eph.4 and verse 7 reads.
Eph.4:7] But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
But by the Grace of Jesus Christ, we have forgiveness of our sins.
Eph.4:8] Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Quoting parts of Psalms 68 so let’s go there and pick it up with verse 17 and read.
Psa.68:17] The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
[18] Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.
Blessed all, including the rebellious, so that he might dwell among them.
Psa.68:19] Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
Selah means stop, pause and meditate for it is going to connect what was said, to what is about to be said.
Psa.68:20] He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.
Meaning his plan for salvation through Jesus Christ was from the beginning. And that he will dwell among us. Back to Eph.4 and verse 9 reads.
Eph.4:9] (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
This is talking about when Jesus was still in the tomb he went and preach to those on the other side of the gulf. Luke 16. Let’s go to 1Peter and read 18-20.
1Pet.3:18] For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
[19] By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
[20] Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Those in prison, the other side of the gulf, all the way back to the days of Noah. You see they never had salvation in the flesh until they crucified our Lord. This is why he would go to them, and preached salvation. Think how many were saved. Back to Eph.4 and verse 10 reads.
Eph.4:10] He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
“Fulfill all things prophesied.”
Eph.4:11] And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
[12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Perfecting should have been translated mature. Edifying of the church, take the leaven out of the lump, take out the bad from the church. Keep out false teachers in the church.
Eph.4:13] Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Again, perfect is mature. Bringing each to the knowledge of his word.
Eph.4:14] That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Keep the false teachers out of the church.
Eph.4:15] But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
[16] From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
The people of the church make up the body, but Christ is the head of that body.
Eph.4:17] This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
[18] Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Once you come to Christ don’t listen to those that don’t believe. This is how false teachers with false doctrine lie, Satan loves the pulpit, check your teachers. It’s simple, do they teach all of the scriptures or do they pull one verse (out of context) and talk about themselves for forty minutes.
Eph.4:19] Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
They do it for the money.
Eph.4:20] But ye have not so learned Christ;
Study to show thyself approved. I don’t want you to be ashamed.
Eph.4:21] If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
[22] That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
[23] And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
[24] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Reading his Word will make you a new man. Righteousness is doing what’s right.
Eph.4:25] Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
[26] Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
[27] Neither give place to the devil.
If you and a loved one have an argument don’t wait for tomorrow, but take care of it today. The devil will enter into the argument and make everything worse.
Eph.4:28] Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Community service, let him give back to the poor, and it will lift his spirit.
Eph.4:29] Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Bad language can’t edify anything good.
Eph.4:30] And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Reading with knowledge his word becomes that seal in our foreheads. The seal being the Word of God for his Elect. Let’s go to Rev.7 and read verse 3.
Rev.7:3] Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Back to Eph.4 and verse 31 reads.
Eph.4:31] Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
[32] And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
To love one another is our commandment from God. Take time to read the 2nd Epistle of John chapter 1, a very important chapter that would help with today’s study. Let’s go to his throne.
Father, we thank you for your word and ask that you bless all that love you in Jesus’s precious name, Amen.
KJV along with The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of The Bible