Weekly Pursuit – Week 2 of December
Verse:
Eph. 4:1-3 “I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love, being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.”
Excerpts:
Five phrases in Ephesians 4:1-3 give us the practical way to keep the oneness: lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, bearing one another in love, and the uniting bond of peace…. These five items are a test to us in the practice of the church life. By this test we can see whether or not we are practically in the church life.
We should never set up a high standard for others. To not set up a standard is the real practice of lowliness…. Whether or not someone is spiritual and whether or not he loves the Lord much, we must treat him as we do others. By the Lord’s mercy we should treat those who do not love the Lord even better than we treat those who do…. Many times it is simply our cold attitude that makes someone more of a backslider. He may not come back to the church simply because he cannot bear the cold faces. The weaker ones, the younger ones, and the backsliders need more love….. To love the weaker ones, the fleshly and soulish ones, and the ones with problems will solve most of their problems. Otherwise, we will set up a high standard out of pride and not lowliness.
In many local churches the problems come mostly from wrong, careless, cold, and harsh attitudes. To have a right attitude is not a small matter…. In order to have the church life, we need to learn that it is something very fine, not rough. According to the type, the church is a cake made of fine flour…. Almost all the misunderstandings come out of careless attitudes. Satan always utilizes careless attitudes to attack the church. This is why we must be careful with others, not for their sake only but even more because of the subtle one. The subtle one is here among us, so we need to be careful. We must not have carelessness in our attitude that can be taken advantage of and used for an attack by the enemy. (The Vision, Practice, and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, chap. 13)
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