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of truth, we must remember that, within the dispensational section to which we belong,
our faith is one, our hope is one, our Lord is one.
The walk of the believer appears to be presented as having a threefold relationship in
the opening exhortation:
Worthy of calling.
TO WALK
With all lowliness, etc.
Endeavouring to keep the unity, etc.
Let us consider this order. Is it possible to reverse it without involving ourselves in
trouble and disappointment? Let us see. Suppose we attempt to keep the unity of the
Spirit without the necessary humility, forbearance and long suffering! The result will be
sectarian harshness, the puffing up of some few stronger minds and the crushing of the
weak. How shall the graces of humility, meekness, forbearance and long-suffering be
encouraged? We are driven to the inspired order; these qualities will thrive and grow as
we seek to walk worthy of our calling. As we realize the marvelous grace that has been
manifested to ourselves, so we shall in our turn be the better able to manifest that grace to
others. We assume that all our readers know that the word `vocation' of Eph. 4: 1 is
simply the word `calling'. The calling of believers during the Acts differed in many
essentials from that of the prison ministry of Paul. In one sense, at least, it would be the
same, and we may take to ourselves the words of I Cor. 1: 26-29:
"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the
world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are
despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that
are; THAT NO FLESH SHOULD GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE."
These words may well throw us back to Eph. 2: 11, 12 where we are urged to
remember:
"That ye were Gentiles, without Christ, aliens . . . . . strangers . . . . . having no hope,
and without God in the world."
To remember this will certainly make humility of mind, long-suffering, and
forbearance, far more possible than if it is forgotten. While a wholesome `remembrance'
has a gracious effect upon our walk, there is, from another aspect, an equally important
`forgetfulness':
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
according to a mark, I press toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
. . . . . let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing" (Phil. 3: 13-16).
So whether we look back to the pit from which we have been delivered, or look
onward to the glories that stretch out ahead, whether we `remember' in the one sense or