City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

⁷ But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸ Therefore it says,

“When He ascended on high, He led captive the captives, And He gave gifts to people.”

⁹ (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) ¹¹ And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. ¹⁴ As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

Ephesians 4:1-14 (NASB)

Commentary

I live and work downtown and often walk to work. One day I was walking home from work, and I saw a vagrant I had seen many times before downtown asking for handouts. He was in his 30’s, perfectly healthy, and in his right mind. This time when he asked me for money, I didn’t preface it with, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any money,” which would have been a lie, and because I was in a hurry, I didn’t give an explanation. I just said, “no,” to which he responded, “I hope you rot in hell.”

Another time, I was walking through downtown Houston on a hot summer day wearing my white seersucker suit, pink tie, and grey bucks. I was looking pretty good. One of the homeless looked at me, did not ask me for any money, and said in all sincerity, “I like your style.” 

I have a complicated relationship with the homeless. I would say it’s a love-hate relationship, but it’s more like a I-like-your-style-hope-you-rot-in-hell relationship. But I digress.

In the scripture above, the Apostle Paul is describing the goal of sanctification as being mature in Christ (v. 13). The opposite of being mature is being a baby. Being a baby in Christ means you have to rely on other people to feed you spiritually. That is okay for a time; it is where every born-again Christian begins. Maybe we rely on the one who led us to the Lord, or maybe our pastor, to feed us from the Bible, while we learn to follow Jesus. 

But at some point, we must learn to feed ourselves spiritually by consistently spending time alone with Jesus in prayer and in the Bible: those who do will continue to grow toward maturity and those who don’t will end up relying on Sunday sermons, small groups, or podcasts for spiritual nourishment.  They become spiritual vagrants. They have learned enough to know how to feed themselves but choose to live off the spiritual handouts from others instead.

Application

Spiritual vagrancy is avoided by spending time daily with the Lord in prayer and in the Bible, where we are fed directly by the Bread of Life. Not only are we then able to feed ourselves, but we become sufficiently nourished spiritually to have an overflow to feed others, which is the mark of spiritual maturity.

Prayer

Lord, feed me spiritually, so I may help feed others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.