Ephesians 4:1 (ESV) I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

It all began in the Garden, when God called out to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) While God knew where Adam was, He wanted to know if Adam knew and understood what had happened. Now, for the first-time, man was a sinner and the separation between God and man had come. God responded to man’s sin by covering them and protecting them. Now, through clothing and keeping them from the Tree of Life, God could start the process of redemption which would come through Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to Zacchaeus that His purpose was “to seek and save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10b) Jesus would express to the Pharisees, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13b) Scripture will also state, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” (Romans 3:10-11) Through Jesus Christ, God has come seeking us. In seeking us, He is calling to us just as He called out to Adam and Eve. “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9)

God calls us into a renewed relationship with Him, through the person of Jesus Christ, who would give His life to restore our relationship with God. The cost of this restoration was the death of Jesus. The offer was made available through the resurrection. Now God could cover our sin through the blood of Christ and offer to us the ability to again eat of the tree of life. “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” (Revelation 22:14)

In this new relationship, Jesus would tell us to “come follow Me.” Through this new relationship with God, we learn how to live in this relationship by learning from Jesus. This is a challenge because we are still here and struggle with our nature to sin and to rebel against God. Jesus does not leave us in this struggle but joins us so that we can learn how to live by learning from Him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

A yoke is used for a beast of burden to pull a wagon or trailer. The yokes were with single, double, or multiple animals to pull the burden. Here, Jesus speaks of a double yoke where He joins us as we face the burdens of life and our own struggle with sin. We are to learn from Him, the challenges of life are still difficult, but with Jesus they become light because of the power of the One with us.

Learning from Jesus is what we do as we respond to His call. Following Him as a disciple, one who learns from The Teacher, we must also submit ourselves as He summitted Himself to God, the Father. Now the call from Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) Our relationship is now lived out every day as we follow and learn from Jesus.

This is why the Apostle Paul tells us to live this calling in a manner worthy of that calling. We live it every day as Jesus lived every day, in obedience to the Father, because of His love for the Father and His love for us. We are to live this life following Jesus because of our love for God and for those who need a restored relationship with Him.

Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35) Now the yoke has joined followers of Jesus together. Then those around us can know that we are those who are called and now follow Jesus.

In the Love of Jesus,

Michael Block