Being before doing

Ephesians 4:2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Recently I read this verse when I should have been listening to something else that was happening at the time. Maybe it’s ADD, maybe it isn’t. I just know that when I heard the verse before this one being read, I couldn’t stop reading after the person reading verse one did. Boy, am I glad I kept reading. Let me tell you what I learned.

There’s no doubt that one of the things we’re really good at in Christianity is doing. We do all kinds of stuff, and we do it really well. We do multiple church services each week. We do daily devotions. We do prayer meetings, small group meetings, committee and board meetings. We even do dishes after the meals at the meetings. We do so much, that it’s no wonder many Christians seem tired and stressed. And that’s why what I read was so powerful.

The verse just before ours mentions that we should "live a life worthy of the calling" we’ve received. Now, I’ve read, heard, and taught that verse many times, and every time I always understood it the same way: if you’re going to live the life, there are certain things you will need to do. Living, it seems, involves a lot of doing (a lot more than we mentioned earlier, too!). But Paul doesn’t seem to teach it that way.

I can imagine the Ephesians reading that first verse and wondering how they were supposed to live worthy of the calling. Paul answers it in our verse. "If you want to live a life worthy of your call," Paul answers, "Be before you do." Be before you do. So simple, and yet so easily missed. So many of us have spent years trying to do what we never were first. We’ve tried to do patience before we were ever patient. We’ve tried to do discipleship before we were ever disciples. Doing before being only frustrates. But being before doing frees. When you are patient, you can’t help but be patient, and even when you aren’t, you know that losing your patience is the exception, not the rule. There’s a lot of peace and life in that.

Instead of trying to do Christianity, we need to be Christians. When we are, the freedom and grace and peace that comes from knowing who we are and whose we are will be what attracts others to us.

Tired of the "do’s?"

Be glad I kept reading, and be at peace.

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