I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live worthily of the calling with which you have been called,

Paul is in prison; hence, we can understand why he said he does not want the people to be discouraged because of his suffering for them.

He did not minimize what he was going through or try to sugarcoat it. He said he was suffering in Ephesians 3:13. He was being real, but he provided a comprehensive perspective so that the people had a vision bigger than his suffering.

But he knows his explanation may still fall short, so he turned to prayer - that God would strengthen them with power in the inner person.

After that prayer, we have now come to this verse. As a prisoner, he cannot be with them, but the Lord is with them, and his motivation for right behavior is to ensure that their lives match their calling in the Lord.

There are different ways people try to motivate others to change. People can be promised many things in the name of God to motivate them to act rightly.

In my opinion, such people are putting the cart before the horse. Paul is not saying to do right so that God will do the right thing for you.

He is saying: live according to who you are. He starts with nature, rather than nurture. He starts with identity instead of expression. The nature and identity are settled, and we work from there. That is why “continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence” (Philippians 2:12) makes sense. You cannot say train your leg if there is no leg to train. You say exercise your muscles because there are muscles to exercise. Therefore, nature and identity are first. You become new first before you can live a new life.

This verse begins a series of instructions. This one can be regarded as encompassing all others: live worthily of the calling with which we have been called.

It seems simple, but it is powerful. Rather than saying Try harder, and hopefully you can make it, he is saying You already have it; now live according to the grace you have (Titus 2:11–12).

He did not say to try to qualify for the call. Rather, you are already called. You already have the DNA; let your expression match it, rather than other kinds of expressions we want to mirror from elsewhere, for example, the world.

And he does not put the fear of punishment as a motivation for them to behave right; he said they are already made right, now they need to choose to do right.

He is laying down the divine expectation, telling them they should be who they are meant to be.

There is a noticeable change in tone at this point in the letter. After the unveiling of unchanging divine truth and prayer, this is about the practical life.

So what if I am not living worthily of the calling with which I have been called? I should then be on the path to repentance. Paul did not mention repentance in this book, but having been a Christian a while, you would begin to realize that we fall short in many of the things he mentioned.

And the way repentance, and the fact that you are yielding to the call to repentance, means you are a Christian, you are hearing the shepherd’s voice, turning, and going in his direction (John 10:3–4).

That journey does not end. But he already frontloaded the assurance of your salvation.

But some may see that as a license to sin. And people accused him of that exact thing, that he is saying your life does not matter since you are saved (see Romans 3:8; 6:1–2).

And Peter wrote that some of Paul’s writings are difficult to understand, and some who are ignorant have twisted them to their destruction (2 Peter 3:15–16).

If Paul had come with the list of dos and don'ts on the front end, then Christianity may not be different from all the other religions in the world that involve you climbing up to God through some rituals or actions on your part, but Christ climbed down to us, and as they say, the rest is history.

The others say work to earn admission, but Christ paid it all. Others cannot rejoice because they are not sure, but we are to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2).

The rejoicing is a response, not a gimmick. We rejoice as those who already have it, and we are told to live like those who do. That is the divine framing of things: Live in line with what you already are.

And there is the word worthily, which communicates a standard.

We may be quick to ascribe call/calling to ministry work, but in the sense Paul uses it here, he is focused on how we live, our life overall, the pattern that is supposed to emerge from us; not something we decided on our own, but following the Christ pattern.

But the question some may have is: if I already have everything and am guaranteed everything, why talk about a lifestyle?

That is the reasoning of the natural man. The spiritual person does not reason that way; they want to do what God wants. Since we are His children, we have His seed in us. And what Paul writes is showing us how that should be expressed.

It's a new way of thinking. We are not thinking about how much we can get away with, but we are agreeing with Paul's urging that we live worthily of the calling with which we have been called.