The Apostle Paul urges us, in Ephesians 4:1-6, to “…Get out there and walk–better yet, run!–on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.” [Ephesians 4:1-2 Message]

There’s a common thread running through Paul’s writings to the church at Ephesus and that is oneness. He adds: “And mark that you do this with humility and discipline–not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.” [vs. 3]

Staying together, guarding oneness in our hearts as well as in our actions, is his urgency. [vs. 4] That takes humility and discipline; because we all, like sheep, are prone to wander, every one to his own way.

Our Lord’s purpose is to join us as one. There is nothing disjointed about Him. Thus, there is no cause for the Body of Christ to be disjointed, divided, at odds, splintered into factions, nor unforgiving. In Him, we live and move and have our being — in oneness — joined as one Body to the Head, Jesus Christ.

Detours may be momentary. Wrong paths may be chosen. Yet, while traveling those ‘off’ roads, we are subject to confusion, despair, loneliness, and are open to dark influences.

Paul exhorts the church at Ephesus, while he is physically unable to do so. “While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there … on the road God called you to travel.” [vs. 1]

Even at that time, Paul knew the time was short, and souls needed to be won and discipled for Christ. Even more so, now.