Ephesians 4:2b-6
Growing in Unity
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
Eph. 4:2b-3 (Holman) . . .gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us.
"Gentleness" aids unity. The world admires aggression, the will to assault, but we believers should not lash out at others, because God is calming our anger.
Straightforward confrontation and dialogue is desirable, but never demolish anyone. Do not lose control and smash a person. Keep yourself under God's control.
"Patience" in this context deals with the absence of revenge in the presence of wrong. Believers must not retaliate if hurt by others. We commit our cause to God.
We must be "accepting one another in love." We will alas have ample opportunities to show patience in a church. Believers are not angels, and won't be perfect in this world. We will all at times be mistreated and spoken harshly to. Believers can be unjust, unfair, inconsiderate, hypocritical, and wrong, but we accept one another.
"Diligently keeping" denotes exertion, sparing no effort. Never say the Christian life is easy to live. Living it in general, and loving one another in particular, is hard work. Satan knows how important unity is within a church. Let's not be guilty of underestimating its importance. Satan never stops trying hard to destroy our unity. He always sows seeds of discord among believers. Let's not let him outwork us.
"The peace that binds us" defines the sphere in which our unity is nurtured. It becomes the outward guard, the protecting shell, of the inner unity which spawns it.
Outward peace holds God's people together. When peace is maintained, inner passions and angry thoughts are more likely to be held in check, thus allowing them to be resolved privately in prayer. If peace is broken, deeds and words inflame inner feelings and throw gasoline on inward sparks, thereby inviting all havoc to ignite.
Eph. 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling--
In what way are Christians in unity? The answer is seven-fold. In verses 4-6, Paul repeated the word "one" 7 times. The 7 "ones" are clustered into three groups, centering in God the Holy Spirit (4:4), God the Son (4:5), and God the Father (4:6).
Unity in the church reflects and reveals the blessed Trinity. The church is to picture for the world our triune God. This is why unity among believers is of utmost importance. The best chance unbelievers have to see the Trinity is in a united church.
"Body" is Paul's favorite way of describing the church. This is understandable. It clearly pictures a unity which funnels energies into cooperative effort. Unity is essential to coordinated action. Division paralyses. By the new birth, believers are joined to their Head, Jesus, and thus become interactive members one with another.
We are made for one another, and cannot thrive without each other. To teach us this at the first of our Christian walk, God made it impossible for a person to be saved without someone previously in the body doing something to make it happen.
All who become believers do so by means of another believer. This forces us to see from the first that we belong to each other. We were not meant to be loners.
"One Spirit" means a church can never be viewed mainly as an organization. The Holy Spirit's presence among us constitutes life, as in an organism. The Spirit indwells every believer and thus creates vital union between us. He is the unifying force in "the body." Even as every human life is traced to Adam, all believers can trace their spiritual life to the Spirit who worked through ones already in the body.
He indwells, animates, and means to rule the "one body." His voice should be obeyed in all church decisions. The members must enact the Spirit's will, not theirs.
"One hope at your calling" reminds we will someday enjoy eternal Christlike perfection. Believers differ in much, but in this we agree--we yearn for the homeland, for a life free from sin, the great divider. I look forward to the day when I will never hurt Jesus again. We will someday be like Jesus. With this as our common hope, let's walk in such a united, joyful way that we attract others to travel the journey with us.
Eph. 4:5 . . .one Lord, one faith, one baptism,. . .
The earliest basic Christian confession was, "Jesus is Lord." Without Christ, there is no Christianity. Christ is Christianity, Christianity is Christ. Christianity is not first a body of teachings or philosophy. It is the Lord and our relationship to Him.
We are servants of one Master, who bought us with His blood. We do not belong to ourselves. Jesus owns us. He is the Savior through whom we are saved, and also the Lord to whom we submit. All believers pledge allegiance, "Jesus is Lord."
When Paul and other early Jewish believers called Jesus "Lord," they knew what implication would be drawn from their claim. Lord was a title the Jews reserved for YHWH Himself. For fear of mentioning God's holy name, the Jews substituted for it the word "Lord" over 5000 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
For a Jew to call Jesus "Lord" was to call Him God. Jesus is God incarnate. There never had been anyone else like Him, and there never will be. He stands alone.
We respond to "one Lord" with "one faith." Believers share this: we have all completely surrendered our lives to Jesus, thereby expressing our own weakness and total trust in His strength. Paul says nothing here about deeds of merit. Faith, the outgoing of one's whole self toward Christ, is the only means of contact with Jesus.
"One baptism" is the initial outward sign of "one faith" placed in "one Lord." The order in our text matters. Baptism follows faith. Soldiers are inducted into the army after they choose to join. Their public oath is based on a previously made decision. Similarly, baptism does not save. It publicly discloses a prior, private faith.
The early church knew nothing of unbaptized believers. Secret discipleship was disallowed. When baptized, we unashamedly declare we are Christ-followers.
Allegiance was important in Jesus' baptism. In submitting to John's baptism, Jesus identified with a preacher scorned by the religious establishment of His day.
Baptists immerse in water because the Greek word "baptizo" means immerse. We do not baptize infants. We immerse only believers who on their own previously chose to trust in Jesus. The act is an outward expression of inner allegiance to Christ.
Eph. 4:6 . . .one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
The Church is one because its life and leadership can be traced to One who is paramount. Our text refers to God's spiritual government over His own people. The phrase intermingles majesty and affection. It begins with splendor ("God"), softens into tenderness ("Father"), and then hastens to absolute authority ("above all").
Here is the remedy of all worry--our "one God" who is "Father" is also "above all." Often, the one who controls does not care, or the one who cares does not control.
However, in the leadership of the Church, grandeur is tempered with paternity and crowned with power. God who loves us most and wants to help us is fully able to carry out His desires in our behalf.
"Through all" suggests movement. God is working through us, guiding our footsteps, directing our circumstances, sustaining our hearts, and upholding our lives.
God operates through us all. His providence is active. He is not a remote, disinterested deity, nor an isolated recluse in outer space. He is active in our affairs.
"In all" is the most amazing thing of all. God who is transcendent, is also immanent. He does not come and go to accomplish His goals in our lives. He abides, indwells us. He works through us; His base of operations, His home, remains in us.
This is not pantheism. God remains a distinct Personality, not a principle or a force. He is a Person who resides in us. No longer do we need to visit a distant shrine to find God. Each Christian is a temple. In ancient days, we journeyed huge distances to be near God. Christ reversed this process. God travelled far to be with and in us.
Based on verse 6, my former Sunday School teacher, Chad Colley, gave some excellent advice, "Since our God is Father of all, above all, through all, and in us all, let Him be all." Rest in God. Love, serve, and trust God. Let Him be our all in all.
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