Ephesians 4:1-6: "I therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness,
with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is
one body, and One Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of
all, Who is above all, and through all, and in you
all."
One -- a single unit; a singular person or thing, as
contrasted with someone or something else which is different.
This is a basic definition of the word "one." In
the passage of Scripture quoted above, our attention is drawn to
the fact that this is Paul's definition of
"one." Since Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit
in what he wrote, then this is also GOD'S definition of
"one." Let's examine these six verses from
Paul's pen, and see what he meant by the things which he
wrote here.
Notice, first of all, that Paul was beseeching or even
begging those in the Ephesian church to walk "worthy of the
vocation wherewith" they were called. He was speaking
to them about their OCCUPATION as Christians, their VOCATION, and
that there is a certain way in which Christians must perform their
Christian work. He gave several examples of how this walk may
be done in a worthy manner. First, he told them (and through
them, he told US) to walk with all LOWLINESS AND MEEKNESS.
This lowliness and meekness is defined as having a meek attitude
coupled with a proper opinion of ourselves in the grand scheme of
things--not thinking more highly of ourselves than we should
[see Romans 12:3]. Joined together with this
proper attitude toward how we should walk, Paul then tells us that
we should be patient with each other; that we should put up (or
forbear) with each other, and that we should do this with
love. This is agape love--a love which is
self-sacrificing in nature. The complete thought which Paul
is teaching is that in order for us to walk worthy of the Christian
calling, we MUST have a meek and humble attitude in regard to
ourselves, and that we should be patient and forgiving toward each
other in true Christian love for the church and our brothers and
sisters in Christ.
Paul goes beyond this teaching by tying these qualities and
actions of the true Christian to what he calls the "unity of
the Spirit." What is this UNITY OF THE SPIRIT?
Paul seems to be teaching what Jesus Himself asked in prayer to the
Father, that all of His followers might be joined together as one
(John 17:11-23). It is important to understand
that this unity does not come in some mysterious way through some
direct indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our minds, but [this unity]
comes to us through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, which is found
in the inspired Word of God. Let's look quickly at
something which Paul wrote a little later in this same chapter of
Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:11-15 [we are going to add
verse 16, which is included in our study, because it
is the RESULT of what you are studying here]: "And He
[Christ] gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we
henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But
speaking the Truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things,
which is the Head, even Christ: [and then verse
16] From Whom the whole body fitly joined together and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the
effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of
the body unto the edifying of itself in love."
The key to this section of Scripture is found in verse
13, where Paul talks about the unity of the faith.
This unity of the faith is the very same thing as the unity of the
Spirit which he referred to back in verse 3.
His definition of the unity of the faith includes the knowledge of
the Son of God. It also includes the idea of becoming perfect
or "full-grown" in the faith, and if we look a little
further in verse 14, it means that to be UNIFIED IN
THE FAITH, we must not be so lacking in knowledge of the Word of
God that we will be tossed about by every different kind of
doctrine which we might hear taught by those who wish to deceive
us. Paul's goal in verse 15 is to show us
that in order to be grown up in all things relating to the unity of
the faith, we must speak the Truth in love to each other. If
you go back and look in verses 11 and
12 of this chapter, you see how this should be
accomplished--through the work of the apostles (who gave us
the New Testament writings), through the work of prophets (those
who proclaimed the wisdom of God long ago), through the work of
evangelists, pastors and teachers, and that this work would achieve
the goal of the perfecting of the saints for every work which must
be done in the church, the body of Christ [verse 12,
and see verse 16].
The goal of every member of the church of Christ should be to
teach and act toward each other in such a way that the body of
Christ is edified, or built up, to the point that any doctrine
which is contrary to the revealed doctrine of Christ cannot ever
cause even one member of the body to be tossed to and fro.
When a member of the Lord's body begins to be TOSSED ABOUT BY
FALSE DOCTRINE, we can infer from these teachings of Paul that the
UNITY OF THE FAITH IS NOT BEING UPHELD. What does this say
about the meaning of this "unity of the faith" or this
"unity of the Spirit?" It says that this UNITY
CAN ONLY EXIST WHEN ONE DOCTRINE IS BEING FOLLOWED!
Many Christian scholars have different ideas about what Paul
was teaching in verses 4 through 6 of
this chapter. What one must keep in mind while studying these
things is that we cannot divorce these verses from the context of
the rest of what Paul was teaching later in this chapter. In
fact, we can't alienate these verses from the WHOLE CONTEXT
of the book of Ephesians. Notice that
throughout this letter which Paul wrote, he stressed the UNION OF
THOUGHT, DOCTRINE AND ACTION. Perhaps the best example of
this is found in Ephesians 5:17-19 ["Wherefore
be ye not unwise, but understanding what the Will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled
with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the
Lord..."]. Verse 17 tells us to not
be unwise, but to understand what the Will of God is. How can
we understand what God's Will for us is? BY BEING
FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. How can we be filled with the
Spirit? BY OUR TEACHING OF EACH OTHER through psalms, hymns
and spiritual songs, first of all, and then by LETTING THE WORD OF
CHRIST DWELL IN US RICHLY! (Colossians 3:16
["Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
Lord."].
Paul goes beyond these things by teaching in many other
verses in this letter the fact that our growing up into adulthood
in Christ also means regulating our actions. "Put off
your former manner of life" (Ephesians 4:22),
"have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness" (Ephesians 5:11), "Let
no man deceive you with vain words" (Ephesians
5:6), and so on. The point is this: we need to
remember Paul's UNION OF DOCTRINE, THOUGHT AND ACTION while
we study these things, realizing that THERE CAN BE NO UNITY IN
CHRIST'S CHURCH UNLESS THE ENTIRE BODY IS UNITED IN DOCTRINE,
OR TEACHING, THOUGHT AND DEED. It is no coincidence that the
first statement regarding this UNITY OF THE SPIRIT through that ONE
doctrine is "THERE IS ONE BODY" [Ephesians
4:4]. The New Testament teaches that the
"body" is the church, and that Jesus is the Head of
that body, the church (Colossians 1:18).
