Walk In Unity
EPHESIANS 4:4-6
“DIVISION AMONG CHRISTIANS BRINGS SHAME AND DISREPUTE TO THE CHURCH, to Christ, and to His gospel – to say nothing of individual Christians. Christian unity, on the other hand, brings glory to Jesus Christ and demonstrates the reality of God’s grace, love, and forgiveness. In other words, our oneness is our witness!” – Steadman/TAR…
TO “WALK WORTHY” IS TO “WALK IN UNITY.” This blog could have been titled simply “Oneness.” “Unity is oneness. Not sameness, but a special oneness centered on a few core essentials, which we will study this morning: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God the Father.” – Steadman…
AS WE STUDIED LAST WEEK, “WALK” IS THE GREEK WORD περιπατέω (pe-ri-pa-tay-o). We get our English word peripatetic from this word. Peripatetic means traveling, usually by walking, moving from place to place by foot…
“WALK” IN THE NEW TESTAMENT MEANS BEHAVIOR, LIFESTYLE, daily conduct, how we habitually live day-to-day. “’Walk’ is the theme of the last three chapters of Ephesians. In the first sixteen verses of chapter 4, Paul emphasizes unity and in the rest of the chapter the emphasis is on the uniqueness of the Christian walk.” – MacArthur…
THE FIRST 6 VERSES OF CHAPTER FOUR COMPRISE ONE LONG SENTENCE. There are no less than eight lengthy sentences in the epistle to the Ephesians. You may remember that vv. 3-14 in chapter 1 comprise the longest sentence in all of Scripture…
THESE FIRST 6 VERSES OF CHAPTER 4 SPEAK ABOUT living up to the high calling by which we have been called by God. This high calling, you’ll remember, we have spent months studying in the first 3 chapters of this great book of Ephesians…
“IN THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS OF EPHESIANS, Paul unfolded the great doctrines of the Christian faith. He answered the question: What has God done for us through Christ, His Son? God’s gracious and powerful actions for sinners include the facts that He has chosen, predestined, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, sealed with the Spirit, made alive with Christ, seated with Christ in the heavens, reconciled, created access to Himself, made believers His dwelling and brought them into His new body, which is God’s church of believing Jews and Gentiles equally accepted in Christ. However, the letter does not end there, after three chapters. In chapter four, Paul turns from doctrine to duty, from explanation to exhortation, from what God has done to what we need to do. Because God has worked so graciously and powerfully on our behalf, we have obligations to fulfill and requirements to live up to as the people of God.” – Garner…
IN CHAPTERS 4-6, PAUL CLEARLY LAYS OUT WHAT GOD EXPECTS US TO DO. The Mission Statement of the Church is found in these next 3 chapters we will be studying in the weeks ahead, unless the Lord comes for us before…
NAS Ephesians 4:1-6 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
IF YOU ARE TRULY A CHRISTIAN, YOU CANNOT READ THESE VERSES AND NOT be moved with an overwhelming sense of your responsibility as a child of God. Nor can you help but be impressed with the importance of unity in the Church…
“THE CHURCH’S UNITY IS ASSERTED IN VV. 4-6 THROUGH A SERIES OF SEVEN acclamations of oneness. These seven acclamations fall into two groups of three, plus a concluding acclamation of the one God with its own fourfold repetition of the word ‘all,’” – Lincoln…
IN THIS PASSAGE, PAUL IS EXPLAINING IN FURTHER DETAIL THE UNITY of the Church…
IN GREAT PART, “WALK WORTHY” MEANS “WALK IN UNITY.” “Because of the new position in Christ, both individually and corporately, unity should exist among the believers in Christ. Paul, therefore, exhorts his readers – and by extension us – to walk in a way that maintains this unity.” – Hoehner/TAR…
“AS WE SAW IN OUR STUDY OF VV. 1-3, we in the church – both individuals and collectively as a body of believers – must recognize that, like Paul, we are prisoners of Jesus Christ. We do not have the right to chart our own course. Our goal has already been set. Our purpose has been determined by our Lord. That is what Paul has told us in the first three verses of Ephesians 4.” – Steadman…
THE GREEK WORD “DILIGENT” (σπουδάζω [spou-dahd-zo]), you may remember from last week, means to be eager to do your best. Look again at v. 3…
NAS Ephesians 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
WE ARE TO BE EAGER TO DO OUR VERY BEST IN PRESERVING THIS UNITY… We are told to create this unity but to preserve it. As Christians, baptized into one Spirit at salvation, we already have this unity…
WITH THIS IN MIND, LET’S LOOK CLOSELY AT OUR PASSAGE… First, v. 4…
NAS Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
“THERE IS A JEWISH BACKGROUND TO FORMULATIONS ABOUT ONENESS in general and formulations about the oneness of God in particular.” – Lincoln…
THE PREMIERE VERSE IN ALL THE O.T. FOR THE RELIGIOUS JEW EMPHASIZES this oneness…
NAS Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
IN MY STUDIES THIS WEEK I FOUND THAT scholars make a point of focusing on the interesting parallels that exist in ancient writings which derive the unity of the Jewish people themselves from the oneness of God. Philo, the Jewish historian of the first century, wrote that “the highest and greatest source of this unanimity is the Jews’ creed of a single God, through which, as from a fountain, they feel love for each other, uniting them in an indissoluble bond.” – Lincoln…
“WITHOUT A CONJUNCTION, PAUL LISTED THE SEVEN ELEMENTS OF UNITY centered on the three Persons of the Trinity (a conjunction is a word that connects phrases and clauses, e.g., and, but, therefore – TAR). These provide the basis for the spirit of unity that should exist in the body of believers. One body refers to the universal church, all believers (1:23; 2:16; 3:6). One Spirit is the Holy Spirit who indwells the church (2:22). The words, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, indicate that all believers have a common hope regarding their future with God (cf. 1 Peter 1:3; 3:15), a confidence that began at the time they were ‘called’ to salvation (Eph. 1:4, 18; 2:7; 4:1).” – Hoehner (B. K. C.)…
“CHRISTIANS MUST MAINTAIN THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT BECAUSE everything they hold of any significance they hold with other people.” – Snodgrass…
THINK ABOUT THIS ONENESS OR UNITY IN THIS WAY: In order to become a Christian you must believe the Gospel as detailed in God’s Word, probably most consistently detailed in the book of John. The word “Gospel” (εὐαγγέλιον [eu-ang-gel-i-on]) simply means good news. Pastor Matt has recently lead the church in a neighborhood outreach. That is announcing the good news about our church to people around us. In the Bible, of course, the good news is about Jesus Christ. Every person who becomes a Christian in the Church Age has believed The Gospel about Jesus Christ, that He died for our sins, was buried, was raised, and was seen after His Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)…
WHEN WE BELIEVE THE GOSPEL, WE ENTER INTO UNITY, into oneness with God and with one another in the Church. “Christianity is a shared faith. No separate or merely individual faith exists, nor is there a different salvation.” – Snodgrass…
IF YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN, YOU ARE PART OF THE UNITY, THE ONENESS OF the faith. We are not commanded to create this unity; we are told to preserve this unity…
NAS Ephesians 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
VERSES 4 AND 5 UNDERSCORE THIS UNITY…
NAS Ephesians 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
“IN THE GREEK THERE IS A STRIKING CHANGE FROM THE MASCULINE to the feminine to the neuter of the numeral one, which gives the whole triad a ringing quality.” – Lincoln…
“ONE LORD,” OF COURSE, REFERS TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST…
NAS Romans 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him;
THIS ONE LORD IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. Back in chapter 2 and v. 21 Paul emphasized the fact that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church…
NAS Ephesians 2:21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;
“WHILE THE WORLD MAY KNOW NUMEROUS ‘LORDS’ (1 Cor 8:5-6), Christians know only one. This central fact assures us that the one Lord is not going to give contradictory commands to His followers.” – Snodgrass…
NAS Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”
THAT FACT WAS THE CENTRAL REASON THAT EARLY CHRISTIANS could not say, “Caesar is Lord,” as was required by all in the Roman Empire, and which the persecutors of the first century church tried to get them to do, threatening them with torture and death…
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS THE EMPHATIC SUPPORT FOR THE TRINITY in this passage. God the Father is specifically spoken of; God the Son is distinctly spoken of; and God the Holy Spirit is particularly spoken of. If you do not believe in the Trinity as a biblical truth, how do you handle this passage?…
“ONE FAITH” MAY BE SEEN OBJECTIVELY OR SUBJECTIVELY; scholars argue both possibilities. Objectively, the reference would be to the body of truth God has revealed in His Word. Jude spoke of this objective faith in Jude, v. 3…
NAS Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
SUBJECTIVELY, Paul could be referring to the faith that is exercised but all Christians when they are saved… Paul referred to this subjective faith in chapter 2, v 8…
NAS Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
YOU COULD ARGUE FOR EITHER INTERPRETATION. I might argue for both…
“ONE BAPTISM” IS ALSO DEBATED. “One baptism may refer to water baptism, the outward symbol of the inward reality, or it may refer to a believer’s identification with Christ and His death (Rom. 6:1-11; Gal. 3:27). It seems unlikely that this refers to the latter, Spirit baptism because it is in the triad of elements that pertain to Christ, the second Person of the Trinity. Also, nothing in the broader context (Eph. 4:1-16) suggests that this is the Spirit’s baptism. If it refers to water baptism, then the idea is that by this single act believers demonstrate their spiritual unity. – Hoehner (B.K.C.)…
BUT ANOTHER COMMENTATOR SAYS, “PAUL’S MAIN EMPHASIS HERE IS that the only baptism that exists is baptism into Christ (or into His body) by the Spirit. If people have the same Lord, believe the same gospel, and have experienced the same reality of being baptized into Christ, should they not live out this unity? – Snodgrass…
EITHER WAY ONE TAKES THIS REFERENCE, EACH UNDERSCORES UNITY, both may be seen to emphasize oneness with Christ and with one another in the body of Christ…
WHEN I WAS IN SEMINARY, FOR MY FIRST SERIOUS PAPER, I WROTE ON Ephesians 4:1-6. Years ago I recognized the central importance of Ephesians as well as the central importance of this passage. I got out that paper this week and reread it. In it, I wrote about the debates that exist regarding faith and baptism. Here’s what I wrote: “…I would respectfully take an opposite view to those who see faith here as the subjective response to God and who judge baptism to be anything other than the Spiritual baptism, which inducts all believers, both Jew and Gentile, into the body of Christ. I think that when verses 4-6 are carefully read within the general context of Paul’s writing thus far in Ephesians, one sees that the perspective is entirely heavenly.”
I THINK IF ONE VIEWS FAITH AND BAPTISM SUBJECTIVELY, then one is implying that the unity Paul is striving to emphasize is dependent on the individual believer. Whereas if one sees faith and baptism as the objective realities of Christianity, then the impetus falls on believers to “preserve” this unity…
“AN EVEN GREATER BASIS FOR UNITY EXISTS IN GOD, THE ‘FATHER OF ALL.’” – Snodgrass…
NAS Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
“THAT COMPREHENSIVE STATEMENT POINTS TO THE GLORIOUS, divine, eternal unity that the Father gives all believers by His Spirit and through His Son. We are God created, God loved, God saved, God Fathered, God controlled, God sustained, God filled, and God blessed. We are one people under one sovereign – over all, omnipotent – through all, and omnipresent – in all, God.” – MacArthur…
“’ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL who is over all and through all and in all’ refers to God the Father and His relationship to all believers. The fourfold use of ‘all’ refers to ‘all believers,’ not ‘all mankind.’ Certainly these characteristics are not common to all people. God is the Father ‘of’ all who believe; they are His children (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26). And He is ‘over’ all them as their Sovereign. He lives ‘through’ them and manifests Himself ‘in’ them.” – Hoehner (B.K.C.)…
“SURELY THE JEWISH SHEMA – THE O.T. CONFESSION THAT YAHWEH IS ONE – lies behind this verse (and this passage – TAR).” – Snodgrass…
NAS Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
“THE LORD IS ONE.” We are one with Christ. We are one together in the body of Christ, the Church. We are to live in such a way as to preserve this unity. Our word for today from Ephesians…
“WALK IN UNITY”…
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
