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Living in unity Ephesians 4:1-16
A. IntroductionThere are three groups addressed here by Paul. -The individual who would strive for unity (Verses 1 to 3 and 15 and 16) - The Godhead who is the model of unity (Verses 4 to 6) - The Church who would carry through the purpose of unity (Verses 7 to 12)
B. The Individual who would strive for unity (Verses 1 to 3 and 15 and 16) As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace…. Instead speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From Him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does work.
Paul the Prisoner urges us to live in unity Verse 1. As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ; Prisoner…Paul is fettered and bound for Christ and because of Christ. He has paid the highest price of commitment. He has earned the right to speak. ; Urge or begs. The word in Greek is as one who comes alongside and speaks. Paul does not speak as one who is a superior but as a colleague. ; Living worthy lives means not just lives of unity with others but also purity. (John Stott…Unity and purity are two fundamental features of a life worthy of the Church’s divine healing.) Living lives worthy of our calling is in the sense of doing it once and for all. There is no turning back to our old lives again.
Paul urges us to express the characteristics of the man of peace so that unity will be preserved. Verse 2 and 3…Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ; There are five characteristics of the individual who would strive for unity ; Completely humble. The word is used for lowliness as in a flat place, small stature and physically low as a river mouth. The word is also used with mind. Hence humble here means a lowly mind, that is a mind that will not consider others as below their intelligence. Jesus called himself lowly and meek. (Matthew 11:29) ; Gentle. The word here is sometimes translated as meekness. Gentleness is the mark of the man who would strive for unity. ; Patient. In front of the word in the original word is the word “Macro” meaning long, large or big. So the word here means long-suffering. A patient man is one who would wait long and would be willing to suffer for long periods. ; Bearing with one another in love…Has the sense of to put up with one another and agreeing for the sake of love. ; Eager to maintain the bond of peace. The word eager here is a present continuous tense, which means a continuing action until a purpose, is fulfilled. The man of God that preserves unity is eager and will continue to be eager until unity is achieved. The bond of peace has the root word of one who is bound like a prisoner. In other words peace has restraints in it which if broken would result in chaos and strife. Just as Paul was bound as a prisoner, he exhorts us to allow ourselves to be bound with the restraints of peace so that unity will be achieved. There are boundaries in terms of what one can do in order to maintain peace. Break these and strife ensues.
Paul urges us to be proactive in unity. In case someone would think that the individual should sit back and do nothing except to keep his peace in the context of a good character for unity and peace, he is wrong. Being united and keeping the peace is always proactive.
Instead speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From Him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does work.
Verse 15… Instead speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. ; We must speak the truth in love ; We can never attain to maturity and unity until we master the art of speaking the truth in love. ; Matthew 18:15 to 17 is an occasion where we should exercise this. There are clear guidelines. ; There is a clear sin in front of us ; We are exhorted to show him his faults on a one to one basis. This is speaking the truth in love on a one to one basis. ; We are exhorted to speak the truth in love in the presence of witnesses. ; We are exhorted to speak as a Church in the presence of a community. ; We must will for all to grow. ; Growth is aimed at achieving the perfect man. There is a sense that the perfect man is one who is complete and mature in Christ. ; It is done as plant in the soil which is Christ
C. The Model of unity. The Godhead. (Verses 4 to 6) The man of God strives for peace and a life worthy of his calling or vocation. He strives to maintain the unity, which God has called him. But what model of unity is there for him to follow? The answer is that God himself has given him a model. There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
There is one body because there is one Spirit ; The one body is the Church, the body of Christ. ; By one Spirit all are baptized into the Kingdom of Heaven, slave or free; Jew or gentile. ; By the common possession of the one Spirit we are integrated into the one body.
There is one hope belonging to the Christian’s calling, one faith and one baptism because there is one Lord. Just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord one faith, one baptism; ; The Lord Jesus is the one object of the faith, hope and baptism of all Christians. ; It is Jesus whom we have believed, Jesus the Christ in whom we are baptized in and Jesus Christ for whose coming we wait expectantly.
There is one family embracing us all. ...one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ; This one God is also thee Father of all of us ; The 'all' here refers to Christians and not everyone irrespective of religion. Only those who have been given the right to become children of God can claim him as father.
D. The Church where this unity will ultimately be worked out (Verses 7 to 14) But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heaviness, in order to fill the whole universe. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors (shepherds) and teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness (method) of men in their deceitful scheming.
How does the Church grow in grace and unity? Note that God perfects his imperfect servants in an imperfect Church on earth. The Church does it in three ways.
Through receiving the grace of Christ. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heaviness, in order to fill the whole universe. ; Christ has given us grace once and for all. The word gave in the original language is an action that was done once in the past and which will never be repeated again. Christ’s gift of grace is seen in the work on the grace. He died, resurrected and forgave our sins once and for all. Who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on the cross. (Philippians 2:6-8). For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich.(2 Corinthians 8:9) ; He made himself poor so that we might become rich. The resources are there for our asking. If only we would turn to him for all our resources.
Through the giftings of His people It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors (shepherds) and teachers. ; God has given us gifts with which we can serve the Church. ; Some were made to be apostles. In the NT there are three main meanings ; One who is being sent (John 13:16). Applied to every Christian who is all sent as servants. ; One who were sent out as missionaries (2 Cor. 8:23). These were messengers who were sent out for mission or for a purpose. ; One who was appointed by Christ to be his chosen twelve. ; Paul uses the word apostles here in the third sense.
; Some were made prophets ; A prophet in the biblical sense of the word was the spokesman or mouthpiece of God, a vehicle of his direct revelation. Paul uses this word here in this sense. Thus there are no more prophets now for if not we would have to add their words to scripture which we know is complete. Paul brackets Apostles and Prophets and is clear that these gifts were only given once and for all. (Ephesians 2:20 and 3:5)
; Some were made evangelists. ; The New Testament mentions the word evangelists three times. ; The gift of evangelism is a special gift. There is a need for evangelists today.
; Some Pastor and teachers ; Calvin thought that Pastors were given the administration of discipline, the sacraments, warning and exhortation. ; Teachers were those who were given the gift of rightly handling the word of God.
Through the preparations of His people for service ...to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness (method) of men in their deceitful scheming. ; The word in the original language “to prepare” is a medical term and was originally used for doctors who set a broken limb. Biblically it meant to make ready, to equip, to discipline, to train, to prepare a chamber or to prepare an overcoat for the comfort of guests. ; Thus preparation here meant that all the above gifts were for healing, equipping the Church, disciplining and getting ready for the work. ; The proper end was service. The word service here means works of a slave. Thus the work of his servants in the Church was the donkey work where any right thinking King who would lord it over his subjects to shun. ; Such preparation and service would end in unity. I remember a troubled Church where the matter was resolved when the leadership took the humble step of washing one another’s feet during Lent.
; A church properly equipped would attain to knowledge and maturity. |
