From our text we will learn that a united church will be a practical and productive church. The unity we are commanded to maintain through the means of grace given by God, will lead to equipping, building, maturing of the saints for the work of ministry, working properly, making the church to grow and to be built up in love (4:1-16).
Satan, of course will try to ensure that
this does not happen, and for this we
must fight with the full armour of God.
(Eph. 6:10-20 )[1]
Context
Ephesians 1-3 contain the doctrinal foundations of this letter.
Chapters 4-6 follow by way of by practical application.
In Chapters 1-3 God says, “This is how I have made you a Christian”,
and in Chapters 4-6 He says, “This
how I expect you to live as a
Christian!”
There is a great lesson for us to be learned in Paul’s way of thinking and writing. He always lays down doctrinal foundations before he proceeds with practical application of that doctrine. We cannot be practical unless we know how to be practical.
Doctrine is to church life what the skeleton is to the human body. Doctrine is fundamental. All of life illustrates this. You cannot be a doctor/nurse, a mechanic, an electrician, a teacher without the relevant doctrine or training which undergirds each discipline. Pastors cannot be truly helpful in their preaching and counseling and pastoring without a solid knowledge of Scripture. This also applies to the matter of marriage. Many marriages fail because married people do not know nor understand the God-given laws or doctrines that undergird the practice of married life.
So too, being an effective Christian requires a practical understanding of the Bible, as it reforms and transforms our mind and our practice. (Rom 12:1,2)
This is what we want to do in the next few weeks. We want to do some practical thinking about the Christian life.
So then again, in Ephesians 1:1-2:10 Paul tells us how it is that people become Christians.
In Ephesians 2:11- 3:21 he shows that Christians are called to belong to the church. He shows us that in this church no racial, cultural, linguistic separations are envisaged. There is no Jew or Greek. God, through the church is showing the world that He does not have two people, but only one people. His church is built upon one foundation. This church has one apostolic and prophetic word and one cornerstone - one Lord, who the Head of the church, which is His body (2:20).
In Chapter 4 that becomes even clearer. The church is “one body, brought together by one Spirit- built upon one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and in all. Also note that the principle of the unity of the body of Christ is entrenched in and undergirded by the doctrine of the Trinity. In fact, the principle of unity is established by the Holy Spirit. It does not need to be created, but it needs to be maintained and kept (4:3) in the same way in which you don’t need to create air,but you need to breathe it.
And so, following the logic of the Bible, one of the most practical things for us to think about now is this matter of unity. I do not have to remind you that the church has suffered many divisions. Some of it was necessary because of the heresy that had crept into the church[2], destroying the very doctrinal foundations which the Holy Spirit laid down for us in the first three chapters. However, the rule is not to see where we can find disagreements. The rule is that we should find agreement in the teaching of biblical doctrine.
Since
chapter 4 introduces us to the application
of doctrine we need to ask
ourselves: How does this text help us practically
to have Christ’s mind on church
unity? And how can I be a part of making that a reality? Our text gives us four
important clues:
- The Grace of unity
(4:1-3)
- The Ground of unity
(4:4-6)
- The Gifts for
unity (4:7 -11)
- The Goal of
unity (4:12-16)
1.
THE GRACE OF UNITY
(4:1-3)
Here we learn firstly that unity is a gift from God, but it is also a duty to be maintained. The biblical axiom is this: You receive something that you must give away. Gift is the ROOT and the duty is the FRUIT.
- It is a grace gift from God i.e. it is a given thing. We do not have to make it or create it. It has been provided through the shed blood of Christ (2:13). It is applied to us by the Holy Spirit. Look at the text: “live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called“ (4:1). Your church membership into this one body begins with a calling you have received. This is the “effective call” by which Jesus calls you to come and follow, in the same way in which Jesus called His first disciples. They did not follow Jesus because they chose to follow Him. Thy followed because they were called with that special irresistible call. He gave them grace to follow. So Paul is saying to the Ephesian church, “You have received a calling…“. This is the root. You must be born again in order to be able to produce fruit in keeping with your repentance. Here follows the fruit…
- Maintain that grace gift! (Make every effort) “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace“(4:3). This is the fruit. We have to make every effort and work at maintaining that unity. How do we do that? The application of the fruit of the Spirit surely must be our starting place, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (4:1,2) (see also Galatians 5:22,23). The result of the root is fruit! Grace produces graciousness. Graciousness is a vital ingredient for unity.
2.
THE GROUND OF
UNITY (4:4-6)
“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.”
The key word “one” (implying
unity) is used 7 times in these
verses. The letter to the Ephesians is
in a sense all about this unity. God has made the members of the church one body. The grace that underlies
church unity is rooted in the work of
the Trinity, the Holy Spirit (4:4); the Lord Jesus (4:5) and God our Father (4:6). There can be only one effective body (church), one faith, one
hope, one baptism because she is built upon one God - Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Our Tri-une God is central to
the church’s existence.
The church proceeds from God. Her members are born of God. We must say this because it is possible for
churches to not work from this basis, but from the basis of mere human effort. There are many churches that are not
Christ-centered, God-centered and not Spirit directed. There are many churches
in which many members are not born again.
But if the church is genuine, and rooted in the Tri-une God , then we shall find these four manifestations (or grounds) of unity : one body, one hope, one faith, one baptism.
- One body: The purpose of the saving work of Christ is to bring people together into one body - the church- the ekklesia. The great picture given in Ephesians 2 is that God has assimilated for Himself one people from among all nations! Our God is in the business of uniting. Satan by contrast, persecutes, scatters and divides. Our old nature tends towards divisiveness. Our new nature is inclined towards unity. In the church we have a duty to learn and to practice unity. We need to learn to put off the old self and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God (see 4:22-24). We have received power to do so. Let the root of Christ planted in you bear fruit!
- One hope (that belongs to your call): What is the Christian’s hope? It surely is our longing for perfection and true unity in all things. It is the hope of heaven, and all its glorious promises of perfect peace and rest. In that process our hope is in the glorious return of our Lord Jesus, who will make all things right and subdue all things.
- One Faith: There is one settled body of truth given by Christ to His church, and this is the ‘faith’ once entrusted/delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). Our one faith is in Jesus ALONE. Only Jesus and His work can bring about true unity.
- One Baptism: The baptism that is spoken of here is firstly the ‘baptism of the Spirit‘ i.e. that vital experience by which you become a believer, and by which you are united to Christ the Lord. It is administered to us by the Holy Spirit, who causes us to be ‘born again’ (Jn. 3:1-8). From this follows the practice of water baptism - an outward testimony and a symbol of that which has taken place in us spiritually. The ‘church’ by definition is those who have been “baptized in the Spirit“ (born again) and then as a true confession of faith, also “baptized in water“.
3.
THE GIFTS FOR UNITY (4:7-11)
Here we learn that spiritual gifts are given by God to help us keep that unity.
- All believers are gifted (4:7a): “But grace was given to each of us …”. The ‘grace’ (Gr. charis) which is given to us from Christ through the outpoured Spirit at Pentecost is the grace which we must to give to each other in the body of Christ. Gifts are not given to play with; they are tools to build with[3]. And if they are not used in love, they become weapons to fight with, as had happened to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12-14). We are saved to serve our God and to build up our people with our gifts.
- Believers are gifted in differing degrees (4:7b), “according to the measure of Christ’s gift”[4]. Christ gives each believer measured (Gk. ‘metron’) grace. This is often not understood. All Christian people receive gifts, but all do not receive the same gifts, and neither do all receive them with the same intensity. Jesus knows what is needed in each body of believers for the purpose of building unity.
- Christ is the Giver of the gifts (4:8-10). This fact is substantiated by an interesting quotation from Ps 68:18. There David remembers how God went in triumph before His people after the Exodus (68:7) so that Mt Sinai trembled (68:8) and kings were scattered before him (68:11-14). The king who wanted Mt. Zion as his residence (68:16), came from Sinai to his chosen holy place (His sanctuary) (68:17). As the conquering king ascended towards Mt. Zion he led captives and the spoils of war in his entourage. Along the way he generously distributed the gifts (the spoils of war) to the residents of Mt Zion. Paul applies this picture in Psalm 68 to Christ. Christ the King came to this sinful earth to die for our sins on the cross. He rose up from the grave. By His death and resurrection He triumphed over man’s greatest enemy – sin and death and Satan. He freed His subjects from their slavery of sin under Satan’s dominion. Christ plundered Satan’s kingdom, robbing him of many of his “sin slaves“, redeeming them to be His own people. Then He ascends to His glorious throne - the spiritual Mt. Zion, with all His captives for His kingdom, sharing the spoils of that battle won against Satan, by dispensing these former ‘sin slaves’ as His gifts to His church in the world. These gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor- teachers. Pentecost was the primary event when these gifts were given, when the ascended Jesus descended through His Spirit and gave such people to the church in the world.
- Christ has given us foundational gifts to build up the church (4:11-12) This list represents the leading gifts to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. I cannot say much about this now. However, since there is so much controversy about apostles and prophets here in our own day, we have to say this:In Eph. 2:19,20 the offices of apostles and prophets are regarded as ‘foundational’ in the church. Foundations do not need to be built continually. We do not need new or more apostles and prophets any more than we need a new Lord Jesus.
- The big point is that these gifts are given to gather and unify the church.
4.
THE GOAL OF
UNITY (4:12-16)
We are now coming to our concluding thought.
Why does the church need this unity?
Why does the church need spiritual gifts?
The answer is given in verses 12-16: “to equip the saints for the work for ministry, for building them up…”.
All these foundational ministries are very important to the church’s existence and unity since through these ministries God’s people are prepared and perfected and equipped for the work of ministry.
The word for “equipping“[5] means fixing something broken’ (e.g. torn nets in Matt. 4:21). It can also mean ‘to supply something that is lacking’ (as in 1 Thess. 3:10, "We desire to supply, or equip, what is lacking in your faith"). The work of these foundational ministries is to repair what is broken and to supply what is lacking in and among the believers, who are, in the final analysis called "for the work of ministry".
The fixing and supplying what is lacking is meant to make the saints into servants, and in this way the ministering saints contribute to the wholeness of the entire body. The more the church is rooted in sound doctrine and practice, and led by gifted men committed to equipping the saints, the more unity she shows, the more effective she will be as she fights this spiritual war, taking captives from Satan for Christ’s glory.
Here then is the display of biblical logic as it applies to the doctrine of unity in the church. Unity is a gift from God, rootedand grounded in His own Tri-une being, applied by the foundational gifts given to the church for the purpose of every member ministry.
May God be pleased to inscribe this logic upon our hearts,minds and wills.
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