Different But Together
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1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7 Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8 For it says: When he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people.
9 But what does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth?
10 The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things.
11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.
16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
Introduction: In the early 90’s we see the phase of gangster rap hitting the mainstream airways. The emcees would called themselves ghetto poets or the ghetto news reporters as they would rap about the things that they experienced in the communities. Often the lyrics would be laced with many vulgar words and very hard truths for people to swallow or even understand. But this was the true reality of those who lived it.
One of the constant themes in this style of rap was the use of derogatory terms when referring to women. Not only would this, among other things, have the potential to shape how men are to treat women it could also have an effect on how women would feel they are to be act and be treated by men.
In 1994 Queen Latifah writes a song to address this very issue. In it she expresses the idea that women ought to know who they are and therefore live in light of that reality. This songs takes off and is played on airways all over. In fact she even earns a Grammy for it and it is still today her most popular song. She entitled this song U.N.I.T.Y.
Queen Latifah believed that if she could remind women who they were that they would live out that reality as opposed to the narrative that others were putting out about them.
Well long before Queen Latifah and UNITY there was Paul and Ephesus.
You see, as Paul pens this letter to this church he reminds them of who they are and what they have in
Christ and born again believers. And now as we get to this section of the letter he tells them how they are to live in light of that reality.
One thing that I must say here is that we as the Body of Christ must not allow worldly influences to shape our reality. Though the world is changing the core fundamental of the faith remain the same
UNITY
Humility
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Paul urges us to live among each other in humility. Brother Paul leads out with this idea of humility.
Why? Well the goal here is that we will live among each other in unity. It is impossible to live among
each other in harmony without each person having a strong humility about themselves.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.
Where humility is absent self-righteousness is present (flesh that out). but humility brings about
meekness (gentleness) (not a doormat type of thing but gentle and patience with one another).
Bearing (enduring) with one another (longsuffering-suffering in love).
13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
(spirit of peace)
3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
As believers we do not cause unity, we maintain it. It is the Spirit that brings and unites us. When we are the center of what unity is it will mostly look like me and what I believe is right.
We must then yield to the Spirit and the work that He is doing in the lives of all of us.
Unity
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
Paul writes the word “one” seven times in essentially 1 sentence. I think it’s safe to say that he’s trying to communicate something here. We are one because of the One. This is what binds us.
calling v.4-Walk worthy of the calling v.1
WE ARE DIFFERENT
Diversity of Gifts
7 Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8 For it says: When he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people.
9 But what does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth?
As Paul writes here he gives us an amazing illustration of what it took for us to receive this gift of Christ.
“The picture of Christ giving gifts to men is dramatic. It is the picture of an ancient king who has conquered his enemies. The king is sitting astride his white stallion and riding under the arch of triumph as he enters the city. Teeming thousands shout their adoration and praise. Following in his train is his army. And then following his army they come, the enemy stumbling along on foot in chains, looking like the defeated foe they are. They had initially come to fight tooth and nail to subject the people of the great king to their tyranny. But now they come to offer gifts to the great conqueror. The conqueror receives the gifts and in turn bestows the gifts upon his own people.” QOUTE? (Cp. Psalm 68:18.)
There are different ideas on what it means when it says that Christ went to the lower regions of the earth. But one thing we can all agree on is the fact that it was Christ’s victory over sin and death that has secured the salvation on man and that those are His have been gifted by Him (v. 7).
11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
This is not an exhaustive list of gifts but it does highlight that though we are together we are also different.
1. Every born again believer is gifted.
2. That gift comes from Christ
The gifts we have are Christ centered. “he gave”, therefore they ought not bring us any glory but to Him be all the glory.
Ephesians 4:12–13 (CSB)
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
Our “differences” ought to bring us “together” because our “differences” ought to be used for discipleship.
The result of discipleship........
14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.
16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
firm in doctrine
spiritual wisdom
standing in truth
maturity
unity and togetherness