The Stewardship of Christian Unity

What would you say is the silliest thing you’ve ever gotten in an argument over? For me, I can, for some reason, distinctly remember getting into an argument with one of my childhood best friends about who had the best grandma when we were really young. Another silly argument was when one of my cousins got into a fist fight with a friend of his over a pair of blue jeans.

Now, these may sound silly, and they are. But the reality is that friendships have ended, relationships have been hurt, and even churches have split over things that really aren’t that serious. And this is a problem because we tell the world that the Church is made up of brothers and sisters united in Christ and for them to see us fighting and even breaking fellowship over trivial things certainly sheds a negative light on our cause.

Well, as we look here in Ephesians 4, Paul calls us to live a life worthy of the calling that we have. Our calling is that we were hopeless sinners, but God called us to Himself through the gospel and called us into sonship, to receive inheritance, to be made right with Him. What Paul wants us to do is to live like what we say is actually true. Now this charge is seen all throughout the New Testament. As a matter of fact, I can sum this verses teaching up in a short statement:

Since we have been called by a Holy God, we too should be holy (1st Peter); being trained by the gospel of our salvation to walk as we ought (Titus) so that we don’t disgrace it with our conduct (Phil. & Eph.) and become ineffective by forgetting the greatness of it’s truth (2 Peter).

So, since God has called a people from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom, Paul is calling us to live in a way that honors that reality and he moves on to, as John Stott puts it, elaborate on the kind of oneness which God intends His new society (the Church) to enjoy. And he does this by giving us four things which we will find here in Ephesians 4:1-16

Ephesians 4:1–16 (ESV)

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

In this passage, Paul teaches us that Christian unity is stewarded by four things, which are (1) Our Conduct, (2) Unity among and with the Godhead, (3) Diversity in gifts, and (4) Maturation. If you’ve been hurt by someone in the Church, this is for you. If you have experienced a broken friendship and you are still harboring ill feelings for that person, this is for you. If you are someone who has to always have their way, this is for you. And what I want remember today is this:

Whenever I find myself at odds with fellow believers, I should pause and consider the great work that God has done for me, what He is doing through me, and what He is doing with me.

What God has done for me.

He died for me

In verse one, we saw that Paul is calling us to live a life worthy of the gospel that we have been saved by. This gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ has done for us what we could never in a million years do for ourselves and that is live a righteous, sinless life; die a death for undeserving sinners, and rise from the dead that we might be saved.

I want you to look at verse two really quick as Paul calls us to be humble, gentle, patient and longsuffering with each other. Now, I want you to think about that. We can’t be humble on our own, we want things to be about us! We want to be valued and praised! We can’t be gentle. We want people to respect our authority! We can’t be patient. We want people to meet our expectations. But look at Jesus. He humbled Himself and came to this earth to die for sinners like us. Think of Jesus who said He is gentle and lowly in heart. Think of Jesus and how patient He is with us when we sin against Him. Titus 2:11-12 says,

Titus 2:11–12 ESV

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

It is the gospel that informs us, develops us, changes us. And knowing what Jesus did for us undeserving sinners should cause us to back up and think, “If Jesus is so gentle with me with as bad as I am, why am I so quick to lose my tempers with others who haven’t been near as bad to me as I have been to God?”

Paul, in verse 3, is calling us to be eager for unity. To fight for it! Markus Barth said that word means, “a full effort of the whole man is meant, involving his will, sentiment, reason, physical strength, and total attitude. [This word] excludes passivity, quietism, a wait-and-see attitude, or a diligence tempered by all deliberate speed. Yours is the initiative! Do it now! Mean it! You are to do it! I mean it!”

This means that we are to be a people who are marked by humility as we try our hardest to kill our self-centeredness. It means that we are gentle with those around us. It means that we are patient with even aggravating people and that we tolerate those people who just rub us the wrong way. And we do this because we are held by the bond of peace.

That bond of peace is like that double reinforced plastic bag from Walmart that holds all the cans in there. Its what keeps everything together. This peace isn’t some kind of result of meditation, it’s the result of Jesus dying for us and granting us peace with God, and in result, peace with one another.

He Gave Me A New Family

Through this peace, Christ placed us in His Church and it is there that Paul brings out something really interesting in verses 4-6. Notice with me the mention of the Spirit in verse 4, the Lord in verse 5, and the Father in verse 6 and with those he lists varying aspects of the faith.

What we see here is, as John Stott words it, that “The unity of the church is as indestructible as the unity of God himself. It is no more possible to split the church than it is possible to split the Godhead.”

We are saved by Christ’s work, united in Christ, founded upon Christ. We are a united people in our God and nothing can stop that. It is because of this that Paul calls us to be so eagerly dedicated to preserving unity with our fellow Christians.

This looks like laying aside your preferences for the sake of unity. It looks like knowing the world doesn’t revolve around your likes, tastes and desires but that we consider others before ourselves. My grandmother’s church is named JOY and they frequently discuss that the stands for Jesus, Others, and Yourself.

What God is doing through me

Now lets look at verse 7-12. Here we will find that not only have we received the gift of salvation and the gift of being apart of our Christian family, but we ourselves are gifts to the Church. I know we live in a time where discouragement and depression plague everyone, even believers, who struggle with feeling insignificant or as those they have nothing to contribute. But for believers, this passage begs to differ. It teaches us that each and every child of God has been given a specific gift for the good of others and for the glory of God.

Now, I want to quickly make mention of verse 9-10. Although I won’t go into detail tonight, I don’t want to skip it. This idea of Christ descending is a fairly touchy subject among many teachers today. Some believe it’s referring to Jesus coming from Heaven to Earth as a babe, some believe it’s referring to Jesus suffering as a lowly man upon the cross, some believe it’s referring to Him sending the Spirit at Pentecost, and some believe it’s referring to Jesus descending into the heart of the Earth for three days while His body laid in the tomb.

I personally am apt to hold to it referring to Him descending into the heart of the Earth. And it would seem that even our earliest Christian creed, the Apostles Creed, would also seem to agree.

Nonetheless, Paul is teaching us that by the works of Christ, we have been given gifts for the good of others. For the sake of time, this will be our primary focus for next week, but I want you to pause for a moment to consider the fact that the same God who was sovereign in saving you, is also in control of where you are at in your life that you might minister to people for His glory. Don’t rob others of that. Glorify God by trying to discover your gifts and cultivating them. But also, remind yourself that the people of the Church are a gift of God to you as well. The pastors and teachers are specifically mentioned here, but in reality, as Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians, everyone is gifted in some form for the good of others.

And this leads us to our last point

What God is doing with me

The people of the church are gifted for your good as we just saw, but what is that good? Paul makes it clear in verse 12-16 that it is our Christian maturity. That as we grow through the ministry of those around us, we will grow in speaking the truth in love to each other which may look like reminding a depressed brother or sister of God’s promises, or gently calling a friend to repent of sin. What we find here is that God is taking individuals, saving them, making them apart of something bigger than themselves and is maturing them, we call this sanctification, for the closeness of the Church. Paul says in verse 16, “when each part is working properly,the body grows so that it builds itself up in love.”

What I believe this passage is teaching us today is this:

God expects us to be encouraged to live a life of ministry and unity with one another as we think of what He’s done for us.

What does this look like?

It looks like pausing to remember Christ’s patience with you before you blow up at someone for frustrating you.

It looks like pouring yourself into the Church, praying for God to show you what He wants to do through you. Now, this doesn’t happen by some mystical voice. It happens through the local Church.

It looks like taking your spiritual growth seriously and pursuing a deeper understanding and love for who God is.

And it looks like putting others before ourselves.

A Warning:

Paul is teaching us that unity is absolutely necessary. But we do not believe in unity at all cost. When it comes between unity and truth, truth must always be our first commitment.