Unity is a Spiritual Reality
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4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as 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 above all, and through all, and in you all.
In the letter to the church in Ephesus Paul has been driving as a major point concerning the constitution of God’s people. One of the things that he has been very clear on is that there in only one people of God. Israelite believers do not stand as a separate body to the Gentile believers. The Old Testament saints are not a different body than the New Testament saints. There is one people of God - thats it.
Ephesians 2:11–18 (NKJV)
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—
12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
So there is no doubt that as we get to chapter 4 that Paul’s instruction to walk worthy of our calling followed by how we are to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit that what he primarily has in mind is the unity between Jews and Gentiles. Certainly the broader application of this unity is the unity between individuals within the body but i believe that that is built on the foundation of unity between Jews and Gentile in Christ.
Now Paul said in Eph 4:3
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
As we pointed out last week this instruction to endeavour to keep unity which is the Spirit’s, I.e. the Spirit has created this unity and is consist of the Spirit and is preserved by the Spirit, seems redundant. And you may say “that’s quite a stretch to say that unity is created, consist of and is preserved by the Spirit simply from the phrase “unity of the Spirit”.
Perhaps if that phase where all we had to go by I’d agree. However, as we will see, vs. 4 5, and 6 emphasise that fact that this unity that Paul is talking about must be an unchangeable reality because it is integral to the very essence of God. Paul bases this unity on the trinity within these verses.
So lets take a closer look.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
One Body and One Spirit and One Hope
One Body and One Spirit and One Hope
Paul is not only just now introducing this singularity of Body, Spirit and Hope rather this has been a key topic of his letter to this point.
One Body
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
The singularity of the body is essential as Christ is one body and it is through the one death of His body that He has reconciled all.
Christ died once so only one body is reconciled. He did not die once for Jews and again for Gentiles. He die not die once for the Old Testament saints and again for the New Testament saints. No one is redeemed outside the blood of Christ and Christ died once and for all so the body of the redeemed is one body for all time.
Paul speaks of this in his letter to the Corinthians in 1Cor 12:12
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
One Spirit
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
The emphases hear is that we are unified as one because all who have access to the Father can only have access through the one Holy Spirit.
Again back in 1Cor Paul makes this point. We looked at this last week but I’d like to draw your attention to it once again.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
So the Spirit is not divided and if there is only one Spirit then we all have that same Spirit dwelling within us.
One Hope of our calling
11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
We have one inheritance and we are sealed with the one Spirit.
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
There is one inheritance and we all are joint heirs with Christ.
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism
Now Paul moves from the third to the second person of the Trinity. One Lord who is Christ Jesus.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Any who are truely members of God’s church are members only because of faith in Christ.
When Peter finished preach this powerful Spirit anointed sermon it says.
41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
After they believed in Christ they were baptised. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. This one baptism that Paul refers to is water baptism. That is what we call believer’s baptism as opposed to infant baptism of which the Bible has nothing to say. This is the baptism that Christ commanded us to observe in Matt 28:19
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
And again as we saw in..
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
One God and Father
One God and Father
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Now Paul has just confirmed our unity in the Holy Spirit, Christ the Son, and now God the Father. The Trinity. But the Trinity is in no way inconsistent with the truth of Deu 6 4 The lord our God is one. There can only be one all knowing all powerful all present God who is above all and created all. And He is our God and He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Of all
not that He is the father of all people but rather that He is the Father of the elect.
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Through all
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,
English Standard Version Chapter 3
10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
In you all
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
So the spiritual reality of our unity is established by God and is evident in the Trinity. So then, coming back to verse 3 why does Paul say endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit?
The reality of our unity is certain in God but the experience of our unity is not always there.
We must endeavour to have our experience of unity line up with the reality.
Now I know some of you are saying what on earth is he on about. How can an objective reality in our life not be our experience. Let me try to put it another way.
Lets say a man name John Doe has three sons Tom Dick and Harry. But lets say that Tom Dick and Harry don’t have a very good relationship with their father. So much so that they disown him as their father and he disowns them as his sons. They even go so far as to legally change their last name from Doe to something else. Now in experience they do not have a father and the father does not have sons. they don’t talk or visit and have no connection. But regardless of their experience the objective reality is that John is their father and Tom Dick and Harry are his sons. We might even try to encourage them to reconnect and work on repairing their relationship in which case we would be telling them endeavour to keep your father son relationship because in reality that is what you are.
I think that is what Paul is telling us here. Live out the unity that God has created in you as a spiritual reality. Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.