Life Group Lesson: Ephesians 4

Unity in the Body of Christ

English Standard Version (Chapter 4)

Unity in the Body of Christ 

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.

Verses 1: We see in the beginning, Paul expresses why he has endured oppression, persecution, and difficult times… He is a prisoner FOR the Lord! He endures what he endures, he suffers like he suffers, and he faces numerous trials because of the great task that the Lord Jesus bestowed upon him; TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST.

Verses 2-3: My ESV Study Bible says this… “Humility was regarded as distasteful by the pagan world of Paul’s day. PRIDE was more highly prized.” What does this remind you of? This the society we are living in today. If you are humble, you are weak; you have to be boisterous, outlandish, and just plain crazy to gain any form of respect or admiration. We believe the people who are the loudest and least amount of common sense and shame. You have to go along with the senselessness that we see today.

But we are called to humility, gentleness, and patience, and also love because all of those attributes were, and are in Christ’s character. We are humble because we know that we as Christians do nothing in our own power; all praise, honor, and glory goes to God in Christ. We are to be gentle, meaning we want to have a willing heart to aid and assist others, even when we have been done wrong. We see an example of this in John 8 when the Pharisees bring the woman caught in adultery to Jesus.

We are to show patience, which means having the ability to endure difficult people and situations without giving into anger or giving up hope. Does this mean that we are to be pushovers? No. Does this mean that we give in to every thing that society want us to believe? No. Does this mean that we are to remain quiet on issues that effect society and the church? No. We are called to show patience because God continues to be patient with us when we are doing disappointing things. We can show patience when they disappoint us. We have to pray for the strength to do these things, because we simply cannot do them in our own power.

Peace: My Study Bible says peace is “a state of reconciliation and love and therefore acts as a bond to unite believers in Christ. Believers do not create unity but are to preserve the unity already established.”

4 There is one body (the church) and one Spirit (the Spirit of God)—just as you were called to the one hope (hope in Christ) that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord (Jesus Christ), one faith (Christianity; faith in Jesus) , one baptism (by the Spirit), 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all (all knowing, ever present), and through all and in all.

ONE BODY AND ONE SPIRIT: Just as a human body has one spirit that animates it, so Christ’s body, His church, is enlivened, or quickened by one Spirit, the Spirit of God, who guides us to eternal life.

ONE HOPE: As believers, we put our hope in one person, the person of Christ. We do not put any stock in anything else. If it does not align with the will of Christ, then we don’t give it the time of day.

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.”19 (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.)

Verse 7-8: Through Christ, we are no longer captives to sin; by his death and resurrection we are set free from the hold that sin has on us! To hold an office in Christ’s church requires a special calling from Christ Himself.” Through the power of the Holy Spirit we use these gifts, and the Holy Spirit reveals those gifts to others. The Holy Spirit helps us use our gifts, and also helps us recognize the Holy Spirit at work in others. If Jesus would not have ascended, then we would not have received the Holy Spirit, who is the giver of the gifts and helps us to use those gifts for the kingdom of God.

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,5 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 kind 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.