Unity in the Body of Christ

Introduction: Unity. United body. We often hear those words, especially as the church, the body of Christ.

But do we truly understand what it means to be united? Do we know and understand what unity in the body is about? How are we united?

How do we stay a united body? How does the united body live? Why are we united?

Today we are going to talk about different aspects of the united body. The passage we will be looking at is Ephesians 4:1-16

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First we will be talking about conducts of the “united body.”

Development

Sermon Division 1: Conducts of the “United Body” (vv. 1-6).

Explanation

It is necessary to remember that when Paul wrote this, it was written as a letter. Therefore, it didn’t have verses in it.

We have it today as the book of Ephesians, the letter Paul wrote, in the form of chapters and verses to aid with our understanding.

Paul was in prison when he wrote his letter to the Ephesians. It is unclear where he was—either in Rome, as traditionally thought, or perhaps in Ephesus.

· Paul starts by saying “therefore”.

· “Therefore” is a word we see quite frequently in the New Testament, about 500 times. And it simply means “for that reason, or for that cause; consequently, or hence. For that; for this; for it

· To understand what cause or reason Paul was referring to, we need to briefly talk about the previous part of the letter, which is chapters 1 to 3.

· Paul starts his letter by greeting the holy people in Ephesus. In chapter 1, he tells the community of believers in Ephesus that their spiritual blessings that they received can only be found in Christ, because they are united in Christ. And at the end of chapter 1 he prays for spiritual wisdom.

· In chapter 2, Paul explained how they are made alive in Christ. He reminded the gentiles that they were outsiders and that now they have been united with Christ. He talked to them about how Christ united Jews and Gentiles into one people and that their hostility toward each other was now dead. They were all citizens of God’s people, a dwelling where God lives by His Spirit.

· In chapter 3, Paul talks about the mysterious plan of God that was revealed to him. The plan was that both Jews and gentiles shared equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Then he tells them that when he thinks about all of that, he falls to his knees and prays for them. He prays for their spiritual growth, and for their understanding of how high, how wide and how deep the love of God is, and how it is too great to understand.

· Then Paul begins that part of the letter with “Therefore”. So, because of all of that you just read, you just heard, I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling.

V 1: We see there that Paul begins the second half of Ephesians with a general exhortation to live a life worthy of our calling. The conjunction “therefore” refers to the entire first half of the letter. (chs 1-3)

· This passage sets the tone for the remainder of the letter and provides the connection with the previous part of the letter.

· Paul identifies himself as “a prisoner for serving the Lord”, which adds emphasis and authority on the exhortation . His readers will not fail to notice that he is a prisoner for his zeal for the sort of unity he requests of them.

Paul strongly appeals to the Ephesian believers “to lead a life” or “to live a life” worthy of the calling” to which they were called. Some other versions say “walk” in a manner.

The AMPC version says: beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called

The theme “walking” is continued throughout the letter and is a metaphor for “conduct” or for “way of life”.

Paul begs the community of believers, composed of two different groups of people, Jews and gentiles to lead or to walk a life worthy of their calling to salvation.

· This is a more general appeal to living in such a way.

· Believers have the obligation and duty to live in accord with their calling.

Their calling was to be godly.

They were called by God to be His people. This indicates that God is the one who sovereignly calls. They were once sinners, but they have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. They were to live as people of God. They were to live as a new creation.

We see Paul says “calling” and “you have been called” in the same sentence. The repetition of the idea of “calling”, (your calling, for you have been called) is to emphasize its importance.

Notice the order here. The calling come first. Then, follows the behavior.

In what way should the believers lead their life? What are they supposed to do?

Vv 2-3: Identify the manner, the way or the attitude by which believers are to walk, or to lead a life worthy of their calling

Paul gives a list of conducts of a united church, called by God.

He continues to list three virtues. He says always be humble, be gentle, be patient. We see 1) humility, 2)gentleness and 3) patience.

Virtue 1: Humility is the opposite of pride. Paul stresses the need for humility, since pride is destructive to community life. 1 Peter 5:5 says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Virtue 2: Gentleness, a disposition of the soul which makes men unwilling to provoke.

Virtue 3: Patience, is a characteristic of God, that we see repeatedly in the Bible.

Romans 2: 4 Says: Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

Patience is not easily to be provoked or offended. We see both gentleness and patience in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.

Patience is one of the qualities of love and is a characteristics that believers are to display to one another.

Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as the chosen of God, holy and dearly loved, put on affection, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience,”

Paul was telling the believers to be like Christ toward each other.

He continues to say: “Making allowances for each other’s faults because of your love.”

Some other versions say “put up” with each other, or “bearing graciously with one another”.

Paul was not just suggesting that believers tolerate each other, but rather we bear with one another, in love. This is a forgiving love that exemplifies reconciliation.

Colossians 3:13 'Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. '

Read verse 3

V 3: Leading a life worthy of their calling requires believers to make every effort to keep united in the Spirit. Not some effort but every effort to stay united. This adds a sense of urgency to Paul’s appeal, or exhortation.

This unity comes from the Holy Spirit. It is produced by the Holy Spirit. And Paul is communicating the intense effort that needs to go into keeping that unity.

Believers are to maintain that unity by binding themselves together with peace. The Spirit brings the peace of God as a uniting bond. A bond that can be affected and severed by arrogance and pride.

· Paul was not telling them to create unity, but rather was telling them to maintain the unity that already exists because of the finished work of Christ.

These are all different elements that Paul was saying to make the point of unity. And to further make the point of unity, he went on to repeat the word “one” 7 times in verses 4, 5 and 6.

Read verses 4-6

V4-V6: One body, one Spirit, one glorious hope for the future, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father who is over all and in all, and living through all and in.

Let’s look at those 7 repetition of the word.

1) One body, which is a reference to the church as the body of Christ. Believers are united in same body, in Jesus.

2) One Spirit, which is the Spirit of God, believers are united in the Spirit, they are sealed with the Spirit.

3) One hope, instead of just mentioning it, Paul make a comparison to the previous statements: “just as you have been called to one glorious hope.” He was not referring to hope as the feeling that one can feel, but he was referring to content of the hope.

4) One Lord which clearly refers to Jesus Christ.

5) One faith, which means believers all believe in the same person, believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

6) One baptism, believers have been baptized by the same Spirit, when they came to Christ and believed, and became saved.

7) One God and Father who is over all: Believers are all in Jesus, all serving one God. God has supreme sovereignty, He is omnipresent. God is especially present in the believers lives.

Illustration

We have all heard about a church fight. Often, we hear about some of the things that people in his church have argued about, and it’s so sad. Christians have been put up against Christians over such issues as the color of the carpet, the thermostat setting.

Pastors have been run out of town during these kinds of arguments. Christians have cut off friendships. Churches have split because folks argued about such things.

Why does this happen? People who get caught up in petty argument have lost sight of being united and staying united.

The church is the place we come for worship, for reading the Word, for singing to God's glory, for serving others, and for helping one another to grow. It's a place of love, forgiveness, and encouragement.

Application

Unity is not an option, it is essential to the very message we proclaim. When we do not display to one another the peace that God brings, our message is compromised. The unity among believers impacts our testimony to the world.

As believers we should be reminded that we are called by God, and we should walk in unity with each other.

We should be patient with each other, we should be quick to keep the peace of God that binds us together.

At times there may be disagreement between us and our beloved brothers and sisters, but as Paul says, we should make every effort to keep ourselves united in the Spirit.

Colossians 3:12 NIV

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Now that we know what to do to keep unity in the body:

we need to be humble, gentle and patient. We need to bind ourselves together with peace.

What else can we learn about the united body?

We need to know that: Gifts are given to the United Body. Let’s look at verses 7-11

Read verses 7-11

Sermon Division 2: Gifts to the “United Body” (vv. 7-11).

Explanation

V7: Paul starts the verse with “however”. This marks a transition in his thought from the church as a whole, he passes to individual members now.

He starts to speak about diversity within the theme of unity. And the focus is on Christ as He is the One giving the gifts.

Though believers share a common faith, God has given different special gifts or abilities to each individual believer for the greater good of the church. A special gift means literally a grace.

This grace is not the saving grace, or the sanctifying grace but it is a ministry grace. It is not given to us because of the works, or the merit of the believers, but because Christ is generous.

In His grace, in His sovereignty, Christ gives “each one of us”, every member of his body, a gift, a grace for ministry.

V 8: Here Paul quotes Ps 68:18 And he says that is why the Scriptures “say”. He did not use past tense as he quoted the verse, which indicates that though this was written a while back, it still speaks today, and it is still relevant to believers today.

Ps 68:18 says When you ascended to the heights, you led a crowd of captives. “You received” gifts from the people. As Paul stays true to the original text, he gave it an interpretation that is directly linked to Christ. So instead of saying “ you received gifts”, Paul says “He gave gifts to His people”.

He led a crowd of captive: Here, Christ is the victorious conqueror who ascends to His throne in heaven after defeating the spirituals forces. He defeated death, captured disobedient sinners, made them believers through the power of the good news. Then, in his sovereignty, He gave gifts to His followers.

V 9 Also descended to our lowly world This expression here has been the center of much debate. There are 3 different interpretations 1) Jesus’ descent to Hades ( Jesus went to Hades to liberate OT saints or to offer the dead a chance to hear the gospel, repent, and be set free) 2) Jesus’ incarnation and death, the lowly world refers to earth as opposed to the heavens 3) Jesus’ Spirit at Pentecost

Out of those 3 interpretations, Jesus’ incarnation is the most likely correct one.

V 10 Jesus who descended to our lowly world is the same one who ascended higher than all the heavens. This is referring the exalted status of Christ. What was the goal of His ascension? The goal of His ascension was that He might fill the entire universe with Himself.

Why is Paul talking about all that? The objective is to show the length that Christ went to unite the body.

How does He do that? How does He unite the body? He unites the body by giving gifts

V11 Paul gives a list of God’s gifts to the united body. Apostles and the prophets were the foundational gifts of the church. We know that at the time there were 12 apostles and the prophets preached in association with the apostles. The evangelists are those who are traveling missionaries. Gifted in bringing in new births. Pastors and teachers who feed the sheep. Those gifts are leadership gifts.

Illustration: In 1 Corinthians 12:5 Paul writes the believers and tells them “There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.”

Application: Believers should know that as part of the united body, they each received a special gift from the Lord. Believers should also know that they are all called to serve in the church.

Why did Jesus give those gifts to His body? He gave the gifts because they lead to the maturity of the United Body.

Sermon Division 3: Maturity of the “United Body” (vv. 12-14).

V 12 Christ gave various ministers to the church in order to accomplish three things: 1)“for the perfecting of the saints, 2) for the work of the ministry, 3) for the edifying of the body of Christ”

V 13 Paul affirms that the building up of the church is needed until we reach a certain level of maturity. The goal of ministry is for the whole Christian community to understand and experience the Christian faith more deeply and to gain a deeper knowledge of God’s Son.

That means with equipping the saints through the ministerial gifts, there is unity in the faith and believers will be mature. The standard of maturity is when the Holy Spirit works and makes people more like Christ.

V 14: What else happens when believers are equipped and built up by the ministerial gifts? They will no longer be like immature children. In other words, believers will not be spiritually immature when they have been properly equipped by the spirituals leaders. They will be able to discern false teachers, false doctrine. Mature Christians will be able to resist false teachings. Mature Christians have a well-grounded knowledge of the Word of God, the good news and of Christ Himself.

V 15 Believers are not to be like those who trick people with their clever lies. No, believers are to speak the truth. In what way are they to speak the truth? In love. The end goal of doing so, is that believers will grow in every way into the Lord.

Christ is the head of the church, therefore, He is the One who leads. He is the One who nourishes the church. He is the One who supplies everything that is needed to the church so that it can grow.

V 16 Paul describes the whole body as being held together by Christ. He holds the body together. He makes it fit together in a perfect way.

Each part of the body plays an important role and helps the other parts grow. Christ works through the individual parts and makes it fit together.

When every believer is ministering effectively, the whole body will be healthy and it will grow, it will be full of love. Love is a very important factor in Christian community. It is a very important factor in Christian growth.

Illustration: One Sunday after leaving church, my sister was driving, she always likes to drives when she’s with me, she decided to go to Rita’s to get some ice cream. Before getting out the car to place the order, she asked each one of the kids what flavor they wanted. It took them a little time, but eventually everyone made their choice. So my sister ordered the ice cream. As she started to give each kid the ice cream they chose. They each saw what the other has. And guess what happened? Someone ended up changing their mind about the ice cream flavor they had just taken the time to order.

Such is the behavior of immature believers. Unstable, gullible. They will become easily influenced by the latest new preacher, or the latest new book. This should not be.

Application: As believers, we should know that when we are mature, we are able to stay focused. And in doing so, we will be able to our part which will help the other part to grow healthy.

Conclusion: We have learned that as a united body we have to lead a life worthy of our calling by conducting ourselves some very specific ways.

We have to practice humility, gentleness and patience. We have to practice forgiveness. We have to do so in love. We are united in the Spirit, and we are bound together in peace.

We all believe in the same God. We have the same hope. Christ is our head. He redeemed us. He ascended into the heavens and gave us gifts to further keep us united. Those gifts get us equipped and build us up for ministry. They lead us to maturity as the Holy Spirit is working in us to make us more like Christ.

As a result we are able to discern and resist false teachers and doctrines. And this in turn helps us so that each part of the body does its part. Then we grow healthy and full of love as a united body.

Aren’t you grateful for all that Christ has done to keep us united? Let us pray.