Ephesians 4:1-16 Study

Verses 1-3

All of Ephesians so far has been theological clarification from Paul. He has spoke more of doctrine of the Ephesians’ salvation and God’s gospel reaching the Gentiles. But chapter four marks a turning point for this letter where he begins speaking of application. This is why Paul begins with I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to…

Because all of these things are true, you must do these things. And these things will be fleshed out throughout the next few chapters. And so, what does Paul urge them to do?

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.

The general imperative that Paul is calling the Ephesians to do is walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called…

The calling to which Paul is referring is the calling to know Christ—salvation. This calling is high and, as Paul has described, it is magnificent. He made them alive, He brought them, enemies, into the covenant promise.

There is a reasoning for all of this. We do not seek to walk worthy of the calling just to look good or for the sake of humanity even. Instead it is for what he says in verse 3:

to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This is the key to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. If you get nothing out of this letter, you must get this: Paul wants unity in the church. Here are a few ways Paul presses for unity to occur.

with all humility

Humility is one of the keys to living as a Christian. Not being boastful or prideful, but decreasing and being lowly. John the Baptist understood this well in saying He must increase, and I must decrease (John 3:30).

Not only is humility the key to a good christian, but humility is key to unity. In fact, I would argue unity is impossible without humility. As soon as we begin to press for our way or our glory, we rob the church of unity, and the Lord of His glory. Ultimately, we can only be unified if we are under Christ. We unite under Him.

and gentleness

Paul actually attaches gentleness to humility, actually. We must be very gentle with one another in our failures and weaknesses. Not lashing out or letting anger or pride lead us to treat others harshly. This does not exhibit Christ. We need to be gentle. This keeps unity.

with patience, bearing with one another in love

Similar to gentleness, patience is exactly what verse 2b says: bearing with one another in love. Holding fast with one another in weaknesses, sins, struggles, etc. And not doing so out of obligation, but out of sheer love.

The word “bear” means “put up with.” Sometimes that is what it means to bear, even in the church. You put up with others’ messy lives out of love!

eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace

And once again, here is the goal: maintain unity. Paul says we should be eager to maintain unity, even.

And then he gives a descriptor of unity. It is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The unity within the church is only possible due to the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity.

He then says in the bond of peace. This bond of peace is from Christ’s work on the cross. This points back the killing of hostility between man and man and man and God. This bond of peace reaches around the church through the Holy Spirit and Christ’s work on the cross.

Verses 4-8

Paul then goes into the “ones” To emphasize unity even more.

There is one body and one Spirit

The one body is referring to the body of Christ. Yes there are many local churches, but there is only one church. The one church encompasses every denomination that is within orthodox Christianity. This excludes cults or progressive Christian denominations that go against Scripture.

The one Spirit is referring to the third person of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit. Yes, John will tell us to be discerning of the spirits, but he is referring to demonic spirits who may hijack and distract us from the Holy Spirit. As the church, we worship and obey and are filled with and united in one spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit.

Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call

The church’s one hope is Christ. He is the only hope whom we have been called to. He is the only hope in the entire world, truly. We do not have many hopes, but only one Messiah, Jesus Christ.

One Lord

This, again, is Jesus Christ. Our King and our Lord. The Enacter of the will of God. The supreme Lord over all things.

one faith

Our faith only need to be in Christ. It is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other faith needed. There is no one else who deserves your faith and your trust. It is only Christ. It is one faith.

One baptism

We can go a couple different ways with this one:

You only need to be baptized once in order to follow the Lord’s example in baptism. It does not take baptisms once a year. There are a few caveats, like some were baptized when they did not understand what they were doing as children, then they grow older and get rebaptized. There is nothing wrong with that. But Christ does not call us to get baptized everytime we are struggling in our faith.

The baptism of the Spirit only happens once. When you give your life to Christ, the Spirit will rush into you and fill You. He takes over your very being and consumes You. This is the baptism of the spirit. It only occurs once. In the OT, the Spirit entered and then left, but now, in the New Covenant, we live with the Spirit until our death.

One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all

This is interesting because now Paul is simultaneously speaking of the monotheistic truth that we only have one God whom we worship, and speaking of that one God’s triune nature. He has mentioned each part of the trinity in this passage of ones.

We do not worship many gods, but one Trinue God. The fact that God is three-in-one is actually extremely important to our faith. You cannot be a christian denying this truth. Like three circles overlapping, our God is three persons, one God.

Paul emphasizes that God the Father is over all and through all and in all. He is sovereign and worthy of our praise and adorAtion

And then we close this section with a reference to OT and a set up for the next section on the function of each individual Who makes up the church.

Paul tells us grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

This is, for one, talking about the grace Christ extended through His work on the Cross. In Christ’s work on the cross, we receive salvation and abundant life.

But also, this is referring to the gifts we receive along with this grace. These gifts are our spiritual gifts which we should use for the glory of God. Paul is just pointing out that each of these gifts we have is differenT. We will not all have the same gift, but they are all equal gifts and must be used in a God-honoring way.

Then Paul uses Psalm 68 to point towards this fulfilling OT prophecy Where it says “He gave gifts to men.”

Verses 7-10

Verses 11-14

Verses 15-16