Love that Unites Us (Ephesians 4:1-16)

Introduction

Good Morning. Please turn to Ephesians chapter 4 in your Bibles. If you didn’t bring a Bible, please use one of the pew Bibles in the rack, and if you don’t have a Bible of your own, please take that one with you.

We are at the halfway point of our series called “Love Beyond Reason, and this morning we are going to talk about the love that unites us.

One of the things I love about going to the beach is that it is a great place to people watch. I like watching couples walking together. And while I can’t say for sure, it seems to me that you can tell something about how long a couple has been together based on how easy it is for them to walk together. I know when Trish and I were first married, she would get frustrated with me because my natural walking pace is much faster than hers. She would often tell me, you have to remember my legs are aren’t as long as yours.

There was one exception. Costco. At Costco, Trish is on a mission. She knows exactly what she needs, exactly where it is in the store, and she is going through the store like one of those mice in the maze that knows where the cheese is.

Meanwhile I’m still at the entrance going, Wow… look how big that TV is! And by the time I’ve figured out how to work the remote on the $2K Shiatsu massage chair, she is already through the line.

But we will have been united in marriage 32 years this December, and over time, its become easier for us to walk together. I can’t say whether she’s walking faster or I’m walking slower, or whether I’m less distracted or she’s more patient, but the longer we’ve been together, the more we enjoy walking together.

In Ephesians 4, we get to the hinge of the book. Like many of Paul’s other letters, Ephesians can be divided into two sections. Chapters 1-3 talk about the The Wealth we have in Christ

Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” 14X in the first three chapters of Ephesians:

We are saints in Christ (1:1)

God has a will for us in Christ (1:9)

God is bringing all things together in Christ (1:10)

Our hope is in Christ (1:12)

We have power in Christ (1:20)

We are raised with Christ (2:6)

And then Ephesians 2:7 sums it up:

“7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

So now we get to the second half of Ephesians, and Paul shifts his focus to The Walk We Have With Christ.

You see how Paul begins chapter 4:

I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

And you’ve all heard the joke, that whenever you come across a “therefore” in Scripture, you have to go back until you figure out what it’s there for.

God has chosen us to be His sons and daughters in Christ.

God is bringing all things together under Christ.

Therefore, We walk united with Christ.

And just like I talked about with Trish and me, the better we understand how we are united with Christ, the easier and more fulfilling it is to walk with Christ.

We are going to read the passage together, and I want to show you six ways we are united with Christ. We will read 4:1-7 together, and then we’ll skip to verse 11 and read to verse 16. Let’s stand to honor the reading of God’s Word:

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.

Let’s skip down to verse 11:

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.

Let’s Pray Together

1. First, it we are to be united in calling (v. 1)

Paul urges his readers to be worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called. What is the calling to which we’ve been called?

God has called every Christian to Himself by His grace.

He has blessed every Christian with every spiritual blessing in the heavens (1:3).

He has chosen every Christian to be holy and blameless before him (1:4)

Now we are to live worthy of that privileged calling. Now you see that word worthy and immediately you feel pressure. How can I ever be worthy of the riches I have in Christ?

Well, Paul isn’t saying walk like you deserve this. That would lead to arrogance and haughtiness, which are the exact opposite of what he’s about to say.

The Greek word here is axios. It means “suitably.” You here the word “axis” in axios, and it’s the idea of being on the same axis as someone else.

Paul says this calling is for every Christian, not just professional clergy or people who get a paycheck from a church or a religious agency. What Ephesians 4 talks about isn’t just for the vocationally called.

This common calling unites us. Recognize its divine nature. God called us. We share a common experience of His grace.

Second, we are united in conduct (V. 2-3)

Ephesians 4:2–3 ESV

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.

Our standard of behavior as sons and daughters of God is Jesus, the only begotten son of God.

We are to be humble like Jesus. Humility is not a very valued trait in our world today. The world says exalt yourself. Pamper yourself. Express yourself. Be true to self. Brag on yourself. Think about yourself first. But what did Jesus say? Humble yourself. Die to yourself. Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-11) Pride means being filled with self. Conversely, humility is being filled with God (Eph 3:19). Tim Keller put it this way: “The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less”

We are to be gentle like Jesus. Gentleness part of the fruit of the spirit. To be gentle doesn’t mean to be timid. The biblical trait of gentleness is strength under control. In Matthew 10 Jesus invited all who were weary and heavily laden down to come to Him, for he is gentle and lowly in heart.

We are to patiently bear with one another in love, just as Jesus did with us. This word for patient is one of my favorite Greek words. Its macrothermeo. Macro means big picture, or over a long period of time, and thermeo involves heating up or raising the temperature. Aren’t we glad it takes a long time for God to get heated up at us?

Aren’t you so grateful that Jesus accepts us in love? I’ve never really liked it when we describe salvation as “accepting Jesus as my personal savior. Like I was inviting Jesus to come sit at the cool kids table with me. What really happened is that Jesus accepted me as His personal sinner. He accepted me in love.

Finally, we should be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Unity is active, not passive. You have to work to maintain it. You have to zealous to guard it. And you have to be eager to do so. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people love to stir the pot. They seem more eager to sow disunity and to break the bonds of peace.

I get all the prayer lists from all the Sunday schools each week, and I notice that a lot of them have “pray for unity” on them. And I say amen to that. A church is to be united. But notice that we do not work to create unity but to keep unity! God has already united us! Instead, we pray that we will maintain unity by the Spirit’s help.

And please, don’t pray for unity if you aren’t going to be eager to maintain it.

3. United in Confession (Eph. 4:4-6, James 5:16)

There are two ways we use the word confession in the church. One is the confession of our faith. But there’s also confessing our faith. Think about Peter’s confession of faith in Matthew 16: “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Or what Paul says in Romans 10:9–10

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

So Verses 4-6 are an early Christian creed, or confession of faith. There’s seven “one” statements here:

One body. We are diverse in background and gifting, but we are united as one.

One Spirit. The Spirit is the One who creates unity and empowers us to maintain it.

One hope. We share a common hope in Christ. Formerly, we were “without hope” (2:12) until we were called to Christ. Now we have hope, and we must live in a manner worthy of our calling.

One Lord. Believers confess and proclaim, “Jesus Christ as Lord” (2 Cor 4:5). When the early Christians said, “Jesus is Lord,” they were saying, “Caesar is not lord.” When Jewish Christians said this, they were boldly identifying Jesus with the God of the Hebrew Scriptures (cf. Deut 6:4). So this was not merely an empty creedal affirmation for early believers. This confession could cause you to lose your head.

One faith. The creed reminds us that we embrace the essential truths together, for “faith” here seems to refer to the body of truth we believe.

One baptism. We share a common experience of being spiritually baptized into Christ. We are united with Him. The act of baptism into water pictures this reality. This ordinance may be in view here.

One God and Father. As His adopted children, we share the same Father. He is the God over all and the Father of all His children—regardless of their ethnicities. We are one big, adopted family.

But there’s a second way the church uses the word confession. Most hear confession and they think about confessing their sins. Which is absolutely vital. It’s vital not just for your personal relationship with God, but it is also a vital part of unity with your brothers and sisters in the church. James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

So you have unity in our confession of faith, but we also have unity in our confession of sin.

So the two go hand in hand. Remember, we don’t create unity. We have unity because of our confession of faith. This is what unites us not only with each other at Glynwood, but it is what unites us with First Baptist. With Centerpoint. With East Memorial. With Camillia. With Prattmont. With Journey. With Crestview. With every other church in town. And not just Baptist churches. We have a common confession with the Presbyterians and the Episcopalians. With the Lutherans and the Methodists. We may have differences in church practice or polity, but we have one faith, one hope, one baptism, one god, one father, one church, one body, one life in the Spirit.

But its our confession of sin to each other that maintains unity.

4. United in Contribution (Eph. 4:7-13)

In verse 7, Paul says that “grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” This is not “saving grace” but “ministry grace.” It is grace to serve and build up the body. In 3:8 Paul said, “Grace was given” that he might preach to the Gentiles. Here grace is given to every believer to make a contribution to the ministry.

Paul goes on to talk about some of the roles people play within the church. I’ve been using the ESV, but I really like the way the CSB translates this.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

God wants the body of Christ to be built-up and mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. He doesn’t want us to be a nursery of self-absorbed infants but an army of sacrificial servants. He wants us to be built-up in love for Himself, and love for one another,

And so Jesus gives every church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers so that the saints can be equipped for the work of the ministry.

Once again, I have to emphasize that every believer is given a grace gift for ministry. These gifts are not reserved for just your ministers. Go back to verse 7: Grace for ministry was given to each of us.

That being said, Christ does raise up leaders in every church to help equip the saints. There are five listed here: [explain apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherds, teachers]

Apostle, in a technical sense, refers to the Twelve (defined in this way, we do not have apostles anymore). But it can also refer to a “sent one.” These are folks who are sent. Whenever a disaster relief team is deployed, they are apostoloed— sent. Etc.

Prophets were forth-tellers even more than future-tellers. Prophets today are those who apply God’s Word to God’s people (Man Church)

Evangelists are those gifted in proclaiming the gospel (Acts 21:8; 2 Tim 4:5). Everyone is called to evangelize, but some are uniquely gifted in this area.(Cheyenne)

The term pastor is used here to refer to a ministry in the church, though the related verb shepherd appears elsewhere. In fact, depending on the translation you use, the word pastor may not be in your Bible at all. Shepherds nurture, defend, protect, know, and sacrifice for the flock.

There is the office of Pastor, but there are lots of people who have the spiritual gift of shepherding.

Some take teacher as the same office as pastors, translating them “pastor-teacher.”

But I there are some differences. While all pastors teach (since teaching is an essential part of pastoral ministry), but not all teachers are also pastors. There are many teachers in our church exercise their leadership role by feeding God’s flock with his word.

What happens when we serve one another? “The body of Christ will be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

And this brings us to the fifth thing that unites us as we walk with Jesus. We are United in Confidence. Look at verse 14:

English Standard Version Chapter 4

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.

[Talk about the crisis of truth. Misinformation disinformation, deep fakes, AI, political, spiritual, etc. ] But if we are united in our calling, united in our conduct, united in our confession— agreeing with one another about who God is and agreeing with one another about who we are— and if our entire church is contributing to the building up of the body, then we aren’t going to be blown back and forth by false doctrine and human cunning and deceitful schemes. We won’t be confused about what Bible teachers are telling the truth because we will be grounded in God’s word. We won’t be confused about which political candidate to vote for because we will be evaluating them on the basis of God’s character. We can be confident that God is maturing us together.

And that will also give us confidence to speak the truth in love to one another. Look at verse 15: Ephesians 4:15

Ephesians 4:15 ESV

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Speaking the truth in love is a skill.The more we do it the better we become at it. It becomes a way of life. We should speak the truth in love in all our relationships: in our family, in our friendships, in our workplace, and here in our church.

Speaking the truth in love means communicating honestly and openly with people in order to build them up rather than tear them down. Speaking the truth in love helps us share the love of God with people. It’s an important way to become mature in the faith and actually become like Jesus.

When we speak the truth in love, we can avoid

• Misunderstandings. Honest and loving words help ensure that your message is received correctly because it doesn’t put the other person on the defensive.

• Resentments. When truth is spoken with kindness, it reduces the likelihood of building resentment or bitterness in a relationship.

• Conflict escalation. Speaking the truth in love definitely helps reduce the chances of a heated conflict becoming more heated and unproductive.

• Gossip. Directly talking with individuals rather than talking about them behind their back leads to a culture of trust and peace.

• Mistrust. When people know you will address issues honestly but kindly, it builds trust and respect within families and churches. And even workplaces!

• Superficial relationships.When we speak the truth in love as a way of life, relationships will deepen and become more authentic, moving beyond the dreaded surface-level interactions.

If you are someone who consistently speaks the truth in love, you will be a trusted person. People will find you safe because they know where they stand with you.

Finally, we are united in Christ. The end goal is that we will see ourselves as part of the body of Christ, and when each part is working properly, the whole body grows.

“Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

It's clear that the calling we've received is not reserved for a select few in ministry but is a divine invitation for every believer to embody the qualities of humility, gentleness, patience, and love in their everyday lives. This is our high calling, and it shapes how we interact with others, regardless of our profession or role.

Whether you are a teacher, a businessperson, or a homemaker, your calling is to reflect the character of Christ in all that you do.

This is not about grand gestures but about living in a way that mirrors the love of God in every situation. Embrace this calling with confidence, knowing that God has equipped you for this very purpose.

So this coming week, as we step into this calling, we must remember that God's desire is for us to be built-up, not puffed-up. The gifts and roles within the church are given to equip us for service, fostering unity and maturity in the body of Christ. Our service to one another and our commitment to speak the truth in love are foundational to this growth. Let us, therefore, be intentional in our relationships, speaking honestly and with compassion, avoiding misunderstandings and superficiality. As we do so, we will not only strengthen our personal integrity but also inspire others and become a godly influence in our communities. This is how we build up the church and reflect the fullness of Christ in our lives.

Let’s pray together.