Ephesians 4.3b-The Bond That Produces Peace Among Believers

Ephesians Chapter Four  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:05:37
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Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:3b-The Bond That Produces Peace Among Believers-Lesson # 200

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Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Tuesday November 12, 2024

www.wenstrom.org

Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:3b-The Bond That Produces Peace Among Believers

Lesson # 200

Ephesians 4:1 Therefore, I myself, the prisoner because of the Lord’s will, exhort and encourage each and every one of you as a corporate unit to live your lives in a manner worthy of your effectual calling with which each and every one of you as a corporate unit have been effectually called 2 with the fullest expression of that which characterizes humility resulting in that which characterizes gentleness. Specifically, by each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of tolerating one another with that which characterizes patience by means of the practice of divine love. 3 In other words, by all of you without exception continuing to cause yourselves to make it a habit of making every effort to maintain the unity produced by the Spirit by means of the bond, which produces a peace, which is divine in quality and character. (Lecturer’s translation)

Ephesians 4:3 is composed of the following:

(1) participial clause: spoudazontes tērein tēn henotēta tou pneumatos (σπουδάζοντες τηρεῖν τὴν ἑνότητα τοῦ πνεύματος), “In other words, by all of you without exception continuing to cause yourselves to make it a habit of making every effort to maintain the unity produced by the Spirit.” (Author’s translation)

(2) prepositional phrase: en tō syndesmō tēs eirēnēs (ἐν τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης), “by means of the bond, which produces a peace, which is divine in quality and character.” (Author’s translation)

The noun sundesmos (σύνδεσμος), “the bond” pertains to a connection based upon kinship, marriage or common interest understood as something that fastens various parts together as on a ship and in context, the referent of the noun sundesmos (σύνδεσμος) is the love of God or divine love.

Specifically, the referent of this word is obedience to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ addressed to the church age believer recorded in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved them.

This interpretation is indicated by the fact that unity experientially amongst church age believers can only be produced by the Holy Spirit when the believer obeys the Lord’s Spirit inspired command to love one another as He has loved them.

The articular construction of the noun sundesmos (σύνδεσμος) is anaphoric, which means it is pointing back to the dative feminine singular form of the noun agapē (ἀγάπη), which we noted refers to the practice of divine love by the recipients of this epistle and appears at the end of Ephesians 4:2.

Therefore, this indicates they both have the same referent and are synonyms with each other, which is indicated by the fact that the bond, which produces peace experientially among believers is in fact the practice of divine love when interacting with each other.

The noun eirēnē (εἰρήνη) refers to church age believers experiencing peace when interacting with each other, which is produced by the Spirit, when they obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved them.

The articular construction of this abstract noun eirēnē (εἰρήνη) is distinguishing the peace that exists experientially among church age believers from the peace that exists between unregenerate humanity.

They are distinguished from each other because the peace experienced between believers is divine in quality and character because it is produced by the Holy Spirit when they obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved them.

This word eirēnē (εἰρήνη) functions as a genitive of product, which indicates that this peace is “the product” of the bond between church age believers, which is the practice of divine love or in other words, the bond, which is the practice of the command to love one another, “produces” peace among believers experientially.

Paul taught the Galatian Christian community that love and peace are two of the manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit or of that which the Spirit produces.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (NASB95)

As we noted in the introduction of Ephesians, though Paul never mentions any specific problem or problems taking place within the Christian community in the Ephesian epistle, it can be inferred from the contents of the letter that he was concerned that the Christian community remained united experientially through practice of the command to love one another.

This is indicated by the fact that Paul opens the practical application of his teaching in the first three chapters by commanding the recipients of the letter to practice the love of God.

In Ephesians 4:1-13, Paul exhorts and encourages the recipients of this letter to maintain experientially the unity produced by the Spirit by means of the bond, which produces peace among them.

In Ephesians 4:1, Paul exhorts and encourages the recipients of the epistle to live their lives in a manner worthy of their effectually calling with which they have been effectually called by God the Father with the fullest expression of that which characterized humility resulting in that which characterizes gentleness.

In Ephesians 4:2, he then presents the means by which they were to accomplish this.

He asserts that it would be by means of tolerating one another with that which characterizes patience by means of the practice of divine love.

Then, in Ephesians 4:3, he presents another by means which to accomplish this.

He asserts that it is by means of continuing to cause themselves to make it a habit of making every effort to maintain the unity produced by the Spirit by means of the bond, which produces peace.

Again, this bond is the practice of divine love by obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved them.

Therefore, in Ephesians 4:1-3, Paul teaches how the Christian community is to maintain unity “experientially” while on other hand, in Ephesians 2:11-22, he emphasizes this unity that exists among church age believers in a “positional” sense through the baptism of the Spirit, which took place at the moment of justification.

As we noted, the latter asserts that it was Jesus Christ who established this peace between Jewish and Gentile church age believers through His finished work on the cross.

Notice, in Ephesians 4:3 that Paul does not exhort the recipients of this letter who were Gentile Christians “to establish” unity with each other and Jewish Christians but rather “to maintain” it.

Unity implies peace between the two groups.

Remember that in Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul taught that Jesus Christ “established” peace and thus unity between Jew and Gentile Christians.

Secondly, he asserts in Ephesians 4:3 that this unity is produced by the Holy Spirit by means of the bond, which produces peace and which bond we noted is the practice of the divine love through obedience to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved them.

God as to His divine nature and essence is peace (Rom. 15:33; 16:20; 1 Thess. 5:23).

The Scriptures teach the peace of God from several different perspectives.

First, there is the peace which a justified, regenerated sinner has with God.

This is accomplished in three stages for the sinner declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Positionally, God views Himself as at peace with the justified sinner based upon this faith in His Son whose work on the cross established peace between sinners and a holy God.

Experientially, the believer experiences this peace with God initially at the moment of justification.

However, this experience is lost due to sin but restored through the confession of sin and maintained by obedience to the Word of God (1 John 1:9).

The believer will experience this peace with God without interruption throughout all of eternity when they receive their resurrection body at the rapture of the church.

Connected to this is the peace which the cross of Jesus Christ has established between the Jewish and Gentile races.

This peace is accomplished by the Holy Spirit when He identifies both Jewish and Gentile believers with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

This was the subject of Ephesians 2:11-22.

They are now a part of Christ’s body who is the head and both groups are united under Christ’s headship.

Also, the Scriptures teach that the believer can experience this peace in their souls as a result of being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ and as a result being united and identified with Christ by appropriating by faith this union and identification.

Lastly, the Word of God teaches that believers can experience peace with each other by obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s command in John 13:34 to love one another as He loves them.

When believers obey the various one another commands of Scripture, they will obey this command to love one another.

Consequently, peace among believers will be established in an experiential sense.

Experiencing this peace is the subject of Ephesians 4:1-3.

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