The Church Christ Built

The Architect Has Unity in Mind

I saw a large building the other day being erected. I do not know that it was any business of mine, but I did puzzle myself to make out how it would make a complete structure; it seemed to me that the gables would come in so very awkwardly. But I dare say if I had seen a plan there might have been some central tower or some combination by which the wings, one of which appeared to be rather longer than the other, might have been brought into harmony, for the architect doubtless had a unity in his mind that I did not have in mine.So you and I do not have the necessary information as to what the church is to be. The unity of the church is not to be seen by you today—do not think it. The plan is not worked out yet. God is building over there, and you only see the foundation; in another part the topstone is all but ready, and you cannot comprehend it. Shall the Master show you his plan? Is the Divine Architect bound to take you into his studio to show you all his secret motives and designs? Not so; wait a while and you will find that all these diversities and differences among spiritually minded men, when the master plan comes to be wrought out, are different parts of the grand whole, and you with the astonished world will then know that God has sent the Lord Jesus.

Sermon in a Sentence

Because of what Christ has done, believers walk faithfully in their calling to live in obedience and pursue unity with other people.

Application Point

By pursuing unity and a spirit of humility, we can unleash the indispensable power of the local church to grow and change us into more Christlike people through godly community.

Practical Application

Ephesians chapter 3:21 offers the doxology of the doctrinal portion of Paul’s prison epistle to the church at Ephesus. Ephesians 4-6 constitutes the second part of the letter. Ephesians 4:1-16 stresses maintaining unity even amid a diversity of ministries. Ephesians 4:1-6 contains an exhortation. Following Malherbe, Perkins notes that the parenesis in the letter may be an ethical reminder of what not to do rather than actual praxis as in Paul’s undisputed letters. May moralists of the day believed a teacher’s life should provide a living example of the teacher’s instructions.

Consistent to our call

The readers are summoned to live (περιπατεῖν, see on 2:2, 10) in a manner appropriate to their calling, as Paul himself does as a prisoner. περιπατεῖν dominates much of what follows (cf 4:17; 5:2, 8, 15) and is normally in the present tense though in 2:2, 10 and here it appears as an aorist; this is natural in 2:2 for the reference there was to the past life of the readers and 2:10 has an aorist subjunctive which is really timeless. The present aorist infinitive should be compared to those of 4:22, 24. In the Pauline corpus ἀξίως is variously linked to God (1 Th 2:12; cf 3 Jn 6; 1 Clem 21:1), Christ (Col 1:10, where it is also combined with περιπατεῖν, cf Polyc Phil 5:2), the gospel (Phil 1:27), the saints (Rom 16:2). The closest parallel to 4:1 is probably 1 Th 2:12 where καλεῖν is also used. Believers have not been called because they have lived worthily, but now that they have been called, worthy living should be their appropriate response. To live worthily is not just to live morally; there are two great commandments and worthy living relates as much to the first as to the second. The nature of worthy living is outlined first in 4:2f and then throughout the remaining paraenesis.

Maintains the unit and unity

The second participial clause, the fourth member of the general introductory exhortation, moves from the qualities of character which work for unity to a plea for its preservation; if unity needs to be preserved it must already exist; it does so in respect of Jewish and Gentile Christians (2:11–22) but the outlook here is wider and refers as much to Jewish—Jewish and Gentile—Gentile relations as to Jewish—Gentile relations. While parallel to the participial clause of v. 2b, v. 3 is also to some extent its result and a suitable climax to the phrases of v. 2 (Schlier, Schnackenburg). Those who pay attention to one another in love will work zealously to preserve unity. Unity, ἑνότης (only here in the NT and in 4:13; the word is found regularly in Ignatius, e.g. Eph 4:2; 5:1; 14:1; Phil 2:2; 3:2; 5:2), is something which Christians already possess; they are one body (4:4). They did not create their unity, though they can destroy it; the later parts of the paraenesis show how this can happen. Effort is necessary to maintain unity and believers must strive to this end with all zeal. σπουδάζοντες, a present participle, implies an active and vigorous effort (cf Gal 2:10; 2 Tim 2:15).

Acknowledges Christ as the head of the Church

This is the climax of the sequence, the one God and Father, who is the one God of one people (cf Josephus Ant 4:201). There can be little doubt that ‘one’ is here intended to make a monotheistic assertion and such an assertion would have been important for Gentile Christians (cf Rom 3:30; 1 Cor 8:4–6; Gal 3:20; 1 Tim 2:5; Jas 2:19), though unnecessary for Jewish Christians whose basic text was Dt 6:4. It also came naturally to Jews to think of God as Father, though this received a new emphasis and direction in the teaching of Jesus. Gentile Christians thus encountered God as Father from the beginning, yet since the idea was not entirely missing from Greek, in particular Stoic, thought, they were conditioned to accept it, even though they had previously understood it in a more pantheistic way. The association of God and Father is found regularly in the Pauline corpus (Rom 1:7; 15:6; 1 Cor 1:3; 2 Cor 1:2, 3; 11:31; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:3), with the words often linked by καί.