Unity of the Church: God the Father, Ephesians 4:1-6

FBC Nettleton: The United Church: One God and Father

Ephesians 4:1–6 (ESV)

“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.”

Paul spends the first 3 chapters of Ephesians laying the doctrinal foundations of the gospel. He goes all the way to the time before the earth began and walks from there to the present moment in the life of the Ephesian church. Ephesians 1:1–4 (ESV), “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

He establishes the truth that Christ is the plan, that our salvation is the result of God’s grace and mercy to us in Christ, that we are saved by faith and not works, and in Christ God has reconciled the world to Himself, and also believers to one another… regardless of their ethnicity and cultural upbringing. As he says in Ephesians 2:13–14 (ESV) “13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility”

… and further more he says in Ephesians 2:19–21 (ESV) “19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

In Ephesians 3 Paul establishes his call from God to bring the “incalculable riches of Christ” to the Gentiles. He writes his prayer for their continued growth and maturity in the gospel. He prays that they will be filled with the fulness of God and rooted and firmly established in love… at which point Paul moves to the intention of his letter to the Ephesians by chapter 4. In fact, 4:1 is the hinge point of the letter Paul has written… he has established the foundations of their faith and declared His ministry and calling to them as one uniquely called to the Gentiles… and then he begins his instruction.

Ephesians 1-3 emphasizes the peace we have with God in Christ and the unity we have with one another… As a result we should not be surprised that Paul builds on that foundation of unity with God and unity with one another in his instructions to the church in Ephesus.

Paul teaches us that the foundation of our faith is also the foundation of our unity.

The foundation of our faith is the also the foundation of our unity

In Ephesians 4:4-6 Paul writes, “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.”

Paul bases the unity of the church in God and the Gospel.

There are many ways that people find unity…

But, as we can see in the world around us, the ways that the world finds unity actual cause division. It is really the act of dividing ourselves into categories of saneness or uniformity that the world refers to as unity. We divide ourselves into categories according to color, gender, finances, ages, politics, teams, etc. And we think we are finding unity in our cultural and personal categories… but in fact we are really experiencing division through the pursuit of what you could call sameness.

“Worldly unity is about sameness. Biblical unity is about oneness.” - Matt Smethurst

Another word for sameness could be uniformity… and, in the church uniformity is often misunderstood as unity. But, we must take not that sameness, or uniformity is not the same thing as unity.

Matt Smethurst is right to point that the unity we see described in the Bible is a oneness. It’s when ethnicities are unity in the gospel and their faith in Christ. As Paul says to the Ephesians, the dividing wall of hostility has been torn down. Galatians 3:28–29 (ESV) says, “28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

This is why it’s so important that we see that unity in the church is displayed through the many different members of the body… rather than through all the parts of the body being the same.

The unity of the church is in God and the Gospel

In Ephesians 4 Paul walks back from the evidences of a unified church and unified way of life to the cause. Ephesians 4:1-3 describes the way that the unified church lives. And in Ephesians 4:4-6 Paul then works from the effect seen in verses 1-3 to the cause of the effect in verses 4-6.

James Montgomery Boice writes, “When we talk about the Trinity it is usually the other way around, and Paul himself generally puts it the other way around. We say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here Paul says, Spirit, Son, and Father. Why is this? I think it is because the apostle is arguing from the effect to the cause. He has said in verse 3, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” This refers to the visible unity the Holy Spirit has given the church. So he starts with the one body, which is visible, and with the Holy Spirit himself.” (James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, 1988), 131–132.)

Paul ends with the beginning when he says “One God and Father.” The beginning of our unity is found in our shared relationship with God the Father.

Let me say that I am undoing the Trinity, because there is only one God and He is Father, Son, and Spirit… but we also know that God is one in essence He is also three in person.

But, our unity in the church is grounded and established in the unique relationship we have with God as Father.

“One God and Father.”

Paul emphasizes God as Father throughout his writings, and you can see it here in Ephesians from the beginning to the end of the letter. (Eph. 1:3, 17; 2:18; 3:14; 5:20).

The emphasis is due to the change in relationship that comes by Faith in Christ through the grace and mercy of God. Apart from Christ and the Gospel God is not our Father.

God is the Creator of all mankind, but He is Father to those He adopts in Christ.

Romans 8:14–15 (ESV)

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

“Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal. 4:6–7)."

John 1:12–13 (ESV) says,

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Our unity is in our redemption

John 14:6–7 (ESV)

“6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

The only way to the Father is by grace through faith in Jesus… and God is only Father to those who have been redeemed and restored to Him.

Our unity is in our identity

We are no longer citizens of this world, when we are saved we become citizens of God’s kingdom… or as Paul describes we become His children… brothers and sisters who have a common Father, Savior, and Spirit.

Jesus tells us to pray to “Our Father”

This is important because it teaches us of our relationship with Him.

This is important because it teaches of our shared identity as His people.

God the Father is our Authority, Protector, Provider, Redeemer, and Deliverer

Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV)

“9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

In the Son, we have become heirs of the Father’s kingdom, co-rulers with him and even judges of the angels (1 Cor. 6:3). This high calling comes with a price tag, for just as the Son glorified his Father while on earth, so we too are called to glorify him (John 17:1–26).

We cannot do this in our own strength, but only in and through the relationship that the Father has entered into with us, through the Son and the Holy Spirit. Just as everything they do is done in relation to the Father, so everything that we are called to do must also be done in the context of obedience to his will. It is to the Father that we pray, through the Son and in the Spirit, because that is the pattern of our relationship to God that he has revealed to us. We pray to the Father because our Creator is also our Redeemer, and it is in that redeeming love that we know him.

As His children we are no longer under the rule of our sin… we are now under His authority and that comes with the relationship as children and the blessings of His love toward us.

We are children in the same family, loving and serving the same Father, so we ought to be able to walk together in unity. Just as in an earthly family, the various members have to give and take in order to keep a loving unity in the home, so God’s heavenly family must do the same.”

(Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 36.)

Practically speaking our unity is expressed in our obedience to God and through our relationships with one another

Our unity is expressed in or obedience to God

Ephesians 4:1 (ESV) “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called”

God’s children are called to live in a manner that represents Him.

“Taking the Lord’s name in vain”

“Be Holy as He is Holy”

And it means living set apart from the world and set apart to God. Just like you set some things aside for specific tasks… Those who belong to God have been set apart for the specific task of living for Him and according to His Word.

Walking worthy of our calling is not just an individual calling, it is a family calling… in fact, you cannot walk worthy of His name and walk along. You cannot be unified with the rest of the body without being in relationship with and to the rest of the body.

Our unity is expressed in our relationships with one another

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.

Practically we see that the unified church is characterized by humility and gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love and eager to maintain the unity of the church Spirit in the bond of peace.

Humble and Gentle

This is how God our Father is toward us

Patient and Long Suffering

This is how God our Father is toward us

For the sake of our repentance and our salvation.. and this grates against the culture of our day

Eager to be at peace with one another

(Not peace at any price.. Paul has already established the doctrinal foundations of the gospel… those are implied and present at this point in his admonishment.)

God’s children want to be at peace with another… they have experienced peace with God through Jesus, and they understand that division is the result of sin… and they don’t want to let any effects or reminders of the fall to fester and exist in the church.

You cannot walk worthy in any manner you choose… you can only walk worthy in a manner that is consistent with the calling you have been given. And your calling as to God… and He instructs us to live according to who He is, what He has said, and what He has done.

In fact, He uses himself as the basis for how we are to live in the OT (Holy as I am holy, I am your God and you are my people, You are mine, etc… and Paul uses the same approach here in the NT by appealing to the unity and work of the Trinity as the basis for the unity and work of the church.

Through the book of Ephesians we find that those who are unified in God and the Gospel are also unified in the way that they live for the Lord.

So we have to ask ourselves… where are we finding our unity in this church? Is our unity in our upbringing? Where we went to school? Who we grew up? How long we have lived here? How long we have been members of the church? In our political views? Social groups? College Sports? Etc…

Or is our unity in God and the Gospel and expressed to one another based on only our relationship with God and our identity as His children?

When we look into the relationships and characteristics of every church that proclaims the name of Jesus… we should find a group of people that would not be together if not for Jesus.

The church is unified by its relationship with the Father and in the way it lives for the glory of God.

Unified in redemption, relationship, and purpose… My prayer is that would be the case for us here tonight!