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 Ephesians Lesson 4

THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT

Ephesians 4:1-16
Key Verse: 4:3

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Four oxen lived in the jungle. They were such great friends that they always kept together. A lion watched them carefully for many days with longing eyes. But he was never able to attack them because whenever he came near they turned their tails one to another so that whichever way the lion approached them he was met by their horns. As time proceeded, however, the lion managed to arouse jealousy among the four oxen, which grew into bitter hostility. As a result, the four oxen kept a distance from each other. Then the lion attacked them one by one and killed them all. It’s really a very sad story. But that’s what is happening to many families and nations and even churches. There are so many broken hearted people because of broken relationships. In today’s passage, Saint Paul teaches the Ephesian Christians that even though we are different from each other, we are called to be one in the unity of the Spirit.

First, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.” (1-6)

Look at verse 1. “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Here, Apostle Paul identifies himself again as a prisoner for the Lord. Why? It’s not because he had no freedom in prison. It’s because he was in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, he was captured by the love of God through Jesus Christ. Paul knew how much the Lord loved him, and he also loved him dearly. There are many people who are prisoners of sinful pleasures. But Paul was prisoner for Christ Jesus. Prior to his imprisonment in Rome, Paul had a chance to stand trial before Festus, the governor of Caesarea and King Agrippa and Bernice. Instead of pleading for their mercy, Paul only talked about the grace of forgiveness of sins and the blessing of the resurrection for all those who believe in Jesus Christ. Then Festus interrupted Paul and shouted, “Paul, you are out of your mind!” Indeed, Paul was so captured by the love of Christ that wherever he went and whomever he met he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was not ashamed to identify himself as a prisoner for the Lord. He was not ashamed to urge the Ephesian Christians to live a life worthy of God’s call to them. In the previous passage, Paul prayed earnestly for them to be rooted and established in the love of Christ so that Christ may dwell in their hearts. But in this chapter, Paul urges them to keep the unity  among the believers in Christ.

How can we keep the unity in Christ Jesus? First of all, we should grow in Christlike virtues. Look at verse 2. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Here, Paul mentions five Christlike virtues, that can bring unity among Christians: humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and love. Most of us know what it means to be humble by definition. We want to be humble rather than be proud. But in reality, it’s very hard to humble ourselves. Yet, Paul said that we should be completely humble, not just superficially.

How can we be completely humble? Humanly speaking, it’s impossible. Was Paul encouraging us to do what we cannot do? No. but we must be aware that to be completely humble does not mean that we can become humble enough so that we don’t have to struggle to be humble any longer. To be completely humble means that we should not stop struggling to humble ourselves before God. Why do we have to struggle so much? It’s because by nature we are proud. One young man was so proud that his Bible teacher gave him a serious prayer topic to be a humble man before God. After months of struggle, the young had a chance to pray with his Bible teacher. He prayed, “Lord, I thank you for making me such a humble man.” The Bible teacher was not happy at all. We should struggle to humble ourselves to the very end of our lives.

Humility is one of the most essential spiritual qualities of God’s children. That is why Jesus encouraged his disciples to learn humility by saying in Matthew 11:29a, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Even though Jesus is the son of the Most High God, he was not proud. He was so humble that he was not offended by anybody or anything. He was indeed completely humble. Humility is the divine nature of Jesus Christ. A few days ago, I talked with a lady on the phone. Since she kept talking to me offensively, I was offended and got angry with her. Then I realized that I was neither humble nor gentle enough to talk with her. True humility comes along with gentleness.

Patience is long suffering toward aggravating people. Martin Luther once said that if he were God, he would have killed all sinful men three times a day. Was he one of the terrorists? No. Obviously he realized that the world is full of aggravating people toward God due to their sins. However, our God is the God of great mercy and patience so that he endures us forever. He does not want anyone to perish but come to repentance. Likewise, we should be patient to the end toward aggravating people. Some people are always late for appointments. Their habitual tardiness can be annoying. Some people are hard to tolerate because of their offensive way of talking and behavior. What shall we do with them? Shall we blow up in anger and try to teach them a lesson? Or shall we ignore them as if they don’t exist? No. We should be patient with them just as our Lord is patient with us. Do you mean we should not say anything whatsoever? Sometime, yes. But being patient with them does not necessarily mean to become a doormat for them. We should be able to gently and prayerfully instruct them in the truth, in the hope that God will grant them repentance.

Paul also encourages us to bear with one another in love. To bear with one another means to forgive one another in love. Many people seem to think that they are the ones who have been patient with the others. So they would say, “I wouldn’t forgive you unless you say ‘I am sorry.’” Sometimes, even when they say “I am sorry,” we are reluctant to forgive them. There are many people who are so unforgiving.  They remember every thing, even something happened around 20 years ago. But Jesus said in Mark 11:25, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Does it mean that we ave forgiven because we forgave others? No. What Jesus meant is that unless we forgive others, we will lose our intimate fellowship with the Lord our God. It’s true that we should forgive others because the Lord also forgave us unconditionally. But we should never forget to ask forgiveness from others because we knowingly and unknowingly offend them also. Therefore, we should learn to say, “I am sorry. Please forgive me!”

Look at verse 3. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Here, we learn that even though we may do many things, keeping the unity of the Spirit among the believers should be the first priority over all other Christian activities. If Christians fight against or remain cold to each other for any reason, we can neither please God nor be a blessing to anybody. Even though it may cost us much sacrifice, we should keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. It’s better to lose humanly and win spiritually than to win humanly and lose spiritually. We should make every effort to seek reconciliation between brothers in Christ, not just once or twice, but even a hundred times if it is necessary. (Mt 5:23,24)

Why it is so important to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit among believers in Christ? It’s because we are inseparable forever. Read verses 4-6. “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Here we learn that all believers in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles, free and slave, black and white, learned and unlearned, are the members of the same, one body of Christ, in whom the same Holy Spirit dwells. We were called to have the same hope in Christ Jesus our Lord. The foundation of our unity is firm and can never be destroyed. Since we cannot split God, we cannot split our unity.

However, there are so many broken relationships among the people. They don’t want to talk to each other or even look at each other, even though they live right next to each other in the same block. To destroy the unity is easy. But to restore or maintain the unity is very difficult. But it’s not impossible to do so. I see many Christians who don’t get along with one another. Although they want to reconcile, they remain separated because they don’t believe that it’s possible to restore their relationship. They think that its’ much better to separate than to struggle to unite each other again. However, we must make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace even if it may take long time and energy. God’s work is not separation but union. May the Lord heal all the broken relationships and enable us to keep the unity of the Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, diversity and unity in the body of Christ (7-12)

Look at verses 7 and 8. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:’When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.’” Verse 8 is a quotation from Psalm 68:8. King David asked the Lord’s help to rescue him from his enemies as he did for the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai in times of Moses. Indeed, the Lord came down and defeated his enemies. David praised the Lord saying that when the Lord ascended to heaven, he led captives in his train and received gifts from them. Here “train” does not refer to the subway train. It refers to a long line of moving people. But Paul was saying that our Lord Jesus, who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, gave gifts to those whom he had redeemed through the Holy Spirit instead of receiving gifts from them.

Verse 7 says that to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. Here, the word “grace” in Greek is Charis. But what Paul is referring to is Charismata, which means gifts, the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here we learn that saving grace (charis) is given equally to all who believe in Jesus Christ, but the spiritual gifts (charismata) are given to each one of us in different degrees according to the generosity of the Lord. There are nearly 20 kinds of spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament. According to 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, there are different kinds of spiritual gifts by the same Holy Spirit, such as the message of wisdom, the message of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. According to Romans 12:6, there are the gifts of prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing, governing and showing mercy.

Therefore, the way of doing the ministry and the role in the ministry can be different from one another according to the spiritual gifts. But all gifts are equally because they are given by the same Lord through the same Spirit. Therefore, we don’t need compare our gifts with others. And no one should boast or feel inferior about their gifts. Why not? It’s because the ultimate purpose of God’s giving different gifts is never for our selfish purpose but for building up the body of Christ. We should pray to recognize what kinds of gifts each of us received from God. Once we find it, we should develop it more and more and use it diligently in order to make a profit for our Lord Jesus Christ. (Mt 25:14-30)

But in verse 11, Apostle Paul mentions only five of them, such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, which are all teaching gifts of the Holy Spirit. Why? It’s because although all spiritual gifts are important, teaching gifts are the most essential to build up the church of Christ on the foundation of God’s truth. According to verse 12, these gifts are to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ be built up. If we have many excellent Bible teachers among us, God can build our fellowship to be very strong and useful for world mission, like the Antioch church. As we read Acts chapter 13, we find that in the church at Antioch there were apostles, prophets and teachers, who were excellent Bible teachers, such as Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen and Saul, who is also called Paul. The church in Antioch was an international congregation, the mixture of Jews and Gentiles with many spiritual gifts. But they were united and harmonious in the Spirit because each of the members was deeply rooted in love and truth of God.

Third, unity demands maturity (13-16)

Look at verse 13. “Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attainting to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Here, Saint Paul instructs us that we need to become spiritually mature in order to keep the unity of the Spirit. What does it mean “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God”? Does it mean that we should all agree to one set of theological concepts? Or does unity in Christ mean that we should sing the same kind of Hymns, have the same worship programs, or even wear the same style of clothes? No. Unity is different from uniformity. We can be truly united only through spiritual maturity, through humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and love, attaining to the fullness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we should not remain childish. Look at verses and 14 and 15. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ.” Generally we love children because they are innocent, humble and full of learning mind. Definitely we should be like little children to be humble, pure and ready to learn. But at the same time, we should not be childish. People who are spiritually immature have a shallow understanding of people and things around them. They easily become judgmental, and fall into doubt. One moment, they are full of joy and peace, then the next moment, they fall into doubt and fear. If the fellowship of Christ is full of spiritual infants, there can only be disunity and disharmony in the fellowship. Therefore, each member of the fellowship of Christ should grows mature spiritually up in the fullness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the head of the body of Christ.

Look at verse 16. “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.” Although we are different in gifts and character, we are one body, joined and held together by ligaments. If one part of the body is malfunctioning and does not grow, we all suffer together. But if everyone is healthy and growing spiritually, there is immeasurable joy among us.

Unity in Christ among the believers is like playing an orchestra, with so many different kinds of instruments. When they are united, they make beautiful harmony. But when they are not united, they only make noise. God did not make us to be the same kind of factory-made Christians. We are all different from one another in many ways. Perhaps, we will never be the same. The differences between us can be the strength to hold us together, not to divide us from each other. We should not let even the small seed of disunity grow until it grows too big to handle. Hebrews 12:16 says, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” We are all in the same boat. United we stand, divided we fall. We cannot afford to ignore even a small possibility of disunity. Satan wants to divide us by all means, but our Lord eagerly wants us to be united. Therefore, let us build up one another in love. May the Lord help us to live a life worthy of God’s call, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.