Walk Worthy in Unity

Ephesians chapter 4, we'll be reading the first 16 verses. And one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth.

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ 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, 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 and deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto him who is the head into Christ, 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. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for its beauty, its goodness, its truth. And we thank you that you have sent your Spirit to open the Word to us, to teach us of Christ. We ask, Father, that even in this hour the Spirit would teach us that we would be transformed and changed by your Word, that because of the truth of who you are and what you have done and what you have spoken, our lives would be transformed and we would walk in a way that is worthy of the calling you've placed on our lives. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated. Tonight we start a new section in the book of Ephesians. Last time we just did a quick overview of all that God has done for us in Christ. In the first three chapters Paul over and over says this is what's true in Christ, in him. This is what God has done for us in the Beloved. And now he begins this new section in chapter 4 and he says, Therefore, and he begins to explain to us how we are to live in light of all that God has done as he's put it forth in the doctrine of those first three chapters. This word, therefore, is a pivot point, a hinge, if you will. It's kind of like a swinging door.

You know, it has access in both directions. The word, therefore, points back to what he said in the first three chapters, but it also is pointing forward to what he's going to call us to in these next three chapters as he points us forward to a faithful practice of Christian walk. Therefore, also declares the relationship between doctrine and practice. You know, sometimes we get a tendency to focus in one direction or the other, either putting our emphasis and focus on doctrine or our emphasis to focus on practical Christianity. But the reality is that the doctrine that does not lead to right living is not good doctrine.

And right living has to be grounded in right doctrine. And so this word, therefore, introduces this new section as we begin our journey through the last three chapters of Ephesians. There is a word that Paul repeats throughout these next three chapters that is a kind of a key to the message of what he's trying to call us to in these three chapters. It begins in chapter four, verse one, calling us to walk worthily in a manner that is worthy of the calling, a worthy walk of unity. In verse 17 of chapter four, he talks about walking differently in newness of life. In chapter five, verse two, he says we're to walk in love, sacrificial love like Christ has for us. In verse eight of chapter five, walk as children of light. We're to walk acceptable to the Lord in openness. In chapter five, verse 15 and 17, he speaks of walking perfectly in wisdom. And then in chapter six, that wonderful passage, verse 10 through 18, where he talks about our victorious walk in strength and power of the Lord. And so we're going to be looking at these individually as we go through this. It's quite a chunk to take at one time, but I think this will help us to get really an overview, a grasp of the message of this book. And then at another time down the road somewhere, maybe we'll have opportunity to dig into it verse by verse.

But I want to take these big leaps as we look tonight at the first 16 verses of chapter four. So as we consider these, we will first look at verses two and three, where we see the nature of this worthy walk, the characteristics of this worthy walk. The first characteristic that he mentions is that of humility. Verse two, he says that in lowliness and meekness, we are to walk.

Humility is the beginning point. It's in a sense the entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus began his sermon on the mount with the Beatitudes and he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Realizing my spiritual poverty, being convicted of my sin is what drives me to Christ. And the more I learn of him, the more I realize just how bankrupt I am in light of Christ, his holiness, his goodness. And so Jesus calls us to learn from him. He says that he is lowly in heart and we're to learn of him. Knowing my own depravity and my own inadequacy and inability leads me to this lowliness of mind and heart that Paul is speaking of here.

It fosters an attitude of meekness that is a submission of myself to the control of the master. That's the progression that Jesus gives us in those Beatitudes. He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Those who realize that they are spiritually bankrupt have no merit before God.

And he says, Blessed are those who mourn. There's the brokenness of realizing that condition. The fact that my heart is wicked, I am totally depraved and I can't change it.

I can clean up the outward behavior a little bit, but I can't change my heart. And there's brokenness over that. And then the only solution, of course, is the submission to the father, the meekness that is really just putting yourself under the control of the master, being submissive to him. So this realization of our true spiritual condition leads us to dependence on Christ. And it also leads us to be patient with others. He says that we are with long suffering to forbear one another in love. The King James word is long suffering. I think ESV says patience.

We have kind of watered down the idea of patience somewhat, but I think that old King James word kind of captures it, long suffering. If you're really going through what he's talking about here, there's pain and difficulty involved in that. Sometimes we don't like to look at the long haul of things.

My wife had a piano student who was interested in learning to play piano, but didn't really care for the practice part, but realized that that was a necessary thing. Her comment was, I didn't know it was going to go on forever. Sometimes we feel like that in our relationship with other people. There is that long suffering, bearing with other people, forbearing is the King James word there. We most often think about this in terms of putting up with somebody who is really difficult to get along with, really difficult to handle and relate to. But the focus of this word really is not on that other person that you're putting up with. The focus is on your restraint, your self-control. That's what forbear means.

It has to do with my controlling, my response, my restraint, my self-control. And so Paul says that this bearing with the other person is to be done in love, forbearing one another in love. It's possible to bear with somebody and some difficult person in your life and you put up with it, but you do it in such a way that your attitude lets everybody know how much you're suffering and how bad it is for you and what your situation is like and you just want everybody to empathize with you.

Bearing with another in love means that there is a patient, somebody defined patients one time as accepting a difficult situation from God and not giving him a timeframe to get rid of it. We bear up under difficulty and we do it in love. So these are the characteristics of a walk that is worthy of the calling that God has placed on our life. Most significantly, this worthy walk, though, is one of unity, oneness. The ESV says eager to keep this oneness. The King James has the word endeavoring.

They're both right because the Greek word really has a twofold thrust. It has the idea of haste and speed, but it also has the idea of work and energy and hard work. So there's a necessity for diligence and earnestness as well as the eagerness to maintain this unity. The necessity of unity demands that we be both eager and diligent to keep this in the body. There's no room for apathy or lackadaisical attitude. We have to be on guard and that's what that word keep really means.

It means to guard, to maintain. You see, we don't create the unity in the body. We don't come up with this by how we act and behave and relate to each other. The unity is there because we are in Christ.

Someone put it like this. If you're in Christ and I'm in Christ, we are one whether we like each other or not. There is a sense in which God has created the oneness of the body and we are one because of his work. We are chosen in Christ. We are adopted into the body, baptized into Christ. We are sealed in Christ by the Spirit. And so we are to endeavor and be quick to maintain and keep this unity of the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who effectually calls us. It is the Spirit who regenerates us and who renews. It is the Spirit who creates this oneness in the body that we are to keep and to guard.

And so Paul says that we are to endeavor to be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The word there is a compound word in Greek. The prefix is one that means togetherness.

And it's a very strong word. There are three different words that are used for this idea of being with or being associated with something. But this one is one that has the idea of like the ligaments and tendons in the body that hold the joints together. And so we are to do this work to keep the unity in the bond of peace. This, as I was looking at this, reminded me of the hymn that we sometimes sing. Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts together in Christian love.

The fellowship of kindred minds is like that above. It's like the oneness between the Father and the Son. That's what Christ prayed for. So this bond, this tie that holds us together, is the bond of peace. It's a supernatural peace. In Christ we have peace with God. We're justified and we have peace with God. But we also experience the peace of God as we submit ourselves to him. As we stop worrying and being anxious about everything and we put everything before him and know his peace. And so in Christ we are made one with each other.

Back in chapter 2, and we'll do this along the way as we look at this practical application. We'll point back to the fact that what Paul calls us to in these three chapters is grounded in the doctrine that he gave in the first three. And here he's talking about this matter of peace. And in chapter 2 verse 14 he says that Christ himself is our peace because he has made us one and broken down the wall of partition between us.

Now the two that Paul is talking about being made one there were Jews and Gentiles. That was a pretty strong division, wasn't it? And we can still see that going on in our day between the Israelis and the Arabs.

It was a constant war and it was pretty strong. But we have our own divisions, don't we? We have in our day and here in America we have Republicans and Democrats, don't we? And it's pretty divided these days. We have the leftists and the rightists and everything in between.

And just one, I have to ask myself, do I really believe that a left-leaning liberal can be a Christian? In Christ, those walls are torn down and we become one in him, in that bond of peace. Christ has made us one and we must eagerly and diligently guard that unity. We need to avoid quarrelsomeness.

We don't need to be going around looking for a fight. We need to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So why this focus on unity, the unity of the Spirit?

Why is this so vital to the church? Well, we are the family of God, the bride of Christ. And we are to be a reflection of God himself.

He is the one that we are to be like. We are made one in Christ and this oneness is the reason for this worthy walk. We are to display the oneness of God, the unity of God. In fact, when we go back into those first three chapters again, we find that this oneness, having everything united, is God's purpose ultimately. In chapter 1, in verse 10, he says that in dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, even in him. God's purpose ultimately is to make everything one in Christ. And this oneness is what Christ prayed for in John's gospel in that wonderful high priestly prayer in John 17. Christ prayed for this kind of oneness and unity in the body. John 17, verse 20, he says, I do not ask for these only, that is the disciples he was with, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

That includes us, doesn't it? That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you've given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.

That boggles the mind, doesn't it? God the Father is in Christ. Christ is in us.

All one. That's his purpose. That's what he's working toward. And then back in Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 4, he gives us seven different facets of this oneness that he's talking about. First of all, he says there's one body. This is one of Paul's favorite metaphors for the church. Over 20 times in his letters he uses this to picture the church. The body of Christ is the church. And as we move through this text, we'll find a little later on that this understanding of the church as a body is applied to the functioning and maturing of the church. But as we've already seen, this is not just some kind of mechanical organizational unity and oneness. It's not a matter of getting all the denominations together and all the churches together and kind of coming under one umbrella in some sort of organizational way.

That's not what he's talking about here. We are in Christ as part of the body, and there's oneness and unity that the Spirit alone creates in the fellowship of those who believe in Christ. And it is the Spirit that makes us part of the body. And so he says there's one body, there's one Spirit, of course speaking of the Holy Spirit there, who does that work of creating this unity, of putting us in the body, making us a part of it, giving us function in the body. A couple of things that the Holy Spirit does in that process. Number one, he convicts us of sin. That's one of the major roles that the Spirit has as he dwells us.

He convicts us of sin, and it also reveals to us God's holiness and shows us how really sinful that sin is. It's essential that we understand the oneness of the body, and we need to know that the source of that oneness is the Spirit himself. The Holy Spirit is the source of that unity. So there's one body, one Spirit, even as there's one hope of your calling.

One hope. You know, hope is associated with the Spirit of God. The hope that is spoken of in Scripture is the Christian hope is not just some kind of wishful thinking.

Well, I hope it happens kind of thing. No, the Spirit indwells us and bears witness with our spirit and pours the love of God into us in such a way that we have a certainty. We know this hope because we are certain God will be true to his promises. And so the Spirit is given to us, and it is a guarantee of what is to come, a guarantee of our inheritance in Christ. Again, back in chapter 1, verse 14, it says that the Spirit is given as a guarantee until the redemption of the purchased possession, all to the praise of God's glory.

We have a certain hope, and what a hope it is that we enjoy. The love of God poured out in our hearts and the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So one body, one Spirit, one hope. And then verse 5, it says there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Paul moves from the Spirit, which we refer to as the third person of the Trinity, now to the second person of the Trinity. The Lord is the second person of the Trinity, and he is Lord, and there's no other. He alone is the Lord of lords, the King of kings, the one who was sent to reveal to us the love of God as he died in our place. So the oneness that we are to maintain is grounded in him.

In fact, it is the Father's ultimate purpose, as I said, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and on earth, all brought into oneness in him. One faith, the faith that was once delivered to the saints, Jude calls it, there are certain things that are absolutes in the Christian faith, and we need to hang onto these. We need to, you know, there's always been this attempt on the Satan's part to destroy and to diminish and to take away.

And, you know, back to the beginning of the 20th century, liberalism was doing everything to tear down some of those essentials, those fundamentals, and a group of men that you're familiar with that were largely Presbyterian put together what are called the fundamentals of the faith. And we recognize that there are essential truths that are absolute and universal and that must be held to as the faith. And so, again, this worthy walk that we're called to is grounded in doctrine. And later on in verse 13, Paul is going to talk about coming to the unity of the faith. One faith, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Baptism is what, in a sense, incorporates us into the body, into the one body. In writing to the Romans, the apostle refers to the members of the church as those who have been baptized into Christ. This is our identification with Christ and with his body, the church, through this baptism. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. And then in verse 6, finally, he says there's one God. So many times the structure of the scripture undergirds and points us to the message of the scripture. That's why one theologian I heard say one time, said, I got my method of Bible study from Colonel Sanders.

Cut the chicken at the joints. The message is often revealed in the structure and how the scripture is put together. And it's fascinating how things like groupings and numbers and different aspects of the structure point us to the meaning.

They're bound up with the meaning of the text. Here in this repetitive declaration of oneness, we see three groups. There's a group of three in one verse, a group of three in the next verse.

And then the final one of the seven is threefold in its expression. So we have in the first group, one body, one spirit, one hope. And then he moves to the second person, the Trinity. And he talks about one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And then one God, the Father of all who is above all and through all and in all. And so you've got three and three and one that is divided into three, making up all seven, completeness, wholeness of the Spirit, Son and the Father.

Fascinating. One God. But now note that there is an expression of the roles of these things. If we look at this, as we see the Trinity expressed here, it is the Spirit who regenerates and seals us in the body.

We see that back in chapter one. It is the Lord Christ in whom we believe or have faith and with whom we're identified being baptized into his death and into his body. God the Father over all. And so in this wonderful expression of the oneness that he's speaking of, he has described the nature of this worthy walk in unity.

And now he gives us the reason for this oneness of the body, our oneness with Christ and with each other. But how do we do that? We have trouble getting along, don't we? We have trouble being one. We tend to – well, I saw a little slogan recently that said, I don't argue, I just explain to you why I'm right. And that's kind of the attitude we have, isn't it?

We have trouble getting along. And so we need to be enabled and empowered by God himself for this worthy walk of unity. The enabling power that is at work both in the individual believer and in the church as a whole, both in the members, the individual parts and in the whole body.

This is what he's pointing to beginning in verse seven. He says, Unto every one of us is given the gift of grace according to the measure, the gift of Christ. It is Christ's gift of grace to each believer that enables and empowers.

I like the King James reading there. To every one of us this grace is given. All the members of the body are given grace from the Lord. And all the members of the body are necessary to the unity of the body. Everyone has a function in the body, a role to play. And verse 16, and it kind of summarizes it all speaks of the whole body being held together and able to work because every part of the body is working properly. Every one in the body is necessary to its proper function and to keeping the unity of the spirit.

There's no possibility of keeping the unity of the spirit apart from the proper working of every part of the body. We all know what it means when one part of the body stops functioning like it should. I have a residual effect from polio. They call it a drop foot. And what that means is I can't tap my left foot. I can only tap my right foot.

Can't pick that toe up. And that just does all kinds of things to the working of the body as a whole. You know, if I do some woodworking occasionally and I use a hammer and every now and then I have been known to miss the nail and hit my finger and all of a sudden the whole body is focused on that thumb. And the same thing is true of the body of Christ.

When one part isn't functioning properly, when one part is in pain and hurting, it affects the whole body. And so we need to be aware that every part of the body is necessary. And so Christ gives grace to every one of us, to each of us, a measure of grace. And not only does he give grace to the members of the body, he also gives grace to the body as a whole. One of the ways that he accomplishes this is by means of what we might call gifted men. Christ's gift of grace to the church is expressed through gifted men.

That's the means by which he gives this grace. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, these are the ones that are listed here. We no longer have apostles with capital A, but of course we do have missionaries who are sent to proclaim and declare that same truth.

We no longer have people who are eyewitnesses of his resurrection who spent three years walking with him, but we have the word of God and those who are called to proclaim it in all parts of the world. So that's the means by which he gives this grace through the proclamation of truth, his word. There's also the purpose that he reveals here in verse 12. He says, these gifts, these gifted men are given for the perfecting of the saints, the work of ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ. I think sometimes we misread that because it often is translated in such a way that we have the same linking word there for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Actually in Greek, there are two different words used there, and we might translate it this way. These gifts are given for the equipping, the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ. These gifts are given to equip the body so that they do the work of the ministry and build up the body of Christ. It's not so these gifted men do the building up.

It's so they equip the body to build up itself. We'll see that more in verse 16. Christ has given these gifts to the body as a whole, and the result is unity and maturity. We see that as we turned into verse 13, and we find the fruit of this worthy walk of unity. Verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

One of the first things that happens as the body is growing and walking in this way is there's doctrinal stability. I love the fact that we have a creed that has stood for hundreds of years. It is a good expression of the reality and the truth of the doctrine which we hold. Paul speaks here of coming to, attaining to the unity of the faith, coming to a place where we believe the truth, the absolutes that are necessary.

We don't get thrown around by the storms that come. There's security in the face of liberalism and modernism and atheism and all of the isms that come against the reality and the truth of what God has proclaimed. And so there's doctrinal stability. And there's Christ-like maturity. Verse 15 says, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ. We grow into maturity in Christ. And this happens with a loving honesty, speaking the truth in love, sometimes we get out of balance.

I was talking with someone after Sunday school this morning talking about the fact that our church is often called to the idea that there are double ditches beside the road and you can fall off either side. And we get out of balance, don't we? Sometimes we just, we want to speak everything in love, but we're not speaking truth. Or we want to speak the truth and we get brutal with it and we don't speak in love. But Paul says we're to be speaking the truth in love, loving honesty about what God has declared. And that love is what builds up the church.

It is edifying. Verse 16 says from him, from Christ, the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working and the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The body is built up in love as we speak truth to one another, every part working, every member of the body doing what God has equipped and called them to do. So how do I respond to this?

How do I take this home with me? I ask myself a couple of questions. First of all, am I doing anything to disrupt the unity of the body to sow discord? God hates that.

God hates that. And we must guard and be eager, diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit, not do anything to disrupt that unity and that oneness of the Spirit. Another question I ask myself, am I growing individually in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ? And am I doing my part for the effectual working of the body, exercising my God-given role of building up the church? We have a wonderful fellowship here at Grace, a like-mindedness, a passion for the truth.

It encourages and edifies. And we need to haste, be eager and diligent, hardworking to keep that, maintain it, guard it. May God make it so.

Let's pray. Father, we are astounded with the fact that you have chosen us to be a part of your family, to be made holy and blameless, to be made one with you and with each other. And Father, you've said that that oneness of fellowship of love in Christ is what will declare to the world that we are who we say we are and that Christ is who he says he is. And I pray, Father, that that would be true of us individually and as a body. May we walk in a manner that's worthy of the calling in oneness and unity. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.