| Ephesians 4:1-16. NKJV | Ephesians 4:1-16 NRSVue |
| Walk in Unity
4 I, therefore, the prisoner [a]of the Lord, [b]beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in [c]you all. Spiritual Gifts 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, 9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also [d]first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the [e]edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Read full chapter Footnotes
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Unity in the Body of Christ
4 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg 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 making every effort 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 of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.[a]
7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high, he made captivity itself a captive;[b]
9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended[c] into the lower parts of the earth?[d] 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity,[e] to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. Read full chapter Footnotes
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1 I, therefore, the prisoner [a]of (in) the Lord, [b]beseech (exhort encourage) you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
From Barclay’s Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-16 …
a man enters into any society, he takes upon himself the obligation to live a certain kind of life; and if he fails in that obligation, he hinders the aims of his society and brings discredit on its name. Here Paul paints the picture of the kind of life that a man must live when he enters the fellowship of the Christian Church.
The first three verses shine like jewels. Here we have five of the great basic words of the Christian faith.
(i) First, and foremost, there is humility. The Greek is tapeinophrosune (GSN5012), and this is actually a word which the Christian faith coined. In Greek there is no word for humility which has not some suggestion of meanness attaching to it. Later Basil was to describe it as “the gem casket of all the virtues”; but before Christianity humility was not counted as a virtue at all. The ancient world looked on humility as a thing to be despised.
The Greek had an adjective for humble, which is closely connected with this noun–the adjective tapeinos (GSN5011). A word is always known by the company it keeps and this word keeps ignoble company. It is used in company with the Greek adjectives which mean slavish (andrapododes, doulikos, douloprepes), ignoble (agennes), of no repute (adoxos), cringing (chamaizelos, which is the adjective which describes a plant which trails along the ground). In the days before Jesus humility was looked on as a cowering, cringing, servile, ignoble quality; and yet Christianity sets it in the very forefront of the virtues. Whence then comes this Christian humility, and what does it involves
(a) Christian humility comes from self-knowledge. Bernard said of it, “It is the virtue by which a man becomes conscious of his own unworthiness. in consequence of the truest knowledge of himself.”
To face oneself is the most humiliating thing in the world. Most of us dramatize ourselves. Somewhere there is a story of a man who before he went to sleep at night dreamed his waking dreams. He would see himself as the hero of some thrilling rescue from the sea or from the flames; he would see himself as an orator holding a vast audience spell-bound; he would see himself walking to the wicket in a Test Match at Lord’s and scoring a century; he would see himself in some international football match dazzling the crowd with his skill; always he was the centre of the picture. Most of us are essentially like that. And true humility comes when we face ourselves and see our weakness, our selfishness, our failure in work and in personal relationships and in achievement.
(b) Christian humility comes from setting life beside the life of Christ and in the light of the demands of God.
God is perfection and to satisfy perfection is impossible. So long as we compare ourselves with second bests, we may come out of the comparison well. It is when we compare ourselves with perfection that we see our failure. A girl may think herself a very fine pianist until she hears one of the world’s outstanding performers. A man may think himself a good golfer until he sees one of the world’s masters in action. A man may think himself something of a scholar until he picks up one of the books of the great old scholars of encylopaedic knowledge. A man may think himself a fine preacher until he listens to one of the princes of the pulpit.
Self-satisfaction depends on the standard with which we compare ourselves. If we compare ourselves with our neighbour, we may well emerge very satisfactorily from the comparison. But the Christian standard is Jesus Christ and the demands of God’s perfection–and against that standard there is no room for pride.
(c) There is another way of putting this. R. C. Trench said that humility comes from the constant sense of our own creatureliness. We are in absolute dependence on God.
We are creatures, and for the creature there can be nothing but humility in the presence of the creator.
Christian humility is based on the sight of self, the vision of Christ, and the realization of God.
(ii) The second of the great Christian virtues is what the King James Version calls meekness and what we have translated gentleness. The Greek noun is praotes (GSN4236), the adjective praus (GSN4239), and these are beyond translation by any single English word. Praus has two main lines of meanings.
(a) Aristotle, the great Greek thinker and teacher, has much to say about praotes (GSN4236). It was his custom to define every virtue as the mean between two extremes. On one side there was excess of some quality, on the other defect; and in between there was exactly its right proportion. Aristotle defines praotes (GSN4236) as the mean between being too angry and never being angry at all. The man who is praus (GSN4239) is the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. To put that in another way, the man who is praus (GSN4239) is the man who is kindled by indignation at the wrongs and the sufferings of others, but is never moved to anger by the wrongs and the insults he himself has to bear. So, then, the man who is (as in the King James Version), meek is the man who is always angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time.
(b) There is another fact which will illumine the meaning of this word. Praus (GSN4239) is the Greek for an animal which has been trained and domesticated until it is completely under control. Therefore the man who is praus (GSN4239) is the man who has every instinct and every passion under perfect control. It would not be right to say that such a man is entirely self-controlled, for such self-control is beyond human power, but it would be right to say that such a man is God-controlled.
Here then is the second great characteristic of the true member of the Church. He is the man who is so God-controlled that he is always angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time.
(iii) The third great quality of the Christian is what the King James Version calls long-suffering. The Greek is makrothumia (GSN3115). This word has two main directions of meaning.
(a) It describes the spirit which will never give in and which, because it endures to the end, will reap the reward. Its meaning can best be seen from the fact that a Jewish writer used it to describe what he called “the Roman persistency which would never make peace under defeat.” In their great days the Romans were unconquerable; they might lose a battle, they might even lose a campaign, but they could not conceive of losing a war. In the greatest disaster it never occurred to them to admit defeat. Christian patience is the spirit which never admits defeat, which will not be broken by any misfortune or suffering, by any disappointment or discouragement, but which persists to the end.
(b) But makrothumia (GSN3115) has an even more characteristic meaning than that. It is the characteristic Greek word for patience with men. Chrysostom defined it as the spirit which has the power to take revenge but never does so. Lightfoot defined it as the spirit which refuses to retaliate. To take a very imperfect analogy–it is often possible to see a puppy and a very large dog together. The puppy yaps at the big dog, worries him, bites him, and all the time the big dog, who could annihilate the puppy with one snap of his teeth, bears the puppy’s impertinence with a forbearing dignity. Makrothumia (GSN3115) is the spirit which bears insult and injury without bitterness and without complaint. It is the spirit which can suffer unpleasant people with graciousness and fools without irritation.
The thing which best of all gives its meaning is that the New Testament repeatedly uses it of God. Paul asks the impenitent sinner if he despises the patience of God (Rom.2:4). Paul speaks of the perfect patience of Jesus to him (1Tim.1:16). Peter speaks of God’s patience waiting in the days of Noah (1Pet.3:20). He says that the forbearance of our Lord is our salvation (2Pet.3:15). If God had been a man, he would long since in sheer irritation have wiped the world out for its disobedience. The Christian must have the patience towards his fellow men which God has shown to him.
(iv) The fourth great Christian quality is love. Christian love was something so new that the Christian writers had to invent a new word for it; or, at least, they had to employ a very unusual Greek word–agape (GSN0026).
In Greek there are four words for love. There is eros (compare GSN2037), which is the love between a man and a maid and which involves sexual passion. There is philia (GSN5373) which is the warm affection which exists between those who are very near and very dear to each other. There is storge (compare GSN0794) which is characteristically the word for family affection. And there is agape (GSN0026), which the King James Version translates sometimes love and sometimes charity.
The real meaning of agape (GSN0026) is unconquerable benevolence. If we regard a person with agape (GSN0026), it means that nothing that he can do will make us seek anything but his highest good. Though he injure us and insult us, we will never feel anything but kindness towards him. That quite clearly means that this Christian love is not an emotional thing. This agape (GSN0026) is a thing, not only of the emotions, but also of the will. It is the ability to retain unconquerable good will to the unlovely and the unlovable, towards those who do not love us, and even towards those whom we do not like. Agape (GSN0026) is that quality of mind and heart which compels a Christian never to feel any bitterness, never to feel any desire for revenge, but always to seek the highest good of every man no matter what he may be.
(v) These four great virtues of the Christian life–humility, gentleness, patience, love–issue in a fifth, peace. It is Paul’s advice and urgent request that the people to whom he is writing should eagerly preserve “the sacred oneness” which should characterize the true Church.
Peace may be defined as right relationships between man and man. This oneness, this peace, these right relationships can be preserved only in one way. Every one of the four great Christian virtues depends on the obliteration of self. So long as self is at the centre of things, this oneness can never fully exist. In a society where self predominates, men cannot be other than a disintegrated collection of individualistic and warring units. But when self dies and Christ springs to life within our hearts. then comes the peace, the oneness, which is the great hall-mark of the true Church.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in [c]you (NU omits you; M us) all.
From Barclay’s Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-16 …
Paul goes on to set down the basis on which Christian unity is founded.
(i) There is one body. Christ is the head and the Church is the body. No brain can work through a body which is split into fragments. Unless there is a coordinated oneness in the body, the designs of the head are frustrated. The oneness of the Church is essential for the work of Christ. That does not need to be a mechanical oneness of administration and of human organization; but it does need to be a oneness founded on a common love of Christ and of every part for the other.
(ii) There is one Spirit. The word pneuma (GSN4151) in Greek means both spirit and breath; it is in fact the usual word for breath. Unless the breath be in the body, the body is dead; and the vitalizing breath of the body of the Church is the Spirit of Christ. There can be no Church without the Spirit; and there can be no receiving of the Spirit without prayerful waiting for him.
(iii) There is one hope in our calling. We are all proceeding towards the same goal. This is the great secret of the unity of Christians. Our methods, our organization, even some of our beliefs may be different; but we are all striving towards the one goal of a world redeemed in Christ.
(iv) There is one Lord. The nearest approach to a creed which the early Church possessed was the short sentence: “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Php.2:11). As Paul saw it, it was God’s dream that there should come a day when all men would make this confession. The word used for Lord is kurios (GSN2962). Its two usages in ordinary Greek show us something of what Paul meant. It was used for master in contra-distinction to servant or slave; and it was the regular designation of the Roman Emperor. Christians are joined together because they are all in the possession and in the service of the one Master and King.
(v) There is one faith. Paul did not mean that there is one creed. Very seldom indeed does the word faith mean a creed in the New Testament. By faith the New Testament nearly always means the complete commitment of the Christian to Jesus Christ. Paul means that all Christians are bound together because they have made a common act of complete surrender to the love of Jesus Christ. They may describe their act of surrender in different terms; but, however they describe it, that surrender is the one thing common to all of them.
(vi) There is one baptism. In the early Church baptism was usually adult baptism, because men and women were coming direct from heathenism into the Christian faith. Therefore, before anything else, baptism was a public confession of faith. There was only one way for a Roman soldier to join the army; he had to take the oath that he would be true for ever to his emperor. Similarly, there was only one way to enter the Christian Church–the way of public confession of Jesus Christ.
(vii) There is one God. See what Paul says about the God in whom we believe.
He is the Father of all; in that phrase is enshrined the love of God. The greatest thing about the Christian God, is not that he is king, not that he is judge, but that he is Father. The Christian idea of God begins in love.
He is above all; in that phrase is enshrined the control of God. No matter what things may look like God is in control. There may be floods; but “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood” (Ps.29:10).
He is through all; in that phrase is enshrined the providence of God. God did not create the world and set it going as a man might wind up a clockwork toy and leave it to run down. God is all through his world, guiding, sustaining, loving.
He is in all; in that phrase is enshrined the presence of God in all life. It may be that Paul took the germ of this idea from, the Stoics. The Stoics believed that God was a fire purer than any earthly fire; and they believed that what gave a man life was that a spark of that fire which was God came and dwelt in his body. It was Paul’s belief that in everything there is God.
It is the Christian belief that we live in a God-created, God-controlled, God-sustained, God-filled world.
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also [d]first (NU omits first) descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.).
From Barclay’s Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-16 …
Paul turns to another aspect of his subject. He has been talking about the qualities of the members of Christ’s Church; now he is going to talk of their functions in the Church. He begins by laying down what was for him an essential truth–that every good thing a man has is the gift of the grace of Christ.
“And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are His alone.”
To make his point about Christ the giver of gifts, Paul quotes, with a very significant difference, from Ps.68:18. This Psalm describes a king’s conquering return. He ascends on high; that is to say, he climbs the steep road of Mount Zion into the streets of the Holy City. He brings in his captive band of prisoners; that is to say, he marches through the streets with his prisoners in chains behind him to demonstrate his conquering power. Now comes the difference. The Psalm speaks next about the conqueror receiving gifts. Paul changes it to read, “gave gifts to men.”
In the Old Testament the conquering king demanded and received gifts from men: in the New Testament the conqueror Christ offers and gives gifts to men. That is the essential difference between the two Testaments. In the Old Testament a jealous God insists on tribute from men; in the New Testament a loving God pours out his love to men. That indeed is the good news.
Then, as so often, Paul’s mind goes off at a word. He has used the word ascended, and that makes him think of Jesus. And it makes him say a very wonderful thing. Jesus descended into this world when he entered it as a man; Jesus ascended from this world when he left it to return to his glory. Paul’s great thought is that the Christ who ascended and the Christ who descended are one and the same person. What does that mean? It means that the Christ of glory is the same as the Jesus who trod this earth; still he loves all men; still he seeks the sinner; still he heals the sufferer; still he comforts the sorrowing; still he is the friend of outcast men and women. The ascended Christ is still the lover of the souls of men.
Still another thought strikes Paul. Jesus ascended up on high. But he did not ascend up on high to leave the world; he ascended up on high to fill the world with his presence. When Jesus was here in the flesh, he could only be in one place at one time; he was under all the limitations of the body; but when he laid this body aside and returned to glory, he was liberated from the limitations of the body and was able then to be everywhere in all the world through his Spirit. To Paul the ascension of Jesus meant not a Christ-deserted but a Christ-filled world.
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the [e]edifying (building up) of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
From Barclay’s Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-16 …
There is a special interest in this passage because it gives us a picture of the organization and the administration of the early Church. In the early Church there were three kinds of office-bearers. There were a few whose writ and authority ran throughout the whole Church. There were many whose ministry was not confined to one place but who carried out a wandering ministry, going wherever the Spirit moved them. There were some whose ministry was a local ministry confined to the one congregation and the one place.
(i) The apostles were those whose authority ran throughout the whole Church. The apostles included more than the Twelve. Barnabas was an apostle (Ac.14:4, Ac.14:14). James, the brother of our Lord, was an apostle (1Cor.15:7; Gal. 1:19). Silvanus was an apostle (1Th.2:6). Andronicus and Junias were apostles (Rom.16:7).
For an apostle there were two great qualifications. First, he must have seen Jesus. When Paul is claiming his own rights in face of the opposition of Corinth, he demands: “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1Cor.9:1). Second, an apostle had to be a witness of the Resurrection and of the Risen Lord. When the eleven met to elect a successor to Judas the traitor, he had to be one who had companied with them throughout the earthly life of Jesus and a witness of the Resurrection (Ac.1:21-22).
In a sense the apostles were bound to die out, because before so very long those who had actually seen Jesus and who had actually witnessed the Resurrection, would pass from this world. But, in another and still greater sense, the qualification remains. He who would teach Christ must know Christ; and he who would bring the power of Christ to others must have experienced Christ’s risen power.
(ii) There were the prophets. The prophets did not so much fore-tell the future as forth-tell the will of God. In forth-telling the will of God, they necessarily to some extent fore-told the future, because they announced the consequences which would follow if men disobeyed that will.
The prophets were wanderers throughout the Church. Their message was held to be not the result of thought and study but the direct result of the Holy Spirit. They had no homes and no families and no means of support. They went from church to church proclaiming the will of God as God had told it to them.
The prophets before long vanished from the Church. There were three reasons why they did so. (a) In times of persecution the prophets were the first to suffer; They had no means of concealment and were the first to die for the faith. (b) The prophets became a problem. As the Church grew local organization developed. Each congregation began to grow into an organization which had its permanent minister and its local administration. Before long the settled ministry began to resent the intrusion of these wandering prophets, who often disturbed their congregations. The inevitable result was that bit by bit the prophets faded out. (c) The office of prophet was singularly liable to abuse. These prophetic wanderers had considerable prestige. Some of them abused their office and made it an excuse for living a very comfortable life at the expense of the congregations whom they visited. The earliest book of church administration is the Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which dates back to just after A.D. 100. In it both the prestige and the suspicion of the prophets is clearly seen. The order for the sacrament is given and the prayers to be used are set out; and then comes the instruction that the prophet is to be allowed to celebrate the sacrament as he will. But there are certain other regulations. It is laid down that a wandering prophet may stay one or two days with a congregation, but if he wishes to stay three days he is a false prophet; it is laid down that if any wandering prophet in a moment of alleged inspiration demands money or a meal, he is a false prophet.
(iii) There were the evangelists. The evangelists, too, were wanderers. They corresponded to what we would call missionaries. Paul writes to Timothy, “Do the work of an evangelist” (2Tim.4:5). They were the bringers of the good news. They had not the prestige and authority of the apostles who had seen the Lord; they had not the influence of the Spirit-inspired prophets; they were the rank and file missionaries of the Church who took the good news to a world which had never heard it.
(iv) There were the pastors and teachers. It would seem that this double phrase describes one set of people. In one sense they had the most important task in the whole Church: They were not wanderers but were settled and permanent in the work of one congregation. They had a triple function.
(a) They were teachers. In the early Church there were few books. Printing was not to be invented for almost another fourteen hundred years. Every book had to be written by hand and a book the size of the New Testament would cost as much as a whole year’s wages for a working man. That meant that the story of Jesus had mainly to be transmitted by word of mouth. The story of Jesus was told long before it was written down; and these teachers had the tremendous responsibility of being the respositories of the gospel story. It was their function to know and to pass on the story of the life of Jesus.
(b) The people who came into the Church were coming straight from heathenism; they knew literally nothing about Christianity, except that Jesus Christ had laid hold upon their hearts. Therefore these teachers had to open out the Christian faith to them. They had to explain the great doctrines of the Christian faith. It is to them that we owe it that the Christian faith remained pure and was not distorted as it was handed down.
(c) These teachers were also pastors. Pastor is the Latin word for a shepherd. At this time the Christian Church was no more than a little island in a sea of paganism. The people who came into it were only one remove from their heathen lives; they were in constant danger of relapsing into heathenism; and the duty of the pastor was to shepherd his flock and keep them safe.
The word is an ancient and an honourable one. As far back as Homeric times Agamemnon the king was called the Shepherd of the People. Jesus had called himself the Good Shepherd (Jn.10:11,14). The writer to the Hebrews called Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep (Heb.13:20). Peter called Jesus the shepherd of men’s souls (1Pet.2:25). He called him the Chief Shepherd (1Pet.5:4). Jesus had commanded Peter to tend his sheep (Jn.21:16). Paul had warned the elders of Ephesus that they must guard the flock whom God had committed to their care (Ac.20:28). Peter had exhorted the elders to tend the flock of God (1Pet.5:2).
The picture of the shepherd is indelibly written on the New Testament. He was the man who cared for the flock and led the sheep into safe places; he was the man who sought the sheep when they wandered away and, if need be, died to save them. The shepherd of the flock of God is the man who bears God’s people on his heart, who feeds them with the truth, who seeks them when they stray away, and who defends them from all that would hurt their faith. And the duty is laid on every Christian that he should be a shepherd to all his brethren.
After Paul has named the different kinds of office-bearers within the Church, he goes on to speak of their aim and of what they must try to do.
Their aim is that the members of the Church should be fully equipped. The word Paul uses for equipped is interesting. It is katartismos (GSN2677), which comes from the verb katartizein (GSN2675). The word is used in surgery for setting a broken limb or for putting a joint back into its place. In politics it is used for bringing together opposing factions so that government can go on. In the New Testament it is used of mending nets (Mk.1:19), and of disciplining an offender until he is fit to take his place again within the fellowship of the Church (Gal. 6:1). The basic idea of the word is that of putting a thing into the condition in which it ought to be. It is the function of the office-bearers of the Church to see that the members of the Church are so educated, so guided, so cared for, so sought out when they go astray, that they become what they ought to be.
Their aim is that the work of service may go on. The word used for service is diakonia (GSN1248); and the main idea which lies behind this word is that of practical service. The office-bearer is not to be a man who simply talks on matters of theology and of Church law; he is in office to see that practical service of God’s poor and lonely people goes on.
Their aim is to see to it that the body of Christ is built up. Always the work of the office-bearer is construction, not destruction. His aim is never to make trouble, but always to see that trouble does not rear its head; always to strengthen, and never to loosen, the fabric of the Church.
The office-bearer has even greater aims. These may be said to be his immediate aims; but beyond them he has still greater aims.
His aim is that the members of the Church should arrive at perfect unity. He must never allow parties to form in the Church nor do anything which would cause differences in it. By precept and example he must seek to draw the members of the Church into a closer unity every day.
His aim is that the members of the Church should reach perfect manhood. The Church can never be content that her members should live decent. respectable lives; her aim must be that they should be examples of perfect Christian manhood and womanhood.
So Paul ends with an aim without peer. The aim of the Church is that her members should reach a stature which can be measured by the fullness of Christ. The aim of the Church is nothing less than to produce men and women who have in them the reflection of Jesus Christ himself. During the Crimean War Florence Nightingale was passing one night down a hospital ward. She paused to bend over the bed of a sorely wounded soldier. As she looked down, the wounded lad looked up and said: “You’re Christ to me.” A saint has been defined as “someone in whom Christ lives again.” That is what the true Church member ought to be.
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ —
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
From Barclay’s Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-16 …
In every Church there are certain members who must be protected. There are those who are like children, they are dominated by a desire for novelty and the mercy of the latest fashion in religion. It is the lesson of history that popular fashions in religion come and go but the Church continues for ever. The solid food of religion is always to be found within the Church.
In every Church there are certain people who have to be guarded against. Paul speaks of the clever trickery of men; the word he uses (kubeia, GSN2940) means skill in manipulating the dice. There are always those who by ingenious arguments seek to lure people away from their faith. It is one of the characteristics of our age that people talk about religion more than they have done for many years; and the Christian, especially the young Christian, has often to meet the clever arguments of those who are against the Church and against God.
There is only one way to avoid being blown about by the latest religious fashion and to avoid being seduced by the specious arguments of clever men, and that is by continual growth into Christ.
Paul uses still another picture. He says that a body is only healthy and efficient when every part is thoroughly coordinated. Paul says that the Church is like that; and the Church can be like that only when Christ is really the head and when every member is moving under his control, just as every part of a healthy body is obedient to the brain.
The only thing which can keep the individual Christian solid in the faith and secure against seduction, the only thing which can keep the Church healthy and efficient, is an intimate connection with Jesus Christ who is the head and the directing mind of the body.
From Barclay’s Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-16 …
THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES
Eph. 4:1-3
So then, I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to behave yourselves in a way that is worthy of the calling with which you are called. I urge you to behave with all humility, and gentleness, and patience. I urge you to bear with one another in love. I urge you eagerly to preserve that unity which the Holy Spirit can bring by binding things together in peace.
THE BASIS OF UNITY
Eph. 4:4-6
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called with one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all.
THE GIFTS OF GRACE
Eph. 4:7-10
To each one of you grace has been given, as it has been measured out to you by the free gift of Christ. Therefore scripture says, “He ascended into the height and brought his captive band of prisoners, and gave gifts to men.” (When it says that “he ascended,” what else can it mean than that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same person as he who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things with his presence.)
THE OFFICE-BEARERS OF THE CHURCH
Eph. 4:11-13
And he gave to the Church some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. This he did that God’s consecrated people should be fully equipped, that the work of service might go on, and that the body of Christ should be built up. And this is to go on until we all arrive at complete unity in faith in and knowledge of God. until we reach perfect manhood, until we reach a stature which can be measured by the fullness of Christ.
GROWING INTO CHRIST
Eph. 4:14-16
LECTIONARY NOTES
When You Know That You Don’t Know.
Ephesians 4:1-16 (NRSVUE).
If anyone here has ever had a dog, have you noticed how your dog wants to smell every tree trunk, fire hydrant, and bush? [wait for responses] Dogs are known for their keen sense of smell. You’ve also probably read that while dogs have better night vision and motion detection than us, they can’t see color like humans because of the lack of cones in their retinas. However, dogs have lungs, hearts, livers, and intestines that work like ours do, and both dogs and humans care for their offspring and possess survival instincts.
This is connected to the concept called “umwelt” [pronounced oom-velt]. The term was coined in 1909 by the zoologist Jakob von Uexkull, and animal behavior scientists use it to talk about the way every animal has its own “highly specific kind of ‘sensory bubble.’” Even though we understand the similarities between humans and dogs, none of us can argue that we perceive the world the same way our dog sees the world because we do not have the same “highly specific sensory bubble.” We have different umwelt.
This is also true of individuals. In our case, we have different personalities, experiences, education, and families of origin that affect the way we perceive the world. While we might think that we have a firm grasp on reality (sometimes called “absolute truth”), our experience of reality is limited based on our individual umwelt. Our limitations are revealed each time we learn something new about the world because our new understanding shows that reality is bigger than what we once knew. We come face-to-face with knowing that we don’t know everything.
This can be problematic for Christians who have sometimes made absolute truth (or reality) the cornerstone of our salvation rather than Christ. And as we’ve seen in the first three chapters of Ephesians, Jesus Christ has removed the barriers between Jew and Gentile, offering a new identity and covenant to all people and establishing himself, the Living Word, as the cornerstone of our salvation and the unifier of all people.
Our sermon text for today provides ideas for expressing our unified identity in Christ. Let’s read Ephesians 4:1-16 together.
The Context of Ephesians 4:1-16
Some commentaries refer to this passage as the beginning of the “moral” section of Ephesians. Chapters 1-3 discuss the theological doctrine regarding unity in Christ while chapters 4-6 talk about how the lives of Christians should express this unity. Our sermon text shares in broad strokes how the lives of believers convey the reality of our inclusion in the life of the Trinity and the divine dance of love.
Because Ephesus was home to the great temple of Artemis, Paul made a critical point in Ephesians 2:21-22 about the status of believers as a new, holy temple:
In [Christ] the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (Ephesians 2:21-22, NRSVUE).
As a new temple, Paul is saying that both Jewish and Gentile believers must jettison the old mindset and practices and live into the new relationship of love: receiving love from the Divine and expressing love to the Divine by our conduct in all areas of life. The unified life in Christ requires concrete action; after all, we live in bodies that need care. Paul identifies essential traits of a unified life in Christ in v. 1-3:
I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3, NRSVUE).
When human beings express their relationship in the unity of Christ, their lives will reflect humility, patience, and a broader perspective. Paul also explains where humility, patience, and a broader perspective come from in v. 4-7:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (Ephesians 4:4-7, NRSVUE)
The oneness emphasized in v. 4-7 comes from the grace gifted to us by our inclusion in Christ Jesus as part of the triune relationship. Let’s look at some of today’s practical expressions of our identity in the unified Christ in terms of our interaction with others.
Interaction with those from other faiths
Theologian and author Brian McClaren tells the story of how he learned about Islam through getting acquainted with a Muslim family in his apartment building when he was a newlywed. His brother-in-law decided to fill their bathroom with balloons while McClaren and his wife Grace were on their honeymoon. When they arrived at their new apartment for the first time around midnight, they could barely get the bathroom door open because of the balloons. Because it was so late, they didn’t want to pop all the balloons and wake up their neighbors, so they managed to pull them out, one by one, creating an ankle-deep layer of balloons throughout their apartment, just so they could use the bathroom and then deal with the balloons in the morning. The next day, McClaren met one of his upstairs neighbors – an eight-year-old boy named Aatif whose family was originally from Iran. “Hey, Aatif, do you like balloons?” he asked the boy. “Sure,” the boy said. “Come with me,” McClaren told him. And when he opened the door to reveal the balloons covering the apartment floor, Aatif took one look and then raced off. He returned a few minutes later with a stream of siblings, each one taking as many balloons as they could hold and then coming back for a second and third load.
McClaren got to know Aatif’s mother, Liza, who was probably less excited about the balloons than the kids were. McClaren calls Aatif his first Muslim friend, and he writes about it this way: “My brain was filled with the same ignorant stereotypes about Islam and Muslims that many Americans share today. Liza and Aatif reeducated me. They helped me know Muslims as my neighbors, my friends, human beings who struggled with the same mice and cockroaches that Grace and I did in that grimy little apartment building.” Later, McClaren’s thoughts about how to interact with those of other faiths were further challenged by one of his mentors: “Remember, Brian, in a pluralistic world, a religion is judged by the benefits it brings to its nonmembers” (p. 40).
McClaren began asking important questions of himself and his faith:
Why is deep commitment to Christian faith so deeply linked with aversion to all other faiths? When Christians claim that Jesus is the only way, what do they mean, and does that mean that other religions must be opposed as frauds, mistakes, delusions, or distractions? Can one wholeheartedly love and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior without hating – or at least opposing – the Buddha, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, or Confucius? Does sincere faith in the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ require one to see other faiths as false, dangerous, or even demonic? …Shouldn’t it be possible to have a strong Christian identity that is strongly benevolent toward people of other faiths, accepting them, not in spite of the religion they love, but with the religion they love? (p. 32)
In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes about being “in Christ” as being identified with all creation, a new creation:
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! (2 Corinthians 5:17, NRSVUE)
So, if we are unified with Christ, we are one in a way that “transcends and…includes all the smaller ‘us’ and ‘other’ groups” (McClaren p. 48). We no longer feel responsible to change others because we understand, as theologian and author Jerad Byas points out in his book, Love Matters More: How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us From Loving Like Jesus, that love does matter more. By understanding the existence of our biases toward other faiths and what our responsibility is as Christ followers, we can respond from a unified and loving mindset.
This in no way takes away from Jesus’ words that he is the way, the truth, and the light; this is trusting that God, in his mercy and grace, can reach through any religion and belief. This is trusting that God has a plan, knows what he is doing, and is not willing that any should perish. This is acknowledging that it is our job to reach out to others in love, to accept them where they are, to love them where they are and then to trust Father, Son, and Spirit to work in people’s lives as they will.
Interaction with other believers
Despite having a common faith in Jesus Christ and a connection to the Christian narrative, believers can experience conflict within the church. Sometimes this involves power (e.g., church hierarchy and leadership), and sometimes it is simply conflict arising from having a different umwelt. However, Paul points out that leadership is needed to build up the body of Christ (v. 11-13) with the overall purpose of maturing in Christ. Until we mature, we can be subject to having our “pet” theological doctrines and concerns, making them the emphasis of our lives rather than the unified loving mindset of Jesus Christ. Paul compares this to behaving like children, who aren’t wrong in their immaturity, but who often suffer needlessly or create suffering for others because of it. Instead, Paul offers this remedy:
But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16, NRSVUE)
Some have interpreted this phrase “speaking the truth in love” from v. 15 as the green light to offer our opinions on how others might improve their lives. We might think this is loving, but it isn’t. It shows that we don’t understand how love and truth are related through wisdom (Byas p. 48), that truth brings freedom (Byas p. 94), and again, how our individual umwelt affects our ability to understand others’ perspectives. Jared Byas writes this:
While the impulse to tell the truth in love often springs from a desire to help people avoid mistakes that may hurt them in the long run, our telling often adds control, discomfort, and fear into the mix, and the impulse gets turned upside down. The intention may be good, but it can easily become a sneaky way to tell people why they’re wrong about their lives so we can feel more certain in our own positions and feel good about our own moral standing before God…If you’re not in love with the person standing in front of you – acting in loving ways toward them – then you’re not telling the truth, no matter what comes out of your mouth. (p. 6, 48)
Byas goes on to point out that despite our failed attempts, we still think that telling people they are wrong will make them change.
By actually “speaking the truth in love,” we communicate our complete acceptance of the other person, no strings attached, just love. It’s only then that people feel safe enough to consider changing. The unified mind of Christ is the only source of this loving acceptance, and it is a gift of grace to us and through us to others.
Paul’s exhortation to reflect the unity of our identity in Christ gives us an opportunity to think about how humility, patience, and a broader perspective help us love others the way Jesus would. As we mature in our spiritual journey, our interactions with other faiths and other believers will be filled with the love and unity of Jesus Christ.
Call to Action:
- Consider this week how you might reflect the unified mindset and identity you have in Christ. This might require some brainstorming about how you interact with those who think differently than you.
- Contemplate how curiosity can replace judgmental problem-solving in your interactions with others.
- Ask God to help you see others as he sees them, and then to love as he loves. What would that look like?