The Objective Root of Our Unity Text: Ephesians 4:1-6
Introduction: The Unity We Keep and the Unity We Seek
The book of Ephesians is a literary mountain range. The first three chapters are the glorious, soaring peaks of Christian doctrine. Paul takes us into the heavenly places, showing us the eternal counsels of God, our election before the foundation of the world, our redemption through His blood, and the mystery of the gospel revealed, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory. For three chapters, we are told what God has done. These are the great indicatives of our faith. We are seated with Christ. We are blessed. We are chosen. We are adopted. We are redeemed. We are sealed.
Then we come to chapter four, and the word "therefore" acts as a hinge for the entire book. Because of who you are, because of what God has done, therefore walk this way. The indicatives of chapters one through three are the necessary foundation for the imperatives of chapters four through six. Christian behavior is never a bootstrap operation. It is not a matter of trying harder in your own strength. It is a matter of living out the reality of what God has already made you to be in Christ. You are not commanded to become a child of God by your worthy walk; you are commanded to walk worthy because you are a child of God.
And the very first command, the first application of all this glorious doctrine, is the command to maintain unity. But we must be very precise here. Our generation is drunk on the idea of a sentimental, man-made unity. It is a unity of compromised principles, doctrinal indifference, and a desperate desire to "all just get along." It is the unity of mud, where all the distinct colors run together into a uniform brown. That is not what Paul is talking about. Paul distinguishes between two kinds of unity. There is the unity of the Spirit, which we are commanded to keep, and there is the unity of the faith, which we are commanded to attain (Eph. 4:13). The unity of the Spirit is a gift; it is the objective reality for all who have been born again. It already exists. Our job is not to create it, but to guard it, to preserve it, to not wreck it with our sin. The unity of the faith is the goal toward which we are all growing, as we mature in our understanding of sound doctrine. The first is our starting point; the second is our destination.
This passage is about the first kind. It is about the fundamental, bedrock, objective unity that the Holy Spirit has created. And Paul tells us both the practical virtues required to maintain it and the doctrinal truths upon which it is irrevocably founded.
The Text
Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
(Ephesians 4:1-6 LSB)
The Worthy Walk (v. 1)
Paul begins with the central exhortation that flows from the gospel.
"Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called," (Ephesians 4:1)
Paul writes this not as a free man, but as "the prisoner in the Lord." His chains are a testament to the worthiness of the calling. This gospel is worth suffering for, it is worth being imprisoned for, and so it is certainly worth living for. The call to "walk worthy" is a call to live a life whose weight and substance correspond to the immense value of the calling we have received. God did not call us to a trivial thing. He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He called us from death to life. He called us to be sons and heirs. Our lives, therefore, are to be a fitting response to this high summons.
This is not a call to earn your salvation. That is the fundamental error of all moralism. It is a call to live consistently with the salvation you have been given freely by grace. The behavior doesn't produce the identity; the identity produces the behavior. God has made you a prince in His kingdom; therefore, you are to stop groveling in the mud like a pauper. He has made you a saint, holy and beloved; therefore, you are to put away the filth of your old life. The calling is the foundation, and the walk is the superstructure. If the foundation is glorious, the building ought not be a shack.
The Character of Unity (v. 2-3)
Next, Paul outlines the specific virtues that are the ligaments and sinews of this Spirit-given unity.
"with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:2-3 LSB)
These are not sentimental niceties; they are rugged, wartime virtues. First is "humility." True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. It is not a groveling, craven posture that says "I am a worm." That is just pride in the fetal position. True humility is an objective assessment of yourself in light of the greatness of God. When you are rightly occupied with the majesty of God, you see yourself in proper perspective, and it is a delight to be small before Him. This kind of humility is the absolute enemy of the strife and envy that tears churches apart. The proud man is always concerned with his rights, his recognition, his honor. The humble man is concerned with the honor of Christ and the good of his brother.
Then comes "gentleness," or meekness. This is not weakness. It is strength under control. Think of a powerful warhorse that is perfectly responsive to the slightest touch of the reins. Moses was the meekest man on earth, and he was the man who confronted Pharaoh. Jesus was meek and lowly, and He cleansed the temple with a whip. Gentleness is the refusal to use your strength to run over other people. It is the grace to be firm without being harsh, to be strong without being a bully.
"Patience" is long-suffering. It is the ability to endure provocation without retaliating. It is the spiritual grace that allows you to absorb the slights, sins, and stupidities of others without exploding. It is what God shows to us every single day. And because He is patient with us, we are to be patient with one another.
These virtues are summed up in "bearing with one another in love." This is the active side of patience. It means putting up with each other. The church is not a collection of perfectly polished saints; it is a hospital for sinners. And that means we are going to rub each other the wrong way. We are going to have friction. Bearing with one another means you don't bail when that happens. You don't get offended. You cover the sin in love, you forgive as you have been forgiven, and you press on together.
All this requires diligence. "Being diligent to keep" this unity. Unity unattended is disunity in about fifteen minutes. It must be actively guarded. And it is kept "in the bond of peace." Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the presence of righteousness. When we are all submitted to Christ as our peace, we are bound together in a supernatural harmony that the world cannot understand.
The Doctrinal Foundation of Unity (v. 4-6)
But this unity is not sustained by good intentions and virtuous dispositions alone. It is grounded in seven immovable, objective, doctrinal realities. Paul stacks them up, one after another, like massive foundation stones. This is the great "is" upon which our unity rests. He gives us seven "ones."
"There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (Genesis 4:4-6 LSB)
First, there is one body. The church is not a club you join, or a voluntary association of like-minded individuals. It is an organism. It is the body of Christ. If you are a Christian, you are a member of this body, whether you feel like it or not. You are a hand, or an eye, or a foot. You were baptized into this one body. This is an objective fact, not a subjective feeling. Our task is to function as the one body we already are.
Second, there is one Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who conceived Jesus in the womb of Mary, who descended upon Him at His baptism, and who raised Him from the dead, is the same Spirit who indwells every single believer. He is the lifeblood of the one body. This is what makes our unity possible. We are not trying to get on the same wavelength; we are indwelt by the same divine Person.
Third, there is one hope of your calling. We have a shared, certain, future destiny. This is not a vague, cross-your-fingers wish. It is a confident expectation. And because we are postmillennialists, we understand this hope is not just an escape hatch out of a doomed world. Our one hope is the victory of Jesus Christ in history, before His final return. We are called to the hope that the gospel will triumph, that the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This shared, optimistic, world-conquering hope binds us together in a common mission.
Fourth, one Lord. Our unity is not in a committee or a democratic process. It is in an absolute monarch, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the head of the body. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. We are united because we are all submitted to the same king, the same commander-in-chief. All our squabbles and divisions are a result of someone, somewhere, trying to usurp His authority.
Fifth, one faith. This does not mean "one subjective feeling of trust." It means one body of truth, one apostolic doctrine. It is "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). True Christian unity is impossible apart from a shared commitment to the truth of the gospel as revealed in the Scriptures. The modern ecumenical movement seeks unity at the expense of truth, which is like trying to unite people by taking away their skeletons. The result is not a body, but a blob. We are united by what we believe.
Sixth, one baptism. Baptism is the visible sign and seal of our entrance into the covenant community. It is the uniform of the King's army. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are marked out as belonging to the Triune God. As covenantalists, we understand this sign is applied not just to believers, but to their children also, marking the whole household as belonging to God. This one baptism visibly incorporates us into the one body.
And seventh, crowning it all, one God and Father of all. Our unity is ultimately grounded in the very nature of God Himself. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Christ, He has become our Father. He is sovereign over all, He works providentially through all, and He is immanently present in all His people. This is the ultimate reality. We are one because we have one Father. We are a family. This is not a metaphor; it is the deepest truth of the universe. The foundation of all unity is the fact that there is one God who has created and redeemed us for Himself.