In Ephesians 2:11-3:13, the apostle Paul had talked about gentiles now being included in God’s covenant people along with the Jews. He had also prayed that the Ephesian Christians would deepen their relationship with God and their understanding of the gospel (Ephesians 1:15-23, 3:14-21). In Ephesians 4:1-16, he brought these two themes together, urging the Ephesian Christians to be united: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 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” (Ephesians 4:2-6). I don’t think Paul was just talking about the Jew/gentile dichotomy he had mentioned earlier in this letter (Ephesians 2:11-3:13) but also about all other divisions, arguments, disagreements, misunderstandings, and personality clashes that can occur in churches.
How were the Ephesian Christians supposed to overcome divisions? Paul listed several characteristics that they should have. They were to be humble, gentle, patient, loving, and peaceful (Ephesians 4:1). These are spiritual characteristics, the kinds of things that Paul meant when he prayed that they would be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in their inner being (Ephesians 3:16). This is an important thing for Christians to understand. Spiritual depth leads to unity. The more we are filled with God’s Spirit, the more we are full of love, joy, peace, patience, and so on, the less likely we will be to argue and divide. The closer we all get to God, the closer we will be to each other.
According to this passage, there are several aspects to this unity. First, Paul reminded his readers that there was one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God (Ephesians 4:4-5). God is one and not divided, and so His church should not be either. There is only one gospel and one divine revelation, and all true believers belong to the same universal church.
Second, Paul talked about the different gifts God had given to the church. In other contexts, Paul talked about the spiritual gifts given to different people: prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy (Romans 12:6-8); wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthian 12:8-11), and so on. But here Paul was talking about gifts God gave to the church as a whole, and the gifts were people: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11-13). Paul emphasized that these different gifted leaders have the same purpose—to build up the church into a single faithful, spiritually mature, Christ-filled body. Again, the more these leaders bring people closer to Christ, the more unified the church will be. The problem that has plagued the ancient and the modern church is that people have rallied behind these gifted leaders, saying, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Peter” (1 Corinthians 1:11-13, 3:3-9), “I follow Augustine,” “I follow Luther,” “I follow Calvin,” “I follow C.S. Lewis,” or “I follow any one of the many prominent modern church leaders.” These leaders, who were meant to unify the church by bringing it closer to Jesus, have instead become a source of division.
Third, Paul reminded his readers that the church is the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16). It is not a bunch of different bodies, but one body, with diverse parts and roles and gifts, but all working together for one purpose. Paul said that the church will be united and mature when we all speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). I have already described the importance of the “love” part, the importance of being filled with the spiritual characteristics of love, joy, peace, patience, etc. But equally important is the “truth” part. There is one gospel, one faith, and one God. Church unity cannot be built on a vague assertion that we should just love each other and not worry about doctrine as if it didn’t matter. Paul spent a great deal of time in his letters defining the true gospel and discrediting false teachings. Immature Christians can be easily “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14). False teachings lead Christians off in different directions and divide the church. If Christians do not have a solid grasp of God’s revelation in the Bible and a solid understanding of the gospel, they will have no basis on which to judge any teaching. They will follow whatever new teaching they hear because they don’t know any better. This is especially important because the church then and now has been infiltrated by people who are not just mistaken but, in fact, deliberately deceitful and crafty, people who deliberately offer false teaching to further their own ends. The Berean Christians in Acts 17:11 were praised because when Paul came to preach to them, they “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” If the church is to be united, it must be united on the basis of truth as well as love.
