The body of Christ is one body. It has many members but it is not many bodies. It is a matter of “many” making up “one”. As I wrote about last week, the oneness and unity of Christ’s body, the Church, is a central part of our identity as the people of God. God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven is, at least in one sense, reflected by the unity of the Church. The Church is united, praising with one voice their Redeemer in heaven, and so also the Church on earth ought to strive for this kind of unity while still plagued with the current imperfections of this age.
Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians is particularly seasoned with this call to Christian unity. As we will see in this article’s examination of the beginning of chapter 4, this call to unity is based on the heavenly reality of the Church’s identity in Christ as her covenant head. As Frank S. Thielman writes, “those for whom God has done so much should live in a way that is consistent with what God has done for them.”¹ The reality of the gospel truths expounded in the first three chapters of Ephesians lay the perfect foundation for the call to Christian unity in chapter 4. We will examine this foundation as we examine what Paul writes in chapter 4.
Worthy of the Calling
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge 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, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3, ESV
Paul urges the Christians in Ephesus to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. This of course is an imperative command based the reality of the preceding three chapters of the epistle. He does not tell them to walk in such a way that merits a calling from God but rather that they walk in a manner worthy of the calling they have already received. Any attempt at contrived church unity for its own sake, not founded in the reality of the gospel transformation of the community, will ultimately fail since it is built on a shaky foundation. The only true foundation for lasting change in both individuals and communities is the work of the Holy Spirit.
This calling is walked out with humility, gentleness, patience and an eagerness to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Church unity is not something that should be pursued haphazardly. Paul calls his readers to be eager to maintain such unity.
One Body, One Spirit
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6, ESV
The nature of this unity in the Spirit is what Paul regards next. Just as there is one Spirit inhabiting the temple of the Church, so there is only one Body. This goes back to Paul’s argument in chapter 2 about the unity of Jew and Gentile believers in Christ. “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one…[reconciling] us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” (Eph. 2:14, 16)
Here, Paul says that Christ Jesus is the peace between Jew and Gentile because in Him the two have become one. In other words, going back even further to chapter 1, the spiritual blessings that are received by believers are received in union with Christ and this union not only makes them one with Christ but also with each other. If the Jew and the Gentile are both united to Christ, they are, in a sense, united to each other as well.
Furthermore, Paul says in 2:16 that Christ reconciled “us both (speaking of Jew and Gentile) to God in one body”. That is, namely in Christ’s body on the cross, we (collectively as the recipients of the gospel, both Jew and Gentile) were reconciled to God. Christ’s death on the cross had this reconciling effect as we see elsewhere in the letters of Paul. For example, Romans 5:10 tells us that we were “reconciled to God by the death of His Son”. Christ did not die for Jewish sins, reconciling Israel to God, and then die again on the cross for Gentile sins, reconciling Gentiles to God. He reconciled “us both” to God in one death.
Thus, if Christ’s singular death reconciles both Jew and Gentile, then it stands to reason that the rest of their “union with Christ” is also shared. Christ rose from the dead once also and both Jew and Gentile have been united to Him in His resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5). The singular work of Christ, constituting His incarnation, life of perfect obedience, His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, is what saves the believer, regardless of ethnic heritage.
So Paul’s point in chapter 2 is that Jewish and Gentile believers are all part of the same body, the same temple that is being built into the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22). When it comes to chapter 4 then, we understand that Paul urges his readers to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because they are all part of that one body, namely Christ’s body. If you and I are both united to Christ then how can we be separated? How can we not “bear with one another in love” as members of the same body? Furthermore, we all express allegiance to one Lord, living out one faith (Spirit-empowered faith in the gospel) and we have all experienced one baptism (the Spirit’s regeneration in uniting us to Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, see Romans 6:3-5).
While we may experience these realities individually we ought not to forget that they are also true of us as the Church corporately. We have individual relationships with Christ but He is still one Lord to us all. We all have various experiences in our life of faith but it is one faith nonetheless. And we all have different experiences with the sacrament (or ordinance) of baptism but if we are united to Christ we have all partaken in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the Spirit’s baptism that brings us into union with Him.
Diversity of Gifts
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 had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the 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,
Ephesians 4:7-12, ESV
While Paul wants to stress the unity of the Body of Christ he also wants to acknowledge the diversity of its members. Gifts of grace have been given to each individually, albeit to build up the body as a whole. Here, Paul uses Psalm 68:18 although he changes the quotation quite dramatically. Much scholarly debate has occurred over the nature of Paul’s use of the psalm here. Frank S. Thielman argues that Paul’s use of Psalm 68:18 is theologically faithful to the context of the psalm and the point that the psalmist is making, although Paul does change the wording and structure of the quotation². He also argues that Psalm 68’s emphasis on God’s victory over Israel’s enemies and His bestowing of blessings and gifts upon His people should be seen as the reason why Paul uses this passage in this context in Ephesians.
For our purposes in this article we are not so much concerned with an in-depth analysis of Paul’s use of the Old Testament here but rather the overall point he is making. In the context of chapter 4 as a whole, the point here is that Christ has bestowed gifts upon the Church so that they might grow into maturity as the body of Christ (see v. 13).
The unity of the Church is the end goal of the exercise of spiritual gifts. Paul makes this point elsewhere: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Cor. 12:7). In his discussion of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul brings the reader back to the notion of the Church as Christ’s body which contains many members. The Spirit “apportions [gifts] to each one individually as he wills” (12:11). He does this with “varieties of gifts” (v. 4) although they all find their source in the “same Spirit”.
In Ephesians 4:11, Paul calls attention to a sampling of the “gifts” that Christ bestowed in His victorious ascension. These include “apostles…prophets…evangelists…shepherds and teachers”. Likewise, in 1 Corinthians 12:28 we find a similar list. These offices are filled by people who are exercising their spiritual gifts for the building up of the Body. There are many gifts and many individual recipients of such gifts. But there is one God who gives them and one end to which they are given: the building up of the body.
Conclusion
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 in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into 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.
Ephesians 4:13-16, ESV
In this way, Paul draws to a close this passage of his epistle by reminding his readers that the gifts they receive in the Spirit are meant to build up the body of Christ. Once again, this is express itself in “unity of the faith”.
Church unity is important. Not only for individual local congregations but for the Church at large. In the Apostles’ Creed we affirm our belief in “the holy catholic church”. This does not refer to the Roman Catholic church explicitly but rather to the one, united Church of God throughout all ages and places. “Catholic” comes from two Greek words meaning “in respect to the whole”. So catholic in this context refers to the Church, capital C, which encompasses all believers.
Doctrine is essential. Paul says as much in Ephesians 4:14 when he warns against being tossed to and fro by error and false teaching. Elsewhere in the New Testament, Paul is insistent on sound doctrine. But we ought to remember and be “eager to maintain” the unity and “catholicity” of the Church, never forgetting that there are some issues of doctrine that we may disagree with our brothers and sisters and yet still live with them as brothers and sisters.
I’m afraid that too often the Church today is known for its division rather than its love. Reforming this cultural perception of Christianity does not mean narrowing our fellowship with only those we can agree with so that we can love them. It means expanding our fellowship with those who hold to the teachings of Scripture and to the gospel of Christ, even if we disagree on issues. In other words, the key to “being known by our love” is not finding three people with whom we agree so we can love them. The world will not look and see that we love a few but we love them well. The world ought to look and see that we love a wide variety of members in the body of Christ, while maintaining unity in the Spirit through a number of differences.
Footnotes
¹ Frank S. Thielman, “Ephesians” In Beale and Carson, eds. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007,) p. 819.
² Ibid, pp. 819-825.