PRINCETON CHRISTIAN CHURCH
EPHESIANS 4:1-6 15 SEPTEMBER 2024
As Paul writes in the fourth chapter of his letter to the church in Ephesus, he is in prison. There is not much he can personally do to spread the Gospel there, although from what we know of Paul, I am sure he didn’t hesitate to preach the Gospel message to the jailers and other prison workers.
Since he is confined, he is limited to preaching to those workers and writing to the church in Ephesus to encourage the Christians there to pick up the torch that he must now pass on to them so that they can carry the Gospel in Ephesus and throughout the territory nearby.
READ Ephesians 4:1-6
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for ONE another in love, being diligent to preserve 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.
Walk in a Worthy Manner
Worthy Of Your Calling
The responsibilities that are expected of Christ's followers in our calling are great. But Paul says later in this 4th chapter (vs 20) – Our calling is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the Cornerstone.
Paul also reminds his readers in verse 20 that He – that is Christ, is worthy in that He is able to do far more than we would even dare to ask or imagine, because of the great power that works within us.
Let’s look at the qualities of life that Paul speaks of here.
1. Qualities
Humility – sometimes people equate humility with weakness.
But it is not weakness – it is lowliness of mind –
let’s look at the opposite of humility – high-mindedness – thinking more highly of ourselves and our abilities – with the attitude that “I don’t need anyone – I can do it all by myself and I can do it better than anyone else.”
Gentleness – in this context, Paul is referring to a condition of contentiousness, or of meekness. Gentleness is a quality of wisdom that comes from above.
Patience – patience is one quality that many of us struggle with daily – I have heard people say –“ I want patience – and I want it NOW!”
Patience is not a quality that comes easily to us.
In fact, I think we can say that it takes patience to gain patience.
In other words, it is true that patience only grows in us when we have to face trials, and then learn patience as we go through those trials and come out stronger in the end.
Tolerance simply means to endure.
There are behaviors that we are not to tolerate.
If we take offense at the words of another person,
If we have the urge or desire to pay someone back for a wrong they had committed against us –
those actions are the opposite of Patience and Forbearance.
So those are the qualities Paul says we need to be sure to guide our lives and our behavior.
2. Preserve
Rather. we are to Preserve The Unity of the Spirit – and to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
What does “preserve mean?” Preserve means to guard something to keep it safe from harm; to keep alive, to protect.
That unity is a unity of peace that is shared among believers in Christ – those who share the same Spirit, and not just an outward unity.
In other words, we are to preserve the unity of the Spirit that results from serving our Lord and Savior as co-believers.
3. One –Now we come to that word – ONE
Do you remember the song that had this line in it?: “One is the loneliest number that you will ever do”?
( I had to Google it to find out who recorded that song many years ago.)
Now that song has no spiritual meaning or intent. But it does make a point – especially in the Church of Jesus Christ.
We are not meant to be alone in Christ.
Paul speaks elsewhere about the members of the physical body as a comparison to the Body of Christ.
a. Body – the physical body has many parts; each part is important – each part is essential to our livelihood.
b. In the church there is One Body - the Body of Christ
There is no Baptist Body, no Methodist Body, no Charismatic Body
There is only Christ’s Body. No multiple bodies.
c. Just as there is only one Body, there is also only one Spirit –
d. that One Spirit is available to Gentiles, Jews, Greeks, and to people of all nations.
e. But not all people in all nations, or religions, or denominations are willing to accept the One Body as taught in the New Testament Scriptures.
f. One Hope – when we come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, who died for our sins, and confess our sorrow for our sins, and are obedient to be baptized – buried with Christ where our sins are washed away --- we receive that Hope.
There are so many people in this world – we don’t have to even go to the world – people who live with a hope that is an empty hope live right here among us.
This hope we have is a hope that must be shared.
To me, it is a sad, sad situation when hope, and not just for today, but for eternity is so readily available to every person on this earth.
And multitudes reject it every day. Some may say, “I don’t need that. and besides, it’s all a fairy tale anyway.
Why would anyone want to save me?
Or an even more dangerous mindset of “Why do I even need to be saved? I’m good enough.” and “God would never send a good person to Hell, because He is a Good God.”
Hope is only possible when we believe the Word and obey the call to repentance and the burial of our sins.
One Lord – If we are Christ's followers we have only One Lord – our Lord
Is Jesus Christ.
He is the Head of the Church.
God didn’t bring His Son to this earth to live, and die, and rise again to life so that multiple people can assume the position of Head of the Church.
That position belongs to only one – that is Jesus Christ.
All of us, as Christians, have only one Master.
Then there is One Faith
Here Paul is referring to salvation.
But faith also extends to the necessary foundations of the church.
There are essentials in the church and there are non-essentials where there is liberty.
Paul speaks of this in Romans 14.
But there are also essentials that every Christian must accept and practice.
Those are the foundations of the faith and are essential for true unity within the church.
Then, Paul mentions next that –
There is One Baptism.
Since the beginning of the church Baptism has been a vital part of our salvation.
Baptism has been interpreted differently among the many varieties of the church since the beginning of the church.
But the truth was in the beginning and now is – Baptism is essential in our salvation.
We can go back to Acts chapter two – Peter is preaching. We all know Acts 2:38 where Paul answers the question of those hearing his message, saying “What do we need to do to be saved?”
They have heard the Word preached, and we can be confident that they believed the Word.
Paul tells them to repent of their sin and be baptized to receive forgiveness for their sin. On that day 3000 souls’ sins were washed away in the water of baptism.
One God / One Father -
Paul adds a seventh and final "one" to complete his list begun in verse 4.
Christians are all saved by the same God, the same Father, uniquely defined, and identified in the Old and New Testaments.
In the modern world we live in today many people believe that Christians worship the same God that all people worship in all other religions.
But, of course, we know that that is not true.
Christians don’t worship Buddha, or Mohammad, or any other pagan god.
. Christians worship a unique God who is our Father, Jesus the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
Legitimate Christianity accepts only Jesus Christ as God's divine Son, as well as Lord.
Paul also noted this Father "is over all and through all and in all."
Each of this verse's four references to "all" comes from the same Greek root word, pas. Paul uses this word to cover every possible aspect which God could be sovereign over.
And we all know what “all” means. ALL – no additions or amendments need to be made – All is All – only One!
There is no god or no being higher than Him, "one God."
This concept is so fundamental, and so critical to the faith, that it can be traced to the first words of Scripture: "In the beginning, God" (Genesis 1:1).
A foundational belief of the Torah – the Law - is that God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4–5). “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is ONE!”
This passage – Ephesians 4 – the first 10 verses – is Paul’s vital description of Christian unity.
Every person who has accepted and submitted to the Bible’s plan of salvation (heard, believed, confessed sin, been immersed) is saved by the same faith in the same God.
So, where do you stand today?
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