Thematically, Ephesians 4 moves from one's calling to unity to one's calling to ministry (all are called to ministry = part of the one hope of your calling). The "secret call" of the preacher or pastor does not make him or her more called than the carpenter. Every believer has been called to be Jesus' disciple and to serve in the body of Christ.Īll are called of God. Our calling is our responsibility to respond to what we have become in Christ. Practical Outworkings of Unity A Unity of CallingĪll believers are the called of God. Some gifts are more in the fore front, they are more obvious and others less so, but all are essential to the effective work of the body. Some of the parts are covered, others are within the body and are unseen, but nevertheless, very important. The parts do not look alike, they do not function alike, yet, they are all important, needed, interdependent, and all work toward the same end, the purposes for which each member was designed in the function of the body as directed by the head and in accord with the creative purpose of God. There is diversity in unity, not a uniformity. He miraculously and spiritually becomes an organic part of the body of Christ. True, when a person believes in Christ, he is joined into union with Christ by Spirit baptism and becomes a member of the body, but by the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit, he is not merely and add on. This is an organic and a living unity by creation. It begins from one cell which begins to develop and to grow and shoots off little buds that eventually make up the variegated parts. But it is not a collection of parts put together as in an automobile or as in a house. It consists of many parts: toes, fingers, hands, feet, legs, eyes, ears, etc. (1) The human body is first, an organic unity. The analogy of the human body explains the nature of this unity. There are no longer the distinctions of man. The old has been done away in the this body. She is a new creation, a spiritual body created by God in Christ. The unity of the church is organic in character. But Christian unity, the unity of the Spirit, is a unity which starts within and works outward through organic life like we see in a flower or in the human body. Such consist of a number of miscellaneous units coming together for a given purpose. It is not a coalition or an amalgamation. Because this is true, the following deductions are true: It is a unity which we can never produce. It refers to the unity provided by the Holy Spirit. Since Christian unity is a result of God's work in Christ, it is not something that we are to aim at for the sake of unity. There can be no Christian unity unless it is based on the teaching of chapters 1-3. It is the product of the cross and God's work in Christ. It is the result of all that Paul has been saying in chapters 1-3.
#UNITY SYNONYM SERIES#
Nor is unity some common aim or series of aims.
Unity is not a general spirit of friendliness or camaraderie. The Character and Nature of Unity A Definition Thus, one of the peculiar marks of the Christian calling is to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So the unity that we have in Christ is part of the grand design. Consequently, the central object of salvation, in a sense, is to re-unite, to bring together again, to reconcile, to restore the unity that God created before sin and the fall produced this terrible havoc between God and man, between men, and within man himself. It has produced the constant fight and struggle which we are all aware of in our own lives and in the life of the church. It divides a man within and against himself. Sin is a disruptive force, it always divides, separates, and splinters.
Paul Stevens, Liberating the Laity, p.26). What does this mean? An environment is the some total of the social, spiritual, and relational attitudes and factors in a group that influences what the individual thinks of him or herself and what he or she does." (R. "It is not so much a program that is needed but an environment (an atmosphere).
These first verses of chapter four, first of all provide an environment that is crucial for the equipping of all saints that Paul will discuss below. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also 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 over all and through all and in all. 1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
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