Christian Unity (Ephesians 4:1-6)

Paul now begins the practical section of his letter and he does so by highlighting the importance of unity. In verses 1-3, he describes what we could call the path of unity and in verses 4-6 he refers to nine aspects of unity, divided into three sets, with each member of the Trinity connected to a different set. By this method, Paul indicates that unity is possible and that it reflects the Trinity in action.

The process of unity

The first point to note is that Paul does not ask his readers to create unity, but to maintain it. The unity, which he calls the unity of the Spirit, was created when peace was made. As we have see in earlier chapters of this book, this unity was created when Jesus came and preached peace to them through his servants and the Ephesians were converted. This means that any expression of practical disunity is a denial of the unity created by the gospel of peace.

The second point to note is that unity is progressive – we can see that this is the case from the apostle’s use of the word ‘walk’ in verse 1. Paul points out that their behaviour must be in line with their high calling to be God’s people. The calling they had received was based entirely on God’s grace. They had not deserved it, and that detail should never be forgotten. Not only was it undeserved, the calling was unparalleled with any other because they had been called to be God’s special people, members of his family. Moreover, this calling was unending – they are God’s people forever. He has no intention of annulling the unity he has created when forming his people.

The third point to note is that there will be tensions that will work against this unity. If there were no tensions, then Paul would not have to urge them to maintain the unity. Without tensions, the unity would occur. In heaven, no one needs to be urged to maintain the unity, it just happens. The threats to the unity will come from the sin that remains in the Christians, and the history of every church will show how this has taken place frequently.

The fourth point to note is that unity is maintained by correct attitudes. Paul mentions five essential attitudes – humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with others lovingly, and eagerness. It is not difficult to see how they contribute to unity. One way to see the need of them is to consider what their opposites are. The opposite of humility is thinking too highly of oneself, the opposite of gentleness is aggression, the opposite of patience is intolerance, the opposite of bearing with love is indifference, and the opposite of eagerness is disinterest. We can say that a proud, aggressive, intolerant, indifferent and disinterested person contributes nothing to church unity. All of those things are matters of the heart and if they are present to any degree they disrupt unity. We may say no Christian will have them present strongly in his or her life, but that is not Paul’s point. His point is that their presence in any degree will cause problems with unity. Instead, God’s people should be marked by the positive features of humility, gentleness, patience, love and eagerness.

The unity of the Trinity

Paul now reminds his readers that unity is an important feature of the Triune God. In addition to mentioning the word ‘one’ seven times, he mentions two matters of unity when he refers to each of the divine persons. Maybe this description of God was a kind of memory statement that Christians used at that time. Whether it was or not, we can see that unity is prominent in how God works.

Paul first mentions unity and the Holy Spirit and in this connection he says that Christians belong to one body and have one hope. The body he has in mind is the church and what holds it together, enabling it to function, is the Holy Spirit who empowers God’s people to do God’s will. The essential life of the body is clearly an incentive to unity. Just as when something is wrong with one part of the physical body, it affects the whole, so when one member of the body of Christ is not what he or she should be, it affects others in the body, particularly in a local gathering of believers.

Paul also mentions the one hope that Christians share, and that hope is the second coming of Jesus. The apostle’s concern here is not the unchanging reality of the hope but the effect it has on how a Christian lives in the present. Nothing a Christian does can affect the certainty of the hope, but wrong actions can diminish and even remove the enjoyment of the hope day by day. Expressions of disunity inevitably have this effect because the Spirit is grieved and does not provide inner assurances of the glory to come.

The second divine Person that Paul mentions is Jesus and states the obvious feature that he is the Lord of his church. Connected to Jesus, according to Paul here, is the one faith and the one baptism. We have to decide whether faith here refers to the act of believing or to the doctrines one believes. Both options could be connected to baptism, so asking what it signifies may not help. Probably it includes both ideas because the idea that one can have a merely intellectual belief in particular doctrines is not suggested in the Bible as a help to true unity.

The reference to baptism reminds us that baptism is connected to authentic discipleship. In the Great Commission, Jesus stated that disciples should be baptised and taught the various teachings that he had passed on to the apostles. Of course, the point here is that there was only one form of Christian baptism at that time and anyone who became a Christian had been baptised. The question about baptism would not have focussed on how much water was used, but in what name, and normally the name would be that of the Trinity.

The third divine Person is the Father. Paul points out that he is the Father of all his people, that he is transcendent, far above all, yet involved in all and in all his people. The point is that the exalted Father does not omit any of his people from his blessing. He recognises and blesses the people he has joined together. Moreover he works out his purpose through all of them, despising none of them, and is delighted to live in the hearts of all.

How to maintain unity

We are interested in unity. One cannot be a Christian and not desire it. Yet we know that unity cannot be perfect while we are sinners. Yet we can have unity to a degree. So what can we do to help us have unity.

First, think about how the three Persons work together. They worked together in bringing the creation into existence and they work together in the plan of salvation. They are working together to bring the church to glory. And they are working together to bring about our sanctification.

Second, we should be the best Christians we can be. Paul’s description of the process of unity highlights that fact. One commentator, John MacPherson, writes that here ‘We are thus presented with a picture of the ideal of the Christian life in accordance with the idea of the imitation of Christ.’ Another commentator called Arthur Pridham wrote of this unity: ‘Its practical realization can only be in the energy of a love which seeks to emulate the Master in His ways.’