Ephesians 4: 1-3 (Unity in the Body [part 1])

            Summary:  Paul has just finished praying for strength to grow closer to the Father.  He has spent the last three chapters preparing the stage for action.  He has just revealed the mystery of the Gospel and prayed for the church in Ephesus to be strengthened and encouraged by the Spirit that lives so mightily within them.  He is now beginning to shed light on what’s the next step, or how this applies to the church’s practice.  He begins this explanation of instant application by urging the Ephesians to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [they] have been called.”  He then reminds them to live upright lives together bearing with each other in love.  Then he once again asks that the church might rest in this “new covenant” which has brought peace to believers.

            Note: Paul mentions his imprisonment in Rome in v.1

Note: Alternate translation: “I THEREFORE, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God's service, Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another. Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace. “  [Eph 4:1-3] [Amplified Bible]

Timeless Principle: Paul is hammering unity once again.  He first reminds them that it is this mystery that he so passionate about that he is currently imprisoned for it.  He then hints at the mystery that he has already revealed in chapter 3, being that there is no more dividing wall of hostility between people groups because Christ has brought them all near to himself for the purpose of reconciliation.

We have been called to be patient with one another, all the while being humble.  Humility is not refined to boasting but is furthermore a state of lowness of mind.  To be humble is to count oneself as nothing furthermore allowing God to work in and through us.  We are also to “bear” with one another.  This is not held to merely putting up with one another when someone is getting on our nerves but literally means to carry one another’s burdens.  Sharing all things in common as the saints in the early church has done in Acts 2.  Exploiting the truth behind the word koinonia, is essential to the prosperity to the church.  Paul writes to the church in Colossae the same thing saying that the church should bear “with one another… forgiving each another; as the Lord has forgiven… [putting] on love, which binds everything together (Col. 3:13-14).  We are to bear one another’s burdens as is essential for unity in the body. 

We must be “eager to maintain the bond of peace.”  In the flesh of Christ all separation has been removed.  We must work to be in peace with one another.  Though this peace in Christ is explicit in most of Paul’s letters, we try to rebuild it in our anger, malice, and deceitfulness.  We go off and talk about people behind their backs and separate the body which cannot happen.  There is a reason Jesus prays so fervently for the unity of believers in John 17.  He cried out to the Father that we might be one as he was/ is one with the Father so that what?  The Gospel might be advanced and his love might be known to the world through its manifestation in the church.  This is important for us to understand as it is the single, most evident point of all Ephesians, that being reconciliation (us to the father (2:1-13), gentile to Jew (2:14-22), and us to one another (4)).