Unity in the Body of Christ
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
My Understanding: Paul began this section of his letter to the Ephesian church by urging (exhorting) them to live a life worthy of the calling they had received from God/Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we are to live lives commendable and praiseworthy of the calling we have received, then we need to know what we have been called to.
The calling each one of us, as believers in Jesus Christ, has received from the Lord is to obedience that comes from faith (Ro. 1:5), to belong to Jesus Christ (Ro. 1:6), to be his saints - holy ones; God’s beloved; faithful (Ro. 1:7), according to God’s purpose (Ro. 8:28), as sons of the living God (Ro. 9:26), to be holy (I Co. 1:2), into fellowship with Jesus Christ (I Co. 1:9), to be free from bondage to sin (Gal. 5:13), to hope (Eph. 1:18), heavenward (Phil. 3:14), to peace (Col. 3:15), into God’s kingdom and glory (I The. 2:12), to salvation through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth (2 The. 2:13-14), to eternal life (I Tim. 6:12), out of darkness into God’s wonderful light (1 Pet. 2:9), to suffer for doing good, and to endure the unjust suffering with patience (1 Pet. 2:20-22), to live in harmony with our fellow believers, to be sympathetic, to love as brothers, and to be compassionate and humble (1 Pet. 3:8-10), and we are called to goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Pet. 1:1-11), etc.
Added to this list, Paul said that, in order to live lives praiseworthy of the calling we have received, we need to be completely humble (not prideful; a servant), gentle (kind and tender), patient (steadfast; persevering) and forbearing (enduring patiently with others). And, we are to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
The word “effort” denotes that some kind of exertion, energy, struggle and/or determination is involved in this process. In other words, we have to work at this in the power of the Spirit within us to overcome any kind of hindrances to unity. Yet, it must be understood here that this unity is of the Spirit. This means that as we become more like Christ and we take on his character, and as we live lives commendable of the calling we have received, then we are united with Christ, not only through salvation, but in heart and mind through obedience.
So, if we want to be united with other believers in Christ, and they with us, then we need to consciously work, in the power of the Spirit within us, to develop these character traits listed above. We are never to sacrifice Christian principles and obedience to Christ for the sake of unity with other believers, though, because that is not unity of the Spirit, but it is of the flesh. As well, the true bond of peace is our peace with God through our salvation from sin, so when we are truly at peace with God, and we are not living in conscious and willful sin against God, then we can be at peace with other believers in Christ who are also at peace with God. So, this unity with our fellow believers is contingent upon and is directly related to whether or not we are truly united with Christ in heart, mind, attitude and behavior, and whether or not we are walking in humble obedience to Christ Jesus.
The Body
Then, Paul touched on some very practical aspects of this unity of the Spirit. There is one body. In other words, we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are all part of one church – the body of Christ – which is only to be distinguished by location, such as the church that meets at such and such a place, or the church in a particular city, for instance. We are not to set up man-made barriers that divide the church by race, color, ethnicity, denomination, demographics of any sort, financial status, age, and/or personality, etc. We are all under the same Spirit, we are all called to the same hope in Jesus Christ, we all serve the same Lord, we should all have the same fundamental faith in Jesus Christ for salvation from sin, we are all baptized of the Spirit of God spiritually into death to sin and into resurrection to new life in Jesus Christ (see Rom. 6:1-16), and we are all under the authority of the same God and Father of us all, “who is over all and through all and in all.”
I Corinthians 12 expounds on this idea of us all being one body, etc., when it speaks of how we are one body, but that the body has many parts. We don’t all serve the same function, in other words. Some of us may be an arm, while others might be a leg, a foot, a big toe, an eye, or a hand, etc. Yet, we should accept whatever part of the body God made us to be. That is why Paul said, in this letter to the Ephesian church, that we have each been given grace as Christ apportioned it, in the giving of spiritual gifts to those whom Christ has set free from captivity to sin through his death and resurrection. Just as our physical bodies have various functioning parts that are necessary to the working of the entire body, so it is with the body of Christ, universally. And, God has arranged the parts of the body just as he wanted them to be. Yet, man tries to mess with this, and man tries to arrange the parts of the body as he wants them to be for the glory of man, not for the glory of God.
Just as we should each individually accept for ourselves the part of the body that Christ has arranged for us, so it is with the other members of the body of Christ in that they should accept us as God has arranged us to be, and we them, and not to say to parts of the body “I don’t need you!” Yet, this is being done much in today’s church culture, in particular in America, as our churches have bought into so much human philosophy and marketing schemes for how to build churches based upon what works in big business, yet that is not how Christ designed his church to work.
When we reject parts of the body of Christ just because they are different from us, and when we tell them to go someplace else where they would be “a better fit,” then we become disunifiers within the body of Christ, because we, out of our own prejudice, are dividing Christ’s body, and we are telling parts of the body that we don’t need them, because they don’t “fit” our market group or whatever. Yet, even though man may abandon and reject us, Jesus Christ will never abandon his loved ones. He will give honor to those parts of the body which are dishonored by men, and he will place each of us within his universal body to where we do fit, so that there should be no division in the body. Amen!
Becoming Mature
In order to help us to grow and to mature in Christ, not only did Christ give each one of us various gifts and parts within the body of Christ in order that we might edify one another, but he also gave specific callings upon individuals within the body of Christ, which are designed to prepare God’s people to live holy lives, pleasing unto God, so that they can serve him with their whole hearts, minds and strength. He gave church planters (apostles or missionaries – sent out ones) who help begin new fellowships of believers in Christ, and who nurture those new believers in Christ to maturity. He gave prophets, i.e. those with the spiritual gift of prophecy, who receive and give messages from God for the church, and for the express purpose of motivating the church toward holy living and purity in their relationship with Jesus Christ. He gave evangelists, whose calling is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not know Christ Jesus. And, he gave pastors and teachers to help explain the word of God in very practical ways that can be applied to people’s daily walks with Christ, and to nurture and care for the spiritual needs of the people of God.
These specific gifted individuals are supposed to prepare us for service to the Lord. The word “prepare,” actually means “to put right,” such as in restoring one who has sinned back to a right relationship with the Lord. They are given to the church to help us be right with God through teaching and assisting us to forsake our lives of sin, to leave the ways of the world, and to choose to walk humbly in obedience to Jesus Christ each and every day of our lives. They are here to keep us accountable before God, and they should care enough about us to find out how we are doing spiritually, and to help guide us toward maturity in Christ. The way in which they are to “build us up” is not through false praise or giving us empty pats on the back, and yet never finding out how we are doing spiritually - where that is possible through personal relationships. The way in which they are to build us up in the faith is through informing, educating, instructing, teaching us how to improve, inspiring us to walk faithfully with our God, cheering us on in our faith, reassuring, urging, assisting, persuading, nurturing, admonishing, reproving, warning, and/or counseling us, etc.
When we become mature in our faith, then, and we achieve completeness in the amount of richness and abundance that is ours spiritually in Christ Jesus, our Lord, through understanding (applied knowledge) of all that Christ has in mind for us as his followers, and when we walk in obedience to what we know and understand to be his will and design for our lives, then we will no longer be immature in our faith, tossed back and forth by various winds of teaching and doctrine, and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. In other words, we will know what the word of God teaches us with regard to holy living, and we will be pursuing, in lifestyle, to live our lives according to Christ’s commands, and we won’t be easily swayed and persuaded by men who would want to get us to believe false doctrines that would lead us away from pure devotion to Christ.
We won’t be easily persuaded by the teachings of men, either, much of which is rooted in deception and manipulation, and that often stands in direct contrast to the teachings of scripture, but we will know the truth, and we will obey the truth of God’s word, and the truth will set us free. And, when we know the truth, and we obey the truth, we will also speak the truth of God’s word to others out of love for them, and in a manner which demonstrates how very much we love them. When we know the truth, and we are following the truth, and we are speaking the truth in love to our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we will all be able to “grow up” in Christ, who is our Head. And, we will understand that it is from Christ that the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting body part, that he is the one who assigns the body parts and gives them their jobs to do, and we will allow the various body parts to do their work God assigned them by God, so that we can all grow together and can build each other up in Christ and in love.
Jesus, Lead Me / An Original Work / July 22, 2011
Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead always.
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTIM16o9ldg
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