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. Appeal for Unity

(Ephesians 4:1-3 NASB)

. Unity of the Spirit


1 Therefore I, ?a?the prisoner of the Lord, ?b?implore you to
?c?walk in a manner worthy of the ?d?calling with which you have been
?e?called,

2 with all ?a?humility and gentleness, with patience, showing
tolerance for one another ?b?in love,

3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the
?a?bond of peace.

[1]


4:1 There is a major break at this point in Ephesians. The previous
chapters have dealt with the Christian's calling. In the last three
chapters, he is urged to walk worthy of his calling. The position into
which grace has lifted us was the dominant theme up to now. From here on
it will be the practical outworking of that position. Our exalted standing
in Christ calls for corresponding godly conduct. So it is true that
Ephesians moves from the heavenlies in chapters 1-3, to the local church,
to the home, and to general society in chapters 4-6. As Stott has pointed
out, these closing chapters teach that "we must cultivate unity in the
church, purity in our personal lives, harmony in our homes and stability
in our combat with the powers of evil."

For the second time Paul refers to himself as a prisoner-this time as a
prisoner of the Lord. Theodoret comments: "What the world counted
ignominy, he counts the highest honor, and he glories in his bonds for
Christ, more than a king in his diadem."

As one who was imprisoned as a result of faithfulness and obedience to the
Lord, Paul exhorts his readers to walk worthy of their calling. He does
not command or direct. With tenderness and gentleness he appeals to them
in the language of grace.

The word, walk, is found seven times in this Letter (2:2, 10; 4:1, 17;
5:2, 8, 15); it describes a person's entire lifestyle. A worthy walk is
one that is consistent with a Christian's dignified position as a member
of the Body of Christ.

4:2 In every sphere of life, it is important to show a Christlike spirit.
This consists of:

Lowliness-a genuine humility that comes from association with the Lord
Jesus. Lowliness makes us conscious of our own nothingness and enables us
to esteem others better than ourselves. It is the opposite of conceit and
arrogance.

Gentleness-the attitude that submits to God's dealings without rebellion,
and to man's unkindness without retaliation. It is best seen in the life
of Him who said, "I am gentle and lowly in heart." Wright comments:

What an astonishingly wonderful statement! The One who made the worlds,
who flung the stars into space and calls them by name, who preserves the
innumerable constellations in their courses, who weighs the mountains in
scales and the hills in a balance, who takes up the isles as a very little
thing, who holds the waters of the ocean in the hollow of His hand, before
whom the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers, when He comes into
human life finds Himself as essentially meek and lowly in heart. It is not
that He erected a perfect human ideal and accommodated Himself to it; He
was that.? 24

Longsuffering-an even disposition and a spirit of patience under prolonged
provocation. This has been illustrated as follows: Imagine a puppy and a
big dog together. As the puppy barks at the big dog, worrying and
attacking him, the big dog, who could snap up the puppy with one bite,
patiently puts up with the puppy's impertinence.

Bearing with one another in love-that is, making allowance for the faults
and failures of others, or differing personalities, abilities, and
temperaments. And it is not a question of maintaining a façade of courtesy
while inwardly seething with resentment. It means positive love to those
who irritate, disturb, or embarrass.

4:3 Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In
forming the church, God had eliminated the greatest division that had ever
existed among human beings-the rift between Jews and Gentiles. In Christ
Jesus these distinctions were abolished. But how would it work out in
their life together? Would there still be lingering antagonisms? Would
there be a tendency to form a "Jewish Church of Christ" and a "Church for
the Nations?" To guard against any divisions or smoldering animosities,
Paul now pleads for unity among Christians.

They should give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit. The Holy
Spirit has made all true believers one in Christ; the Body is indwelt by
one Spirit. This is a basic unity that nothing can destroy. But by
quarreling and bickering, believers can act as if it were not so. To keep
the unity of the Spirit means to live at peace with one another. Peace is
the ligament which binds the members of the Body together in spite of
their wide natural differences. A common reaction when differences arise
is to divide and start another party. The spiritual reaction is this: "In
essentials, unity. In doubtful questions, liberty. In all things,
charity." There is enough of the flesh in every one of us to wreck any
local church or any other work of God. Therefore, we must submerge our own
petty, personal whims and attitudes, and work together in peace for the
glory of God and for common blessing.

[2]


"Therefore" is a connective, a transitional word. It is in view of all
that God has done for the believer, which we have seen in the first three
chapters of this epistle.

Paul is a "prisoner of the Lord." He is a prisoner because of his position
in Christ. Isn't it interesting that Paul can be seated in the heavenlies
in Christ and can also be seated in a prison because he was a witness for
Christ to the Gentiles?

I "beseech [or beg] you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye
are called." This word for beseech or beg is the same word that we find in
Romans 12:1. It is not the command of Sinai with fire and thunder; it is
the gentle wooing of love: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God ." (Rom. 12:1).

We are to "walk worthy" of our calling. It is a call to walk on a plane
commensurate with the position we have in Christ. "Only let your
conversation [that is, your manner of life or your life-style] be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be
absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with
one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel" (Phil 1:27). Again
Paul writes, "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God"
(Col. 1:10). Paul points to his own life as an example of the Christian's
walk: "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and
unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe" (1 Thess. 2:10).

Paul begs us to walk worthy of the gospel. People may not be telling you
this, but they are evaluating whether you are a real child of God through
faith in Christ. The only way they can tell is by your walk. It's not so
much how you walk as it is where you walk. "But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Walking
in "the light" is in the light of the Word of God. How much time do you
really spend in the Word of God? Your children know how much time you
spend in the Bible. Also your neighbors know, and the people in the church
know. If we wish to walk in fellowship with God, we must walk in the light
of the Word of God.

We have previously told the incident of a man handing out tracts, a
ministry, by the way, that takes much prayer and intelligence. A black man
who could neither read nor write was handed a tract. He asked, "What is
this?" When he was told it was a tract, he said, "Well I can't read it; so
I'll watch your tracks." That was the greatest short sermon this Christian
could ever have had preached to him. Someone was watching his tracks.

Paul does his beseeching on the basis of their calling. He has just
explained to the Ephesians that they live in the economy of the grace of
God. They live under that dispensation.

With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love;

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace [Eph.
4:2-3].

"Lowliness" means a mind brought low. Paul practiced what he preached.
Lowliness means the opposite of pride. I wish our seminaries today would
stop trying to make intellectual preachers and teach the young men to walk
in lowliness of mind.

Years ago I heard the story of a very fashionable church in Edinburgh that
wanted a pulpit-supply; so the seminary sent out to them a very fine young
man who was brilliant in the classroom at the school. He had never had any
experience, and he was filled with pride at ministering in this great
church. When he got up before that group of people, he was struck with
stage fright. He forgot everything he ever knew. He had memorized his
sermon, but he forgot it. He stumbled through it and left the pulpit in
humiliation, because he knew how miserably he had failed. A dear little
Scottish lady went up to him and said, "Young man, I was watching you this
morning, and I'd like to say to you that if you had gone up into that
pulpit like you came down out of that pulpit, then you would have come
down out of that pulpit like you went up into that pulpit." He had gone up
with pride, but he had come down with lowliness and meekness.

Lowliness is the flagship of all Christian virtues. "Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem
other better than themselves" (Phil. 2:3). Lowliness characterized our
Lord. He said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart ." (Matt. 11:29). There are too many Christians today who
have a pride of race, a pride of place, a pride of face, and even a pride
of grace-they are even proud that they have been saved by grace! Oh, how
we need to walk in lowliness of mind!

The story is told of a group of people who went in to see Beethoven's home
in Germany. After the tour guide had showed them Beethoven's piano and had
finished his lecture, he asked if any of them would like to come up and
sit at the piano for a moment and play a chord or two. There was a sudden
rush to the piano by all the people except a gray-haired gentleman with
long, flowing hair. The guide finally asked him, "Wouldn't you like to sit
down at the piano and play a few notes?" He answered, "No, I don't feel
worthy." That man was Paderewski, the great Polish statesman and pianist
and the only man in the group who was really worthy to play the piano of
Beethoven.

How often the saints rush in and do things when they have no gift for
doing them. We say we have difficulty in finding folk who will do the work
of the church, but there is another extreme-folk who attempt to do things
for which they have no gift. We need to walk in lowliness of mind.

"With all lowliness and meekness." Meekness means mildness but it does not
mean weakness. To be meek does not mean to be a Mr. Milquetoast. There are
two men in Scripture who are noted for being meek. In the Old Testament it
was Moses, and in the New Testament it was the Lord Jesus. When you see
Moses come down from the mount and break the Ten Commandments written on
the stone tablets and when you hear what he said to his brother Aaron and
to the children of Israel, would you call that meekness? God called it
that. When the Lord Jesus went in and drove the money changers out of the
temple, was that meekness? It certainly was. The world has a definition of
meekness and that makes it synonymous with weakness. The Bible calls
meekness a willingness to stand and do the will of God regardless of the
cost. Meekness is bowing yourself to the will of God.

"With longsuffering." Longsuffering means a long temper. This is a fruit
of the Spirit (see Gal. 5:22). In other words, we should not have a short
fuse. That is longsuffering.

"Forbearing one another in love" means to hold one's self back in the
spirit of love. "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any
man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye"
(Col. 3:13).

"Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit." The Lord Jesus prayed that
we might be one: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me" (John 17:21). The Spirit of God has baptized us
into one body. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been
all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13). Now believers are to
keep the unity which the Holy Spirit has made. We cannot make that unity.
We cannot join into an ecumenical movement to force a kind of unity. Only
the Holy Spirit makes the unity, but we are to maintain it. All true
believers in Christ Jesus belong to one body, and we should realize that
we are one in Christ.

Now he goes on to list seven of those unities:

[3]


The word "therefore" is such a pivotal word in Scripture that whenever you
come across it in the Word, it's good to stop and ask what it is there
for. In this case, as Paul begins the second half of his letter, launching
into the practical aspects of our life in Christ, he refers to the
doctrinal foundation he laid in chapters 1-3. In other words, before
telling us how we are to walk, he reminds us we must first understand
where we sit.

In chapters 1-3, Paul told us we were adopted into God's family, elected
before the foundation of the world, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and
sealed with the Holy Spirit-all while we were dead in our sin. This is
where so many Christians stumble. They try to walk before they sit.
Sermons are preached; seminars are given; books are published on how
husbands should love their wives and the way wives should submit to their
husbands; or the way we should live in purity; or what we should do as a
church body-all without acknowledging what God has already done for us,
all without factoring in the fact that there's nothing we can do to make
God love us any more than He loves us right now.

I have found that most Christians believe they are the initiators in
spiritual life, feeling that if they can just pray enough, do enough, and
be enough, God will love them and bless them. So they try to walk
worthy-but sooner or later, they fail and throw in the towel.

Our Christian walk is not something we do to try to earn God's favor or
merit His love. Rather, it is a response to how He loves us, what He's
done for us, and how good He's already been to us. We love Him, the
apostle John said, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). He is the
Initiator, we the responders. We don't love Him so He'll love us. We love
Him because He first loved us.

Any parent who would try to teach his child to walk before the child
learned to sit would be headed for frustration. So, too, if you try to get
your kids to walk spiritually before they understand where they are seated
in Christ, they'll rebel. But if you remind your kids over and over again
what the Lord has done for them and how He loves them-that they are seated
with Him in heavenly places, and that there's nothing they can do to make
Him love them less-watch and see how they will begin to walk with Him.

Without chapters 1-3, chapters 4-6 lead only to frustration, legalism, and
rebellion. That's why Paul uses the word therefore. "In light of all you
have, in light of all that's been done, in light of all you are in Christ
Jesus," he says, "Walk worthy." How? Read on.

Ephesians 4:1 (b)

.that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.

In the second half of the letter to the Ephesians, the emphasis is on
walking. In addition to its appearance here, the apostle Paul uses the
word "walk" four times.

. First, he tells us to walk in unity (4:1-16).

. Next, he tells us to walk in purity (4:17-5:18).

. Third, he tells us to walk in harmony (5:19-6:9).

. And finally, he tells us to walk in victory (6:10-24).

Ephesians 4:2 (a)

With all lowliness and meekness.

He who is finally free from a works-oriented Christianity will walk with
lowliness and meekness. No longer will he think God blesses him because of
his dedication, diligence, and devotion; his piety, purity, or prayer.
Instead, he'll realize everything he has is because of God's
lovingkindness, because of His generosity, His mercy, His goodness.

Ephesians 4:2 (b)

.with longsuffering.

"Longsuffering" means "exceeding patience." How much more patient we would
be if we really understood how incredibly patient God has been with us.
After all, would you have put up with yourself if you were God? I, for
one, wouldn't be here right now because I would have blasted myself a long
time ago! Therefore, in light of what He's done for us, in light of how
long He continues to put up with us, we must be those who are patient with
others. We must be those who extend mercy lavishly and bestow grace
freely.

Ephesians 4:2 (c)-6

.forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye
are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you
all.

Because we're all in this together and are all recipients of our Father's
grace and kindness, there's no room to say, "We're better than they are,"
or, "I'm more holy than he is." Rather, there's one body, one Spirit, one
hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There's no room for dividing, for
splintering, for saying, "We're more spiritual than you." No, we're to
walk in unity.

[4]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

a Eph 3:1

b Rom 12:1

c Eph 2:10; Col 1:10; 2:6; 1 Thess 2:12

d Rom 11:29

e Rom 8:28f

a Col 3:12f

b Eph 1:4

a Col 3:14f

[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (Eph 4:1-3). LaHabra,
CA: The Lockman Foundation.

? 24 (4:2) Walter C. Wright, Ephesians, p. 85.

[2]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997, c1995). Believer's Bible Commentary
: Old and New Testaments (Eph 4:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3]McGee, J. V. (1997, c1981). Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the
Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) (5:249-251). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson.

[4]Courson, J. (2003). Jon Courson's Application Commentary (1249).
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Should we follow your beliefs or will you change to ours for unity ?Who will be the judge ? Should we quit reading the Bible and
just let the Holy Spirit work ? What is unity ?giving up ? jb

"Somebody Who Loves You" <Somebody Who Loves You_fan_c...@yahoo.com> wrote

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