“⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as 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 above all, and through all, and in you all.”

Last week, we looked at the way we can work at the unity we have in Christ. We looked at how we are to see ourselves and to treat each other. We are to be lowly, gentle, and long-suffering toward each other. We are to forgive each other over and over again and always deal with each other gently. We are to work diligently to maintain the bond of peace that God gives us in Jesus.

This week, we will look at the unity we are to have in doctrine. Some in the ‘church’ world would have peace at all costs, but the Bible does not allow this. Our peace, the peace that we have in and through Jesus, must be based on TRUTH. As such Paul lays out some things we need to have one mind in.

Sadly, there has been a falling way from the faith by many people. Some say that they are beyond the Gospel now. Others no longer want to hold on to the truths that are clearly laid out in scripture – we are old-fashioned; we need a more modern interpretation of certain scriptures. Some ‘pastors’ claim that Jesus would not say things the same way today – He would see it differently, and on and on. But the truth is that Jesus knew what He was saying. He said what He meant and meant what He said.

Let us then consider the things that create unity and peace in our local church bodies.

One Body: The local church is ONE body. We are made up of many parts, much like the human body, but we are one. Paul lays this out for us in 1 Corinthians 12:15-26, where he teaches us about the unity, the oneness of the local church by using the human body as an example. The foot needs the hand; the ear needs the eye, all working in concert with each other to make us this amazing machine we call the human body. The local church is just that. One body, all members sewn together in Jesus.

Then there is ONE Spirit: The Holy Spirit that holds us all together. Notice in Acts 16:29-34 that the Philippian jailer went from Paul and Silas’ enemy to feeding them and caring for their wounds once he had been saved. A total difference now that they had the same Spirit. Peter in Acts 10:47 could not deny Cornelius water baptism because they saw that He had received the same Spirit as they had.

One Hope:  We are all saved the same way. In Ephesians 2:8-9, we are reminded that we are all saved by grace through faith. Abraham, we are told in Acts 4:4, believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Our faith is in the promises of God and character of God. In Numbers 23:19, we are told that God is not man that He should lie, thus we are assured that when we place our faith in Jesus and trust in His death, burial and resurrection as the full payment for our sins, then we can believe God and have hope that we have eternal life as a gift from God.

One Lord: We find the famous verse from Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” We serve one God. He exists in three persons, but He is ONE LORD. This is very important; many people talk about Jesus as God, but they do not see Him as the All-Mighty God but as a lesser god. The scripture in many places clearly lays out the Trinity. Even here in our verses, the Lord is ‘above all,’ ‘through all,’ and ‘IN ALL.’ Our one Lord is in all of us who believe in the person of the Holy Spirit.

One Faith: Our faith is in Jesus and Jesus alone. It is amazing that we can meet people from all walks of life, different languages and backgrounds, and once we find out that we have our faith in Jesus and Jesus alone, there is a oneness that transcends creeds, cultures, and languages. There is one faith that is more powerful and more uniting than any other metric in the world.

One Baptism: Immersion into water after we have been saved is the only true baptism. All else is not true baptism. We see even in the very ministry of John the Baptist that as soon as Jesus came on the scene, John made it clear in John 3:30 that Jesus would increase and then decrease, then we see that, by John 4:2, the apostles are the ones doing the baptisms. All proper baptisms are done by local churches on those who have made a public profession of faith (see Acts 8:35-38). The Eunuch made a public profession of faith, and then he was baptized by Philip, a member and a deacon from the Jerusalem church.

One God and Father of us all: All believers are children of God the Father, Sons and daughters of the Highest. We are able to call Him ‘Our Father.’ We can call Him ‘Abba’ (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:4); we are one family in Jesus.

These fundamental truths are the basis for unity; these are the basis for our peace together. Sometimes we add a lot of other stuff in here to clarify, and often cause more division than unity. These ‘Ones’ laid out here by the Holy Spirit, using the pen of the Apostle Paul, give us a good foundation, a true guideline for peace and unity in the family of God.

There is a question that we should consider from Amos 3:3 – how can two walk together? The answer is that we must find some kind of agreement. Well, we have had this idea of agreeing to disagree over doctrine for too, too long. The Bible gives us some ‘need to have doctrines’ that promote and, in fact, strengthen unity. These are sacred truths that should not be compromised or abandoned in the name of ‘unity.’ Instead, we create a fake unity that is weak and helps no one to grow; it does not help us to be stronger, but once we compromise, there will be calls to compromise more and more for the sake of unity. In the book of Jude, we are told to contend for the faith, contend for the truth that was given to us.

Let these truths be the foundation, the basis, the sure footing for our fellowship and unity. How can two walk together? When they agree on the fundamental truths of the scriptures.

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, ² with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, ³ endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as 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 above all, and through all, and in you all. ⁷ But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

⁸ Therefore He says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’ ⁹ (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

Over the past few weeks, we have looked a lot at the individual responsibility that we bear before the Lord and as we see the end drawing near. But what about how we interact inside our local bodies, our local churches?

Paul endeavors, led by the Holy Spirit, to help us learn that in this 4^th chapter of Ephesians. He will point out and call us to things that we need to do as a body, how we act and interact with each other, and as such, strengthen the body of Christ, the local church. The fact that we are fast approaching the return of our Lord and Savior should focus us on the work at hand. The time for lukewarm churches is past, and we should seek to be diligently working to help each other. We are challenged by Paul to walk worthy of the calling we have in Jesus. We are to take the way that we live with each other very seriously and not take each other for granted.

How then are we to carry ourselves as members of this church and in relation to each other?

We are to be lowly, gentle, and long-suffering. We are not to be pushy and always in defense of our own rights and wants. We are not to be driven by having our own agenda. We are to be lowly and gentle with each other. All too often, we can be harsh and use this as a call to be holy. But Jesus is gentle with us, and He came as a servant, lowly in His ways. We have to learn that, in the Kingdom of God, we are to be lowly, humbled, and that the highest calling is that of being a servant. Jesus came as a Servant, and we should seek to mimic Him.

We are called to be long-suffering. We all fail each other, we all mess up, we all say that wrong this, do the wrong thing, jump to the wrong conclusions, and it is inevitable that wrongs will come between us. We need to be forgiving and patient; we need to understand that we are all simply dust; we cannot read your mind, read your hints, know how you will react all the time, and sometimes we just put our foot in our mouth. Please forgive me, please cover my sins in love, and remember all that God has forgiven you.

In Matthew 18 21-35, Jesus tells us the parable of the unforgiving servant who refused to forgive his fellow servant even though he had been forgiven so much. In the same passage, Peter is reminded to just keep forgiving each other; don’t keep count, just keep forgiving and forgiving.

The bond of Peace. We are called in verse 3 to endeavor to keep the peace. Peace in a local church is had by hard work; it is a constant act that, if neglected, will end in the fall and destruction of that local church. Notice that we are aided and, in fact, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do this. Peace, lasting peace, does not come without hard work and with the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we are called to be submitted to the Holy Spirit. Is He leading our daily lives? Are we actively listening to Him and obeying Him?

There is no doubt that we are being led to forgive, to be humble, and to be gentle with each other, but we are defiant and think that these things are signs of weakness. But in Christ and because of Christ we can be these things, and these things – lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering – make our churches stronger. When these things are in place, when we are actively in submission to the Holy Spirit and to each other. When we set our goal as helping the other person be more like Jesus, and they set the same goal for us, then we can actively pursue unity and peace. The local church is more important than the association; in fact, there is no association without the local church.

Peace and unity are to be grounded in the Truth; that is why it is so important to be led by the Holy Spirit. He, we are told in John 16:13, will lead us into truth.

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

Too many churches will sacrifice truth for peace and unity; this is not the peace and unity from God. The foundation of our peace, our unity, our lowliness, and our endeavors must be led and sustained by the Holy Spirit, who knows ALL TRUTH. In this local church at Ephesus and in other local churches, the power of the Holy Spirit was able to unite Jews and Gentiles into one body, which is proof that God can unite anyone at all in His power. Only true faith, only true submission, and a true desire for holiness can bring unity into a body of sinful men and women. These are all based on the truth of God’s word.

Obedience is always the foundation of unity (see verse 4-6): one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and so on. What truly unites us is that we are all children of God by faith in Jesus. This is the very foundation that we have to unite us. All else is division and confusion, to be honest. Now we can be cordial to unbelievers, and we can be nice to them. We can be friendly to them, but there can be no true unity unless we are in Jesus, and not only in Him, but also obedient to Him.

A lot of people talk about believing in Jesus; good, but do we obey Him? This is the real question. In John 14:15, Jesus says this, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Well, one of the most important commandments is here in the way that we treat each other, honor each other, and serve each other in the Lord’s local church.

Jesus is coming soon. Are we ready to meet Him and give an account?