“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 at different aspects of unity and how to build it and preserve it. Today, we will look at how to build the body – the local church – of Christ in unity. This is so important; there is so much division in the local churches, and as such, too many of our local churches are small and weak. In this passage we are exploring today, Paul lays out the people that Jesus put in the local church to equip the saints, to help us all grow in obedience to the Lord and to learn how to speak the truth in love. One of the most important things that Paul is working toward in the local churches is stability.

He says here in verse 14 that he no longer wants us to be ‘tossed to and fro’ by every wind of doctrine. If you recall last week, we looked at the basic doctrines that a local church should hold to. You should take the time to read verses 4-6 again to refresh your memory. These foundational doctrines of unity are essential to each local church. Once we have these in place, then the men that Jesus put in place to equip the saints and churches can then work and do their work from a firm foundation.

One of the ways that the New Testament is conformed to us as the truth is that there is the fulfillment of prophecy contained in it. In verse 8, we see that there is a fulfillment of Psalm 68:18. Here we can see that THE New Testament is confirmed by the words of the Psalmist. This is important for us to know, to have confidence in what we are reading and learning.

The apostle goes on to show us the people that Jesus put in place in a local church to help equip the saved persons who attend. As an aside, Jesus, we see, did not go to Hell, as many would have us believe. He went to paradise, the lower parts of the earth, as we see in Luke 16 with the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and as He promised the thief on the cross where He would meet him that very afternoon of the crucifixion.

Jesus, we are told, sets certain persons in the local church to equip it. First, He set apostles at the very beginning. The age of apostles is over; that age ended with the death of the apostle John around the end of the first century after Christ. In Acts 1:15-26, we see the requirements for an apostle: he must have been with the followers of Jesus from Jesus’ baptism by John until the resurrection. No one today meets these criteria. Paul says that he was an apostle born out of season; he did not see Jesus being baptized, but he did see the resurrected Jesus.

Then we are given prophets; these are forth-tellers, not future tellers. There are no more revelations from God to us; the Bible is complete. But a good prophet will know the prophecies and show us their fulfillment so that we can grow in confidence in the scriptures and the person, character, and power of God.

Then we have evangelists; these men, like Billy Graham and many others that I know today, preach the word of God, but they do not start and establish churches. Their primary goal is the salvation of souls, then others can come along and build local churches with those who are saved.

Finally, we get the pastor/teachers; these are called to teach the Bible in an expository fashion that reveals the mysteries and helps the saved to become more obedient and more like Jesus. The goal, as we mentioned before, is that we become more and more stable and that our churches stop splitting and being divided by schisms. As we grow, we are to learn how to speak the truth of Jesus in love and not to allow the excuse of love to stop us from speaking the truth. As we can see, the goal is to create strong local churches with people who are knit together and that function together as one people. Too many churches are individuals that are almost competing with each other, and if not individuals, then little clicks that want to be more important than the other click; and then we end up eating each other, and we are destroyed not from the enemy, but from within. What a sad commentary on us.

When we do ‘church’ right, we build each other up, we help each other grow, we serve each other, and together we face to bumps of life and hold each other when we stumble. We all have enough issues outside that we do not need more issues inside. Remember when we began this journey, we are to be lowly, gentle, and long-suffering; what if every church were like that? Oh, we would have a lot fewer churches and stronger, serving, life-changing churches that are numerically and financially strong.

Lord, please help us.

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

 “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.