“Ephesians 4”

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Jesus wants His church to be united and at peace. He desires that we live, love, work and worship in harmony. Paul speaks here of two vital components of unity – attitudes and doctrines. We must not only believe the same things (verses 4-6), but we must also maintain the proper internal attitudes (verses 1-3).

There is a certain behavior that is appropriate for the Christian. We are children of God and ought to act like it. If we would all behave as disciples of Christ should behave, there would be far fewer problems in local churches. He especially points out the importance of humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another. Sometimes we just need to try harder to get along. Paul describes this as walking or living “worthy of the calling with which you were called.”

And doctrinally, too many religious people just ignore the significance of the seven “ones” that the Holy Spirit lists here, one body (the church), one Spirit (the Holy Spirit Himself), one hope (of eternity in heaven with the Savior), one Lord (Jesus the Christ), one faith (the singular body of truth revealed one time for all time), one baptism (in water for the remission of sins), and one God (our loving and all powerful heavenly Father).

The various teaching functions in the church were appointed by God to help us all grow to spiritual maturity. The first two (verse 11) were miraculous; there are no longer any apostles or prophets. But the others are simply gifted Christians who challenge us to live up to our spiritual potential and grow the one body, both numerically and in spiritual strength.

Notice that he uses such phrases as “till we all come to the unity of the faith,” and “of the knowledge of the Son of God.” He wants us to be “perfect” (complete and mature in the Lord) and to seek to measure up to “the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

In verse14-16, he warns us about being deceived by false teachings, the trickery of deceitful men and the cunning craftiness of the wicked. The solution to those things is “the truth in love.” And we must not forget that, as the spiritual body of Christ, each of us has a function to perform in His service so that the church will be edified.

Beginning in verse 17 and continuing through the end of chapter four, Paul deals with the appropriate conduct of all believers.

What does it mean to walk as a Christian? What is proper behavior and what is not? How should we conduct our lives in front of an unbelieving world? In this section, Paul deals with all these questions and more. He contrasts the old man and the new man. This passage shows the difference in what we used to be and do and what we now are and do. This admits the fact that, in our past, we all have done things we shouldn’t do. That’s why we needed a Savior in the first place. But he also discusses how we should live now in Christ Jesus. He gave us a second chance. We should walk in godliness and true holiness.

--Roger Hillis

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