Synod Sermon by Rev D W B Somerset
Ephesians 4:3-4. 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.
In this Epistle, we have Paul writing to the Ephesian church, a church where he had laboured for more than two years (Acts 19:8,10), and where he had seen many converted, both Jews and Greeks. Paul was writing to confirm them in the faith, and to instruct them in the great privilege that they had received in their conversion: “that ye may know . . . the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Eph 1:18,19). But he wanted them also to understand God’s work on a different scale: not only what He had done in their hearts, but also what He had been doing in the world from everlasting, in making known the glory of His Son and in gathering a people to Himself: “that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him” (1:10).
In bringing these things before the Ephesian Church, Paul was also showing them their duty – to live as the children of God: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children” (Eph 5:1). One particular matter which affected the Ephesian church was that, while many of them were Gentiles – as we see in this chapter: “that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk” (v. 17) – some of them were Jews; and there was to be a Christian unity between Jews and Gentiles.
In Chapter 2, Paul speaks about a middle wall of partition which had been separating Jew and Gentile but which was now removed in Christ: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Eph 2:13-14). This was particularly relevant to their duty of loving one another: their differences of background were to be surmounted by their Christian unity and love that they now had as brethren, as the children of one Father. That is what we have in our text: that they should be 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” (Eph 4:4).
This matter of unity is of importance to us as we gather together as a part of the visible Church of the Lord Jesus Christ; and there is no doubt that, where the people of God gather together in this world, there the wicked one will be too. He goes up and down in the world seeking to do as much harm and to spread as much discord as he can; and we are warned, in the last chapter of this Epistle, about the conflict that we must have with him: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph 6:13). Among the arms that we have is the shield of faith, wherewith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked (v 16). Where Satan is active, there the people of God must be vigilant as well, in resisting him as we have it here: “Neither give place to the devil” (4:27). Thus the people of God are trying to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace in opposition to the divisive work of the devil.
We want to consider three things with the help of the Spirit: (1) that the true Church is one body; (2) that there is therefore a unity among the people of God, as there is in the body; and (3) that this unity has to be kept.
1. The true Church is one body. The true Church consists of all those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, who are joined to Him by faith, who are depending upon Him, and who are making Him their hope for their entrance into the eternal world. As they draw ever nearer to death, their hope is in the finished work of Christ. They desire, with Paul, to “be found in Him, not having [their] own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil 3:9). The true Church is the body of Christ, because those depending upon Him are joined to Him as members of His body. By trusting in Him they become “one spirit” (1 Cor 6:17) with Him, and thus living members of that mystical body of which He is the Head: “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph 4:15-16).
The true Church is therefore “one body” with “one Spirit”, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. The members of that body have the Spirit in their hearts: “God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6). At their conversion the Spirit entered their hearts, laid hold on them, and gave them spiritual life, so that they in their turn would lay hold on Christ by faith. Christ apprehended them that they might apprehend Him and become one with Him. Every believer has this: there is one body and one Spirit dwelling in every one of them. There are not “many spirits” in the Church, as there are many deceiving spirits that “are gone out into the world” (1 Jn 4:1). The kingdom of Satan is divided in this way, with false spirits deceiving men so that they hate and murder each other, but the true Christian Church has one Spirit, uniting the body of Christ.
This one Spirit has caused the members of the body to trust in Christ, so that they have one hope, the common hope of them all. The hope of the believer is that of being with Christ, “to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better” (Phil 1:23), and every child of God wants that above all else. This is his heart’s desire; as Paul says, “So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Th 4:17-18). It is a comfort to the people of God to think of leaving the sorrow and sin and trouble of this world for ever and of being with Christ, enjoying His acceptance and His love, and seeing His glory. “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory” (Jn 17:24).
As there is one body and one Spirit and one hope, so there is “one Lord” (Eph 4:5). Believers acknowledge one Lord: they have one Master. “One is your master, even Christ” (Mt 23:8). They acknowledge the authority of Christ; they are subject to Christ. The Word of Christ, which is the Word of God, has authority over them. They recognise its commanding power, they seek to keep it, and they are constrained by it. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15). Christ is their Lord also in the sense that He is the One whom they worship: “for He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him” (Ps 45:11). There are “gods many and lords many” (1 Cor 8:5) in the world, that people worship and set their hearts upon, but the people of God set their hearts on Christ, and give honour and glory to Him. It is the will of God “that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father” (Jn 5:23). The people of God want to honour the Son; they regard Him as worthy of all honour; they desire to pour out their souls before Him and to give Him all that they have.
There is “one Lord” and there is also “one faith”, as all believers have a common faith in Christ. They have the same faith in Christ that Abraham had when he “rejoiced to see [Christ’s] day: and he saw it, and was glad” (Jn 8:56), and the same faith that Job had when he said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” (Job 19:25). Believers now “have obtained like precious faith” with Peter through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet 1:1). They are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth”, on the same journey as those who have gone before (Heb 11:13). They are sojourners, as were their fathers (1 Chr 29:15).
The people of God have “one faith” also in the sense that they have a common belief or doctrine: “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). They have one creed. The Bible teaches us what we are to believe: concerning God, concerning ourselves, concerning Christ and concerning eternity. A complete and perfect system of doctrine is set forth in the Word of God: “the form of sound words” (2 Tim 1:13). This system is imperfectly understood at present – we expect more light at the Millennium – and parts of the Christian Church are in error, we believe, on certain matters such as baptism. But on the matters of the greatest importance – those which concern the honour and glory of Christ and the way of salvation – the Church is indeed one; and all Christians agreed in this: “My Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28).
Believers have also “one baptism”, which we understand as one way of entrance into the Covenant. This way of entrance was by circumcision in the Old Testament and by baptism in the New. Both ordinances speak of the putting away of sin, and Christ is the One who cleanses the heart and who takes away the sin of His people, who baptizes “with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Mt 3:11). Those who come to Him receive that spiritual washing which the outward baptism represents. This one baptism is the baptism of the Christian Church: “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mt 28:19). The outward baptism is applied inwardly to the hearts of the people of God by the Holy Spirit, who brings them to Christ that He in turn may bring them to God: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”.
This is the unity of the Christian church – there is one Spirit (v 4), and one Lord (v 5), and one God and Father (v 6); the triune God, the One God in the Three Persons, whom the people of God acknowledge and of whom they have experience. The doctrine of the Trinity is not merely an intellectual matter for them but a matter of the heart, because the One that died for them is one Person; and the One who purifies their hearts by faith, and who strengthens them and enables them and gives them understanding and stirs up love in their hearts is another Person; and the One who gave Christ, “the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ”, is a third. These are the Three Persons of the Godhead, and believers have distinct experiences of each. This then is the true Church throughout the world, the undivided body of Christ.
2. The unity there is among the people of God, “the unity of the Spirit”. It is that unity of which the Holy Spirit is the author, dwelling in the hearts of God’s people and joining them together, so that they are at peace with each other. There is a bond or chain or band of peace between them which holds them together. Peace binds men together, just as hostility and hatred and envy and dislike drive them apart. Men do not want to be with those whom they dislike, but when they are at peace they can dwell together, as sheep in a pasture. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Ps 133:1).
A story was told in The Young People’s Magazine of a man who was lost in the woods at night, and saw a house and went into it. He found there a fierce-looking man who welcomed him but left him feeling afraid. He feared that the fierce-looking man would murder him during the night, but his mind was set at peace when the fierce-looking man said to him, before they retired to bed, that it was his practice to have worship before he slept. When he heard the fierce-looking man in prayer to God through Christ, his fears were allayed. This gives us a picture of the bond of peace that there is between the people of God. Christ makes peace in the heart, and those that are at peace with Christ are at peace with their fellow men. This is the fruit of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts. However fierce that man’s exterior may have been, he was a man of peace, being joined to Christ, and the other man had no further fear of him.
That is how it is with the people of God: if they are at peace even towards strangers, how much more are they at peace with their companions – with those that are of one mind with them in spiritual things. The Holy Ghost gives the people of God a common mind regarding spiritual things.
(a) They are agreed about the way of salvation; they have a “common salvation” (Jude 3). They have all put their trust in Christ; they are not disputing about the way of salvation, but are rejoicing in it together.
(b) They have a common desire for the glory of Christ. As He has done great things for them, so they desire that His name should be honoured: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Paul was living unto Him, and every believer is and ought to be doing the same. They are of one mind with other believers in the world in their desire for this.
(c) They have a common desire for the prosperity and well-being of the Church. There is “joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Lk 15:10), and there is joy in the hearts of God’s people too when they hear of souls being saved. They desire the spreading of the gospel and the prosperity of Zion and they have a fellow feeling with those of the same mind as themselves.
(d) They have a common desire that men should keep the commandments of Christ, and that these commandments should be kept in their own hearts. They desire that they themselves might be brought into conformity to Him, that their sins might be subdued, that the work of holiness might be advanced, and that they might be enabled by His grace to cleanse themselves “from all filthiness of the flesh and of spirit” (2 Cor 7:1); and what they desire for themselves, they desire for others: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10). The Holy Spirit gives them a common mind in these matters, and how different this is from the spirit of the world, and from the spirit that they had before! We see the opposite of a brotherly spirit – a callous and discordant and vengeful spirit – in Cain and in Esau; and we see it in the human heart generally in the attitude to the sin and suffering and death of others. At the end of this chapter we have these two things put in opposition to each other: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph 4:31-32). Being forgiven by God, believers are of a tenderhearted and forgiving spirit to their fellow men.
The discordant spirit of the world can especially be seen in the estrangement between Jews and Gentiles. There was a “middle wall of partition between them”, so that they could not so much as eat together. They were at enmity. It was a separation of God’s own appointing: the separation between the Old Testament Church and the heathen nations round about, appointed by God for His own wise and holy purposes. Among other things, it was to be a picture of that spiritual division between the people of God and the world lying in wickedness. God’s chosen people were called out by Him and gathered together and serving Him according to His commandments, while the nations round about ignored God and were hostile to His people. “Mine heritage is unto Me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her” (Jer 12:9).
God appointed the separation between Jew and Gentile for a time and a purpose, but when these were fulfilled, Christ broke it down: “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances;” (the ceremonial law especially, and the moral law as a covenant of works) “for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph 2:15-16). This is part of Christ’s great work of bringing unity in place of estrangement. The Christian Jews and Gentiles in Ephesus were gathered together in one in Christ. All the divisions which sin and Satan create are undone in Him: “until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be” (Gen 49:10).
Believers are gathered together as one body, and there is a unity in this body as there is a unity in our own bodies. The members of the body co-exist harmoniously together; they are all different, and have a different purpose, but there is no conflict between them. One hand may be stronger than the other but they are not in rivalry with each other. They co-operate in many things which they could not accomplish alone. This is a picture of the body of Christ. He received gifts for men: “some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (v 11). The Holy Spirit has bestowed these different gifts that they might be used harmoniously for the service of Christ. Thus there is a unity among the people of God.
3. The necessity of keeping this unity: “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. There is an essential unity among the people of God, and yet it may be stronger or weaker, depending on the care with which they have preserved it. We see from the history of the Christian Church that this unity was broken even in apostolic times. In the Galatian Church, it was broken by the false gospel that some were trying to bring in. The Apostle John says of others, perhaps Gnostics, that “they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 Jn 2:19). People came into the Church appearing to be Christians, but then embraced some error, and either tried to take over the Church, or else departed, seducing others to follow them.
There are three things that disturb the unity of the Church. The first is error. Even a small and temporary error may break the unity of the Church and the bond of peace. Paul and Barnabas had a dissension over John Mark, and there was a division between them for a while, until it was healed (Acts 15:39). Perhaps such things are unavoidable. A more serious error was that of Peter in Galatia, when he ceased to eat with the Gentiles for fear of the Jews. Paul regarded this as a threat to the gospel itself, and he withstood Peter to the face (Gal 2:12-14). Peter broke the unity of the Spirit by withdrawing from the Gentiles, and Paul confronted him, to restore that unity.
Some errors are of such gravity that they require excommunication. The sinful man in Corinth was excommunicated until he repented, and he was restored (1 Cor 5:5, 2 Cor 2:7). Hymeneus and Alexander were “delivered unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme” (1 Tim 1:20). Sometimes the error becomes so prevalent in the Church that the people of God cannot put it out, and they have to separate themselves in order to preserve the truth. This happened in 1843 at the Disruption, and in 1893 at the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church, when the denial of the Word of God had become quite open in the old Free Church. Keeping the unity of the Spirit involved departing from error at that time.
We must be aware of the danger of error, and of stubborn persistence in error. We have to watch for errors coming into the Church, but we also have to watch ourselves individually. If we find ourselves widely at variance from our brethren, there is a possibility that we are in error, and that Satan is using us to break up the unity of the Church.
A second thing that disturbs the unity of the Church is pride: “Only by pride cometh contention” (Prov 13:10). An example of this was Diotrephes, “who loveth to have the pre-eminence” (3 John 9). Being puffed up with pride, he fell into the condemnation of the devil and divided the Church: “neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church” (v 10). Not only was he guilty, but so were those giving him the undue place that he was demanding. Paul says that we are not to encourage such things, but to oppose them. “Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Rom 16:17). In place of pride, we are to esteem others as better than ourselves. “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Mt 23:11,12).
The third thing that disturbs the unity of the Church is a party spirit. In Corinth, there were factions saying, “I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ” (1 Cor 1:12). Probably there were Gentiles giving great place to Paul, and Jews preferring Peter as the Apostle of the circumcision, and others preferring Apollos because he was “an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures” (Acts 18:24). Paul sets all these things aside; they were to join no party, not even that which went by the name of Christ. Where there is such a party spirit, Satan has a field day in stirring up bitterness and suspicion among the people of God.
These are some of the dangers mentioned in the Word of God. There is a unity among the people of God, but it is a unity that has to be kept, and therefore we have to flee from those errors that we have spoken of. We are to have a spirit of peace towards all true Christians. “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen” (Eph 6:23-24).
Hypocrisy is the high road to apostasy.
When you go to the door of a physician and knock, you do not need to make an apology; it is his business to be a physician. So it is with Christ. We may go to Him as we would to a physician and tell our wants and our diseases.
Aaron had a little compassion. He could say, “Come unto me, and I will show you where you will find rest”. But Christ could say, “Come unto Me and I will give you rest”. The high priest offered up sacrifices; Christ offered up the true sacrifice.
R M Mcbeyne