This week marks the fourth installment in our series on what it means to be the church. Up until this point we have studied what it means to be a disciple making church, a devoted church, and a generous church. Today we will be looking at what it means to be a united church. Look at the text with me.

1I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

The central point of our text in verse 3 says that we should be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. What does this mean? What does it mean to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit? And what does it mean to be eager to maintain the bond of peace?

THE CONTEXT…

Before we answer those questions, we need to understand the context of this book. The book of Ephesians was written by the apostle Paul, from prison, to the church in Ephesus – a church he had planted many years earlier. He writes this letter to the Ephesian church to simply help them understand who they are in Christ Jesus, how to live as Christ has called them to live, and how to stand firm against the enemy with Christ as their armor.

SIT, WALK, STAND…

An easy way to remember the central themes of this letter is to remember the words: Sit, Walk, Stand. Paul goes to great lengths to help us understand our identity in Christ in the first three chapters of this letter. And everything he says in those first three chapters regarding our identity (who and whose we are) is summarized in 2:6 where he says that God has “raised us up with him [Christ] and [has] seated us with him in the heavenly places. This is our identity: Seated in perfection with Christ in heaven.

Everything Paul says about our identity in Christ in those first three chapters (the fact that we are blessed, holy, blameless, lavished with love, predestined, adopted, redeemed, etc.) all of this and more is captured in the truth that we are right now seated with Christ in the heavenlies – spiritually speaking we are perfect children of God! This is who we are. God defines our identity. Our behavior does not define us.

But, our behavior is meant to flow out of that deep wealth of our identity in Christ. We must remain seated in that newfound identity as we learn to walk or live as Christ calls us to. That is the second main theme of the book: to walk as Jesus walked on this earth. Chapter 4:1 through chapter 6:9 contains Paul’s instructions on how we should now live or walk in accordance with our profession of faith.

In 4:1 he says “I… urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called”. Our calling is two-fold: Vertical in following Jesus and horizontal in sharing Jesus with others around us through our holy lifestyles. Paul leaves no stone unturned in this large section of his letter. He addresses the church as members and leaders. He explains what a new and holy life should look like. He gives instructions for how to walk out our marriage relationships, the parenting relationships, and the boss to employee relationship.

The bottom line here is this, we are called to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called. We are to pursue holiness with every ounce of energy we have. People who refuse to pursue holiness because they do not want to submit to the body of Christ (its leaders and its members) are not professing Christ with their lives; they are professing their love for Satan, Sin, and Death, who promote evil lifestyles and division among the body. 

Holiness is not merely a personal issue, because sin infects the entire community and if it is not dealt with ruthlessly, it will kill the entire church family. We do well to remember John Owen’s infamous statement, that we must be killing sin or sin will be killing us. This is why Paul moves on into the third theme of his letter that we remember is captured in the word, Stand. That section of his letter can be found in 6:10 – 24 and it encompasses the infamous armor of God passage in verses 10 – 20.

In verses 13 – 14, Paul says, “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore…” with the armor of God covering our entire bodies so that we can wage war against the darkness within ourselves, within the church, and out there in the world.

We often love to talk about waging war against the world while many so-called believers shrink back from waging war against their own propensity towards evil which renders them useless in waging war on behalf of the evil that is terrorizing another brother or sister in the church.

This is why church discipline is largely unheard of and unpracticed in the church today; too many believers have cardboard cutouts for armor and have been rendered useless for the pursuit of holiness together as a community. People who do not pursue holiness as a way of life will never be effective in the world around us and will most certainly never have the guts to go the distance with a brother or sister who is enslaved to Satan, Sin, and Death.

One of the most difficult aspects of the pursuit of walking in holiness as a church family is when you and I are called to pray an unrepentant brother or sister into the hands of the devil so that they might come to an end of themselves and truly repent; most people do not have the stomach for this because they are not engaged in the daily pursuit of holiness as they strap their armor on.

Sit, Walk, Stand. That is the context of the passage we are studying today about unity. Can you see how serious Paul is about these central themes? This is life or death for Paul. Eternity is on the line. Paul is never concerned with whether or not someone will like him when he says what he says. 

Paul’s only concern is that we would learn to be securely seated in our identity in Christ, and then learn to walk in holiness as we seek to honor Christ, and then learn to stand against evil of all kinds in our own personal lives, in the life of the church community, and finally in the world we live in.

A UNITED COMMUNITY…

With all that context in place, we can now see that Paul begins his walking section with instructions regarding unity when he says (once again) in verse 3, that we should be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. Again, what does this mean? What does it mean to be eager to maintain unity of the Spirit? And what does it mean to be eager to maintain the bond of peace? I am certain that we all know the effects of the divided world we live in. I am certain that the Spirit of God would remind you – even now – of your own struggle with a divided heart, one that is not fully united to Christ.

When I think about this call to be eager to maintain unity of the Spirit, I notice that Paul is using active language. When he says that we should be “eager to maintain” unity, he is saying that we need to “make haste” and do our “utmost to keep the unity of the Spirit”because “this is urgent”.2 We cannot be lazy about our pursuit of unity. We cannot pretend that it is someone else’s responsibility to maintain unity.

We have to remember that where the Spirit of God truly reigns among the people of a church, there will be no division, because the Spirit of God cannot be divided and since this is true, people who belong to the Spirit will actively labor to maintain unity. We must not sit on our thumbs in disagreement. It is not the work of the Spirit for professing believers to leave ministry things to the paid professionals while they complain and disagree with their decisions in back-room phone calls and sideline chatter.

That picture is not striving for unity of the Spirit. It is the work of the enemy among God’s people. This is why Paul’s use of the phrase “in the bond of peace” is vital for our understanding of how to pursue unity in the church. One commentator helpfully notes that pursuing unity “in the bond of peace” means that we are to be truly active peacemakers instead of passive aggressive peacekeepers.3

The true bond of a good weld between two pieces of steel is defined by the integrity of the steel and the depth of the cut of the weld; too shallow of a cut and the bond breaks. Likewise, a weak or compromised piece of steel will also cause the bond to break under pressure. 

My commentator helpfully noted that a solid bond is made by peacemakers who are present in the life of the church, speaking honest and biblical truth about the threat of Satan, Sin, and Death in the church, risking the pain of backlash from those who are under the enemy’s control in the church, while offering true Godly solutions to the cancer as they fight for a true bond of the Spirit in peace.3 The bottom line is this, true unity and peace must be fought for as we stand on God’s unshakeable Word.

HOW DO WE FIGHT FOR PEACEFUL UNITY?

This is the concrete question: How do we fight for peaceful unity? We know that passivity is not in the list, and we also know that uniformity is not what God is after. God does not want all of us to look the same, speak the same, wear the same clothes, etc. Peaceful unity amidst diversity is what God has in mind for his church family.

How do we strive for this? How do we walk this out? Paul outlines three very simple principles that we need to put into practice. The first one is to Grow in Christian Character (v. 2), the second one is to Stay Connected to Our Triune God (vv. 4 – 6), and the third one is to Remember God’s Grace (v. 7). So, the three rocks we can anchor ourselves to in this pursuit of peaceful unity are Character, Connection, and Grace. Without these three things, we will only be playing church instead of being the church.

#1: WE MUST GROW IN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER (V. 2)

The first way Paul instructs us to fight for peaceful unity in the church family, is to pursue growth in Chrisian character which he says in verse 2 will bear the fruit of fighting for peaceful unity “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love”. Are these not the essence of Christian character?

Think about this. Humility and gentleness do not mean passive, wimpy, quiet, weak mannered people. Humility and gentleness mean humble strength under the Spirit’s control. Remember that Jesus was full of perfect humility and gentleness when he rebuked Peter and called him Satan. The same is true when he confronted the religious people of his time for their hypocrisy. The same is true when he flipped tables in the temple because it had become a den of thieves. The same is true when he called religious folks a bundle of snakes.

Humility and gentleness can be defined as spiritual strength under the control of the Spirit of God. A person who is growing in these Christian characteristics, attempting to walk like Jesus, will have tough, truth-filled conversations, will not ignore the effects of Satan, Sin, and Death, and will most certainly confront evil viciously for the sake of protecting the holiness and health of the church family.

We must not forget that Paul includes patience and bearing with one another in love. Patience does not mean avoidance or silence. Bearing with one another in love does not mean overlooking evil and pretending that things are not as bad as they really are. True love speaks truth, does not enable bad behavior, and uses appropriate consequences to root out and kill sin. True patience celebrates baby steps and encourages spiritual growth while trusting God when hard consequences must be dealt out. The bottom line here is that if we are truly going to fight for peaceful unity, we must be about the business of growing in Christian character with the fruit of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. How are you doing with these?

#2: WE MUST STAY CONNECTED TO THE TRIUNE GOD (VV. 4 – 6)

Fighting for peaceful unity may sound like an oxymoron to you. How does fighting produce peace or unity? The answer to that question is wrapped in what you are actually fighting for and the position you are actually fighting from. 

Some people fight to get control, while others fight when they are out of control. Some people fight to get what they want, and others fight because of what others want. Some people think they never fight at all, when in reality, they have only surrendered the fight altogether and are enslaved to the enemy.

Truly fighting for peaceful unity means that we must grow in Christian character so that we have the backbone for the fight that lies ahead. But we also have to fight from the right place of connectedness. Simply stated: The foundation for our fight – our true source of strength for our fight – lies in what we connect ourselves to or what we plug our hearts and minds into.

We were designed to be in perfect union with God; totally connected to him as our source of strength as we fight for peaceful unity. And the picture Paul gives us for this plug in is the picture of the triune God.5 This is why he reminds us in verses 4 – 6 that “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Talk about a massive seven point picture of perfect unity right?

Father, Son, and Spirit are all mentioned in these verses. The Spirit calls us and gives us hope and baptizes us into the family of God. Jesus is the one Lord in whom we place our faith for salvation. The Father reigns supreme over, through, and in all things that belong to him. Paul’s aim here is helping us to see that our fight for peaceful unity will only be as fruitful as the integrity of our connection to the eternally unified triune God. Plug into something else and our fight for unity will end. 

Strive to remain connected to our triune God through regular times of prayer, devotion, silence, solitude, Bible study in community, worship through sacrificial giving of time, talent, treasure, etc. You will not remain connected to the triune God when you treat the church family like the extended family you only see once or twice per year. Union with God flows out of a deep commitment to the normal spiritual rhythms of walking in deep relationship with God and his people.

#3: WE MUST REMEMBER GOD’S GRACE (V. 7)

Third and finally, we must remember God’s grace. Without grace we will attempt some false notion of peaceful unity in our own strength, and we will fail if not actually cause damage to the body of Christ. This is why Paul reminds us in verse 7 that “grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift”. Now, it is important to understand that this final verse acts as segway to the next section which we will cover next week as we think about the gifted church. 

But we are not stretching things too far to think that grace according to Christ’s gift also applies to the fight for peaceful unity. When I think about grace in accordance with the measure of Christ’s gift, I am reminded of what Paul says earlier in this book in 2:1 – 10 where he says:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Simply stated, a proper understanding of God’s grace will not give us a license to sin while demanding that everyone else overlooks and excuses our sin. A proper understanding of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, will motivate us to demand that our brothers and sisters confront our sin as we submit wholeheartedly to their correction and direction for repentance. When grace characterizes a church family, sin is dealt with decisively and peaceful unity is restored among broken people as we all cling to the grace of Christ together.

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, grace is the deathblow to division because division and a lack of peaceful unity or the presence of fake unity, is the fruit of Satan, Sin, and Death having their way among God’s people. And the reason that I say that grace is the deathblow to division and all forms of false unity is because Christ pours out that grace upon us in accordance with his gift and the that very gift was his work at a bloody cross, and empty tomb, and the promise of heaven.

Do you want to wage war against the kingdom of hell? Fight for peaceful unity my friends. Do you want to know what true peaceful unity is like? Pursue real growth in Christian character, fight to remain connected to our triune God, and remember God’s grace. Do you truly want those things? Do you want to walk like Jesus? Do you want to strengthen your connection to God? 

If so… get your face in front of true grace at the cross of Christ. Ponder and meditate on the wonder of the power of the empty tomb given to you. Permeate your heart and mind with the promise of heaven – the place your identity is rooted in… and then get to walking! – Amen!!!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 R., Kent, Hughes, Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 1990), 124.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid., 124 – 125.

5 Ibid., 122 – 123.