UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

Ephesians 4:1-16

Key Verses: 4:12,13

"...to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

Paul revealed God’s eternal salvation plan and his love for his chosen people in chapters 1-3. God would fulfill his plan to unify the heavens and the earth through his universal church. God sent Jesus to abolish all human barriers and to create one new man in Christ. Paul established a theological foundation of the Christian church. Now is time to practice what we learned through the body of Christ. Paul gave us practical lessons how to live a life worthy of God’s calling. He emphasized keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace and using our diverse God-given gifts to build the body of Christ. It is essential for us to grow spiritually in order to maintain unity and diversity in the body of Christ. May God bless us to grow in Christ and to serve many young believers with the love of Christ. I pray that God may help us to become mature Christians bearing with one another in love.

PART I. TO LIVE A LIFE WORHTY OF THE CALLING (1-6)

Look at verse 1. “As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Once Paul was a prisoner of his human ambition. But in reality he was a prisoner of his sinful desires. He became a violent man approving the stoning of Stephen and arresting many Christians at his own expense. (Acts 8-9) By the grace of God he was arrested by Jesus’ love and became a prisoner of Jesus. Jesus called him to become an apostle for the Gentiles. Since then he was faithful to his master, Jesus Christ. He became a loyal follower of Jesus. He was imprisoned for the sake of the gospel to live a life worthy of Jesus’ calling. He was like a brave soldier ready to do anything for his commander. Though he was in prison, he was not discouraged because it was worth it for God’s calling. Now he encourages us to follow his example. “Then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you received.” Abraham in Genesis received God’s high calling and left his country and went to the promised land. He built altar of prayer and called on the name of the Lord in order to live a life worthy of the calling. God made him a father of faith. Jesus called his disciples to become fishers of men. The disciples gave up their careers and followed Jesus in order to live a life worthy of Jesus’ calling. They became great servants of God. Like Apostle Paul, once we were prisoners of sinful desires and human ambition and we were not God’s people. But now God called us to become his precious children by the blood of his Son Jesus. He chose us and adopted us as his own children. What is the calling we received from God? We received God’s special calling for campus mission. God called us to become Bible teachers and shepherds of his flocks. M. Abraham Lee went to the remote northern China in order to live a life worthy of God’s calling. M. Ruth Kim’s mother told me, “My daughter lives a poor life because she married a poor missionary Joshua Kim.” But M. Ruth Kim lives a poor life to obey God’s calling for campus students. If we become a soldier, we have to live a life worthy of a soldier. If we become a student, we have to live a life worthy of a student. It means that we have to attend the class faithfully and do the home work so that we can get “A” grades. In the same way we have to live a life worthy of a missionary or a shepherd or a shepherdess or a Bible teacher. Do you live a life worthy of God’s calling? These days many Christians forgot God’s grace of calling and live like unbelievers. They are no different than the worldly people. We have to live a life worthy of God’s calling by sharing God’s word with others. How can we live a life worthy of God’s calling?

Look at verse 2. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” Humbleness, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, and love are Christian virtues to bring unity among us. These virtues define our horizontal relationship with other believers in our Christian fellowship. It is easy to cowork with God because we do not see him. But it is not easy to cowork with other fellow Christians because we see them daily. How can we work together with other coworkers in the church? Paul lists humbleness as the number one Christian virtue. We can be completely humble when we recognize our unworthiness and weaknesses before God and consider others better than ourselves. In the world humility is discouraged and pride is encouraged. Humility was not a virtue. “Be proud of yourself.” It is natural for us to show off what we have. “Oh, look how good I am!” Usually human pride is the main cause of the division among the churches. Pride tears down Christian fellowship. God cannot use a proud person. 1 Peter 5:5b says, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” Until Jesus came into this world and showed us the true example of humility, we did not know how to be humble. Jesus said in Mark 10:45, “Even the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. “ Phil. 2:5-7 says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Jesus gave up the glory of heaven and was born in a manger and served sinners with the word of God. He lowered himself to ask a favor from a Samaritan woman. He called a selfish tax collector to be his disciple. He washed his disciples feet one by one and died on the cross to save us from our sins. When Jesus humbled himself, God exalted him to the highest place. When we have the attitude of Jesus, we can be completely humble. Paul treats humbleness and gentleness together. Gentleness means that we obey God joyfully and we do not criticize other’s weaknesses and accept others with mother’s heart. It is to control own strong character in order to serve others. It does not translate into our weakness. This word was used to a trained wild animal. When a wild horse is trained well, it becomes a gentle horse with power. This gentleness comes from a restrained character. When a Gerasene demoniac was changed by Jesus’ love in Mark 5, he became a gentle but powerful shepherd for the Decapolis region. Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” When we know Jesus, we do not become harsh towards others but can be gentle and humble shepherds.

Paul said, “be patient.” In the Old Testament God was very patient with the people of Israel. Patience defines God’s relationship with sinners. God waited for Abraham to grow as a father of faith for 25 years. God endured us for a long time and waited for us to be changed very patiently. It is easy to become impulsive and burst into anger quickly like a fire engine when we feel that someone treats us badly and unfairly. It is easy to revenge when someone accuses us falsely. 1 Cor. 13:4a says,” Love is patient.” Love is to endure other’s weakness for a long time. We have to wait for God’s time. Patience is important. Some sheep grows so slowly like a turtle. Welcome to the terrapin territory. We have to be thankful for slow growing sheep as long as they do not run away. Impatient is not good to God’s servant. Bearing with one another in love means that we must forgive others in love. Love is the climax of all four Christian virtues mentioned here. Love binds them together.

Look at verse 3. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Using the words “together” and “unity” interchangeably, the lesson we need to learn about together is this: Unity happens. Paul did not tell us to receive the grace to be unified, nor did he say to get unified. “Make every effort,” he wrote, “to KEEP the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” When you and I receive grace, unity happens. When Jesus stands among us and his presence and his words proclaim, “Peace be with you,” that peace is our bond. We are united by that peace. The peace comes through the grace of God and that peace is our common joy. That peace frees us from competing against one another and comparing ourselves to one another. We are who we are in Christ, and with Christ as our peace, we share a common bond. You and I keep the unity of the Spirit by keeping Christ as our peace. All Christians share a common bond of peace. Jesus came to preach peace to all men who lived as enemies of God. Since Jesus gave us his peace, we should deliver the message of peace and reconciliation as ambassadors of Christ. Peace binds us together not to be divided.

What are the reasons that we should keep the unity in the body of Christ? Look at verses 4-6. “There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

There are seven reasons that we should become one. We have one church, the body of Christ consisting of the Jews and the Gentiles. We have one Holy Spirit we received when we were born again by the Spirit. We have one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. If we have one Father, we are brothers and sisters of the same father. That’s the reason why we cannot be divided and we must keep the unity among us. America is one nation under God. God binds all Americans together as one nation. Without God America can be divided into millions of different pieces. There are many denominations in the church. But from the Biblical point of view there is one church, Jesus’ church. 98 % of protestant churches in America share the same basic Christian doctrine. Most churches divide with small disputable matters. (Rom. 14:1) Should we baptize with sprinkle or going into water. One Presbyterian denomination church was divided and one named “United Presbyterian” and the other “Presbyterian United.” Are they different or same in English. They are same. They look different but they are same because they have one God, one Spirit, and one Lord. It takes one body to contain one spirit. Anything else is impossible! If we have one body, but more than one spirit, chaos reigns within that one body. Jesus said in Mark 3:25, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” It is likewise impossible for us to have several bodies and one Spirit. We are, together, one body with one Spirit. (5-6). There is no other way by which the church is alive. Having this unity of the Spirit demands that we keep that unity. The word “one” is repeated seven times here. The Trinity is mentioned here. We cannot divide God and we cannot be divided. We are not organization and we are organs. We cannot divide the body and so the church cannot be divided. 1 Cor. 12:12-13 says, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the One Spirit to drink.” Here we conclude that division is the work of Satan but unity is the work of the Spirit.

PART II. TO USE DIVERSE GIFTS TO BUILD UP THE BODY OF CHRIST (7-13)

Look at verses 7 and 8. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” Verse 8 is a quotation from Psalm 68:18. King David asked God’s help to rescue him from his enemies as he did for the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. God came down and defeated his enemies. When God ascended to heaven, he led captives in his train and received gifts from men. Here train does not refer to the subway train. It refers to a moving file of persons. Here Paul said that he gave gifts to men instead of receiving gifts from men. Apostle Paul related this event to Jesus’ ascension to heaven and giving gifts to all who belong to him. When Jesus conquered the power of death victoriously and he ascended on high, our Lord Jesus Christ took with him innumerable liberated captives who accepted Jesus. We thought that Jesus only took one of the robbers who confessed his faith in Jesus when he entered the kingdom of God (Lk 23:42). But this verse says, "captives in his train." These words mean that Jesus was accompanied by a huge number of people when he passed through the pearly gates of the kingdom of God. Upon his ascension, Jesus gave the spiritual gifts his people needed to carry out his world salvation purpose.

Look at verse 7 again. “But to each of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” Here “grace” refers to gift. What does “apportioned” mean? In the dictionary “apportion” means, “to divide or share out according to a plan or to make a proportionate division or distribution of.” What does “proportionate” mean? The meaning is “to adjust in size relative to other parts or harmonious relation of parts to each other.” This means that Jesus divided gifts appropriately fitting to us according to his plan to serve the whole body. If we put each part together, we see the whole body. What are some of the gifts mentioned here? Look at verse 11. “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.” Here the gifts are divided functionally. The gifts we received make us able to do good works. For some, they receive the gifts that make them an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist or a pastor or a teacher, to prepare the others for their works of service. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers are vital to build the church. Pastors take care of God’s flocks and teachers teach sheep the word of God. Pastors and teachers are not separated and they are connected. They do two things at the same time. We have to pray that God may grant us fishing talent to find many hungry students and teach them the word of God. The measure of a great church is to have many excellent Bible teachers. If we have many excellent Bible teachers, God can build our church to pioneer 206 east coast campuses. If YDJ has many excellent Bible teachers, they can feed 40,000 UM students. His intent in giving gifts was so that all who are God’s workmanship can perform the works of service he prepared in advance for us to do until we will reach unity in the faith…until we all reach unity in the knowledge of the Son of God…and until we all become mature. It is then that we attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Romans 12:4-8 lists many other gifts. We learn these gifts are the gift of prophesying, the gift of teaching, leadership, serving, evangelism, encouraging, administration and so on. Paul’s not addressing the question of what those gifts are. Instead, we only learn in Ephesians what Paul wants to emphasize: The employment of these gifts looks quite diverse, but they serve a unifying purpose. No comparison is necessary. It is equally important. Each of us received a different gift. Jesus gave different gifts to his twelve disciples. We don’t need twelve Peters. M. Maria Kim received the gift of teaching the word of God. M. Anna Seo received the gift of prayer. S. Belssi received the gift of dancing. M. Hannah Chung and Jagun sisters received the gift of singing. Shannon Smith received the gift of memorizing the Bible verses. M. Abraham Cho received the gift of broad smile and loud laughing. M. Moses received the gift of painting and encouraging. M. Rebekah Lim received the gift of serving. M. Sarah Chang said, “As long as M. Rebekah is with us, we will not go hungry.” What kind of gifts did you receive from God? Please use your gift to build the body of Christ. What is the purpose of giving the gifts? It is to serve the body not to show off our pride.

PART III. WE MUST GROW UP IN JESUS (14-16)

In verse 13 Paul prayed that we might become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. How can we become mature? Look at verses 14 and 15. ”Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From him, the whole body, joined together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Everything that has life grows. Once we are saved by God’s grace, we must continue to grow. Maturity comes when we continue to grow. Unity comes when we are mature in Christ. A complete person brings complete unity. We should not remain as an infant. Infants are swayed easily. Here Paul emphasizes that the children of God must grow and the children of God should not be swayed by the worldly consensus. When we become a Christian and get married, we think that we are grown up Christians. But those who did not study the Bible and those who did not suffer much to grow in Christ to be like Jesus, remain as Christian infants with diapers. Infants are full of curiosity, especially about toys or cartoon movies. Likewise, immature Christians who do not have the faith and knowledge of the Son of God are tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Therefore, when we write our Bible testimony, we must write how we are growing, specifically in what respect, instead of just writing habitually to entertain others. The world is full of evil. And new Christians are like infants. So mature Christians must take care of young Christians wholeheartedly and mature Christians must study the Bible all the more. Then we can grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (16). Look at the anatomy of our body. We have one head and one body with many parts. The role of ligament is important because it held each part together. When S. Bob Woods injured his ligament, his whole body suffered. In the same way one part does not function, the whole body suffers. There is an immeasurable joy when we grow in Christ.

In conclusion, unity does not come through being in a perfect organization. It comes only when we live a life worthy of God’s calling. Unity comes when we grow in our inner being having Christ-like virtues. God gave us diverse gifts to build the body of Christ. We have to grow in Christ until we may become mature to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. May God bless us to practice God’s love by feeding 5 sheep in the coming fall semester. Let’s read the key verse 12-13.