UNITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

Ephesians 4:1-16

Key Verse: 4:3

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Apostle Paul revealed the mystery of God that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Through the cross Jesus created one body of believers out of two, the Jews and Gentiles. Jesus broke the walls of hostility and brought peace to all. Paul laid the doctrine of predestination, redemption, universal church, and adoption in the first three chapters 1-3. In chapters 4-6 Paul gives us some practical applications of those doctrines. Today’s theme is “keep the unity in the body of Christ.” In the first part Paul teaches us how to walk in the unity of the body of Christ. In the second part he teaches us how to use God’s grace to build up the body of Christ until the whole church becomes mature. Let’s build the body of Christ using our diverse God-given gifts so that we may attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. I pray that we may grow in Christ by keeping the unity of the Spirit. May God bless us to be connected to Christ, the Head of the church!

I. KEEP THE UNITY (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.”  Paul was not ashamed of his chains for the gospel of Jesus. It was a great honor for him to become a prisoner for Jesus who saved him from the wrath of God. Paul was happy to serve the King Jesus even though he was in prison. His physical condition did not take away his joy of delivering the message of love and hope to the Gentiles. What did he urge the Ephesians to do? He urged them to live a life worthy of the calling they have received. What is the calling we received? God chose us before the creation of the world and predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. By nature we were the objects of God’s wrath but now we became objects of God’s blessing as his children. Once we were far away from God as the Gentiles but now we are near God and have access to him 24/7. We were aliens before but now we are citizens of God’s kingdom. God called us into such blessings freely through the blood of Jesus. Here the word “worthy” (axios) means “equal weight.” God’s calling and our personal life should have equal weight. This means that our practical life style must match God’s calling. We need to balance our Christian life between calling and our responsibility. This means that we should not become Christians in name-only, but committed Christians. Missionaries must live lives worthy of their calling remembering our first love. God’s people must live lives worthy of God’s calling. These days many Christians do not live lives worthy of their calling and became worldly Christians. As a result, they lost the joy of serving the body of Christ and became lukewarm Christians. How can we live a life worthy of the calling?

Look at verse 2. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Apostle Paul listed three virtues that enable us to walk worthy of the calling. They are humility, gentleness, and patience. Why did Paul list humility as the first character quality? Paul’s emphasis was on unity. Humility brings unity while pride brings division. Of course, humility was not a virtue but a vice in Greek culture. Humility was for the slave class. In America, people promote pride. How can we become completely humble in the age of self-advertisement? We must depend on God and learn from Jesus’ example of humility. Jesus lowered himself to the point of death to serve sinners with humility. (Phi. 2:6-8) He washed his disciple’s feet one by one. (John 13) Paul said in Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Before criticizing other’s weaknesses, we must assess our own weaknesses with sober judgment.  As long as we think of ourselves with sober judgment, there will be no pride in us. We can maintain unity. Next is gentleness or meekness. Remember that meekness is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength. Jesus said in Matt.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.” Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” The meek contribute to the unity of the body.  The third character quality is patience. A patient person never gives up but endures another person to the end even in times of adversity. Peter limited the number of times he could forgive John to seven. But Jesus said, “Not seven times but seventy-seven times.” (Matt.18:21-22) Attitudes of humility, gentleness, and patience nurture unity among the believers.

Look at verse 3. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” How can we carry out these three character qualities? We have to carry them out by bearing with one another in love and making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. It is not easy to keep unity. That’s why Paul said, “Make every effort.” The saying goes, “United we stand and divided we fall.” America was on the brink of division when the South wanted to divide the nation with its selfish desire to keep slaves. President Abraham Lincoln preserved the nation to be united at great cost and sacrifice. So many young people gave their lives to preserve the union under God. To keep unity requires self-denial and sacrifice.  Here we find that we do not make unity but keep unity. Christ brought unity to us by creating one new man out of the two on the cross. The cross of Jesus brought all men together as one family of God breaking all human barriers. All we have to do is to guard and keep the unity God has already made. This is possible only through the Holy Spirit. The function of the Holy Spirit is to bind us together so that we may have peace. Through the work of the Holy Spirit we can tolerate each other bearing one another in love. Humility, gentleness, and patience are Jesus’ attributes. When we follow Jesus’ examples and learn from him and follow him, we can have these character qualities. Then we can keep the unity.

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.” These verses provide the basis for the spirit of unity that should exist in the body of all believers. Unity is derived from the Trinity. Who are the three persons of the Trinity? They are God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The definition of the doctrine of the Trinity is that God is absolutely and eternally one essence in three distinct and ordered personal substance. They cannot be divided or replicated in their essence. We see the presence of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the creation of the world in Genesis 1. Just as God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit work together as one, we have one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father. We don’t have two Spirits, two Lords, and two Fathers. We are one in God. God demonstrated the beauty of unity during our Harvest Festival. Children sang joyful and YDJ game show united all of us to move our feet to bring good news to the lost students in America. Short term missionary panel showed us that God is using many young people for the world salvation. Glenn’s presentation showed that God wants to bless all people of the earth through us. We were united in sport games and accepted Jesus’ great commission to make disciples of all nations. In the reflection video Rebecca Kim talked about unity saying, “We worship together.” Isn’t it beautiful when God’s people gather together and worship our God in unity from children to the grandparents? Unity is beautiful in Jesus. Now, having emphasized the unity among believers, Paul moved on in verses 7-16 to explain how we use different gifts to build the body of Christ.

II. USE DIFFERENT GIFTS TO BUILD UP THE BODY OF CHRIST (7-16)

We see the distribution of the gifts in verses 7-11 and the intention of the gifts in verses 12-16. In the first part Paul urged us to keep the unity but in the second part he urged us to reach unity in diversity. How can we keep the unity when we are so different? Look at verse 7. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”  We received different gifts from God as Christ apportioned it. Quoting Psalm 68:18, Paul shows that Jesus who humbled himself to the cross and lowered himself to the lower earthly regions. This refers to Jesus’ death and burial. But due to his humility God raised him from the dead and exalted him to the highest place. After ascending to the heaven, Jesus distributed the gifts to all members of his church according to their position. However, Jesus did not give us the same gifts but different gifts.  Though we have unity of the Spirit we are different in our gifts within the body of Christ. If we look at the autumn leaves, they are all different in color, size, and shapes. None of them will be the same. Diversity is good within the church community. If we all have the same gifts, we will be very boring people. As the head of the universe, Jesus imparts all the fullness of his blessings to his church.

What are some of the gifts you received from Jesus? Someone might say, “I do not have any gifts.” Yes, you have the gifts from Jesus. Some people received the gift of acting like Brian or singing like Sarah, others received the gift of cooking, or the gift of encouraging, the gift of serving, the gift of cleaning, the gift of getting up early, the gift of sports, the gift of playing musical instrument, and the gift of teaching. We have to give thanks to God whatever gifts we received. Do not compare your gift to others.  Don’t say, “O! God, why don’t I have the gift of singing? I am terrible whenever I sing.” Also do not bury the gifts. How can these gifts be used to build up the whole body of Christ? Look at verses 11-13. “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 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.” There are five gifted groups of people mentioned here who serve the church. Here the evangelists refer to missionaries who are spreading the gospel messages moving their feet to different places like the ten short term missionaries who went overseas. Pastors and teachers are grouped together because they comfort and guide and instruct others in love within the church community.

What is the purpose of giving gifts to the believers? Was it to show off their knowledge?  The purpose of the gifted believers is to prepare God’s people for works of service. The gifted people are to minister the Word to others so that they in turn are readied to get involved in ministering to others. What was the most important Bible verse Mr. Glenn K. received after he was saved? Was it Gen 12:2 or John 3:16 or Acts 1:8? No, it was 2 Tim 2:2 which says, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” Why is this verse important? It builds the church to grow by equipping leaders who will also be qualified to teach others. The body of Christ will grow to reach out to other people. Reproduction will continue until the day of Christ. Jesus did not give us his gift for a selfish purpose but to build up or edify the body of Christ. Jesus gave us his gifts to serve others spiritually. We have to continue to use our gifts until we reach three goals, each introduced by the Greek preposition (eis, unto). First one is unto the unity of the faith and full knowledge of the Son of God, and second one is unto a mature man, and third one is unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. What does this verse mean? If each believer uses the gift given by Christ properly and continuously, the body as whole enjoys unity, and becomes more spiritually mature, measuring up to the full and complete stature of Christ. All believers in the church will become more like Christ in all his fullness. This is a beautiful picture of the functioning church as the body of Christ.

One thing hurts unity of the body of Christ. Immature Christians created disunity and division. Then what are the signs of immaturity? Look at verse 14. “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.” Paul called immature believers infants who are easily swayed and confused like waves being tossed back and forth by the cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. It is natural to grow if we remain in the word of God and use our gift to serve others. If believers do no grow in the word of God, they remain as baby Christians and become easy targets of false teachers. It is like a grown-up man carrying diapers in his back pack. False teachers cause this kind of confusion regarding the truth in order to try to bring believers into their hidden schemes of deception.  We have to be careful about outside influence like T.V. preachers and radio commentators that distorts the truth of God.

How can we not to become spiritual infants? Look at verses 15-16. “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 and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” By speaking the truth in love, believers may grow up into him who is the Head of the church. This means that we must maintain truth in love in both speech and actions. Jesus is the main source of our spiritual maturity. Each believer must remain in Jesus and receive spiritual nutrition as the branch receives nutrition from the vine. Each believer must be rooted in love and speak truth in Christ. In the parable of the vine and branch Jesus commanded his disciples to remain in his word in John 15:7 and then remain in his love in 15:9. John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” When we remain in the word of Jesus, we remain in truth. We can grow through speaking the truth in the love of Jesus when we study the word of God.

In conclusion, look at verse 16 one more time. “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.” The first requirement to become a medical doctor is to memorize all the body parts. We know that each member of the body is joined and held together by means of every supporting ligament. The body grows and builds itself up as each part does its work. Please pay attention to the words, “as each part does its work.” Apostle Paul explained the importance of each body part in 1 Cor. 12:14-17.  “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.  If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.  And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?” The body functions perfectly if each part does its work. If the eye does not do its part, how can we see and eat? If the foot does not do its part, how can we drive or visit campus? If one part does not function properly, our body will be dysfunctional. How terrible it is. In the same way draw a picture of beautiful functional church when each member does his or her part using gifts given by Jesus. Jesus commanded us to use our talent and double it in the parable of the talents. Therefore, we should not bury our gift but use it to build the body by doing our part faithfully. If the vocal team wants to function, each part does its work.  If soprano follows base, it will lose harmony and unity and people think the vocal team is dysfunctional.  It is now football season and the team will be functional if quarterback throws the ball to his receiver not the other team and the receiver holds the ball and the defense stops the opposing team. Then that team will win many games. If the team is dysfunctional, it will be a sorry team.  In the same way, the church keeps unity and builds up and grows up to become mature in Christ as a beautiful functional church if each member does his or her part. May God bless our church to be a functional church by keeping unity and using gifts to build the body of Christ in love!  Let’s read the key verse 3.