*I*, the prisoner in [the] Lord, exhort you therefore to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called,
Ephesians 4 turns from what God has done to how believers should live. Paul writes as a prisoner, and he pleads rather than orders — so what life could match such a calling?
The words "I therefore" reach back over a long pause. Paul had begun the same sentence in chapter 3 and then broke off to unfold the mystery entrusted to him.
Here we come to the practical part of the letter. Verse 1 refers back to the end of Ephesians 2. In Ephesians 3:1 the apostle began with, "For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles." Then he went off into a long parenthesis, which runs to the end of the chapter. This is not unusual in his letters. Here he takes up the thread: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you..."
Chapter 2 had ended with believers built together as God's dwelling. That is the calling in view here.
The beginning of chapter 4 connects with the end of chapter 2. There we see that we are the habitation of God, the dwelling of God. This is the calling of which it says, "I... urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." In such a position we are always humble. This is what enables us to walk worthy of the calling revealed.
Paul sat in prison because of the truth he had just explained: believing Gentiles and believing Jews form one body. He turns that cost into an appeal.
Now the apostle was in prison for the testimony he had borne to this truth. He had maintained and preached the privileges God had granted to the Gentiles. In particular, he preached that by faith they form, together with believing Jews, one body united to Christ. In his exhortation he uses this fact as a touching motive.
He urges; he does not order.
The order cannot be reversed. A worthy walk responds to a calling already given; it never earns one.
Christian duties (and there are such) flow from the new relationship formed by grace, and in Christ. We must first be in the relationship before the duties are there. People make a serious blunder here. They treat the duties as a way of getting into relationship with God... You cannot fulfil the duties of a child until you are one, or show the love of one either... God makes us His children, and then says, Now imitate your Father.
The same order shows in the word "saints."
God does not call them to become saints by a saintly walk. He urges them to a saintly walk because they are saints through His calling.
Paul uses the phrase three times, and each time the measure differs.
Paul urges us three times in his letters to "walk worthy." In 1 Thessalonians 2:12 we are to "walk in a manner worthy of God." He is the living and true God. God had called the Thessalonians to serve Him instead of idols. In Colossians 1:10 it is "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him." That letter dwells much on Christ's authority and headship. Here it is "worthy of the calling to which you have been called." Chapters 1 and 2 have unfolded that calling. It involves new nature and relationship, access to the Father, God's habitation in the Spirit, and union with the exalted Christ in one body.
The next verse turns in a surprising direction.
It is striking that he goes straight on to lowliness and meekness. This is the walk that is worthy of the calling. We would feel our own nothingness if we thought of this place... He has made us all one by the Spirit. We are all built together like stones in a house. He looks to us to walk in that unity and the spirit of peace.
But there is a false version of this.
The most humbling thing in the world is receiving boundless and undeserved favour... Now God never calls it lowliness and meekness to doubt the truth of His word, or the efficacy of Christ's work. On the contrary, He counts it pride and presumption.
- Calling first. Chapters 1–3 describe the calling. Chapter 4 describes the walk that answers to it.
- Therefore. The word links back to Ephesians 3:1. Behind it stands the end of chapter 2, where God builds believers together as His dwelling.
- Never reversed. Duties flow out of relationship; no one becomes a child of God by behaving like one.
- Worthy means matched. Elsewhere the measure is God Himself or the Lord. Here it is the calling — new relationship, access to the Father, union with Christ in one body.
- Downward, not upward. A calling this high begins with lowliness and meekness. It means feeling our own nothingness in the light of such grace.
with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love;
Paul first describes what God has given. Then he turns to how that gift should look in daily life. He names four qualities: lowliness, meekness, patience, and forbearance in love. Commentators treat them as the test of a life worthy of God's calling.
The list is not a demand for effort out of nowhere. Writers trace it back to how close God has already brought us to Himself.
Paul unfolds the calling, and then calls on us to walk worthy of it, in the first part of chapter 4. God has brought us very close to Himself, and the necessary effect of that is lowliness and meekness. How could it be otherwise? The greatness of the grace makes nothing of self. This is not easy. You see it clearly in Christ's life, and in Philippians too.
The first two words are close in meaning. Commentators tell them apart by how each one behaves when friction comes.
What is the difference between lowliness and meekness? Lowliness does not give offense, and meekness does not take offense. Both are needed if we are not to quarrel with our brothers and sisters. Third comes long-suffering, and fourth, "bearing with one another in love." All four qualities are meant to help us live at peace with each other, and to carry the suffering others may cause us.
The order of the four is not accidental. Lowliness and meekness are what I bring. Patience is what I need when the other person brings something else.
Lowliness and meekness are to mark us: how else can we walk together? ... If we let self have its way, fellowship becomes impossible. Resentment and strife are sure to follow. But suppose that, while we display lowliness and meekness, we find others are not like that? Then comes the opportunity of exercising long-suffering and forbearance in love.
Paul does not simply say "bear with one another"; he adds in love. That addition is a safeguard, because it is possible to put up with someone while despising them.
We may have to put up with insults and rejection, and bear with those who treat us that way. But note the warning: this forbearance must be shown in love. It is possible to bear with much in the spirit of pride that treats an offending brother with contempt. If we have to be silent, let it be with love that grieves over unworthy conduct.
These are not abstract virtues. They are for one setting: life together in the church, where they get used every day.
The instructions in the first part of chapter 4, down to verse 16, have our calling in view. They speak to us not one by one, but as members of the body of Christ, the church. In the gatherings of the saints, how often friction occurs! A little experience of assembly life is enough to convince us that this is so. Here then is an immense field for cultivating the beautiful graces listed in verse 2.
These words sound like putting yourself down. So people twist them into something God never asked for. One writer warns against this.
Nothing is more fitting in a believer than "lowliness and meekness," but perhaps nothing is more misunderstood. In too many cases Satan's craft turns these beautiful graces into doubts. Those doubts dishonour God and destroy the believer's peace. God never calls it lowliness and meekness to doubt the truth of His word, or the effectiveness of Christ's work. On the contrary, He counts it pride and presumption.
The two words Paul opens with are the two Jesus used of Himself. Writers point to that link for our model.
Our blessed Lord rises before our eyes. He Himself says, "I am gentle and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). It touches the heart to think of "the mighty God," the eternal Son of God. He made countless wonders and holds up the whole universe. Yet He came down and became a man, so fully that He could say those words. We may well seek to follow in His steps.
Note: the ESV renders Matthew 11:29 "gentle and lowly in heart." Older translations read "meek and lowly" — the same word Paul uses in Ephesians 4:2.
- Grace first. God has brought us close to Himself, and that empties out self-importance. Lowliness is the effect of the calling, not a technique added to it.
- Self gone. Lowliness gives no offense and meekness takes none. Let self have its way, and fellowship breaks down into strife.
- Then patience. Long-suffering is what you need when the other person has not learned the first two.
- Love as the motive. Silence can be pride in disguise. Forbearance is only real when love grieves over the wrong instead of despising the person.
- Tested together. The four graces are for church life, where friction is common. We learn them by following the One who called Himself gentle and lowly in heart.
using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Paul spends three chapters on what God has done for believers. Then he turns to how they are to live together. The first thing he asks for is not the making of unity, but the guarding of one that already exists. Whose unity is it? What does keeping it involve? And why is peace called a bond?
The unity in this verse is a fact before it is a duty.
This unity is what we have to keep. We are urged to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" — to keep in practice what already exists in fact. We are not to make a unity, but to keep, by the bond of peace, the unity that exists through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the one body.
One writer explains why the verse says "of the Spirit" and not "of the body."
Christians can agree with one another and still miss this unity.
We are to aim at more than agreement. We could all be of one mind, in the sweetest agreement, in favour of something completely wrong! We are to give all diligence to keeping the unity of the Spirit — not Paul's unity, not Peter's, not yours or mine, but the unity the Spirit has produced. We did not make this unity, and we cannot break it. The Spirit made it, and we are to keep it in practice in the bond of peace.
A closer look at the original wording brings out both the effort involved and the function of peace.
What then is the great leading principle of a walk worthy of our wonderful calling? The place this has in our hearts and lives will serve to test how far we are in unison with the mind of God for the glory of Christ in the Assembly; it is seen in Ephesians 4:3, which literally translated reads: "Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace"; but we must not overlook the moral conditions in which alone, even in the brightest days of the Assembly, such a path could be maintained.
There is only one way into this verse, and it is the verse before it.
People often ask what it means to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3), and they pass over the first two verses… You cannot get to verse 3 without going through verse 2 and learning it in practice. We need all the humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love, to keep the unity of the Spirit.
The peace in view is not first our own peace with God.
Peace is spoken of here not so much for our own souls before God, but for enjoying and furthering union among God's people in practice. The flesh is anxious and restless. A peaceful spirit is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and it does much to bind hearts together in practice.
That bond is no call to smooth things over by dropping the truth.
This unity cannot be kept where man's mind and will are in control. It is kept only where the Spirit is free to make known the mind and will of God, and where there is a settled effort to carry out what God has said. No one can force such a state. It is the fruit of communion, so the words "in the bond of peace." How far this is from the common desire, even among true believers, for peace at any price. If we give up divine principles for the sake of peace, that is not the peace of the unity of the Spirit.
The old state of things can never be restored. Even so, the command stands.
Scripture never allows that it is impossible for God's people to walk in fellowship with God's Spirit and to hold on to the truth. That is always possible. The Spirit of God assumes there will be evil and dangerous days. Even so, God commands us to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," and He commands nothing impossible. We can never restore anything to what it was. But we can walk in obedience to the word, and in the company of the Spirit of God.
- Given — The Spirit's presence in the one body has already made this unity. Your part is to keep it, not to build it.
- Guarded — Paul says "of the Spirit," not "of the body." The wording stops anyone tying this unity to an outward institution.
- Genuine — Agreement is not the test. Believers can be of one mind about something wrong.
- Grown — You reach verse 3 only through verse 2: humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love.
- Going on — Peace is the bond, but never peace bought by giving up truth. God commands nothing that has become impossible.
[There is] one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling;
Paul has just urged believers to keep the unity of the Spirit. Now he gives the reason: a list of "ones" that starts with the body, the Spirit, and the hope. So what is this one body? Who holds it together? What future do its members share?
The apostle groups these "ones" into circles. The first circle holds every Christian alive right now.
Notice now the three circles the apostle presents: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call" (v. 4). That shows us the circle of divine reality. That one Body and Spirit embrace every Christian, every child of God on earth at this moment, even as the hope is one, of which the Spirit is the source and power.
Each of the three "ones" in the verse rules something out.
In the first circle, one body shuts out all human organisations. The One Spirit excludes the flesh and its activities. And earthly hopes give way to the heavenly hope of our calling.
What we see in the Christian world is not a true picture of the body. The two words "one body" carry the weight of the sentence. The link with "one Spirit" explains why there can be no second body.
The outward condition of the church gives us anything but a true picture of the body. God's word is emphatic in saying "there is one body," or it might read simply "one body" (Ephesians 4:4). It is as though God would press on our hearts the thought held in those two words. That verse again ties the oneness of the body to the "one Spirit." There is only one Holy Spirit, and His work produces only one body.
This body is not a theory. It exists now, it has a start date, and a membership that crosses the deepest human divide of the day — between Jews, God's chosen people, and everyone else.
The one body is an actual existing fact on this earth. It was formed by the baptism of the Spirit: this 1 Corinthians 12:13 shows. This baptism took place on the day of Pentecost, so someone may wonder why Acts 2 does not reveal and state the fact. But one essential feature is that the body includes both Jews and Gentiles. So it was fitting for that revelation to wait until Gentiles too were baptised into the body.
The three items are not a random list. They move from the fact, to the power behind it, to its source.
Then we hear the particulars, and in a very orderly manner. This verse states the intrinsic unity that never passes away. It begins with the fact of "one body." Then comes the power that produces it, one Spirit. Last comes the cause of it all, the calling of grace. Nothing touches these.
This one hope has a definite event attached to it.
All this fits the calling of the saints with one hope in view — the coming of the Lord for all His saints. No one who is His own can be shut out of this hope, for there is only "one hope." In scripture, hope always carries the thought of something future but certain, never mere wishful thinking.
The same holds for the calling that carries the hope.
There is only one Christian calling. "Our calling" is not sectarian. Scripture knows nothing of a special "calling" for a particular class or company of Christians. Some Christians understand their calling better than others. Some may walk more fully in its truth and shape their conduct to match it. But this is in no sense a different calling.
Since the Spirit formed this unity, our task is care, not construction.
We are to give all diligence to keeping the unity of the Spirit. It is not Paul's unity, not Peter's, not yours or mine, but the unity which the Spirit has produced. We did not make the unity, and we cannot break the unity. The Spirit made it and we are to keep it in a practical way in the uniting bond of peace.
This has a sharp consequence for a Christian world split into rival groups.
That grand statement sets out the only true ground on which believers can gather: "There is one body and one Spirit." And again, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body." (Eph. 4:4; 1 Cor. 10:17) If God declares that there is only "one body," then many bodies, sects, or denominations must be contrary to His mind.
- One Spirit — there is only one Holy Spirit, and everything in this verse flows from that single fact.
- One body — because the Spirit is one, His work produces one body. It was formed at Pentecost, and it holds Jew and Gentile alike.
- One hope — the same calling fixes one certain future for every member, and God leaves no one out.
- One calling — no class of Christian has a higher or different calling; some walk in it better, but every believer shares it.
- One duty — we did not make this unity and cannot break it; our one task is to keep it, in the bond of peace.
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
Paul lists seven things that are already one, and verse 5 holds three of them. Why does he group the Lord, the faith and baptism apart from the body and the Spirit of verse 4?
Commentators describe the unities of verses 4–6 as widening rings. This verse forms the middle ring.
The apostle speaks of a sevenfold unity in Ephesians 4. Within it we can clearly see a threefold sphere of blessing, based on the relationships of the Godhead to us... There are here three concentric circles: that of the Church, that of the kingdom, and that of creation.
Verse 4 names a unity that is living and everlasting. Verse 5 moves to something outward.
The unity in this verse differs from the unity in verse 4. It is the unity of the Christian profession, which is not necessarily living and everlasting. It is excellent in itself. But those who have the outward privileges might not themselves be born of God.
Here the title "Lord" sets Christ apart from the Father. Writers add that this takes nothing from who He is.
In Ephesians 4:5 Christ is marked off as "one Lord" from the Father, and 1 Corinthians 8:6 does the same. This takes nothing away from His own divine glory. It shows us another glory instead: the glory He receives as the exalted man made Lord and Christ.
The Lord is the one authority over this circle, and that shapes how local churches — assemblies — act toward each other.
This is the circle of profession, marked by one authority, the Lord; one profession of belief, the faith; and one baptism, which brings us into it. Authority and administration belong to the Lord. Recognising that there is one Lord shuts out the authority of man and rules out all independent action. If we admit that there is "one Lord", we cannot say it is right for one assembly to ignore discipline that another assembly has genuinely carried out in the Name of the Lord.
The word "faith" can mean the act of trusting, or the thing believed. Only one of those can be counted as one.
Faith here is the truth of the doctrine we profess. It is not personal living faith, because then he could not say one faith. One faith is the one thing believed, and in holding it true we own the Lord.
Is this baptism with water, or with the Spirit? Most writers say water, for two reasons: where the phrase sits, and what the word normally means.
Some have thought this is the baptism of the Spirit. But the Spirit's baptism forms the body, so it would belong to the first circle. There it would be needless, since one Spirit joined with one body already says everything. Also, "baptism" on its own naturally means the rite. When the word carries another sense, other words are added to explain it.
Commentators differ here. Others argue from the subject of the passage that Paul means the Spirit's baptism.
The outward ceremony is probably not in view here. Remember that the Church in its unity is still the subject the Apostle has in mind. The Church, as a body, has been baptized once for all by the Holy Spirit. That baptism took place at Pentecost, when God openly claimed as His own the cleansed worshippers who trusted in the name of Jesus (Acts 2).
An outward act puts a person inside this circle. So the circle can hold people who were never changed within.
Verse 5 marks the circle of public profession and acknowledgement of Christ as Lord. That is wide enough, and large enough. Many are baptized, but are their sins forgiven? If not, they are merely in the circle of profession, and that is a sad condition to be in.
One name from Scripture makes the danger concrete.
Simon Magus believed and was baptized; he was never of the body of Christ. This unity has to do with professed Christianity on the earth.
Each "one" here is also a "not many."
"One Lord" excludes the many lords of the pagan nations. "One faith" excludes all schools of merely human thought. "One baptism" excludes the many baptisms of the law. The believer professed discipleship to the one Lord by one baptism.
- Circle — Three rings widen across verses 4 to 6: the Church, then Christian profession here, then creation.
- Lord — One Lord means one authority. Christ holds that place of lordship as the exalted man, and He leaves no room for man's authority or independent action.
- Faith — One faith is the one thing believed. It is the truth we confess, not the trust inside each heart, since such trust could never be called one.
- Baptism — One baptism is the door into the circle. Most writers read it as the water rite; some argue for the Spirit's baptism at Pentecost.
- Warning — The circle is wide. It holds unconverted people too, so standing inside it does not prove your sins are forgiven.
one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
Paul is urging believers to keep the unity of the Spirit, and he backs that plea with a list of things that are "one." This verse is the last and largest of them, and it raises two questions: in what sense is God the Father of all, and what does it mean that He is in all?
Commentators read verses 4–6 as three rings, each wider than the last. This verse draws the outermost:
Ephesians 4:4-6 presents three circles. (1) The circle of reality—"One body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling." (2) The circle of profession—"One Lord, one faith, one baptism." (3) The circle of that which is universal—"One God and Father of all."
A believer stands inside all three at once, and enters each ring a different way:
God is called Father of all as the Originator of all, in the sense of being Creator. He is supreme, for He is over all and works through all, but He is only "in us all" — the believing company. This company is in all three circles. Because of natural birth they are in circle 3. Because they have owned Jesus as Lord and have been baptised they are in circle 2. As sealed with the Spirit they are members of the one body, so they are in circle 1.
Kelly presses the words "of all" to their full extent:
So He is the "one God and Father of all." That does not mean the Father of believers only — that is a mistake about the force of the words — but of all without exception. Earlier, in Ephesians 3:15, we were told that every family in heaven and earth is named from Him. Every family draws its being from this one universal source — Jews or Gentiles, rulers or powers alike.
This universal fatherhood, however, is no substitute for salvation:
But God being Father of all in this way only makes man's wickedness and unbelief harder to excuse, and more ruinous. It has to do with nature only. That nature is now fallen and sinful, and it proved itself God's enemy by rejecting His Son, whom He sent to save. Salvation is in no other than Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son, and our Lord. Only then are we who believe His sons by grace.
"Through all" means God is present throughout everything. That is not the same as saying everything is God.
That is, this is a personal God. It is not at all the idea that everything is God — Pantheism — which is unbelief in its worst form. We own "one God," not many gods like the Gentiles, but "one God and Father of all." The Jew did not believe He was the Father of all. He did not even think of Him as Father to Israel, the chosen nation, but as their Governor, Jehovah. The Christian revelation shows God in a far larger character, and one far closer to us.
One writer sums up each of the three phrases in a single word:
"Above all" — supremacy; "through all" — permeation; "in you all" — Christianity.
Many manuscripts read "in us all" rather than "in all," and the ESV reads "in all." Kelly argues that this narrowing is the point:
The apostle had traced inner, living unity in verse 4, and outward unity in verse 5. He closes with the unity of the God and Father of all. God is supreme over everything and present through everything, and yet He is most intimate with "us all" — and that is limited to us all, that is, those who believe. No careless writer, still less a forger, could have hit on a shade of truth so unexpected, yet so weighty and welcome once it is stated.
The indwelling is the part of this verse that was new:
That He is in all His believing people was newly declared when the Holy Spirit came from heaven. That coming is the triumphant proof that the work of redemption is complete, and by it saved sinners have become the dwelling place of His holiness. This teaching states the height of the believer's security and blessedness. God was in Christ. He is in the man who now, by faith, confesses that Name.
These unities are not decoration. Each one is a bond:
What mighty bonds of unity! The Spirit of God, the lordship of Christ, the presence of God everywhere, even the Father Himself — each is a divine centre, and each draws into one those who are joined to it. We cannot have faith, or enjoy hope, or live the Christian life in any form at all, without holding the same faith and the same hope as the rest. Our one task is to keep that unity in practice.
Lived out, the third circle answers worry:
In the third circle all the anxious care of the natural man is met by the realisation that as believers we are united together as having one God and Father who is "above all" that we have to meet down here; who is working out His ways "through all" circumstances, and who is "in us all," seeing that, as His children, we share His nature.
- Widest. Verses 4–6 draw three circles: reality, profession, and creation. This verse draws the largest, and the believer stands inside all three.
- All. "Father of all" means all without exception. God is the Originator of every family in heaven and earth, not of believers only.
- Above. "Over all" is His supremacy. "Through all" means He is present throughout everything — not that everything is God.
- In. The last phrase narrows on purpose. God lives in those who believe, and that indwelling proves redemption is complete.
- Therefore. These unities already exist. Our one task is to keep them in practice.