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.