Ephesians 4:4–6

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

"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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

"Above all" — supremacy; "through all" — permeation; "in you all" — Christianity.

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.

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.

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.

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.