Ephesians 4:1-6
Unity of the Holy Spirit
- Overview
of this lesson.
- A
worthy walk is displayed by:
- Humility.
- The
Greeks despised lowliness. They believed that lowliness was
for the slaves, not the citizens of Greece.
- Matthew
11:29
- Gentleness
- Meekness
- Long
Suffering
- Letting
your motor idle while you feel like spinning your gears.
- Bearing
with one another in LOve.
- Putting
up with each other (I Corinthians 13:4)
- Main
Theme.
- The
value of walking in the Spirit, with the Lord. The walk of
the believer should be worthy to God, our Father.
- To
use the word of GOD to transform us and to feed us spiritually to help
in our daily walk here on earth.
- The
phrase ‘Wealth in Jesus’ is used 27 times in the New Testament.
- Jesus
set an example by washing the Apostle’s feet before the Last Supper and
gave them command. (John 13:12-17)
- Our
walk is defined by our consistency - Is it Genuine or True.
- (Luke 10:7) Jesus is telling us that wages
does require work, just as being a Christian we will be rewarded for
our good works. We can see that we are asked to perform as a
Christian, we are to seek integrity and consistency. We are also
being asked to dispense of hypocrisy.
- What a person does compared to what he says.
(I John 1:6-7, I John 2:3-6).
- Dwelling
together in Unity.
- Examples: 2 roommates can dwell together in
the same apartment but not live in unity. A husband and
wife can dwell together under one roof but lack unity. 2
church members may sit side by side but lack unity. (Psalm
133:1)
- Dwelling together in unity is spoken of as an
experience of goodness and unity. (Matthew 18:19, 1 Peter
3:7)
- God is always present when there is unity.
- When Christians are in harmony with one another,
God blesses them and brings glory to his name. Unity is
found when we accept one another or when we forgive one another in
spite of our differences.
- Christian unity can also be found amid our
differences of opinions and ideas.
- The
Unity of the Spirit (v4:1-6).
- Paul’s main statement can be found in verse 3, that
we should make every effort to be in unity of the Spirit.
The verses before and the after can be considered bookends.
- First bookend: to walk in humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love.
- These are the ingredients to our spiritual
maturity.
- We are to bring reconciliation out of division,
harmony out of strife, and trust out of suspicion.
- Second bookend: to be of one body, one Spirit, one
hope, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.
- If we meditate upon this we will be motivated and
convicted to maintain our unity with fellow Christians.
- Division is very common in the world, America,
homes and families, and even churches.
- Caused by selfishness,
ambition, impatience, bitterness and hostility.
- Losing our site of our
unity.
- Mindset of thinking ‘It’s
all about me’.
- What about my rights?
- What about what I want?
- Paul opens his statement by saying that he is a
prisoner. Paul is essentially saying he has surrendered his
ego, feelings, rights, and freedom for the sake of serving Christ.
- Paul does not see himself as a prisoner of the
Roman Government even though he was being held in a Roman prison.
- Paul does not consider himself to be a prisoner of
the Jewish religious leaders who bought false accusations against him.
- Paul did not feel sorry for himself nor was he
looking for sympathy.
- Paul was urging the people by his actions to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Paul was not focused upon himself but spreading the Gospel
at all costs.
- The Greek word for ‘worthy’ translates to ‘balancing
of the scales’.
- We need to balance our lives between ourselves
and Jesus.
- We need to balance our lives between savior and our
obedience.
- Paul speaks of 4 virtues.
- Humility.
- Opposite of pride.
- Pride cost Satan his
failure.
- Means serving others, putting aside our
brilliance, ideas, and point of view. (Romans 12:10, 16)
- Our culture tends to glorify prideful people.
- The ancient Greeks
considered pride a virtue.
- God’s humility - The creator leaves his home in
glory to be born in a manger, lived in poverty, owned nothing but his
clothes, he had no where to lay his head, he died a criminal’s death,
and he was buried in a tomb.
- Gentleness.
- Living in meekness. (A character of strength
and spiritual value).
- It should not be confused with living in weakness.
- Taming of an animal would be
a sign of meekness. A tamed horse is still every bit
strong as a wild horse. They are taught to control, channel,
and discipline its strength so that it can put to good use.
- Choosing forgiveness and
love instead of revenge. Instead of striking back we
heal/submit instead. Instead of using power to destroy we use
it to build up and edify each other.
- Patience.
- Person who does not quit and does not give up on
God’s promises.
- Abraham waited 25 years for
a son to born to Sarah and himself.
- Noah waited 125 years for
the Flood.
- Jeremiah was told to
prophesy to people who did not believe him, insulted him, mocked
him, and reviled him.
- The above people never gave
up but continued to persevere.
- God will use us if we are patient in our dealings
with fellow Christians, family, and dealings with difficult people.
- Forbearing love.
- Eros - Selfish love that refers to an appreciation
of beauty, pleasure, and sensual experiences.
- Storge - The natural and cherishing affection of a
parent for a child or a child for a parent.
- Phileo - Reciprocal love and fondness between
friends, a love that gives as long as it receives.
- Agape - A love that is totally unselfish.
- This is the type of love
that Paul was describing in this letter. This is the
type of love that encompasses all of the virtues.
- If we truly love God, we
will be humble, patient, gentle, and forbearing. We will
become a powerful force for maintaining the Unity of the Spirit.
- This type of love will help
us through tough times. Even though we are forbearing in
our love for God, it does not mean that we will not have conflicts
or problems.
- There will be people who
exist who are hostile and difficult to deal with even though we use
these 4 virtues with them, We can not control someone
else behavior. (Romans 12:18) These 4
virtues however can act as an agent of peace towards others.
- One
God, One Faith, One Hope.
- (v4-6) Paul explains that unity is the
essence of faith.
- If we do anything that causes division, or
separation of factions of our church and family, we have neglected the
essence of our faith.
- We are not like Hindus who have many Gods. We
have a triune God, a trinity, that is in unity at all times.
Each person in the Trinity has a role. We do
not have individual Holy Spirit's dwelling within us but the one Holy
Spirit of God.
- One Faith - one doctrine, one Gospel message, one
way to salvation, one way to heaven.
- In the early church, Christians were baptized after
they came to Christ. They stepped into the waters of
Baptism for one reason only, to publicly identify themselves with
Christ. This was often punishable by death at that time.
- Our one hope is Jesus Christ. All who
are in Jesus Christ will be going to one heaven.
- Our Christian Family - the church of Christ.
- Different churches may have different matters of
form, but there is only one substance in Jesus Christ, our LORD and
savior.
- Different types of Baptism, types of worship, and
the elements used for communion.
- Conclusion.
- In
heaven, we will all be one with Christ. We will see our
heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and our unity in the Spirit will
be completed at last.
- Does
my behavior benefit the work of God? Do my words bless the
Kingdom of God? Does the example of my life bring honor and
praise to God? Would we be willing to persevere like Paul, to
suffer the same hardships and to continue to have faith in God and to do
all things according to God’s will?
