Ephesians

The Source of Our Unity

The second fact Paul brings to our attention is crucial for us to understand if we are to transcend our differences and fulfill the command of Christ that we become one in Him: Beneath our differences, there is a basic unity that is given to the church by the Spirit. That unity exists right now, throughout the church, even between Christians who are at odds with each other. The fact that they don’t feel unified and act unified does not cancel out the fact that they already have the unity of the Spirit among them. They simply need to act worthy of a unity that already exists.

Notice the apostle does not say we are to produce unity; he says we are to keep a unity that has already been produced by the Holy Spirit. There is a unity that is already there by virtue of the very existence of the church, because the Holy Spirit is the bond which holds the church together. Here is the fundamental error of modern ecumenical movements. By and large, they strive to generate a man-made institutional unity, ignoring the spiritual unity that already exists in the Holy Spirit. The power of the church is not the power of numbers, but the power of one—one indwelling Spirit, who leads us in worshiping one Lord Jesus, in practicing one faith, in praying to one Father.

The church is not a conglomeration of individuals who happen to agree upon certain things. It is bound together as a spiritual organism in a bodily unity. It cannot therefore derive power from the sum of its numbers. It derives its power solely from the Spirit of God who binds these individuals into a unified, spiritual whole.

So we are forced to choose between two different kinds of unity. One is an external unity, a worldly unity, a unity of numbers that seeks to make its plans and enforce its will on society by the power of persuasion. The other is an internal unity, a spiritual unity, a unity of genuine oneness that is joined to God’s eternal plan and manifests the supernatural power of God.

We can violate that unity by our actions, we can grieve the Holy Spirit by our sinful behavior toward one another in the body of Christ, we can bring shame and dishonor to the gospel by sinning against our Spirit-given unity, but we cannot create or destroy what the Spirit Himself has produced. The church can be divided organizationally, but the body of Christ can never be disjointed.

In Ephesians 4:5-6, Paul describes the real unity of the body of Christ, which he breaks down into seven elements: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. The unity of the body gathers around the three Persons of the Trinity—the Spirit, the Son, and the Father. It includes all the essentials of the Christian faith—the fellowship of the saints in one body, our hope of salvation, the doctrinal truths of our faith, and our baptism. Let’s examine each of these elements in turn: