Ephesians Study Chapter 4 - Unity in the Body of Christ

• First three chapters talk about doctrine, last three discuss our Christian responsibility.
• 4:1 
  • therefore - because of the doctrines that Paul covered in the first 3 chapters, we have the responsibilities in Christ that are discussed in the last three chapters.
  • urge (KJV uses beseech) - God urges us to live for His glory.  
    • In the OT God said, “If you obey me, I will bless you.”  Now, through Jesus Christ,  God has already blessed us so because of His love and grace should obey Him.

What we have in common

• One body
  • Body of Christ to which all believers are added by the Holy Spirit when they accept Jesus Christ as their savior. 
• One Spirit
  • The Holy Spirit that is in each of us that binds us together in the Lord.
• One Hope that belongs to your call
  • Our calling is our walk with the Lord, bound together by the Holy Spirit, as His church waiting for His return to take us to heaven.
• One Lord
  • Jesus Christ who lived for us, died for us, and will return for us.
• One faith
  • One truth given by Christ to the church.
  • We may have interpretational differences and differences in worship but for all true Christians there is only one faith.
• One baptism
  • Baptism of the Holy Spirit when He places the believer into the body.
• One God and Father
  • We are children of the same family with God as our Father.  He is in us, over us, and working through us.  So we should be able to walk in unity.

Our differences

• Apostles
  • Means “one sent with a commission"
  • Jesus had many disciples but only 12 apostles.
• Prophets
  • God’s truth was shared by the Holy Spirit with those who had the gift of prophecy.
  • Apostles and prophets had the foundational ministry in the early church.
• Evangelists
  • These traveled though out the land bringing the good news bringing the message to the lost.
  • We should all be proclaiming the good news but these had the gift of evangelism
• Shepherds (pastors) and teachers
  • Uses the Word of God to guide and discipline the local congregation.

Growth of Unity is Spiritual Growth

• Becoming more like Christ
  • The believers gradually growing until they reach spiritual maturity which is to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
  • The leaders are to equip the saints to strengthen the body of Christ. 
• Stable
  • The more we become spiritually mature, the more difficult it is for us to be swayed by false doctrines.
• Truth and love
  • The two have to go together.  Truth without love is mean while love without truth is baseless.
  • We have to be able to share the truth with fellow Christians and do it with love.
• Cooporation
  • We already have spiritual unity in Christ.  We have to work together to maintain it.
  • Everyone has a function in the Body of Christ.  We must equip and improve each other so that we grow to be more like Christ.