The Body of Christ

Ephesians 4:1-16

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:

“When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”

9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Ephesians is another letter written by Paul. This time to the Gentile Christians in Ephesus. This was a port city which is now in modern day Turkey. It seems like the Ephesians were more mature in the Lord than the Corinthians were, at least when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. Paul starts off the letter by giving thanks for their faith. He reminds them of their old life before they followed Christ. Then he lets them know how much he prays for them that they would be strengthened in faith. He starts off chapter 3 by saying, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-.” Paul is in prison while he is writing this letter, and so when he states he’s a prisoner of Christ Jesus, he means that both literally and figuratively. He is in actual prison for preaching the Gospel, but he is also a prisoner of Christ. Paul, like the Gentile Christians, was once a slave to sin, but he was freed from sin through Jesus, and is now a slave, or prisoner of Christ. Later in chapter 6, Paul says, “Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” These metaphors of slave and prisoner of God are ones that Paul uses often. He starts off chapter 4 by telling these Christians in Ephesus that they are prisoners for the Lord. He says, since you are prisoners for the Lord, “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” The ERV translates this as, “live the way God’s people should live.” I like that because that correctly infers that there is a standard by which we Christians should act and behave. We should live differently than the world lives.

Not only should we live the way God’s people should live, but we should live in a manner worthy of the calling we’ve received. When Paul says “calling,” I think he means what he talks about in chapter 2. He says, “you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12b-13). They have been welcomed into the family of God. They are no longer slaves to sin. They have been taken prisoner for God. So now they are to live a life worthy of this status they have received.

The word worthy is important. The Greek word is axiōs. That means, according to Strong’s Concordance, “appropriately, as becometh.” I would add that it means- as is fitting and proper. Paul started off Ephesians by saying that they have been given “adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5). If they are sons and daughters of God, part of God’s family, then there is an innate expectation of proper behavior befitting those children. When I was a child, my parents drilled into my head that they wouldn’t tolerate misbehavior at church because I was my dad’s daughter. He was on staff at the church and therefore I had to be a good example to other kids. I had to act in a manner worthy of my status as his daughter. How much more would that apply to, for example, a member of a royal family? I know that members of Queen Elizabeth’s family have to behave, at least in public, in very stringent ways. Among other things, it helps designate them as part of the family. When we Christians behave according to God’s standards, it helps set us apart and designates us as part of God’s family. We also become an example for others to follow.

Then he tells them what this looks like as we strive to live in the way that God’s children should live. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4: 2-3). Not only should we individually live in a worthy manner, but collectively, as Christians, we should get along with one another. Paul says that we should have unity within the body of Christ. The first step to achieving unity with other believers is by being humble and gentle. Humility and gentleness- anybody else besides me feel like Christianity is lacking in this department? If you spend any amount of time on the internet, I think you’ll observe a lot of pride and harshness, and very little humility and gentleness. If we want to have unity, this is a good place to start. It’s easy to be prideful, thinking we know it all. It’s also easy to respond with harshness to someone we disagree with. It takes a lot more time to be gracious and kind than blunt and direct, doesn’t it? If we want to open dialogue and encourage conversation and understanding, then we have to be committed to humility and gentleness, because how can we have unity if we don’t understand what our fellow believers think? We should look for the common ground that we share with other believers, focusing on our commonalities rather than our differences. Then Paul tells them to be patient. This goes right along with humility and gentleness, doesn’t it? We should be patient, not rushing ahead to judgement or disagreement. We should bear with one another in love. In other words, we should have patience with one another. He adds, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Again, that speaks to the need to look for common ground. The opposite of peace is war. Paul is stressing the role of peace in maintaining unity.

Then he explains why unity is important and why we are to make every effort to keep unity. It’s because there is one body and one Spirit. He is talking about how all believers in Christ are collectively the body of Christ. There is only one body of Christ. Just as there is only one Holy Spirit, there is only one body.

Within Christianity, we have many denominations. There are Calvinists, Arminians, Charismatics, Baptists, Lutherans, Evangelicals, and everybody combined and in between. Yet despite all of our differences, we are all the body of Christ. Even denominations who might think they alone are the true body of Christ and nobody else is included, even they are part of the collective body of Christ. Despite what they imagine, they are not their own body of Christ. Anyone who is a Christian is a member of the body of Christ. There is only one.

There is only one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There is only one God and Father of all. There are not multiple ways to multiple gods. There is only one way. This repetition of the word “one” is significant and intentional. In Paul’s time, Ephesus was “second only to Rome as a cosmopolitan center of culture and commerce” (www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ephesus). Ephesus was a pluralistic society. There were many religious ideas and practices in that city. So when Paul emphasizes that there is only one God, I believe he is doing so to stress the absoluteness of Christianity. He doesn’t want the Ephesians to become syncretistic and blend their faith with other religions or belief systems.

We also know from other letters of Paul that already among the early Christians there was a lot of division. The unity that the early believers experienced, as written in the beginning of the Book of Acts, didn’t seem to last very long. In 1 Corinthians 1:10-12 Paul writes, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’”

Paul wrote Corinthians a few years before he wrote Ephesians. Perhaps he wanted to keep what happened in Corinth from happening to the believers in Ephesus. Or they, too, were also arguing over these same things. I don’t know from the text, so it’s a guess, but obviously, unity is of great importance to Paul.

Then Paul says, “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” Christ, through His death, has given us grace. Verse 8 says, “This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.’”

Christ has given us the gift of salvation, and other gifts as well. He’s given us the gift of other believers. Then there are two verses are in parentheses. Paul asks a rhetorical question that he answers. He says, “(What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)” Interestingly, these two verses have caused a lot of theological debate. I thought about writing all the arguments down and expounding on them, but I decided not to go into it. I don’t think it’s as complicated as some people have made it. My guess is that even in Paul’s time there was confusion about Psalm 68:18 which is what Paul quotes when he says, “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” So Paul is addressing that confusion and he answers it by saying, Jesus came down to earth and then He went back to Heaven. These captives that Jesus took are all of us believers. We were on the enemy’s side until Jesus took us captive and brought us over to His side. And these gifts that were given are grace, and the gifts He has given to the body of Christ.

Paul says in verses 11-13, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” We have grace that Christ has given us and we have the gift of each other. He’s given us people who build up our body of believers. Not only that, but He’s given gifts to each one of us to use within this body. Paul says, “until we all reach unity […] and become mature.” We all need one another to help us in “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

The reason we need to become mature is so that “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” We really need this, don’t we? So many people are so deceived! They have completely become swamped in the waters of deception. They aren’t even trying to bail the water out of their boats anymore. Others have sunk beneath the waves of the enemy’s lies and have drowned. Is there any hope? He abandoned his waves metaphor, but he offers the solution.

Paul says, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” The way to help those who are being blown about by false teaching is for those of us who are mature to speak the truth in love.

Last week I talked about the importance of love working in concert with shame. We have to speak the truth, but we have to speak it in love. Without love, it’s really hard to receive truth. I think that’s why Paul started off talking about humility and gentleness and working toward unity. Love lays the groundwork for truth to be heard.

Did you notice the second part of that verse? Looking at it again, verse 15 says, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Only Christ is the head. I think some people think they are the head. No one else but Jesus is the head. I referenced 1 Corinthians 1:10-12 a moment ago. Verse 13 says, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” We shouldn’t look to any person to be the head. Our leader is Christ. He is the head. I think this is an important distinction. While we are to speak the truth in love, we should only speak what Jesus has spoken in His Word. Some people think they can speak for God. The Catholic church thinks that the Pope is the head of the Church at large and can speak for God. Other people will say that the Lord has given them a new revelation. I don’t think anybody is supposed to speak for God. We can and should speak what God has said, but we don’t speak for Him. He has spoken. He is still speaking today, but through Scripture. And God can speak through people because He has in the past and He still does today, but the way to tell if someone is speaking what God is saying is to see if it lines up with Scripture. If it contradicts Scripture, then God is not speaking through that person.

Paul concludes this section of his letter with verse 16, which says, “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” This reminds me of 1 Corinthians 12: 21-26 when Paul said: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

Maybe that verse is why some people think they are the head of the body of Christ, because Paul references that part here. They would be wrong, though. I think he’s simply using the head as an example. He does not state that some of us are the head. The point he is making in 1 Corinthians 12 goes along with the idea he is trying to communicate here in Ephesians. There is only one body of Christ and there should be no division in the body. We should be equally concerned for all the members of the body. We believers are joined and held together by each other with Christ as the head. We will grow and build ourself up, Paul says in “in love, as each part does its work.” This is important because if we don’t work together, if we fight and harm one another, then how will our body be healthy? How will we grow and build ourself up?

I want to be clear about something though. There are people who claim to be Christian and use the term Christian but are not Christians. These groups are not to be included in the body of Christ. I don’t think we are supposed to work together with them. I think when we include groups that do not acknowledge Jesus as God or who believe in other paths to salvation, they actually hurt the body of Christ. We should not try to include them. I think that is part of the reason the body of Christ is not as strong and built up as it should be. These false Christians have damaged it. Earlier I said that some denominations claim to be the only Christians and now here I am sounding a bit like those exclusionary types. The difference is they want to exclude people for their use of drums or speaking in tongues. I am saying we should not seek unity with those who deny the deity of Christ or preach universal salvation. They are not members of the body of Christ. The ultimate criteria for membership is what Paul tells us in Romans 10:9: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and faith that salvation comes through Christ’s work on the cross is all that is required. For it is Christ who holds the whole body together. He is the head, and from Him, we are sustained and joined together.

Does that mean we should get rid of denominations? I don’t think so. Just as we cannot be a body made up entirely of toes, we should not have a single local church. Remember what Paul said about the gifts? God has given gifts to His people. He says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Our different Christian denominations actually need one another. We cannot reach the entire world through one style of worship. Some people respond to loud and emotional, some people respond to somber and reserved. Some people sincerely believe in infant baptism and others are convinced of believer’s baptism. These differences are ok. Our unity should be focused on our shared love for Jesus Christ and our desire to see the whole world come to faith in Him. Paul is saying that when we reach unity in the faith and become mature, then will attain to “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” If the body of Christ was unified and mature, then we would look like Christ. If, or should I say when, that happens, the Church will be an unstoppable force in the world. If the collective body of Christ could attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, our world would certainly be a different place.

I’ve been thinking lately about how dark and hopeless our society is. It feels so often like evil is winning on all sides. But the darker our world gets, doesn’t that mean the brighter our light can shine? What if the body of Christ used this opportunity to come together? What if we who have put our hope in Jesus set aside our differences and worked together? Scripture tells us that if we, as the body of Christ, reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of Jesus and become mature, then we can look like Jesus! Isn’t that a goal we should be working toward?

Pray: Lord Jesus, thank You for the gifts You have given us. Thank You, first, for dying on the cross for us. Thank You for the gift of salvation. Thank You for giving us gifts in the form of each other. And thank You for giving us the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Please help us, by Your Spirit, to love one another as You love us. Please help us seek unity within Your Church. Help us to come together, united in love and service to You. In Your name we pray, amen.