Ephesians 4:1-16 (NRSV)
The theme of Ephesians 4:1-16 is the purpose of the church in the cosmic plan of salvation. The focus is unity, which raises a natural suspicion about why the author has this concern. What prompted it? Within the text of Ephesians, there is no evidence that there was any issue dividing the community. Unlike most of the other Pauline letters, the author cites no adversaries. As indicated in previous parts of the letter, for instance, the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, which so exercised Paul in Galatians and Romans, seems settled and taken for granted in the unity of the church. If relations between Jews and Gentiles were not an issue, were there elements rebelling against the development of a hierarchical, institutional structure? But this again seems to be a settled issue. The language used is not as strident as that used by Ignatius of Antioch, for example, in his letters some 15 to 20 years later. He could encourage the congregation to focus on doing all things with divine harmony, stressing that the bishop stands in the place of God and the elders and deacons in the place of the apostles. As the Son was with the Father from the beginning, they are to imitate divine conduct as well as respect and love each other. They are to let nothing divide them. Rather, they are to unite with their bishop. The Son did nothing without the Father, living in unity with the Father. Nor did Jesus do anything without the apostles. They are to use that example and do nothing without the bishops and elders.[1] Therefore, some scholars have suggested that external pressures endangered the community. The text makes no mention of persecutions by political authorities but in 4:25 does encourage truth in speaking to (presumably) the non-Christian neighbor and 5:6-14 warns against deceptive but empty and vain arguments.[2] In other words, the pressures affecting the unity of the Church appear not so different than they are today: the allures of a still unconverted world.
We would miss the point if we took the author to mean that the churches are to have unity at all costs. Some things are worth valuing high enough that you are willing to part company over it. However, this passage helps us stay away from petty matters. Our unity moves us toward Christ. Yet, what if staying together moves some of us further away from Christ? What if staying together no longer means being the church of Jesus Christ. What would happen if staying together meant baptizing the standards and ideologies of the world? As important as institutional unity is and could be, it must not become a god imposing tyrannical power over the members of the body.
As always, then, such matters require discernment, faithful following of Christ, prayer, and worship.
Ephesians 4:1-3 is a preamble. 1I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord (or even “one bound in the Lord”), identifying himself as one whom civil authorities have imprisoned for being a Christian. Yet, the image of the bound slave may also suggest a deeper relationship with Christ. Again, I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which God has called you. The calling is to the saints and such a worthy life is toward obedience. Throughout the Pauline literature, living worthily is often expressed in the virtue of “adaptability” (see I Corinthians 9:22-23; Romans 14-15). This suggests acting in such a way as not to scandalize each other (at a minimum) and then, by emulating Christ Jesus who “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Philippians 2:6-7) to serve the human race. They will show worthiness by the kind of life they lead, 2 with all humility (a negative quality before Christianity) and gentleness (not found in the virtue tradition), with patience (a social attitude), bearing with one another in love (the fellow Christian may be a burden, but bearing that load is a virtue, making love practical). What unifies the imperatives is to yield to others and to accept a subordinate place. Such fruits of the Spirit are an overlap of the Greek philosophical virtue tradition. It has parallels with the Wisdom school of the Old Testament as well. Leading such a worthy or ethical life is a privilege rather than a burden. It will lead to happiness as it harmonizes what we think, say, and do.[3] Fame is fleeting, like the steam that appears and immediately vanishes from the pot on the kettle. Popularity is often an accident. Riches can take wings and leave you as quickly as they came. People who cheer you today may curse you tomorrow. However, the one thing that will endure is character.[4] A worthy life practicing such virtues achieves an important goal in 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Peace is what keeps Jew and Gentile in one church. The Spirit has already bound them together. Their worthy lives will preserve the unity the Spirit has already given them. Ephesians 2:11-22 also had the theme of unity, emphasizing the unity of Jews and Gentiles through peace Christ brought in his preaching and in the reconciliation the cross has brought.
Ephesians 4: 4-6 remembers the content of the confession of the church. It affirms a creed. It has Trinitarian elements, even though each element refers to the Father.[5] That which unites all Christians is the basis for the exhortation here. 4 There is one (used seven times) body and one Spirit, just as God has called you to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all (used four times), who is above all and through all and in all. Some find it a little surprising that “body” is before “Spirit.” The author is not offering speculation here. The author invites us to worship grounded in the Trinity and affirming the oneness of God. The confession affirms the power of God, love, and work that transcends the church. This devotion to the unity of purpose in the church is not simply some pragmatic plea that we might all "get along." Rather, as the author rehearses, the notion of unity weds itself to the very purposes and reality of God. In this sense, a life lived in service to the unity of the church is a life lived in the Spirit of God. This passage can help us explain the affirmation of the Nicean-Constantinople creed that the church is one. This passage finds the unity in the plurality of its members, membership that corresponds to the plurality in which God has elected and reconciled them in Christ and called and endowed them by the Holy Spirit. This will mean a union of the visible and invisible church, a union of the militant and triumphant church, Israel and the Christian church are two forms and aspects, and that one can speak of churches in the plural only with reference to the geographically separated and different congregations. This suggests that the present situation of divided churches, in which churches kindly tolerate each other at best, and fight against each other at worst in mutually exclusive ways, is in conflict with both the passage and with the creed. In this way, the plurality of churches in the way we experience it means a plurality of lords, spirits, and gods. The churches deny what they theoretically profess. Even if one can think of the grounds of these divisions as justified, they remain a scandal.[6]
Ephesians 4: 7-12 shows that Christ gives diverse gifts to the church. While affirming oneness, the author now wants to highlight the diversity of the church. If churches are mission-minded, they realize that success comes from staying focused on core values, no matter what challenges arise. 7 However, each of us received grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Verses 8-10 offer a scripture passage and its interpretation. 8 Therefore, as it says in Psalm 68:18, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” Verses 9-10 are a Midrash on the text. 9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?[7] Christ ascended to the heavenly throne, which meant that Christ had already descended from the heavenly realm. 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The community becomes a model for the destiny of humanity and of creation. Therefore, particular election stands in the service of the comprehensive will of God to save.[8] The ascent of Christ to the heavenly throne meant that Christ could dispense gifts to the people of God. Ephesians 4: 11-13 contain a classic text on church order.[9] This passage speaks of the fitting of the Christian community for the provisional representation of the universal scope of the person and work of Jesus Christ.[10] 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles (delegates from Christ who went abroad to preach), some prophets (who spoke the word of God to contemporary situations), some evangelists who brought the gospel into new regions), some pastors and teachers. The conclusion is that the church has one ministry, but many ministries. After the death of the apostles, the next two or three generations of the early church had a period of uncertainty develop as to how to maintain the apostolic function. Local ministers, traveling evangelists, or teachers of the house churches, could not fulfill that function.[11] Only pastors and teachers survived from this list in the period after the apostles.[12] Yet, the author assumes this inspired and enthusiastic ministry would always fill a need among the people of God rather than be absorbed into official offices. The purposes of the inspired or enthusiastic ministry and the offices were 12 to equip[13] the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.[14] Issues of continuity and development of the ideas of the church as the body of Christ come into focus. In I Corinthians 12:12-31 and Romans 12:3-8, Paul employs the metaphor of the body as a means of exhorting his churches to unity in diversity. The body, like a church, is composed of many members that work together in different ways in a unified organism. No one part of the body, in Paul's metaphor, carries its importance over another - all the parts in their various capacities are necessary for the proper functioning of the whole. We find a different use of the metaphor in Ephesians 4:1-16. The author casts the metaphor in the service of proclaiming the proper relation of the church to Christ and the ultimate purposes of the church in God's cosmic plan of salvation. These human instruments have the purpose of preparation in which Jesus Christ is at work, taking place with a view to the service that they are to render by their human work. Their service is the building up of the body of Christ.[15] God establishes and gives order to the church. The ordering of the church receives a specific purpose. The ordering is useful, as it remains faithful to its purpose. The special ministries are to be servants to the whole church. The task of the church is to carry out the work of service for all who need it. In a sense, baptism was the ordination of all the saints. Yet, specific roles within the church needed filling, and Christ was the one who appointed them. We finally learn the intended goal of the ordering of the church. Each of the three identifiers of the destination of the journey focuses upon Christ. 13 Until all of us come to, suggests they are on the road, moving toward the goal, and thus do not experience in the present their fullness. First, they are to come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, referring to Christ's faithfulness to God and to his knowledge of the bride. The church rests upon Christ's on-going faithfulness and personal engagement. Second, they are to come to maturity, determined by a right relation to God. It suggests individual and communal growth toward Christ, even if we must not think in terms of steady improvement. Third, they are to come to the measure of the full stature of Christ. The church will see its Lord. This suggests enthronement hymn and marriage ceremony. Such unity, maturity, and full stature fulfill the hopes of the saints. The inspired ministry and the established offices relate to and serve the rule of the risen Christ over the church. The exalted Christ establishes order and gives a constitution. Gift and institution, charisma and office, are not exclusive of each other. The church is hierarchical. Christ appoints offices and ministries. To avoid heresy, it must grow towards Christ. The apostle rejects the quest for personal perfection and salvation if it is at the expense of submission to Christ, the unity of the congregation, and of love as the guiding star. This passage has exhortation and confession, unity with Christ and unity with the Saints, communal growth and gifts given to individuals, the final goal and the way in which it makes progress. He intertwines ethics, ecclesiology, and eschatology. One can affirm the catholicity of the church in the creed if it means the fullness of the eschatological consummation of the church that finds manifestation at any given historical moment in the openness of the actual fellowship of the church, transcending any particularity, to the fullness of Christ that will fully come only in the eschaton.[16] This suggests the provisional character of the passage, about the need to strive towards it, and therefore also about the equipment of the community. “Until all come” describe the direction of the work for which the Lord empowers the community to serve the edifying of the body of Christ. The point is the attaining of a goal that they have not yet attained. The direction is toward the eschaton, which then shapes them accordingly. The unity of faith and knowledge, maturity, and measure of the full stature of Christ describe a future that characterizes the present, the work of its ministry, and the equipment to achieve it. The work and equipment of the church directs itself toward the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God. It still reaches toward this goal. If the community is the fullness of Christ who is the fullness of the cosmos, this means that in the full measure of its compass it will embrace no more than the cosmos. The totality of the heavenly and earthly world now has no existence distinct from that of the community. It will still be the church even when everything that is will be only in it. In this form, however, the community is future, just as Christ is future to it as its completion. It now looks and moves toward itself in this future form.[17]
Ephesians 4: 14-16 deals with the daily necessities of the migrating church. They show how the present time determines the members. This is what takes place while the church is en route to meet its Lord. This entire discussion is the basis for the Reformation view of the church as the communion united with Christ its head in the unity of faith and love of its members.[18] 14 We must no longer be children (babes lacking moral judgment), tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. Though the author does not offer an exhaustive dealing with the heresy involved, it may be because they knew the Colossian heresy. After the look at the destination of the church, we return to the present. We see ourselves in our present form, and therefore as a collection of people who are in great danger due to immaturity. If the community allows the world to direct it, it will be incapable of movement toward its future, for the world does not know Christ. It does not know this eschaton. If the community listens to the world, thinking in its categories and conforms to its language and standards, it makes itself incapable of its hope. Losing its goal, it also loses its direction due to the waves and wind.[19] 15 However, speaking the truth in love, where love becomes so important that it becomes the condition for speaking truth.[20] We must grow up in every way, suggesting that the growth refers to church members, not the church itself. This growth is into him who is the head, into Christ. In this case, “head” means movement toward that which is the head. Ephesians 5:23 refers to Christ as the head of the church and in 1:20-23 he is the head of all things. God has raised Christ from the dead, set Christ at the right hand of the Father, and exalted Christ over every rulers, authority, and lord. Christ is the one who fills all things. In this heavenly form, he is future, for we do not yet see it as revealed to the community or to the universe. In fact, its own form as body and therefore the fullness of this head is still future. The community believes in Christ as its head. It looks and moves up towards Christ from the depths and distance as to the One who exists in this heavenly form. It also believes it is itself this body and therefore the fullness. The community does not yet see this. The community is still on the way to this future when God will reveal it as the body of Christ and the world as the fullness of Christ. This passage summons the church to grow up into Christ.[21] To put this directly, in reference to the history of the teaching of the Pope, the Pope is not the head of the church. We should not call the holder of such an office the head of the church or the foundation of its unit, for the New Testament uses such terms specifically and exclusively for Jesus Christ, even as we find here. Their use for the Roman bishop has always been an occasion for justifiable offense. In ecumenical discussion, it would be sufficient if his office were a sign of the unity of all Christianity, not a cause and sign of its divisions. Byzantium rightly rejected the notion of Rom on the ground that the church has no head other than Christ.[22] Therefore, in a verse difficult to translate, since Christ is the head, we know that 16 from Christ the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which Christ has equipped it, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.Christ is the one from whom the whole body, joined and knit together with that which Christ has equipped it, as each part is working properly, promoting the growth of the body in building itself up in love. The body derives its nourishment and growth from Christ. All that the body is or has is in relation to the head. Yet, it reinforces individuality. Note that the sustenance of the Body is from the head. Yet, each saint contributes to the mission and unity of the church. The church is still engaged in the temporal process of building itself, a process far from completion. It builds itself, for it cannot build Christ, the kingdom, or a better world. The community can grow because it is already taking place apart from its actions and directs itself toward the summons. It grows from the One to whom God summons it to grow. It grows by the gifts God has given the church. What is to grow is its love.[23] Edification takes place in love, the action that characterizes the action of all Christians. Building up means integration. Integration occurs by God, by Jesus, by the apostles, and by the entire community in all its members. Without this integration and mutual adaptation, there can be no reciprocal dependence and support. Without this, the community will collapse. As it integrates itself in this way, allowing the Holy Spirit to exercise it in self-integration, it is the true church, prepared to look and move forward, to give this provisional representation. It can then offer the witness that is the meaning of its existence in world-history.[24]
This text describes a humble and loving church eager to reach its goal. The church is not an empire builder. There is meekness before the Lord. It is a migrating people moving forward to the day of redemption. Beyond the church are God, all the people, and the ages that the church serves. Though the word "church" is not in the passage, the whole passage refers to its life, order, and purpose.[25]
I wonder how many people feel an incredible sense of isolation in the world today. Loneliness is something many people fear. If one finds an antidote for loneliness, one will have found a business that will last forever.[26] In a world that seems to be coming apart at the seams, what keeps us from becoming unstuck to Christ and one another and falling apart? We live in a painfully fragmented world and a fragmented church. We must not allow the forces of hate and violence to gain their victory not just in our society, but also in our hearts. Nor must we respond to hate with more hate. This is a time of coming together.[27]
I would like to see the church be an example of coming together, even as the world seems ready to come apart. It amazes me how Christianity continually makes relatives out of strangers. Even large congregations will call themselves family. We attempt unity amid diversity. Yet, we fight hard for what we believe. How can we still worship together?
For the Christian community to experience unity, it will need to be a humble and loving community of people, eager to reach its goal. The Christian community migrates together toward the day of redemption. How are the people to travel together?
An important part of the journey is that all Christians have a calling from God to lead a life worthy before God and others. Such a calling is an important way in which we join with the reconciling work of God in the world. Humility, gentleness, forbearance, and bearing the burdens of others are the attitudes that Christians are to have within the community.
Christian community experiences unity through its common confession of faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Such communal confession of faith has its foundation in worship.
Christian community experiences unity through the fact that behind the various gifts is one dispenser of the gifts, Christ, and behind the various ministries of the church is one common ministry for the building up of the church. The church receives these various ministries so that all the people will receive the equipping necessary to carry out the work of service in the world and the construction or fitting together of the church. Every gift serves the unity of the church and growth in knowing the Son of God. As a body, the Christian community grows and matures in unity and in the knowledge of the Son of God. The church has as its purpose helping mature in their relationship with Christ, with each other, and in its ministry in the world. The church becomes a center for spiritual discipline and maturity.
The church will see its Lord face to face. If the church is to avoid having every shift in the intellectual and moral atmosphere of the culture toss it around, it will need to keep itself firmly focused on moving toward Christ. In a world where so many remain unconvinced of Christ, the temptation in the church is to think they might be right at some level. Thus, churches will want to adopt at least some of the standards of the world, ostensibly under the banner of wanting to bring people to Christ. Yet, the church can move toward Christ as its members speak truth in love, and thus care enough for each other to do so. The church receives its nourishment from Christ. Yet, each individual member of the body contributes toward building up the unity of the church and serving God in the world. Every member shares in the responsibility of building up the church through love.
Think of it this way. One hundred pianos tuned to the same fork are also in tune with each other. They are in tune to each other because they bow to a common standard. In a similar way, if those who gather for worship look away from each other and toward Christ, they will have more possibility of practicing the unity they already have in Christ.[28]Unity comes, not as we gaze at each other, but as together, we turn our gaze toward Christ. The unity we have is because of our unity in a person, Jesus Christ. He is the one that binds us together.
[1] (see, for example, Ignatius’ Letter to the Mangesians, 6, 7.1). Since therefore I have, in the persons before mentioned, beheld the whole multitude of you in faith and love, I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. Do all then, imitating the same divine conduct, pay respect to one another, and let no one look upon his neighbour after the flesh, but continually love each other in Jesus Christ. Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality. As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do anything without the bishop and presbyters.
[2] (Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Epistle to the Ephesians [Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1991], 33-35).
[3] Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. --Mahatma Gandhi.
[4] Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings and those who cheer today may curse tomorrow. Only one thing endures -- character. --Horace Greeley.
[5] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 302.
[6] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.1 [62.2] 668-75.
[7] The reference to ascending suggests the one who descending to the lowest parts of the earth while the one who descended is the one who also ascended above the heavens in order to full all things. The author seems guilty of a willful distortion of the text, unless contemporary exegesis justifies his usage. First, instead of "Thou didst ascend..." the author has "he ascended..." Second, instead of the receipt of gifts from defeated foes, he has the giving of gifts. Third, instead of praising God's ascent from Sinai to Zion, the author praises Christ's ascent to the heavenly throne. Fourth, Paul's mention of an ascent depends upon on earlier descent, which is not in the text. Early Christian tendencies were to interpret psalms relating to God's reign as descriptions of God's rule through the Messiah. Paul's use of Psalm 68 is an extension of that tendency. An Ethiopian, Sahidic, Bohairic, Syriac, and several Arabic translations have the term "he ascended..." For Paul, the text refers to Christ as the source of spiritual gifts.
[8] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 457.
[9] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 385. In John Calvin, it became an important text in the consideration of church order. However, he viewed prophets and evangelists as for the apostolic age, and therefore, only pastors and teachers for the current age.
[10] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [67.1] 623.
[11] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 378.
[12] According to W. Lohe in Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 382-3.
[13] "To equip," comes from a verb that means, "to reconcile" political parties, "to set bones" in surgery, or more generally, "to restore, prepare, create." The noun describes the act by which persons or things are being prepared for a specific task.
[14] There are either three distinct purposes or they are a triple definition of the one purpose that determines the gift ministries in v. 7, 8, 11. There is the equipping of the saints, the servant work, and the construction of Christ's body. If a comma is placed between the first two, all the saints benefit, but select ministers carry out the work of building the body. It is aristocratic and clerical oriented. Clergy are distinct from laity. Laity are beneficiaries and the benefits of the clergy are primarily within the church. However, if the nouns describe the same purpose of the ministries of v. 11, a different interpretation is possible. Then the ministries of v. 11 are given to the church so that the saints become equipped to carry out the work of service even the construction of the body of Christ.
[15] Barth, Church Dogmatiics IV.2 [67.1] 623.
[16] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 407
[17] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [67.1] 623-5.
[18] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 103.
[19] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [67.1] 625-6.
[20] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [68.3] 799.
[21] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [67.2] 659-60.
[22] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 430, 466.
[23] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [67.2] 660.
[24] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [67.1] 635-6.
[25] Markus Barth, Ephesians in Anchor Bible
[26] -Anita Roddick, founder and co-chair of The Body Shop, London, England, in Fast Company, September 1999, 115. There is an incredible sense of isolation in the world today. Any young person who finds an antidote to loneliness will have found a business that will last forever.
[27] -The Rev. Dr. Billy Graham, prayer service, Oklahoma City, quoted by Joanne Lynn and Joan Harrold in Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 172.
[28] A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God.
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