The people who are sitting in this room with you this morning — saved by the grace of Jesus Christ — are going to be in your life ten thousand years from now.
Maybe you’ve never thought about it like that before. But look around this room. Look at the faces gathered here today, the people saved by grace, who have trusted in Christ, who make up the body of believers gathered in this church. You’re going to be seeing them for a long time. I chose the number ten thousand years as just a clean round number, but understand: twenty thousand years from now, fifty thousand years from now, a hundred thousand years from now — pick the highest number you can think of — when that day begins, this crowd is still going to be in your contact list. Because we are all made up of one body in one Christ, who has purchased us all with his blood and has given us all an eternal hope that we are trusting in.
Friendships forged in the fires of this life are going to reach their full potential in eternity. Investments we have made in other people that seem to go unnoticed in this life are going to have dividends paid in the life to come. And even the hurts, the pains, the betrayals, and the disagreements we experience in this life are going to be distant memories as we live in eternity with the body of Christ.
I think one of our biggest problems as believers is that we often lack an eternal perspective on the way we view our lives. The things happening today seem so big, so massively important — it seems like nothing else matters compared to whatever it is you are feeling and thinking and going through right now. But when we take the issues of life — bad relationships, pain, suffering, whatever it may be — and expand our view to see them in light of eternity, suddenly the picture starts to change. You are going to spend the rest of your eternity with a glorified body, which is the church. And whether you like it or not, they’re not going anywhere. If they are saved by Jesus Christ, they’re going to be there, and they’re going to be a part of your life.
Paul, having just finished the doctrinal portion of this letter, has given us a lot to chew on about our identity in Christ. We are chosen by God. Let me keep putting things in perspective: the people around you, the other members of the body of Christ, if they’re saved by Jesus Christ, they were chosen by God. God looked at them and said, “I want you.” And if you’re willing to be honest this morning, you have met some people who are part of the body of Christ and probably thought in the back of your mind, Lord, you do know them, right? Are you sure about this one? But if they are saved and on their way to heaven, God chose them just like he chose you.
Paul goes on to describe how we were dead in our trespasses and sins — lost and undone, living willingly and happily after the course of this world. But God, in his grace and mercy, came to where we were and made us alive. We were dead in sin, but we were made alive through Jesus Christ. We were awakened to spiritual realities we had never experienced before, given new life so that God could show the world how good he is in saving sinners. And guess what — he did that same thing for the people sitting around you that he did for you. You were dead in your sins and trespasses; they were dead in their sins and trespasses. God came to where you were, and he came to where they were, and he gave new life. New life that didn’t fix everything — because not everything about me is fixed right now, and if we’re honest, none of us has it all together. Nobody does. But he did the same thing for them that he did for you.
Then Paul tells us how, through Jesus Christ, God has broken down all the dividing lines of race, ethnicity, culture, social difference, and preference. He took all the differences that separated mankind — even the greatest division of Jew and Gentile — and through Christ he broke down the dividing walls that kept us apart. He has brought everyone together into one body, the church of Jesus Christ. He has made us one in him. Any division we see in the world today is manufactured division that man has chosen to embrace. But God died to redeem.
So we find these wonderful realities, and here in chapter four, Paul shifts. The rest of the letter takes that truth and applies it to our lives. And the very first issue he deals with in application is the unity of the body of Christ. Isn’t that interesting? Paul could have jumped into a lot of different things, but he starts with the unity of the body. In these first sixteen verses he lays out a case that we would embrace the spirit of unity that Jesus Christ purchased with his own blood, and that we would live our lives for the sake of the church.
If I could package this whole section into one sentence — memorize this, take it home and meditate on it this week — it’s this:
Unity is reality. So let’s live like it.
That’s what Paul is saying in these sixteen verses. And he builds it out across three movements: we are called to embrace unity, to encourage unity in others, and to grow into unity together.
Embrace Unity (verses 1–6)
Paul first and foremost calls us to embrace unity — to take hold of it and live it. Look at what he says:
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:1–6)
Right off the bat, Paul establishes a truth: unity is not something we manufacture and produce. Unity is a spiritual reality that already exists whether we want to embrace it or not. We often treat unity as a thing God has made us responsible to produce. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The unity in the body of Christ is a present reality and a future reality that God has already determined, already declared, and will not change — through Jesus Christ, through the victory he won on the cross. Unity was declared. Unity was purchased. Unity was established. He decreed it from heaven: “My church will be one body, not many bodies, not individuals. My church will be one church.”
That’s what Paul is drawing us to with this “seven ones.” There is one body — we are one church, one people of God, not individual Christians who happen to come together, but one body in Jesus Christ. One Spirit — you’re not saved by a different spirit, you’re not led by a different spirit than anybody else. The same Spirit that leads me when I wake up in the morning is the same Spirit that’s supposed to be leading you. We are all indwelt by the same Spirit of God.
One hope of your calling — what is the hope of our calling? That one of these days this faith is going to give way to sight, and we will see the Lord Jesus Christ seated on his throne, and behold him face to face, and for eternity enjoy the blessed presence and peace and goodness of our Lord in heaven and the new creation. You’re heading to the same place everybody else who is saved by Jesus Christ is heading to. We may not like people on this earth. We may not get along with people on this earth. We may have differences of opinion and preference on this earth. But when we get to heaven, they’re going to be there, and all the things that divided us and kept us separate on this earth will be done away with, and we will be perfectly one.
One Lord — there are not many Christs, not different versions of Christ, not many ways to Christ. He said, “I am the way, the truth, the life.” One faith — we are trusting in the same things. One baptism — we are baptized into one body. One God and Father of all — there are not many gods, as we sang this morning. He is God alone, and he sits above all, he is through all things, he is in all things. He is the one God of the church of Christ.
God has decreed and declared unity. It is not something we manufacture. It is a spiritual reality we can either choose to embrace or not — but we cannot change it, we cannot vote on it. It has already been declared.
Notice, too, that he says “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit.” He doesn’t say “endeavouring to produce unity.” That word keep means to guard, to protect, to preserve. You are not responsible for producing unity. You are responsible for embracing and keeping the unity God has already made a reality.
And who is it that we are unified with? A bunch of broken, sin-cursed individuals who were bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ the exact same way that we were. Just as sinful as you are. Just as broken as you are. They’ve made mistakes just like you have. The church is not made up of perfect people, and it was never supposed to be. The church is made up of a bunch of messed-up people striving in the right direction through the power of the same Spirit.
I like what Matthew Henry said: “We find much in ourselves for which we can hardly forgive ourselves; therefore we must not be surprised if we find in others that which we think it hard to forgive. There is one Christ in whom all believers hope, one heaven they are all hoping for; therefore they should be of one heart.” Challenging words, but true. A lot of days I wake up and I don’t even want to be with myself — so should I be surprised when other sinners act like sinners, just like I do? No, I should not be surprised. In fact, I should expect it.
That’s why Paul says we should walk worthy — that is, walk in accordance with the calling to which we are called, which is to become one body in Christ, for better or worse. That’s why he goes on to say “with all lowliness” — that is, thinking properly about yourself and about other people. A lot of times the reason we get so fed up with other people is because we’re too busy looking at their problems to pay attention to our own. Look at yourself. See your problems. See your sins. See what God is doing in you. If you properly view yourself, you’ll be able to properly view the sins of others.
Meekness means gentleness. We’ve all felt like the best thing we could do for somebody is give them a good pop upside the head — “If I could just get my hands on them for five minutes, I could straighten that mess out.” But that’s not the way God has chosen to work. He has chosen to work through meekness and gentleness. He is a shepherd, not a taskmaster.
Meekness with longsuffering — that word means exactly what it sounds like: suffering long, putting up with other people’s junk for a long time. Forbearing — a strong word that means bearing with one another in love. He is calling us to unity, but in order to have that spirit of unity, we have to see ourselves properly, we have to see others properly, and we have to understand that this unity we are striving for is a present reality we are called to guard and embrace.
It appears to me, reading the New Testament, that this is one of the most important things to God — because it comes up an awful lot. And if he talks about it a lot, it must matter a lot to him. To put it in plain twenty-first-century English: he’s calling us to get over ourselves and love the church that he has purchased with his blood, and embrace the unity he has already declared.
Encourage Unity in Others (verses 7–12)
But we’re not only called to embrace that unity and say, “Okay, I understand that, be it as it may.” We’re also called to be agents who encourage that unity in other people. Look at verse 7:
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:7–12)
Quick grammar note: it’s likely that “pastors and teachers” is being used as a hyphenated phrase — a pastor-teacher, or shepherd-teacher, one who is not only guiding but teaching and directing.
Why is he given all these things? For the perfecting — the maturing — of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Here’s what he’s telling us: when Jesus died on the cross, he declared a decisive victory over the forces of Satan, over sin, over evil. And in that defeat, he actually “led captivity captive.” In the ancient world, when a Roman general defeated his enemy in battle, he would take them captive, take all their spoils and plunder, and march his captives through the city, showing off the victory for the town. Then the general would take the spoils of war and distribute them as gifts to the people in his town. This was a normal activity in the Roman world.
Paul is using this picture for us. When Jesus did what he did, he declared a decisive victory over the enemy. He took their power and their authority captive — and then he distributed it to the citizens of his city, that is, his children. The power God has given us to do his work is spoils he has won. It is excess power. We didn’t have to take anything from God to be strengthened for our work, because he’s giving us the spoils of victory. He has given us, as believers, different powers, different abilities, different responsibilities — but notice, every single one of those powers, whatever they may be, all serve one purpose: the perfecting of the saints, the maturing of the saints.
Why has God given you the gifts, the talents, and the abilities you have as a born-again believer? So that you might be an agent who produces a unified maturity in the body of Christ. He wants to use what he has given you — the spoils of war he has distributed to his family — not for your personal gain, not for your own edification, but so that you might turn around and do the work of producing maturity, producing unity, producing the development and growth of the body of Christ. He’s giving you something special that you can give to the church so that it might grow, develop, and be strengthened.
So I ask you this morning: how are you using your gifts to produce maturity and unity in the body of Christ? What has God given you that you are uniquely capable of doing that helps grow, mature, and bless the body of Christ? We all have something. We can all give something. I’m not asking you to start teaching a class or doing a Bible study. I’m not asking you to mentor somebody. I’m not asking you to be a pastor or a preacher. I’m just asking — what are you good at? What has God gifted you with that you can use to mature the body of Christ, to bless the body of Christ, to prepare the body of Christ for the work of the ministry?
Maybe you’re saying, “Justin, I don’t know what it is.” I don’t either — but you can pray about it. You can say, “God, what have you given me? Big or small, what is it that you have for me that I can do that nobody else can do for the body of Christ?” I promise you, he can give you an answer to that question.
Grow Together Into Unity (verses 13–16)
So we are to embrace unity, and then use the gifts God has given us to grow and develop that unity. But lastly, God has called us together to grow up, mature, and develop into this spirit of unity.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:13–16)
“Till we all” — when is the stopping point? When do I get to retire from encouraging and helping grow the unity of the church? Paul is talking about that day when we are glorified together, and our unity and our maturing is complete, as we are joined together in Jesus Christ in heavenly places. We are to pursue this unity till we all come into the perfect unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God — unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ — that we would no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine.
So what is Paul saying? We are to pursue unity, embrace unity, use our gifts to encourage unity, until the church is perfect — until the church is fully matured. And when is that going to happen? On the other side. That means until we breathe our last breath, our greatest calling in life is to serve the unity, the growth, and the maturity of the body of Christ, and to use the gifts God has given us. We’re all heading for this perfect maturity — and I say, praise God for that. One of these days I’m not going to be faulted like I am today. One of these days my wife doesn’t have to be mad at me anymore for my shortcomings, because they won’t be there anymore. There won’t be any more disputes, any more arguing, any more disappointments, because we’re all going to be perfect. All of our sins will be wiped away. All of our imperfections will be made pure and holy and complete. We are going to be perfectly matured.
But until that day, we continue to grow. The pursuit of that unity and the labor for that unity does not go away. There are a lot of things that contribute to a lack of unity, a lot of things that cause arguing and disputing. But the number one underlying factor that produces disunity in the body of Christ is immature believers who don’t have a proper understanding of the truth. That’s why Paul references “no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” There are a lot of voices in this world trying to teach us a lot of different things, and the problem is that when we’re young, we are impressionable, tempted to believe all these different voices, tempted to be carried about by them. And as we get influenced by the wrong voices, we start to act the wrong way toward the body of Christ. It is immaturity — childlike behavior — that produces disunity in the church.
And by the way, spiritual immaturity can exist in both the young and the old. That’s not just a young people’s problem. Spiritual maturity is a measure of the work Christ has done in you — it’s not a measure of how many years you’ve lived on this earth. When there is disunity, it is coming from somebody being immature in the faith. So how do we solve that? We grow together. We support one another. We develop with one another, and we grow together at an even pace.
I’m watching my kids grow right now, especially Chastity. Every morning she wakes up looking like a different kid — she’s growing fast and everything’s changing. But her body is growing as a unit. Could you imagine if her feet decided to grow to full maturity before the rest of her did? Bless her little heart. Imagine if her legs got as long as they’re going to get, and then let everything else catch up. God did not design bodies to grow that way. And he certainly didn’t design the body of Christ to grow that way. We are to work together, to grow together, to develop into a full, mature picture of what Christ intended this body to be.
What does that look like? First, it looks like us looking at ourselves and saying, “What immaturity am I bringing to the body of Christ? God, cleanse me of that, grow me through that” — and then seeking somebody who can help us grow in that, seeking accountability, seeking partners in the faith who can support us in that area of growth. And then it’s looking out and saying, “How can I help somebody else grow in their faith?” We become not individuals trying to get this thing right on our own, hanging around every once in a while with other people who say they’re Christians. It’s us coming together, becoming a family, saying, “You help me, I help you” — and together we become what Christ has called us to be.
The Question Before Us
So I want to ask you this question in closing: are you being the church today that you are expecting to enjoy in eternity? Are you being the church today that you think you’re supposed to enjoy in eternity?
Folks, every single one of us has a choice to make this morning. Will we embrace the unity that Christ has declared, and then use our gifts and our calling to make that unity a present reality? Or will we continue on our own paths, doing our own thing, putting up with other people one hour a week?
Folks, we can see God do great things — if we would come together and be one in Jesus Christ.
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