do do Alright, we are going back to Ephesians. We have come now to chapter 4. So we're going to be looking at verses 1 to 6 in Ephesians chapter 4. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering and forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you 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. So the first half of the letter to the Ephesians, that would be chapters 1 to 3, addressed the faithful believers in the church at Ephesus, the faithful saints in the church at Ephesus. And Paul enumerated spiritual blessings from God the Father through Christ to all who believe, and included in that list and subordinating those blessings was God's cosmic purpose of unifying everything together in Christ. So from the big picture view of God's cosmic purpose, down to the particular view of removing the barrier between Jews and Gentiles and, through faith in Christ, each having equal standing as heirs and equal access to God. Further, a part of that greater purpose finds expression in this present age where Jews and Gentiles are joined together in local church bodies where their visible, tangible unity glorifies God and points toward ultimate fulfillment. So in this age, the promises to Abraham to bless the nations of the earth through that nation Israel from Abraham, is beginning to be fulfilled. So Paul had a particular administration of this plan in preaching Christ and revealing the mystery to the nations and to Israel. So his imprisonment is part or was part of his apostolic calling in fulfilling his mission. And so, similarly, the church at Ephesus must understand their place in this purpose of God to actively glorify God through diverse unity in that body. It is this very active role in this present age that requires Paul to be talking to and talking about local church bodies and not some sort of mystical, invisible, universal body in heaven and on earth. Now his previous use of the whole family of God in heaven and on earth, that's back in chapter 3 and verse 15, it is distinct from the church body building that he has directly addressed the congregation in Ephesus with. Of course, this leads to the question, if these churches, if those that make up these churches are to be actively bringing glory to God in this way, in line with God's cosmic purpose, How does that happen? How are they to do that? And that's really where chapter four begins. So I've sort of just traced a main thread from chapter one through three and now picking it up here in chapter number four. And where chapter four begins is Paul explaining to them how they are to walk. And so chapter 4 verse 1, so this would be chapter 4 verse 1 through chapter 6 verse number 20 is the second part of the body of the letter and it is the part with practical admonition. So, the first part of the body, chapter 2, verse 1, through chapter 3, verse 21, are primarily theological. And we noticed an emphasis, and this is important to grasp in the letter to the Ephesians, there's an emphasis on reading, on understanding, and on comprehending. Now, chapter 4 through chapter 6, verse 20, is primarily practical. There's an emphasis on doing, and this is where, in this letter to the Ephesians, this is where those many, many imperatives come in. In the first three chapters, there's very little in the way of imperatives. In other words, in terms of what Paul was commanding or directing them to do. But we get to chapter 4 and through chapter 6, really toward the end of the letter, we get many, many imperatives of what they are to do. And there's a direct connection then and a translation from learning to doing. So Paul emphasized that they were to learn, to understand, they were to comprehend, they were to grow in their knowledge, but that's not an end in itself. That also leads to all of these imperatives, the things that they are to do, the things they are to be doing. And of course, by extension, this is true of other churches as well, even down to us today in this present age. So we're going to start to look at this first little section here, verses 1 to 6. And this is again where Paul is transitioning from the primarily theological to the primarily practical. And you notice that Paul starts with that connecting term, that therefore. And it really connects the second half of the letter to everything that Paul had written up to this point. So everything previously that he had said, he is now saying now on that basis. And we've seen this kind of a connecting word before. It's where Paul is giving a consequence. It's something that follows, something that must be from all of this theological foundation that he has given, then necessarily leads to this. And what he will say, what he will go on to say from here, will be completely dependent on what he has said previously up to this point. So a necessary consequence of it. Now, in the summary and the introduction of this study regarding the purpose of God and the place of Paul and the church at Ephesus in it, where I was just tracing through from chapter 1 through chapter three, this is the basis. And what he is saying here is completely dependent on comprehending, on understanding that particular theological foundation. So Paul began this letter in chapter one and verse one, identifying himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And furthermore, he later introduced or identified himself as the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you, you all, referring to the Gentiles, referring to those of the nations. That's back in chapter 3 and verse number 1. And here, he simply refers to himself as the prisoner of the Lord. Now, we've already seen from chapter 3 that this is His way here, and we talked about before. When Paul gives any sort of a defense or comment on his situation, it's usually at the beginning or the end of the letter, and it's very rare to be in the body of the letter unless he is defending himself like he thought necessary. in the 2nd Corinthians letter. So this is very unusual and what we saw from that, you can go back to chapter 3, what we saw from that was that this is how Paul is expressing his apostleship. So this prisoner was a part of his apostleship and his calling in the greater purpose of God. In other words, his imprisonment was not a sidetrack. It wasn't a hindrance. It wasn't something that was opposing or threatening his mission, his administration that he talked about. It's actually a part of it. So on the one hand, he referred to that because he didn't want the believers in the church at Ephesus to become discouraged by the things that he was suffering, and he wanted to encourage them, and now we find also he wants to exhort them. So he is referring to this identity here again, and from that basis he's going to beseech. So the prisoner is going to beseech on that basis. But we know that that's not just as a prisoner, but it's as an apostle. So it is an authoritative charge that he is giving to the believers at Ephesus. In his apostolic capacity, you could say, he's charging the congregation at Ephesus. Now, we have here that Paul uses, and we've drawn some attention to this, this is the second person plural, so this is you all, when he's referring, and he's referring there particularly collectively to the Gentiles in Ephesus, and Gentiles as Gentiles, and he does it here in verse one, he does it again in verse four. In other words, he's directly addressing the church at Ephesus with these commands, just as he has been. And we've noticed, as we've been reading this letter, he's been directly addressing them with teaching, he's been directly addressing them in regards to prayers for them and his desire for them. and here he's directly addressing them in terms of the charge that he has for them. So he has given them the theological foundation that they were built on, and he proceeds to give them directions of how they actively build up the church body, i.e., one another. Now, the first imperative is to walk. there to walk in a particular way. And this word for walk has the idea of behave or how you conduct yourself, how you live your life. And in other places, Paul uses walk to give particular commands to the churches. Places like 1 Corinthians 7, verse 17, and 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 12, and chapter 4, verse 1 and 12, and 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6 and 11. And also he uses this walk in a way that's a contrast with the walk and the conduct of the unbelieving world. That's in 1 Thessalonians 4.5, so that's where we get the contrast. And here Paul referred to their walk previously, back in chapter two and verses one to 10, as lost sinners, as unbelievers. And he contrasted that from their salvation and how they were made new to walk in good works. Now, to walk worthy, is what is becoming, what is appropriate, what is consistent with. And this word for vocation essentially means like calling and then he refers to the calling wherewith they were called. So, calling, vocation, and then being called. Now, this call is not generally of salvation. I mean, in the context, calling is referring to their position, or we might say their station. believing Jews in this present age are joined together as members of the same body with equal standing with believing Gentiles. And Paul uses walk and calling in a very similar way. This is in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 17 to 24. And there he was talking particularly about marriage, but he does make a distinction between the calling of Jews and the calling of Gentiles in verses 8, 10, and 12 there. And so again, though the context is different, he is using these in a very similar way to speak of their calling, of their station. And so that's a similar use that we see here. Not that Not that their standing excludes salvation, but it's more than just that. It's Jews as Jews, Gentiles as Gentiles, and yet all believers. But it is their station. So we go on to verse number two. And here Paul begins to give description. He says, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. And so Paul is describing walking worthy. So if they're to walk worthy of their calling, of their standing, of their station, if they are to walk worthy of that calling, then how are they to do it? Paul begins describing it by giving them three traits and then two particular actions. There are three traits that they are to nurture and to grow and develop within themselves. And then there are two particular actions that they are to take from those traits. So we see the first trait that is given here. described as lowliness. All lowliness or all humility is a good way to think about this term for lowliness. That would be essentially the opposite of being selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-important. Pretty much any negative self-compound that you want to think of, then this lowliness, this humility is going to be antithetical to that. In fact, Paul gives a great description in Philippians chapter 2 verses 2 to 8. sake of time, but he talks about looking on the things of others, having the mind of Christ, and all of those sort of things. Essentially, not being selfish, but how that Christ humbled himself. Now, the second trait is that of meekness. And we can think of meekness primarily as gentleness. So meekness, again, we can think of it in terms of what is antithetical to it. It's not in any way being self-assertive, rude, or harsh, or argumentative, things of that nature. And then the third trait is given here as long-suffering. And probably we most readily think about patience. And it is patience, but it also has the sense of enduring. So enduring, you know, continuing on a putting up with, you know, so there's included in there must be a certain degree of restraint that we're not maybe, you know, doing what immediately comes to mind or saying, speaking what immediately comes to mind in certain situations or, you know, coming very short and frustrated with people. and that sort of thing, but being long-suffering and being patient. So these are three traits that, in order for them to walk worthy of the calling wherewith they are called, they're going to have to nurture these traits. They're going to have to develop these traits. And then from these traits, he gives two rather different actions, with the first here being forbearing one another in love. Now, forbearing has the idea of bearing with, and this one another points to each other, toward each other in that body. So this is not just some sort of general general bearing with or general sort of patience, but toward each other. In other words, it's going to be mutual that one bears with another and that one bears with the other and so on. And of course, this forbearing is done in love, that is agape that is used there, with love obviously being a strong foundation and a strong binding agent for the unity of the body. Now the second action is given in verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and that is endeavoring to keep. Endeavoring to keep. And this has the idea of diligent effort. And we might say, a little more modernly, if someone make every effort. Give every effort to keeping or maintaining this unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, the word for bond that is used here is actually a word that can be translated quite literally, and it can be used to describe ligaments. Ligaments are those things that bind the bones together in joints in human bodies and so on. Paul even refers to that in Colossians chapter 2 and verse number 19. And the same root for this word bond, the same root is used for the word for prisoner back in chapter 3 verse 1 and in chapter 4 verse 1, just a couple of verses ago. and it's the idea of being bound. So they come from the same root. So there's the idea, this bond of peace has the idea of being bound together. And this peace, now this is not shalom, which we encounter a lot that has the idea of wholeness and wellness and all those sort of things. It's not It's not Shalom, it's a different word, Erenei, which essentially has the idea of harmony. or concord. And of course, he's talking about within this body, the binding together of all the different members in this body in Ephesus, so that there's a harmony, there is a concord between them. Then we get to verse four. There's one body and one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling. Now here is where Paul begins to give seven foundational elements of unity for you all. Again, the second person plural, you all in the church at Ephesus. And this is somewhat similar back to chapter 2 and verses 1 to 10 where Paul was giving foundational elements showing equal standing of Jews and Gentiles, both in terms of as being unbelievers and being believers as well. But he here gives the seven foundational elements for unity, and the point of the seven ones – and that's what he gives us here, one body, one spirit, and so on – the seven ones, from here all the way through verse 6, are emphasizing the unity of Jews and Gentiles in the same body at Ephesus. In other words, the ones are emphasizing the fact that there's one body of Jews and Gentiles in Ephesus, not one body of Jews and one body of Gentiles. So it's one body of Jews and Gentiles, not one body of Jews and then one body of Gentiles. So that's the emphasis that's coming through out of these seven ones, that there's not a Jewish and a Gentile body, there's not a Jewish and a Gentile spirit, there's not a Jewish and a Gentile hope, there's not a Jewish and a Gentile Lord, there's not a Jewish and a Gentile faith, there's not a Jewish and a Gentile baptism, there's not a Jewish and a Gentile God and Father. There's only one and it is the same for both. It is the same for each one. So element one is given here as one body. Of course, this recalls what we've already seen in previous passages. Chapter 1, verse 23. Chapter 2, verse 16. Chapter 3, verse number 6. So, the cosmic purpose of God worked out in Christ through His cross, removed the barrier, and brought Jews and Gentiles together into the same body as equal members of each other. Again, no Jewish body, no Gentile body, but one body. Element number two is one spirit. That, of course, recalls that every building Jesus builds in this age grows to a holy temple where the Spirit dwells in the assembly. That's back in chapter 2 and verse number 22. Again, not a spirit of the Jews and a spirit of the Gentiles, one spirit. And then the third element is in this verse, one hope of your calling. And one hope recalls the hope of his calling connected to an inheritance. This is back in chapter 1 and verse number 18, which Gentiles were alienated from before Christ came in chapter 2 and verse number 12. And we spent some time with that, so I'm not going to retrace all that. You can go back and listen to that section if you want to review it. But remember that there was simply no vehicle of fulfillment for the Abrahamic Covenant, since the Old Covenant could not accomplish that. Element number four comes in verse number five. One Lord, and this is kurios here, and it means Lord, Supreme Lord, Supreme Master, Supreme Head, recalling Christ as Head of the body there in Ephesus. Fifth element, one faith, and here faith would refer essentially to the body of truth. There's not one body of truth for Jews and one body of truth for Gentiles and so on, but there's one body of truth. The sixth element that is given here is that of one baptism, and this is is a reference to that of water baptism, which is connected to church membership. So just a quick review of this subject, which we covered in our series on systematic doctrine just a few years ago. Baptism is a church responsibility. It's not just an individual act. I mean, you really cannot scripturally baptize yourself. And it's not just an individual act. It's not just for the benefit of the individual acting independently. Now, the church is the actor, and the disciples are the one baptized. And we saw that back in the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Baptism is the means of entry into church membership. We saw that on the day of Pentecost when those who repented and believed were baptized and then were added unto them in Acts 2.41, that being the church at Jerusalem, 120 names that were recorded in the upper room. And so the outline emphasizes that throughout the New Testament, there's no example of anyone being added to a church except through baptism. And the New Testament knows nothing of unbaptized church members. Baptism is also a church's public recognition and binding of a believer. When a church baptizes someone, it's publicly affirming that person's profession of faith as credible. The church then binds that person into the fellowship with mutual responsibility and accountability. Just the sort of things Paul's talking about in this letter to the church at Ephesus. And of course, baptism really defines the nature of the local church itself. Because a church in the New Testament is a congregation of baptized believers joined together for corporate witness of Christ and His kingdom. So baptism is not just a personal testimony, but it's a God-ordained act by which the church, with heaven's authority, receives disciples into its fellowship. And it is the link between personal faith in Christ and corporate identity in the church. The church baptizes, baptism brings believers into church membership, and the church's very nature is defined by being a body of baptized believer. So again, we see the emphasis is there's no Jewish baptisms and Gentile baptisms. There is one. baptism. And then verse six gives us the final element in one God and Father of all is above all and through all and in you all. He's over all and therefore he brings all together. And again, we have that second person, plural, speaking to them, directly addressing them, but doing so collectively. So as we think about the implications here. And of course, Paul is given these elements of unity, and he has a reason for doing so, which we'll begin to see when we get to the next verse, the next section. But if we could really grasp this New Testament teaching about the one another's. In other words, there's some sort of a mutual bond there in these one another's and these responsibilities that come out in different ways. And if we could really grasp church membership the way that Paul's presenting it here, being a member in this body, is to actively participate in bringing God glory in this present age. And if we could really grasp that, our view of churches would change. Just to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about, you've experienced what is a very common approach and view to churches in this day. You've experienced this if you've ever, for instance, tried to go out to eat with a large group of people. And you've tried to find one restaurant that would effectively satisfy everyone. Well, then you've experienced how many people think about churches today. So you think about that scenario. So one person, you know, well, how about this restaurant? And, you know, somebody, well, no, I mean, the food's good there, but the parking is terrible. You know, you can never find a spot. It's all just on the street. It's always crowded. And they say, oh, OK, well, how about this other restaurant you want to go to? Oh, no, no, no, we don't want to go there. The lines are always too long. You have to wait forever at that at that restaurant. And, you know, then another one is. suggested and someone says, oh no, he can't go there, the food's terrible. Another one, how about this other restaurant? Oh no, service is awful there. How about another one? No, they're too slow. How about another one? Well, you know, I've never been there, but they have terrible reviews online, so let's not go there. Well, you know, what about another one? Okay, Maybe some people are all right with it. And then somebody suggests, you know, I can cook just as well myself at home. Why go out to a restaurant at all? So anyway, that's just a sort of a little illustration of the way that many professed Christians look at churches. They look at churches in terms of what do they have to offer me and provide me as a consumer, rather than looking for a church that, while not perfect, a church that understands the mission and a church where you can actively participate in bringing God glory in this age. Well, obviously there's much more to come about responsibility in a church, membership in a church, and many of these one another commands as we proceed in this letter.