That They May Be One: Part Three

(This is an exegetical article from Eph. 4:1-16 NASB. I have divided it into several parts. For the best reading, get out your Bibles and read the passage, then read these blogs. Enjoy!)

“To each of one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift… ‘He ascended on high…and He gave gifts to all men.’…He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints…to the building up of the body of Christ…” (vs. 7-12)

What Paul is referring to in this segment is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the significance that Christ’s ascension means for anyone, who believes in Him. What Christ did on the cross, and the victory that He won on our behalf, goes far beyond simply the redemption from sin. He rose on high and was given all authority, riches, and honor (ref. Jn. 17:2), which He so gladly shares with us.

These gifts are not what you would find under the Christmas tree or by your birthday cake; they are those related to the power and authority of spiritual things and for the use of building up the Body of Christ. I’ll give you an example. Have you ever noticed how you can just do something naturally and easily that maybe someone else has to really work hard at to do well? Or have you noticed an inner itch of your heart, in which you really hurt with others, or have a passion for learning, or you strongly desire to reach the lost? That inner itch, my friend, is a gift from Christ, which He earned for you when He died and rose again!

Paul differentiates, here, what different types of these gifts include. There are others, but in this letter, he mentions five. First, the apostle: these are men and women who have an eagle’s eye view of the Body of Christ as a whole, and could be considered the pastors of pastors. Then, there’s the prophet: these are the preachers, the mouths of the Church, who are natural at exhorting and challenging the believer in his walk of faith.

Third, there are the evangelists: the hands and feet, who meet the lost wherever they are and bring them the Gospel of Jesus. Fourth, there are the pastors, the shepherds of the flock, our ministers. They could be considered the heart of the church because they remain within the church walls a watch over those, who are already saved, ministering to the needs of fellow believers. Whenever you have a hurt or a need, they will be there. Finally, you have the brains! These are the teachers of the Word, who diligently study and dig out its truth for others to glean from and grow in their knowledge of Christ.

Can you imagine how effective this body would be if the brain had a new revelation, but the mouth refused to speak it? The truth that the brain had found would be lost, stuck in the silent place of thought and imagination, unable and ineffective to reach the ears of eager listeners. What about the hands and feet? What if they longed to help a homeless drunkard on the street, but the brain didn’t think it was a good idea? Can you see how the Church would lose her ability to follow Christ’s command of making disciples (ref. Matt. 28:18)? She wouldn’t be able to do anything! If her bodily members don’t cooperate and appreciate the abilities of each part of her frame, she is incapacitated, bound in a lost mess of confusion.

This is why Paul is so adamant about the importance of unity. “Unity of the faith” he calls it, “to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ…” (ref. vs.13) We are all members of Christ’s body. We are all gifted with our unique abilities and talents, in every denomination and worship preference; these abilities are meant to build us up as believers and reach the nations of this world on behalf of our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That They May Be One: Part Two

(This is an exegetical article from Eph. 4:1-16 NASB. I have divided it into several parts. For the best reading, get out your Bibles and read the passage, then read these blogs. Enjoy!)


“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling with which you have been called…being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”(Eph. 4:1-3 NASB)

In the original context, Paul was writing from a prison in either Caesarea or Rome, having been arrested for his evangelical pursuits of the Gentiles, or those who were not Jews. He explains earlier in his letter that this is the call, which Christ Himself had given to him; and furthermore, that Christ had disclosed a profound revelation of God’s ultimate design in sending Jesus to the cross: that both Jew and Gentile alike have equal access and reward in the kingdom of heaven. This was news to the Jews, for the popular view in that day was that the Jew had a special purpose in God’s eyes and the Gentiles were only secondary. In other words, there were two different Bodies of Christ, the more perfect Jewish Church and the lesser glorified Gentile church. This is the doctrine that Paul wanted to address.

But if you really think about it, are we so far estranged from this culture that we cannot grasp how we hold this very same mentality, just in a different form? Do we not believe that our certain denominations “have it right” and that others, somehow, don’t? Do not the Catholics and Protestants, Lutherans and Baptists, hold some kind of arms-length distance from each other thinking, “Oh, they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but we know the proper form of worship…” We cannot read this text with our noses held high in the air, and scoffing at the bigotry of these first century Jewish Christians. We, the Church of the 21st century, struggle just as they did and we would be wise to listen to what our Gentile Apostle has to say to us regarding this dilemma.

“There is one body, one Spirit…one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…” (vs. 4-6)

There is one body of Christ. Not two or three, not Gentile or Jewish, not Presbyterian and Assembly of God and Church of Christ; we are all one Body of Christ. We belong to a God who is God over all, in and through all things (ref. vs. 6).

Paul stresses the words one and all in this passage, much like the three Musketeers. Remember their chant? “All for One and One for All.” What was the message of their vow? That all would fight and die for the one; and the one, each individual Musketeer, would lay down his life for all of the others. The Musketeers had the right idea. They understood that, once they entered the service of the king, they were no longer individual Frenchmen, with skills, professions, lives, or ideals of their own; they resigned every part of their identity to form the one identity of the band of Musketeers that would serve each other for the sake of the throne.

Now, I do not believe that Paul is suggesting that we resign our individuality and personal preferences. In fact, he later discloses how vital our distinctiveness of character is a key component of Christ’s purpose in the church. (ref. vs. 11) However, what Paul is saying is that, once we take on the shed blood of Jesus, once we recognize Him as our Lord and King, we resign our individuality and divisiveness associated with sin, and we are united in the bond of Christ’s body; we are Christ’s Disciples and people of His Church.

Our purposes shift from glorifying self, to living for the God who is the All in All. We submit to the Truth that life is not about us, or our personal agendas and pursuits. It’s about Jesus; it’s about our God the Father who rules far above the Universe. It’s about serving our King and serving His people, our fellow brethren in Christ.

That They May Be One: Part One

(This is an exegetical article from Eph. 4:1-16 NASB. I have divided it into several parts. For the best reading, get out your Bibles and read the passage, then read these blogs. Enjoy!)

“So, there have been no improvements.” “No sir.” The voice on the other end of the receiver was silent for several moments. Then, I heard the low, drawn out exhale of a sigh of frustration. “Well,” my doctor said, “Let’s stick with the regimen for now. We’ll up your thyroid medication in five days. We may have to increase your cortisol, to keep your adrenal glands balanced. Stay away from all sugar, your blood sugar (pancreas) will get off. Do that, and call me next week.” “Yes, sir. Thank you, Dr. Turner.[1]”

I put down the phone, and stared out my window at nothing in particular. These weekly phone conversations have been going on for weeks and try as we might, my doctor and I have been unable to make much progress with the medication I’ve been taking. I, too, let out a long sigh of frustration, holding back another tear. Oh, I’m not really that discouraged; I know God is in control and He will deliver me, eventually. I’m just weary. Weary of the long drawn out process of attempting to realign a body that is prone to work against itself.

I suffer from a condition[2] that is unique in many ways. My internal organs either work isolated from the rest of the body, against other parts of the body, or just plain don’t work at all. My symptoms are numerous, but some of the most prominent ones are flu-like in nature: extreme fatigue, muscle pain and weakness, dizziness, and nausea. I am confined to the premises of my home and am unable to leave until the doctor gives me his release. In truth, I really don’t have the desire to leave the house; I am just plain too tired. So, I busy myself here, when I have the energy to, and write letters and emails to others, work on my schoolwork, do little chores around the house, like laundry and, on better days, cook a meal for my folks. I would love to do more, but frankly, I just can’t.

Unfortunately, my condition is not an isolated incident. In fact, it is far more prevalent and widespread than most people realize. This condition, in which members of one body work independently of others, work in opposition of others, or just decide to sit back and do nothing, is happening in the Body of Christ today.

How is this manifested; or what are the symptoms of this predicament? We see churches split as a result of a deep offense; daily hundreds of pastors retire from burn out[3]; and missionaries are being forced to return home from their mission field(s) for lack of sufficient funds to keep them there. Hundreds of church hoppers literally “hop” from church to church, trying to find the church that fits their idea of “proper doctrine.”

Then, you have the battle of the denominations, Catholics verses Lutherans, Charismatic verses Evangelicals, Anglicans verses Baptists, and so on. We live in a society where the term “Christian” is the generic word, which refers to a “good moral citizen,” and the term “Church” implies to bigotry, judgment, and legalism. Oh, we have wonderful church bodies that are prospering, but they are few and far between.

The overall lack of unity in the Body of Christ has not completely prevented her from effectiveness in fulfilling the Great Commission, but she is far less powerful than she could be. Like me, she is able to do a little, but she has the potential to do so much more if only her body would work together just as Christ had designed her to.

Though our church condition seems bleak at present, our tendencies toward religious prejudice is nothing new; the church has seen it in the past. In fact, our Body of Christ has overcome thousands of years of division tracing all the way back to its earliest establishment. This propensity of disunity is exactly what the Apostle Paul is discussing in this text, taken from his letter to the Ephesians.


[1] The name of the doctor has been changed for privacy purposes.

[2] Though I have yet to receive an all-inclusive diagnosis for the root cause of my illness, I suffer from a myriad of conditions including: Adrenal Insufficiency; Blood Sugar Abnormalities (associated with the pancreas); Chronic Fatigue (associated with low function of the thyroid); PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome); POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome-associated with the heart); and Gilbert’s Syndrome (dysfunction of the liver).

[3] Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches. (http://kiwirev.wordpress.com/2006/10/15/pastors-burn-out/)