Daily Bible Reading 11th November 2024 // Ephesians 4:4-7
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 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 grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
It need hardly be said that the subject of unity, which is unfolded in these verses is one that is much in the minds of the churches in these days, and it is well that we should examine what the Scriptures say on the subject. It is not without significance that, as Paul discusses the subject here he speaks of 'the unity of the Spirit'. This means that unity has to do with the Holy Spirit of God, and that it is He who creates that unity. These words of Paul's, and our Lord's teaching in John 17, are parallel to one another in large measure, and both passages alike share common ground in the fact of the 'given-ness' of Christian unity. It is important for us, therefore, to recognise at the outset that the 'holy endeavour, the striving to keep the unity of the Spirit', is our response to what Paul has already expounded in the previous chapters, where he speaks of Christ, in his atoning and reconciling work, having 'made both (Jew and Gentile) one' having slain the enmity thereby and creating 'one new man'. What Paul is asking the Ephesians to do is to be what God has made them in Christ. There is a 'given-ness', then, in the unity of the Spirit, as indeed in every other Christian grace and provision. And this is how we must view the whole issue of unity - not as something that we are to create, or aim at, but as something we have been given. This is the first point that requires to be made; and as we shall see, a great deal in the thorny and controversial subject of unity depends on our grasp and understanding of this fact. More of this in tomorrow's Note.