Ephesians 4:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Ephesians 4:4

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We now come to the seven famous ‘ones’. ‘Don’t you realise how much you are one?’ he seems to say. The apostle shows the great importance of this by giving no fewer than seven arguments, seven reasons why we should strive watchfully to maintain peace in our fellowship. This is remarkable. The apostle seldom gives us as many as seven reasons for something. This must be of the utmost importance, and we must be all the more responsible before God for peaceful, friendly, kindly, loving relationships because we are given seven reasons followed actually by an eighth. There is only one church (he has mentioned before) for Jew and Gentile, for every nationality, one church of Jesus Christ. ‘And one Spirit’ – we are all saved by the same Spirit. We have the same, equal access to God through Jesus Christ. There is no caste system in the Christian gospel, there is no priesthood, except the priesthood of all believers with equal access to Christ and the same work of the Spirit in our hearts.There is one anticipation of heaven, the same heaven for all of us, the same happiness for all of us. Now many good exegetes believe that there are differences of reward in heaven. I have to confess to you that I line up with those who believe there is no difference given in the rewards given to believers in heaven. Oh, yes, many good people think they can find texts (but I don’t believe they can, I think they misconstrue them) but they think they can find texts that say, if you have worked very hard for the Lord, you will get a much bigger reward in heaven than those who, perhaps haven’t done so well. But heaven is the most magnificent reward of grace alone and thankfully we will all have the same glorious, eternal reward. That’s my belief anyway, though if you feel otherwise, well, we are free in this matter, because it isn’t as absolutely clear as most things in the Scripture, but certainly we have the same hope of heaven. There is only one place to which all true believers go.

Application

Take us as a church. This is applied to the church, the individual congregation. Do not think in term of the church at large. Yes, it applies to true Christians in the church at large everywhere, but primarily this is for us, the local church, a particular congregation. There is one body. This is one powerful reason for close relationships, oneness because a church is like a body; it is a co-ordinated whole. We read the great passage in 1 Corinthians 12. Do we understand it? We are one body, co-ordinated, co-operating, each part depending upon another, and if we are one body then we cannot function together in co-operation in the service of the Lord unless we are constantly mindful of relationships between us. There is one body and we are to express that. If there is one Holy Spirit working in the heart of every believer in the fellowship, then he is working to one objective, and we must not pull in different directions and make too much of our individual opinions and so on because there is one Spirit and we have to reflect that.

Whenever you read the word hope in the New Testament think of anticipation. You all anticipating and expecting and desiring and longing for the same eternal glory, inhabitants together of heaven with Christ our eternal king. All one in perfect harmony. How can heavenly unity be our greatest desire, our greatest objective if we do not pursue it here below also? Always entering into friendship, always approachable, always minding our reactions, not one dominating another. ‘Even as ye are called in one hope,’ or anticipation ‘of your calling.’ It is about eternal glory.

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Ephesians 4:4 Commentary and Bible Study

Explain meaning of Ephesians 4:4