Ephesians 4:5 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Ephesians 4:5

Comments

Then we read ‘One Lord’. Now this is interesting because one God and Father is going to be mentioned as the seventh argument. So who is referred to by one Lord? Well, the word translated ‘Lord’ means supreme ruler, and we often refer to the Lord, particularly to Christ, as our supreme ruler, and it is the supreme ruler who is mind here. It is Christ of course, but what is implied here is that there is one supreme ruler who we are under. We are all under the same authority. He is Lord over every authority that can be named in heaven or earth so that it is always right to submit to him in preference to any other. All other kings and lords will bow the knee and submit to him. He is Lord not only on earth but also in heaven so that the highest angels worship him.One faith. That is obvious. There is one way of salvation, one great doctrinal system given to us in the Bible and we should reflect that: one objective faith or body of doctrine that we must adhere to. This ‘one faith’ is the basis of our unity and if the churches disagree about some fundamental truth, we cannot simply allow that both are right and ‘equally entitled to their opinion’. All matters must be resolved by the Scripture and therefore we should come to the Scripture confident that it is a clear and unambiguous revelation from God.One baptism. Setting aside the mistake of infant baptism for the moment, what is baptism? It is a sign of our having died and been buried. A sign, a picture of death and resurrection and there is only one way of salvation. I died to my old life. My old life is buried and gone and I have risen to a new life with Christ, and I have been washed completely and now I follow him through the waters of baptism. There is one washing, one new life, one new leadership, the one who has led us through the waters of baptism, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One great supreme loyalty to him. So if we have all those things in common, it should be easy for us to walk in love together. This exhortation is made in the context of the local church. The apostle speaks to the Ephesians as if they were the entire church. The unity of the church of God can only be observed in its concrete form in a particular locality. That is what the world sees; that alone presents a convincing witness among those who know each other and relate to each other on a daily basis. It is the local church that is to obey the command to love one another. The New Testament nowhere tells Christians to achieve a visible unity on earth that includes all Christians. The entity that Christ has created on earth where there can be visible unity is the local church.

Application

When we are discussing things, when we are disagreeing with each other, be careful because we are all under the same authority on all the great things and the scriptural things, matters of salvation and sanctification; we should agree because we are taught from one authority. And as we have one authority in our lives, we should not have highly individual opinions that are not based on Scripture in anything. It should be easy for us to debate matters and talk matters out and come to similar conclusions because we are all under the same authority. How preposterous if we become headstrong, defending quirky and individual opinions? One Lord, one authority. What if the outsider were to come among us and say, you Christians are under one God, but you all have such strangely different views and opinions about everything under the sun? How can that be? We are not peas in a pod, we are all finding our way. We are entitled to different tastes and favourite things, yes. But there should be something in common between us, because we are under one authority.

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Ephesians 4:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Explain meaning of Ephesians 4:5