The Blessed Effects of God’s Saving Grace (4:1–6:20)
A life of holiness
Paul gives some fairly pointed advice for living a holy life, which can be summed up under three major headings. Holiness of life is to show itself in
1. Unity among believers (4:1-16)
2. Living a pure life (4:17–5:20)
3. Assuming responsibility in keeping with our Christian status in life (5:21–6:9)
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Nothing less than “the unity of the Spirit” is at stake. When Paul speaks of the unity of the Spirit, we need to be very clear that this is a unity the Holy Spirit has accomplished. It is the unity that exists in the holy Christian church, into which the Holy Spirit has brought all believers in Christ. It is not something dependent on us or something we create by our right actions and conduct. It does not come about because we “make every effort to keep the unity.” Rather, Paul cautions us not to spoil the Holy Spirit’s good work by our own actions and lose the unity he establishes by disrupting the peace with petty quarrels and inconsiderate actions.
Just how great and precious that unity is becomes apparent when Paul says it is the masterpiece of the triune God. All three persons of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—were involved in effecting this unity. Paul shows this in a table beginning at verse 4. He constructs three sets of three items each—one set for each person of the Trinity. Interestingly enough, he reverses the order from what we’re used to seeing. He places the persons into this sequence: Spirit, Son, Father.
In the first set Paul highlights the Spirit’s contribution to the church’s unity by assembling three items, all introduced by the numerical adjective “one.” He says, “There is one body and one spirit*—just as you were called to one hope when you were called.” We have noted that the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and enlightens people. Twice Paul in this verse reminds the Ephesians that they were “called.” They were called into one body, the holy Christian church. In that body all people are of the same heart and mind—of “one spirit,” if you will—because they all have one and the same hope, namely, eternity with God in heaven.
*We have preferred to use the lowercase “spirit.” The Greek language was written with either all capital letters or all lowercase letters, so it is impossible to determine from the Greek letters whether Paul intended “Spirit” or “spirit.” Since the three items seem to refer not to the Spirit himself but to draw our attention to three things the Holy Spirit has brought about, the lowercase “spirit” seems more appropriate here. The term will then refer to the attitude, the mindset, in believers.
Regarding the second member of the Trinity, Paul sets up this triad: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” In Luther’s explanation of the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed, we confess that Jesus purchased and won us, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood. And he did this so that we might be his own. He owns us. He is our Lord, and the only Lord we want or need.
Furthermore, all believers by definition believe in him. He is the object of their faith. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). And the way to come to faith in Christ is through the means of grace, through Word and sacraments. In stressing the unity that exists among members of the church, Paul calls special attention to Baptism, very likely because it is the universal sacrament, intended for all age groups.
In his third triad Paul varies the form, giving us three prepositions to highlight our gracious God’s activity. There is only one God, our heavenly Father, “who is over all and through all and in all.” With his almighty power our heavenly Father looks after all and watches over them. With his matchless grace he works through his believers to accomplish his saving purpose. In fact, so close is the relationship between God and his believers that Paul can even say God dwells in his believers.
As bold and daring as that sounds, Paul really is saying nothing other than what Jesus himself promised his followers at the Last Supper: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23).
Paul’s point in this whole section is that a marvelous unity binds the Ephesians to one another in their local congregation (the visible church) and binds them also to every other believer in the worldwide holy Christian church (the invisible church). Therefore, in their daily sanctified lives the Ephesians shouldn’t do anything to spoil this great blessing. Rather, they should “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”