Living Together in Unity

Open your bibles to Ephesians 4. This is our 8th week in our “Life in the Spirit” series. Today we’re looking at the topic of unity within the church; Living Together in Unity. And I want to do this through Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4. Let’s Read Eph. 4:1-6 together. Pray.

Ill: Johnny Lingo is a short story written by Patricia McGerr. Johnny was a young, well respected leader and trader on a south Pacific island. And Johnny wanted to find a wife and he had his eye set on a young woman named Mahana. She was a shy, ordinary girl; some would say a homely girl who often walked around with her head low seeming downcast and was thought of as one of the least valuable women in the village. But Johnny was in love with her and to him, she was beautiful.

The tradition on the island at the time was for the man to offer the father cows for a bride (romantic). The going rate for an average woman was 2-3 cows, or if she was really special, 3-4. Word spread that Johnny was interested in Mahana and the villagers were debating as to whether her father would even be able to get 1 cow for her. He arrived at the village and marched through town to negotiate with her Father, who started the bidding at 3 cows (hoping to get 1).

Johnny thought and replied, “3 cows are many…but not enough for Mahana” and he offered her father 8 cows for her. The village was in shock, no one could believe it. But Johnny gladly paid 8 cows for her. They got married and left the island on a trade trip. When they returned, the villagers don’t recognize Mahana and when they found out it was her they were amazed because she was now dignified, attentive, beautiful and happy. This was not the same woman, this was not the Mahana they all knew and they asked Johnny what happened and he said, “I wanted an 8 cow woman. When I paid for her and treated her as an 8 cow woman she began to believe that she was an 8 cow woman. And she discovered that she was more valuable than all the other women on the island. She became what I said she was-an 8 cow woman.”

What does this have to do with our passage? Here’s the point: Johnny Lingo paid a great price for Mahana. God paid the greatest price in sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Mahana became what Johnny declared her to be-an 8 cow woman. We are to become what God has already declared us to be in Christ Jesus.

This is important because this is the pivot point of the book of Ephesians. Paul starts this transition with the word “therefore”. In the first 3 chapters Paul lays out massive truths about God and His purposes and now he telling us how to live in light of those truths. He’s linking doctrine with practice, theology with morality. And here’s what he’s saying: You are already this in Jesus Christ. I have made you to be this, now become what you already are in Christ. Church, this has to be our motivation as we look to the commands in scripture.

Our obedience is very important but we cannot understand our obedience to be the grounds of our union with Christ but rather the overflow (affect) of our union with Christ. We cannot just obey on our own. Our ability to obey comes directly from Christ-who He is, what He’s done for us and who he has made us to be. And our faith is revealed by how we respond to those truths. This is important for our own souls but also as we discuss living together in unity because if we don’t properly understand grace and the gospel, we will not be able to treat others with grace according to the gospel.

A prisoner for the Lord
I think Paul highlights this for us in an often overlooked phrase in verse 1 when has says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord”. Why does he say this? He says the same thing in 3:1 and refers to his imprisonment in 3:13 and 6:20. Why?

Paul didn’t see himself as a prisoner of the state; but he wanted us to know who truly held him captive-Jesus not Rome. He believed in the sovereignty of God. He had a conviction that in whatever circumstances he found himself, God was in control and had a plan and a purpose for him to walk out the calling to which he had been called. He’s highlighting the sovereignty of God and showing the effect that it should have in our lives. He embraced whatever came as being subjected to the sovereignty of God. Do we do this in our relationships?

And I think He also wants us to know that what he’s suffering for is worth it. Walking in a manner worthy of the gospel is worth it, walking in a way that maintains the unity of the Spirit is worth it-it’s greater than suffering, imprisonment, death because Christ is worth it.

But maintaining unity is hard. Denying self, killing pride, being patient with each other, forbearing and being gentle; when there’s no problems unity is easy but when peace is challenged; when there are disagreements and conflicts, it’s hard to walk in unity. But when we do, the greatness of Christ is displayed and He gets glory.

Believing in the sovereignty of God and believing in the worthiness of Christ in a way that effects the way we live is essential to maintaining unity. Without these convictions, when trouble, conflict, disagreements and offences come we will rise up and defend ourselves but if we see ourselves as we are, belonging to Christ, a prisoner for the Lord, bought with a price…we will be able to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. And this is going to require lowliness and humility.

Humility
We could put all of these qualities of living with each other in one category-Humility. These are all fruits of the Spirit-gentleness, patience, love; (essentially) walk in the Spirit with each other. Humility is at the root of all true unity and pride is behind every example of discord. This is where the rubber meets the road for us. This gets to the essence of our behavior with each other. When we’re faced with conflict or offence, do we respond with gentleness or are we harsh; are we patient or angry; are we willing to overlook move on or do we hold offences, making lists, grow in bitterness and withdraw?

Think about this for a minute…there are some people that we instinctively like and find easy to get along with. These are probably people that share our values and give us the respect that we think we deserve. At the same time, people who don’t share our opinions and challenge us on ours and don’t give us the respect or validation that we think we deserve, we tend to dislike.

This reveals pride. If this is the case, we are at the center of the judgment of whether a person is worth liking or not; spending time with; worth living with humility, patience and love. But if we die to pride which says they are of little worth to us because of how they make ME feel. And we recognize their God given value as a fellow recipient of grace and a fellow heir with Christ, which is humility, we put Christ back in the center and His sovereignty and worthiness again bring stability to our walk and we will display the unity of the Spirit.

Paul expands on this in Philippians 2:1-8: (Expound and share gospel) “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Worthy
This is true humility. This is why humility is essential in our lives. But notice that the humility of Christ wasn’t passive. Being humble doesn’t mean we sit by, downcast and dejected like Mahana before Johnny came along. Being humble is living in a manner worthy of the one who called us. In using the word “worthy”, Paul doesn’t mean that we have to be good enough to deserve Christ. He’s saying that we should walk in line with who we are in Christ (to bring into balance). We might say that the way the soldier served was worthy of the uniform. He was a Marine and he lived according to the values of the uniform.

Humility comes from our understanding of who we are in Christ and by implication that affects how we see and treat others. Our mission is to preach the gospel. Right now we’re a fairly monolithic group, and we have our conflicts occasionally. But what will we do when we see many added to the church? That’s what we want, right?

Will we embrace and build relationally with those who are different than we are; different political view, world views, moral views; people who have Mohawks and tattoos, chains and piercings, people who are poor and don’t live in the standards that we’re used to; people who are rich and see us as the poor people. Will we be able to live in unity with these people? If we can’t, we don’t understand the gospel and we’re not experiencing grace the way he intended us to and we need to go back to the first 3 chapter of Ephesians. Because Paul says we MUST maintain this unity.

At all cost
The word “eager” in verse 3 has a strong meaning. Paul’s saying, spare no effort, do all possible by any means possible, be diligent and deliberate, work hard. There’s no room for passivity in maintaining the unity of the Spirit. And thankfully we don’t have to start from scratch. Paul says to “maintain” the unity of the Spirit. That means it already exists.

Here’s what Paul is saying: “Spare no effort in maintaining (preserving) the unity that already exists among you.” Because of the gospel we have been reconciled with God (unity) and reconciled to each other (unity). What unifies us? Jesus Christ. We are to be working hard to preserve this unity among us!

Displaying the Image of God
Why is this so important? Because our primary purpose as the church is to display the Image of God. When we get a vision for this, everything else begins to fall into place. Eph. 1:10 tells us that God’s plan is to unite all things in Him (Jesus). Everything will be brought together in its proper relationship to Christ; everything will be submitted to Him-He will be the center, ruling over everything. And then in Eph 3:9-10 Paul tells us that the manifold wisdom of God is displayed through the church; it’s through the church that the plan of God is seen by the world as a living illustration.

Therefore, our unity together is vitally important and has cosmic significance. And Paul tells us why in verses 4-6 (read). The importance of the unity of the church is based in the oneness (or unity) of God. Paul uses the word “one” 7 times in three verses. There is only one body and one Spirit that empowers and unifies that body. This is the universal church-every Christian that has ever lived and ever will live is a part of the body of Christ. We are a local expression of the greater body of Christ.

And we have one hope. Do you know what that is? Our hope is in Jesus and that day when He returns in glory. On that day, Eph. 1:10 will be fulfilled and all things will be brought under one Lord-Jesus Christ. And because there is only one Lord, there is only one faith in our Lord and one baptism to symbolize our faith that unites us to Christ. And there is only one God and Father of all; the creator of all things; everything owes its existence to Him; He is the Father of all. He rules over all and through all. And His pervasive rule over all things will insure that this unity in the church will be maintained because it’s based in His unity that can never be broken.

Our unity is based on the unity of God seen in the Trinity. (Read-Spirit, Son, Father) Do you see the Trinity in perfect unity, working to accomplish the purposes of God? The unity of God has always been perfect. This is why our unity is so important. When we walk together in unity we give testimony to the good news of the gospel and we validate the claims of Jesus.

If you are a Christian, you are in Jesus-made alive in Christ. You were once blind and could not see Jesus; you were dead in your sin. But then He pursued you and made you alive and opened your eyes to see Jesus; to see His beauty and His worth and His value. Because of this, you have been united with other people in the church, the family of God; all because of this One God and His gospel. And these people have also experienced the mercy and grace of God through Jesus Christ.

And now what we get to do is display who our Father is and what Jesus has done for us and how the Spirit has changed our hearts and lives. And when we do that together we present an accurate picture of the gospel to the world and we bring much glory to God.