There Is One Body, One Church
There Is One Body, One Church May 1, 2022
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1-6)
God calls us through the gospel so that we may gain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (II Thessalonians 2:14). What a blessing that calling is. God wants us to be with Him for eternity and He has demonstrated His love and desire for us by sending His only Son so that He could die in our place so that we could have this hope of being with God forever.
However, we need to walk in a manner that is worthy of that calling. It is a walk in which we must have all humility and gentleness before God and man. And in that walk we must be patient with one another and show forbearance to one another in love.
Yet there is one item in our walk that requires all diligence on our part to keep and maintain. It is the preservation of the unity of the Spirit. This can only be preserved in the bond of peace.
What is the unity of the Spirit referring to? Whenever unity is spoken about in the Bible it is all about oneness and never about division. We’re told there is one body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. What is the unity of the Spirit all about? It is about preserving (keeping, guarding, protecting) these various items of oneness by every means possible (be diligent to preserve).
Looking from the outside in, Christianity must appear to be such a hypocritical religion to many because of all the division that exists between the various “churches.” How many different “Christian religions” exist just in our city alone that claim they are the church found in the New Testament? How can such division declare the unity and oneness of the Spirit? Simply stated, “It cannot!” It is absolutely impossible!
So why are there so many different “Christian bodies” and so many different “Christian faiths” today when there is only one mentioned in Ephesians 4:4-5? The answer is simple: From the early church until now some brethren did not diligently preserve the unity of the faith. They gave in to the desires of men for a somewhat different gospel and over years of practicing and professing that different gospel it became recognized as the “gospel Jesus preached” (Galatians 1:6-10).
Hopefully your intent on finding the church that Jesus established is the one body Paul refers to in Ephesians 4:1-6. Satan has made it very confusing for people to find that one body but a searching and prayerful heart will be helped by the Lord as He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).
Brian Thompson