In Verses 1-3
the Holy Spirit refers to Paul as “the prisoner of the Lord,” and not the prisoner of the Roman Emperor. In the opening verse of the third chapter, Paul declared himself to be the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the “Gentiles,” and in the sixth chapter, verses 19 and 20, he speaks of himself as an ambassador in bonds, because he was making known “the mystery of the gospel.” It pleased the Lord to let Paul remain in prison after the revelation of the mystery.
These first three verses of this chapter make up the introduction to a deep and heart-searching message on the walk of the believer. The same Holy Spirit that opened our eyes when we were “dead in trespasses and sins,” and let us behold the Lamb of God, who bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and then baptized us into the body of the risen Christ, thereby making us members of His church, has also told us to walk in the risen Lord. He has said: “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This is more than we can do in our own strength. Therefore, He has said unto us: “As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7). We received Him by giving up completely and admitting our inability to save ourselves. We can only walk worthily in the Lord by giving up our own ways and committing them unto Him that He may direct our paths. We have no more strength within ourselves to make us walk in Christ than we had to make ourselves new creatures in Christ when we were saved.
There is nothing in our human nature to make us lowly, meek, longsuffering, or forbearing. There is nothing within the natural man that prompts him to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. However, when the old man is crucified, the Holy Spirit furnishes the believer with ample grace to do all of these things. Our business is to “die daily” and let the Holy Spirit have full sway to work through us “according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
While it may be impossible for us to keep the unity of the Spirit with all of God’s children, it is always possible to endeavor to keep it. It requires two or more saints to keep the unity of the Spirit in the “bond of peace,” but every individual may endeavor to keep it. The word “endeavoring” of verse 3 has exactly the same meaning as the word “study” of II Timothy 2:15. We must “study” to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. In like manner, we must study, or endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit among the brethren. If God’s church would study the Bible and study each other there would be more honest endeavor toward the keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Verses 4-6
set forth the sevenfold unity which believers must keep in order to have “the bond of peace” in the assembly and among the assemblies. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Unless there is unity on the part of the believers concerning every one of these seven points there can be no bond of peace.
The vast majority of fundamental believers are in agreement concerning the “one body,” the “one Spirit,” the “one hope,” the “one Lord,” and the “one God and Father.” It is the more than one faith and the more than one baptism that is causing so much strife and division among sincere believers in our present day and generation.
Christians are divided according to Catholic faith and Protestant faiths because of the “tradition of men.” The Bible doesn’t speak of a Presbyterian faith, a Methodist faith, a Baptist faith, a Church of Christ faith, a Pentecostal faith, an undenominational faith, a Bible church faith, an independent faith, a 615 College Avenue faith, or any other kind of a faith that divides the brethren. There is only one faith and that is “the faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). Sincere believers are divided and set at variance one with another because of the contention that there is more than one baptism for the members of God’s church. We read in I Corinthians 12:13 that “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” In verse 27 of the same chapter, we are told that this one body into which every believer is baptized is “the body of Christ.” In Ephesians 1:22-23 we are told that Christ is the “Head over all things to the church, which is His body.” Therefore, it is clear that the Holy Spirit baptism puts the believer into the one church which is the body of Christ. It is also clear that Ephesians 4:5 teaches that there is only “one baptism.” Surely this one baptism is the Holy Spirit baptism that puts the believer into the body of Christ, the church. To contend for more than one baptism for the church of this mystery dispensation is to invite division, strife and confusion among believers.
God’s order is just as strong for “one faith” and “one baptism” as it is for one Spirit, or one Lord, or one God and Father of all. Remember, it is impossible for any company of saints to keep the “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” as long as there is division among the believers on any one of these seven points of unity given by the Holy Spirit to the church which is the body of Christ.
In Verses 7-11
the Holy Spirit sets forth the gift of “grace” to every individual member of the body of Christ (verse 7) and the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the body as a whole (verse 11).
Our gift of grace is “according to the measure of the gift of Christ,” and Christ is God’s “unspeakable gift” (II Corinthians 9:15). The “gift of Christ” cannot be measured in the words of mortal men. Such a gift can only be described in the language of paradise, “the third heaven,” where Paul “heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter” (II Corinthians 12:2-4).
The gift of grace is “according to the measure of the gift of Christ,” therefore, it is also unspeakable, hence, impossible to describe. No mortal tongue can explain the grace of our God which is greater than all of our sins. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20).
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath bro’t me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
We were “dead in trespasses and sin,” and were “by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:1-3); but now “unto every one of us is given grace according the measure of the gift of Christ.”
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
Yonder on Calvary’s mount out-poured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Sin and despair like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the Refuge, the Mighty Cross.
Dark is the stain that we can not hide,
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! there is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe;
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?
Chorus—
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.
No man has ever appreciated “the gift of Christ” who has not first seen that the gift included the darkness of Calvary and the glory of the resurrection. We must understand that the Father “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). He was “delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
He was delivered into the hands of wicked men to be “crucified and slain,” but God “hath raised Him up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it” (Acts 2:23-24). He was bruised by man unto physical death, and “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” and “put Him to grief” when He made “His soul an offering for sin” in the second death. The Son had fellowship with the Father, while hanging on the cross before the three hours of darkness. During the time He prayed to the Father, addressing Him as Father, saying, “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). But when the darkness fell over all the land from the sixth to the ninth hour, the Son was separated from the Father, and was tasting hell for every man. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-46). Here He was bruised by the Father and His soul was made an offering for our sin. Here the Father made the Son “to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).
During these three hours Satan tortured the spotless, sinless Son of God with all the agonies of hell; but at the close of the three hours, Jesus “cried again with a loud voice,” saying, “It is finished” (Matthew 27:50 with John 19:30). His voice was not faint as one that was being killed and struggling to the end that He might live; but it was with a loud voice that Jesus proclaimed the triumphant words, “It is finished.” Here He was laying down His life that He might take it up again on the morning of the resurrection, just three days hence.
“Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things).” (Verses 8-10). This passage reminds us of the words of our Lord to the Emmaus disciples, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” The cross always comes before the crown.
Our Saviour descended into “the lower parts of the earth” and remained there for three days and three nights. This is in keeping with the words of Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees, “for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
On the morning of the resurrection, our Saviour came forth from the heart of the earth in a body of flesh and bone. In that body He “ascended up on high,” carrying with Him “the keys of hell and death” (Revelation 1:18). Here He triumphed over His enemies and “made a shew of them openly” (Colossians 2:15).
His triumph meant the triumph of all Old Testament believers. All the saved people from Adam to the cross were saved through faith in the coming Son of God, who was to bear their sins on the cross of Calvary. When they died they went in spirit to the place of comfort, in the heart of the earth, described in Luke 16, verses 22-26. This is the place where Christ promised to meet the thief, who said, “Lord remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). The spirits of the saved from Adam to this thief were taken on high with our Lord when He “led captivity captive” according to verse 8. In other words, Christ moved paradise from the heart of the earth to the third heaven on the day of His resurrection. This explains why Christ met the thief in paradise, in the heart of the earth (Luke 23:43 with Matthew 12:40); and Paul was caught up into paradise, in the third heaven (II Corinthians 12:2-4). The thief went down to paradise. Paul was caught up into paradise. The thief’s experience was before the resurrection. Paul’s experience was after the resurrection.
The Old Testament believer left the body to go into paradise in the heart of the earth, but the New Testament believer leaves the tabernacle of flesh to enter paradise in glory. Paul says, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8). Our saved loved ones who have departed this life are not dead, neither are they asleep, they are alive in the presence of the Lord in glory. One day soon the Lord will come for His church to catch it up to meet Him in the air. On that day the sleeping bodies of the members of the church will be raised and joined with their spirits which have gone on to glory; and the living bodies of the members of the church will be changed and caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Thus the entire church, which is the body of Christ, will be glorified with Christ our Head (I Thessalonians 4:13-18 with Philippians 3:20-21).
This is the blessed hope of every member of the body of Christ: because “unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”
In Verses 12-16
the Holy Spirit sums up in a few words the working out of God’s purpose through the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers of verse 11. These men are not only gifted servants of the Lord, but they are themselves gifts to the church.
It is God’s order that through the combined efforts of these gifts the plan of salvation should be given to the unsaved, and that the saints should be perfected unto “the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ” (verse 12).
It is also God’s unchangeable plan and purpose to continue this edifying work “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (verses 13-16).
The apostles of verse 11 are not the twelve apostles, chosen by our Lord before His death and resurrection. They are Paul and the eight men who were called by the risen Christ after His ascension into glory.
The names of the twelve are listed in Matthew 10:2-4. This includes Judas, whose place was later filled by Matthias (Acts 1:26). The ministry of these apostles was to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and concerned the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 10:1-8). The names of the apostles mentioned in verses 11 are Paul and Barnabas, who were first called Apostles in Acts 14:4 and 14, Andronicus and Junia, who are referred to in Romans 15:7 as Paul’s “kinsmen” and “fellow-prisoners,” who were of “note among the apostles.” In I Thessalonians 1:1 Paul associates Silvanus and Timothy with himself and tells us in the 2nd chapter, verses 1 and 2, that they were bold to speak “the gospel of God with much contention.” Epaphroditus is mentioned by Paul in Philippians 2:25 as his “brother, and companion in labor, and fellow-soldier.” Sosthenes and Apollos are certainly included with Paul in I Corinthians 4:9, where he said, “I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it was appointed unto death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.” Compare I Corinthians 1:1 and 4:6. The ministry of these men was to “the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile),” (Romans 1:16) and chiefly concerned the body of Christ.
“A Perfect Man”
When the church, which is the body of Christ, has reached its fulness it will be “a perfect man” and not “a bride.” Christ is our Head and we, as members of His body are moving forward “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (verse 13).
In God’s own time the church will be completed and presented to Christ “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” It will be “holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). This presentation will take place when our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall come from heaven and catch us up to meet Him in the air, changing “our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Philippians 3:30-31).
On this side of the rapture, every member of the body of Christ lives in a body of flesh that is vile. We must all say with the apostle Paul, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18). As many as lean upon the arm of flesh are sure to be “tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” This is why God has given to His church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “for the perfecting of the saints” unto the work of the ministry. It is His desire that we grow up in Christ and become established in the truth “that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro” by every wind of doctrine and the sleight of men (verse 14).
Constant growth on the part of the members of the body of Christ is assured to every believer who desires and is willing to be fitted into God’s purpose and plan. We draw our strength to grow from Christ, our Head; “from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (verse 16).
Spiritual Nourishment
flows from Christ, the Head, to every individual member of the body by way of “joints and bands” whereby the body is linked with the Head. The different members of the physical body are linked together by joints and bands and every member is directed by the head to function in harmony with the rest of the body. Paralyze the joint, or break the band between any member of the body and the head, and that particular member can no longer carry out the orders of the brain to move in harmony with the rest of the body. The body of Christ “is not one member, but many” and “whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (I Corinthians 12:14 and 26). This is why we are admonished to hold fast “the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (Colossians 2:19).
God Himself furnishes the joints and bands whereby the members of His church are held together in conscious fellowship one with another and with Christ, the Head. Men may join themselves together and band themselves together in organized churches with earthly headquarters, but only God, through the Holy Spirit, can join believers together in the church, which is the body of Christ with headquarters in glory.
Let us take our stand outside the camp of organized Christendom with our Lord and the faithful few, who own no name but His. While the organized churches are working under the name of more than four hundred different denominational divisions, let us remember the admonition of the Holy Spirit—”And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him” (Colossians 3:17).
In Verses 17-32
we find continued instructions to the believers. Having reminded us of our responsibility in connection with the vocation wherewith we are “called” (verses 1-3), and having informed us of the seven-fold unity we are to endeavor to keep “in the bond of peace” (verses 4-6), and having called our attention to the gift of “grace” for the individual members of the body of Christ, and the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to the body as a whole (verses 7-11), and having shown us clearly the purpose of the ministry of these gifts (verses 12-16), the Holy Spirit closes the chapter by setting forth a few things that we should not do and a few things we should do.
Let us examine His own words: “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (verses 17-19).
In these verses, the Holy Spirit tells us that the walk of these “other Gentiles” led them down, down, down. First, they walked according to “the vanity of their mind.” This caused them to have their “understanding darkened” and to be “alienated from the life of God” through “the blindness of their heart,” and finally they were “past feeling” and gave themselves over unto “lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
God expects better things than these of His children. We are not to walk as these other Gentiles walk because we “have not so learned Christ;” if so be that we “have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (verses 20-21). They walked according to the vanity of their mind, but we are told to “walk in the Spirit” and “not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16); to “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2); to “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16); to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10), and to “walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time” (Colossians 4:5).
God has provided the one way whereby it is possible for His children to walk according to the Scriptures set forth in the above paragraph. Christ is this one way. We, who are saved, have been “baptized into Jesus Christ.” This means that we have been “buried with Him by baptism unto death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). We have the Scriptural right to know “that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:6-7).
Our walk “in newness of life” depends entirely on our willingness to “die daily.” We are privileged to say with Paul—”I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Such an experience should bring the believer to the place of saying with Paul again—”God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14). We begin to realize and enjoy these rich, deep truths when we begin to reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is what God tells us to do in Romans 6 and verse 11.
Now let us go back to our original text in the 4th chapter of Ephesians. Beginning with verse 22, the Holy Spirit tells us to “put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts.” He goes on to tell us in verses 23 and 24 that we should “be renewed” in the spirit of our mind; and that we should “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” In other words, we are privileged as new creatures in Christ Jesus to “put off” the old man, or the natural man that we received through the natural birth, and to “put on” the new man that we receive through the spiritual birth. God no more expects the new man to continue in the ways of the old man after conversion than He would expect the old man to begin walking in the ways of the new man before his conversion.
Since we are new creatures in Christ and supposed to be walking in newness of life, God is entirely justified in saying to us—”Be angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (verses 26-29).
As we come to the closing verses of this chapter, we are reminded of the fact that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God “unto the day of redemption.” He came into our hearts to seal us as God’s “purchased possession” after that we “heard the Word of truth,” and after that we “believed” (Ephesians 1:13-14). We are told in John 14:16 that He will abide with us “for ever.” It is not God’s plan that the Holy Spirit should come into the heart of the believer and then depart from him before His work is accomplished and the believer is delivered safely into the presence and into the likeness of Jesus Christ. He will not leave us until we are presented to Christ “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).
Even though the Holy Spirit will not leave us, it is possible for us to grieve Him and hinder His freedom in working out the plan and purpose of God through us. God says—”Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” and then follows up His statement with the clear cut admonition, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (verses 30-32). It is evident that bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking, malice, lack of kindness, and lack of forgiveness on the part of God’s children will grieve the Holy Spirit.
It takes grace from above to enable the believer to live in a body of flesh and not grieve the Holy Spirit who lives with him. However, we need to remember that this grace has been given to us “according the measure of the gift of Christ” (verse 7), and that such a measure of grace is entirely sufficient for all of our need. God has not asked us to do more than His grace will enable us to do. He has made it possible for us to draw on Him for wisdom and strength and power to do all things through His Son, Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:13).
We have Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord. He is also the Head over all things to the church to which we belong. We have the Holy Spirit living within our very bodies and He is ready to guide us into all truth (John 16:13), and the truth will set us free from the bondage of sin and enable us to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts,” and to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13).
