Ephesians 4:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called.” This verse is somewhat a repetition of Eph. 3:1, which begins the apostle’s exhortation in chapters four through six. This indicates that Eph. 3:2-21 is all parenthetical.
The book of Ephesians is divided into two main sections. The first, composed of chapters one through three, reveals the blessing and the position which the church has obtained in Christ in the heavenlies. Chapter three, in particular, reveals how the church comes into existence in a practical way through being constituted with the riches of the living Christ. The second section, comprising chapters four through six, charges us concerning the living and responsibility the church should have in the Spirit on the earth. The basic charge is that we should walk worthily of the calling, which is the totality of the blessings bestowed upon the church, as revealed in Eph. 1:3-14. In the church, under the Triune God’s abundant blessing, the saints should walk worthily of the Father’s selection and predestination, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging.
In walking worthily of God’s calling, the church must have a certain kind of life and also bear responsibility to the full extent. Hence, in chapters four through six we see, on the one hand, the living the church should have, and, on the other hand, the responsibility the church should bear.
In exhorting the saints to walk worthily of God’s calling, Paul spoke from his status as a prisoner in the Lord. His status as an apostle of Christ through the will of God authorized him to reveal the things concerning the church, to speak concerning the mystery of Christ. However, his status as a prisoner in the Lord qualified him to exhort us to walk worthily of God’s high calling. Paul’s living was surely worthy of God’s calling. Furthermore, he bore the responsibility required by this calling.
In 3:1 Paul speaks of himself as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus,” but in 4:1 he says that he is “the prisoner in the Lord.” To be a prisoner in the Lord is deeper than to be a prisoner of the Lord. As such a prisoner, Paul was a pattern for those who would walk worthily of God’s calling.
To walk worthily of God’s calling, to have the proper Body life, we need firstly to care for the matter of oneness. We must keep the oneness of the Spirit. This is crucial and vital to the Body of Christ.
Oneness, strictly speaking, differs from unity. Unity is formed by many people uniting together, whereas oneness is the one entity of the Spirit within the believers making them all one. Some Christians may have a certain kind of unity, but we in the Lord’s recovery appreciate oneness much more than unity. In the Lord’s recovery, we are not united — that is, we have not formed a certain kind of union — but we are one. Our oneness is a Person, even the Lord Jesus Himself realized as the life-giving Spirit. Today the Lord is the life-giving Spirit within us, and this Spirit is our oneness. Therefore, our oneness is not an objective Person far away in the heavens; it is a subjective Person indwelling us as our life.
This oneness is similar to the electricity in many lights that makes them all one in the shining. Although there may be dozens of lights in a large room, they are one in the electricity that flows within them. In themselves, the lights are not one; neither are they united to form one entity. The unique electricity in the lights is their oneness. This electricity does not unite the lights; it is the oneness within them. In themselves, the lights are individual and separate, but in the electricity they have oneness. It is the same in principle with the believers in Christ. The Spirit indwelling us is our oneness.
In 4:3 this oneness is called “the oneness of the Spirit.” The oneness of the Spirit is actually the Spirit Himself. In the illustration of the electricity and the lights, the oneness of the electricity is the electricity itself. There is not another element, apart from the electricity, that is the oneness of the electricity. The oneness of the electricity is simply the electricity itself. In the same principle, the oneness of the Spirit is not something apart from the Spirit. On the contrary, it is the Spirit Himself. The oneness within us and among us is the very life-giving Spirit. Therefore, to keep the oneness is to keep the life-giving Spirit.
Many Christians talk about unity or oneness but neglect the Spirit. This indicates that they make oneness something separate from the Spirit. The more talk certain believers have had about unity, the more divided they have become. Some can even argue with one another in a fleshly way over the matter of unity. There is no need for us to talk so much about oneness. Oneness is like a dove. If we do not talk about it, the dove is present with us. But if we talk about it, it flies away. When we talk a great deal about oneness, we are in danger of losing it. We do not keep the oneness by talking about it; we keep it by staying in the life-giving Spirit. As long as we love the Lord and embrace Him, we keep the oneness; for, as we have strongly emphasized, oneness is the Person of Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
Keeping the oneness of the Spirit implies that we already have the Spirit. If we did not have Him, how could we keep Him? However, most Christians live apart from the Spirit most of the time. Any action taken apart from the life-giving Spirit is divisive. When we are one with the Spirit, living according to Him and doing all things in Him, we keep the oneness without making any conscious effort to do so. But whenever we act apart from the Spirit, we are divisive and lose the oneness. Therefore, instead of charging you to talk about oneness, I would encourage you to take care of the life-giving Spirit, who is the Lord Himself as life within you.
Verse 2 says, “With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love.” To have lowliness is to remain in a low estate, and to have meekness is to not fight for ourselves. We should have these two virtues in dealing with ourselves. Long-suffering is to endure mistreatment. We should have this virtue in dealing with others. By these virtues we bear one another; that is, we do not forsake the troublesome ones but bear them in love. This is the expression of life.
The word “all” governs both lowliness and meekness. It does not mean that there are many kinds of lowliness and meekness; it means that we should have lowliness and meekness in all things. Thus, we must keep the oneness of the Spirit with all lowliness and meekness.
The problem, however, is that in ourselves we cannot be either lowly or meek. If we are honest and sincere, we shall admit that we have no genuine lowliness or meekness. On the contrary, we tend to exalt ourselves and to fight in defense of ourselves. Just as we do not have lowliness or meekness, we are not long-suffering and we cannot bear others in love. Nevertheless, Paul charges us to have such a worthy walk.
If we would keep the oneness of the Spirit, we must have a proper humanity, a humanity with lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering and a humanity that bears others in love. If we do not have such a humanity as our “capital,” then we cannot operate the “business” of keeping the oneness of the Spirit. The fact that the virtues in verse 2 are mentioned before the oneness of the Spirit in verse 3 indicates that we must have these virtues in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
In order to have the virtues spoken of in verse 2, we need a transformed humanity. In our natural humanity there is no lowliness, meekness, nor long-suffering. But these virtues are to be found in our transformed humanity, that is, in the humanity of Jesus. In Matthew 11:29 the Lord Jesus said that He was meek and lowly in heart. Meekness and lowliness are characteristics of the humanity of Jesus. Any meekness or lowliness that we may seem to have in ourselves is a pretense and cannot survive any real testing. Praise the Lord that the humanity of Jesus in His resurrection life can be ours today! The more we are transformed, the more of the humanity of Jesus we have. By having the humanity of the resurrected Christ, we spontaneously have the virtues required to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
The genuine oneness in the Triune God is seen in the picture of the tabernacle with its forty-eight boards of acacia wood overlaid with gold. In themselves, the boards were separate from one another, but in the gold they were one. The bars that held the boards together were also made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. As we have pointed out elsewhere, the golden bars signify the uniting Spirit. The acacia wood signifies humanity, and the gold signifies the divine nature. In the uniting Spirit there is the element of humanity. This indicates that the uniting Spirit is not merely the Holy Spirit of God, but the Holy Spirit mingled with our spirit.
This mingled spirit is seen in Romans 8. Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.” The spirit here is our human spirit mingled with God’s Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.” This verse clearly points to the mingled spirit, that is, the Spirit with our spirit. In the mingled spirit which constitutes the uniting bars, there is the transformed humanity with the virtues of lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering.
For years I tried to be meek and lowly, but I failed time after time. Eventually I learned that the lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering in 4:2 are not to be found in our natural humanity, but are characteristics of the transformed humanity, the humanity of Jesus Christ. This transformed humanity with all its virtues is typified by the acacia wood within the uniting bars. This indicates that in the uniting Spirit there is the transformed humanity, our humanity transformed by the resurrection life of Christ.
Keeping the oneness of the Spirit requires transformation. For this reason, we should not expect a new believer to be able to keep the oneness of the Spirit. It is useless to charge the new ones to keep the oneness, because keeping the oneness of the Spirit requires transformation. If you have not been transformed, you will not have the lowliness nor the meekness necessary to keep the oneness. The more we have been transformed, the more we spontaneously inherit lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering. All these virtues are our heritage by transformation.
The oneness of the Spirit cannot be kept by babyish or childish Christians. It can be kept only by the transformed ones. Those who are natural and fleshly cannot be meek, lowly, or long-suffering. They cannot keep the oneness, because nothing in their natural being can ever enable them to keep it. Therefore, I wish to emphasize the fact once again that 4:2 implies the need of transformation. We have problems with oneness because we are so natural, so fleshly, and so much in ourselves. But if we have been transformed, we keep the oneness spontaneously because in our transformed humanity we have lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering.
Verse 3 speaks of keeping the oneness of the Spirit “in the uniting bond of peace.” Christ has abolished on the cross all the differences due to ordinances. In so doing, He has made peace for His Body. This peace should bind all believers together and thus become the uniting bond.
Before Christ was crucified on the cross, there was no peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. According to 2:15, by Christ’s abolishing in His flesh the separating ordinances and creating the Jewish and Gentile believers into one new man, peace was made between all believers. Furthermore, on the cross, Christ dealt with all the negative things between us and God. This means that He also made peace between man and God. Now there is no longer a separation between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers nor between us and God. However, at the time Ephesians was written, some of the Jewish believers still held the concept that they should be separate from the Gentile believers. For this reason, Paul said that the middle wall of partition has been broken down and that the Jewish and Gentile believers must be one. Otherwise, there can be no oneness. And without the oneness there cannot be the one Body. Therefore, in 4:3 Paul says strongly that we must keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. If we would do this, we must realize that the differences between us have been abolished on the cross.
The uniting bond of peace is actually the working of the cross. By our experience we know that whenever we go to the cross, there are no differences between us and others. However, as soon as we come down from the cross, differences appear. This is true not only in the church life but also in our family life. Often the love between a husband and wife is buried beneath the differences that emerge when they come down from the cross. The only way to get rid of the differences is to go to the cross. When we go to the cross and remain there, the differences disappear, and we have peace. As we remain on the cross, this peace becomes the uniting bond in which we keep the oneness of the Spirit. Therefore, in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit we need both transformation and the cross.
Ephesians 4:2 indicates the need of transformation, and 4:3 indicates the need of the cross. We need to be transformed in order to have lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering; and we need to be crossed out in order to have the uniting bond of peace. Then we shall keep the oneness of the Spirit.
