Bite 65: One in Ephesians 4:1-16

What is Paul’s Point?

The first question that comes to my mind is “why is Paul running through all of these one‘s?” He is obviously making a point about it. What is his point? Let’s first make sure the context is in front of us, and then let’s narrow our scope a little, focusing on Paul’s series of one‘s.

Our Passage

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, 
urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling 
to which you have been called, 
2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, 
bearing with one another in love, 
3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 
4 There is one body and one Spirit—
just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 
7But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 
8 Therefore it says, 
                      “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, 
                       and he gave gifts to men.” 
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean 
but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended 
far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, 
the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, 
for building up the body of Christ, 
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith 
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 
14 so that we may no longer be children, 
tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, 
by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, 
we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together 
by every joint with which it is equipped, 
when each part is working properly, 
makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.1

Questions About the Word One?

Questions that roll around in my head are:

• Are these isolated?
• Why does he make this list?
• Is there a comparison or contrast?
• Where else in Ephesians does Paul talk about one, oneness, unity, or other synonyms?
• When he does, is he using one in the same way? Are they related?

Let’s consider if any of these questions have merit or if they are off-base.

Is the Word One Used in Isolation?

Sometimes Paul takes a turn and speaks on a tangent topic. When that happens, we want to recognize it and follow his thinking pattern to the best of our ability. In this case, taking a look from the proverbial 10,000′ view, I see a pattern. Therefore, I can answer the question about isolation and say that it is not isolated.

Why Does Paul Make this List?

A few years ago, circumstances in my life were swirling such that my brain began to crack. Depression, despair, destructive thought patterns emerged. I believe that there is a place for medicines and pills and therapy, however those options, which I tried, didn’t help me at the time. What helped me?

I was reading through Hebrews in my study time. Two words changed my life forever: consider Jesus ². It was on the heels of a description of what Jesus endured. For the last 10 or so years, when circumstances seem to swirl again, this is the firm ground up onto which I scramble.

Why does Paul make this list of one‘s? And this point? In my own study, I think I’ve found that always in front of Paul’s mind is the idea to consider Jesus. Which can be reworded without damaging the meaning to consider God in general. Jesus specifically, who is God in general. Who is he? What has he done? How has he suffered? Why has he suffered? For whom has he suffered? Will I join him in suffering? Will he hold me through my suffering?

I think Paul makes this list because there is one option. There is no other. “To whom shall we go?”³. Which leads to the question of other places in Ephesians that Paul uses the word one or some synonym.

Does Paul Use One Elsewhere in Ephesians?

To determine the answer to this question, I start at the beginning of Paul’s letter with my trusty stickies and skim. I’m looking for one or any synonyms and facsimiles of the concept.

I didn’t see anything pertinent in Ephesians 1, but getting deeper into Ephesians 2, I’m reminded again how the Christ is peace between two divergent groups. Jesus created in himself one new man in place of the two⁴. This is one example that I see. I will keep skimming and taking notes. Hang on.

That took me about 6-7 minutes to skim through Ephesians. Here is what I found.

I’m not sure this is a major theme throughout the letter, but it is present at least as a minor theme. An idea that is repeated, therefore it is something to be noticed and attended to.

Is There a Comparison or Contrast?

In our passage, Paul requests that his audience put up with and have oneness with one another in the context of their method of walking.

Side Note

Please bear with me as I explain in part why unity is a hot-button word for me. In all of my Christian life, I have had particularly women arrange "meetings" with me in order to tell me that I need to change to become like them. 

No, I'm not kidding. Over and over and over. Different churches, different towns, different states. And yes, sometime those exact words. "You should be more like me." Other times there were paraphrases. 

Unity, oneness does not translate as UNIFORMITY. Otherwise, why would there be various gifts given for the church? Why would there be various body parts, functioning in different ways? We haven't gotten to gifts yet, so I will not discuss that too much right now. Plus, you can see that I have a serious quantity of stuff in my backpack that I will need to leave at the door about all of this.

We all know that we all need to change. That change though, comes about through a transformation of the heart by the power and work of the Spirit. The unity, the oneness? That is not amongst each other. Not unity of the body.

Unity of the Spirit. Let's look at it. Thank you for letting me share some of the crud and pain in my heart. End side note. 

Comparison

I see in this section a comparison. We see that there is one body and one Spirit, right? You know how in Ephesians 2:16-18 and surrounding verses, Paul informed his audience that through the work of Christ, he reconciled two opposing groups? This is only one example of the reconciling work of the Christ. He brings people groups who fundamentally disagree together. And as amazing and impossible as that seems, he also is bringing the rebellious created and the Spirit of their holy creator together.

There is one body which is in Christ. There is one Spirit of Christ. They are brought together because of Jesus.

Then Paul further explains all the one‘s of this Way to Walk.

One Hope

As you can imagine, hope appears with frequency in the NT. Looking at the list of 53 instances when the Greek behind the English word is used, I chose a few times where the semantic range was aligned with the range of meaning from our text.

The one hope Paul is talking about? It is a future hope, which is usually how hope works, I realize. Typically I don’t hope for ice cream while I’m sitting on a bench by the river with a Ben and Jerry’s pint. The one hope has to do with eternity, heaven, and the good news available to mankind right now within the scripture.

One Lord

When we come across this word Lord, similarly to the word hope, there is a wide range of semantic meaning. Since we students of the Word need to wade through the quandary of determining which is which, we need to analyze the OT as well as the NT for how the word was understood.

I’m currently reading a Sproul book that is in my Logos Library that addresses this issue. Dr. Sproul writes that in order to avoid blasphemy, the Jews applied different monikers to God. Among those is the title, Adonai (usually translated Lord).

For the sake of brevity, we will learn from Dr. Sproul and I will quote from his book The Unexpected Jesus.

This is a lesson in hermeneutics for us as we attempt to unravel how words work in scripture.

Considering this phrase, why does Paul say there is one Lord? Because as a person of the trinity, Jesus is the only one like him, doing the things that Jesus does. He’s the one in the NT who is called by this title Lord, and he is in unity with the Spirit and the hope. He isn’t a carbon copy of the other aspects that he is in unity with, and yet there is oneness.

One Faith

When exploring to discover Paul’s meaning when he talks about one faith, looking up how faith is used in the NT is less than helpful. With over 250 instances when the Greek behind it is used, that’s a lot of instances of irrelevance to our query. While I have the Logos color wheel up on my screen, sifting through the data of those 250+ instances would require a lot of time.

Cross References

I also noticed there is a cross reference tag on the phrase one faith in the ESV. Wondering if it would help narrow my field of exploration, I went to the reference of Jude 3. At that point, Paul was exhorting his friend to contend for the faith. I think this helps me to see an example of what Paul’s meaning is, stated slightly differently.

In Jude 3, Paul speaks of a singular faith, separate and outside his friend Jude. It is an object that was delivered, given, handed to hearers. It was something outside those saints. The faith Paul is appealing to Jude to fight for is not the faith the saints have from within themselves but the reality of who Jesus is and the practice of believing that reality. The system of doctrine of Christ. Mounce also describes it as a collection of beliefs.⁶

If we were to talk about Christianity as the world does, the faith is defined as the Christian “religion.” Although, we who love Jesus know that “religion” is not the right word for it. We have a relationship with a person. Instead of worshipers of our faith serving the god, our God has come and served us. One is a religion and one is a relationship.

To confirm this analysis, Jude 3 has a string of cross references associated with it as well. In 1 Timothy 6:12 and 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul uses words like confession, fight, race, eternal life, to help clarify his meaning. The one faith is the belief in Jesus.

One Baptism

Cross Reference

Beginning with the cross reference associated with this phrase, Galatians 3:27-28, I am looking for what Paul is trying to convey in his one baptism. Upon looking around at the context in Galatians, we can see Paul is explaining the progression from pre-Christ, under-the-law life to the freedom found in Christ.

Beginning in Galatians 3:23, some of the English words that described the former condition are held captive, imprisoned, the law was a guardian. After the faith (just like the one faith we just discussed) he talks about arrives, the words change to justified, sons of God, baptized into Christ, the audience being one in Christ.

There were, at first glance, a few different baptisms. Which is why I explored that Galatian cross reference with a little more effort.

Now I’ve returned to the word study data where I took notes on a sticky to organize what the biblical authors said about baptism.

Transliteration

According to BDAG, this is not a word that is used anywhere else in literature of Bible times or before. Not unless it was a Christian writer using it. And as far as the English language goes, we had no equivalent or even rough equivalent for this word. So it became a transliterated word.

In the Greek, βάπτισμα (baptisma) or βαπτισμός (baptismos), and we converted the Greek letters and invented the new word baptism or baptist. Which, when you look at the word, is a funny looking word, isn’t it? That’s why. It’s a funny word. Because Greek.

BDAG defines it as “the ceremonious use of water for purpose of renewing or establishing a relationship w. God, plunging, dipping, washing, water-rite, baptism.”⁷ In the entry, there were two ways of understanding it, as John the Baptizer’s rite and as a Christian rite.

Reconciling Seeming Conflict

Our passage is present as an example of usage in the definition of the Christian rite, along with Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12. Which, from those examples, we can see that there is an understanding in the mind of Paul’s audience that baptism involves a picture of death. Or that they are being informed that baptism involves a picture of death.

Which clarifies for me how there can be “John’s baptism of repentance” early in the gospels and at the same time be a cup to drink and baptism into death. There is one baptism because in his didactic literature Paul is teaching, exposing if you will, the meaning of the historical narrative of the gospels. There is a process of progressive revelation, the death and resurrection of Christ fulfills the prophetic, foreshadowing nature of OT ceremonial washings and even the extra-biblical traditional OT practice of baptism to signify the conversion of proselytes.

We’re Almost Done

Even though I’m taking more than a week to study through this section of our passage, we both need to recognize that we are studying in a truncated fashion. We are only touching each of these topics Paul brings up in his one‘s; each one could take a month of study! There are entire libraries of books on each of these points of doctrine.

Which is brought to my attention even more as we turn to the last one here, the one that by Paul’s design is last in order to emphasize him. The oneness, the uniqueness that is our God is throughout all of scripture. But like all the other one‘s we’ve covered, we will be learning a little more about our God and Father. Adding to what we know, further fleshing out our theology proper.

One God and Father

The first step in my study here was to create a Bible Word Study in my Logos software for father. Almost as a I-wonder-how-many-times-it’s-used exercise. Hundreds. And in the LXX, over 1000. That is not a viable option for narrowing the study.

Cross Reference

There is a footnote on one God with a cross reference for 1 Corinthians 12:5-6 in the ESV which mentions that there is one Lord again. If the editors of the ESV connected Lord and God here, do they make the same connection on the phrase one Lord earlier in the verse? When I looked at the cross references for one Lord in Ephesians 4:5, there are 3 references and the one I found most interesting was 1 Corinthians 8:6. I will bring it here.

4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, 
we know that “an idol has no real existence,” 
and that “there is no God but one.” 
5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—
as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, 
from whom are all things and for whom we exist, 
and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things 
and through whom we exist. 8

By way of understanding the context, in this letter to Corinth, Paul is explaining that food offered to idols is still food. The “offering” is irrelevant since the idol is made up, it has no real existence.

Analogy

Kind of like when people say things like, “I don’t believe in God.”

That’s nice, but your belief or not-belief does not alter reality. Same in the letter to the Corinthians. Whether someone chooses to believe deity resides in the carved wooden statue or not, doesn’t alter reality about that statue or the offered hunk of meat. It’s a carved piece of wood and a hunk of meat.

10 Have we not all one Father?
Has not one God created us?
Why then are we faithless to one another,
profaning the covenant of our fathers?9

From the OT, these rhetorical questions indicate that God’s people have understood that he is one and that he created them.

All the way back to the traditional saying that Israel had in Deuteronomy. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”¹⁰ Throughout the history provided in scripture, God has identified himself this way. And in association with the identification with his one-ness, often a warning is nearby to keep one’s self from idols. Because there is only one God.

Reflection

The question that has been hanging over this week of study? Why has Paul been made such an emphasis about the one‘s? The unity and peace?

From the OT, from Malachi 2:10, we all have one God. We all have one Father who created us. But Malachi goes on and asks why are they faithless to one another? Why have they betrayed what their fathers had promised?

It seems like worshipping God alone and understanding doctrine is the way to be unified. Understanding all the points of doctrine Paul mentions: the body, the Spirit, the faith, the baptism, of course one Jesus, and finally one God, these are examples of unifying doctrine. To be faithful to one another is to know God and what he’s said in his Word about himself and the way the world works.

But I can’t make conclusive conclusions without finishing the passage. Keep in mind though, that Paul is continuing to talk about the types of workers God gives in order to have the body attain unity of the faith and the knowledge. Which helps me to think that we are on the right path here toward understanding Paul’s meaning. That uniformity is not the objective. The unity Paul is talking about is not externals but internal and intellectual. It involves the labor of learning what the scriptures teach.

Wrap Up

Our Bible Study Bite for today is something that I’ve been mulling over since I heard a lecture about it.

Side Note

Funny that I've been listening to and reading so much Sproul. I'm not Presbyterian. For one thing, I don't think infant baptism is biblical, no matter what tradition says. But I don't require my teacher (or you, if you happen to be Presbyterian) to be exactly like me in order to respect him. There needs to be mutual respect. He may not have known me, but as an author writing for people like me, he respected his audience. End side note.

Wrapping Up Again

What Sproul shared was that Jesus said and did things that often needed explanation. He used hyperbole, he went contrary to the establishment, he was always in communication with the Father. Paul preaches to the various churches in his letters what Christian doctrine is. Because Jesus established that doctrine in the gospels, but if we don’t understand what Jesus meant, we are going to get doctrine wrong. And wrong doctrine puts undue burden on people. It hurts them.

And it is not unifying.

So our Bible Study Bite for today is another point of hermeneutics: Paul frequently explains or teaches what happened in the gospels. That is his purpose.

Thank you for studying with me today! Well, actually, this week. It took a while to get through all of this. But if you found anything useful in our time together, would you please share this Bite with another student of the Word? It would help me out.

1. Ephesians 4:1–16 (ESV)
2. Hebrews 3:1 ESV
3. John 6:69 ESV
4. Ephesians 2:14-18 ESV
5. Sproul, R. C. (2005). The Unexpected Jesus: The Truth Behind His Biblical Names (p. 56). Fearn, UK: Christian Focus Publications.
6. Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 233). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
7. Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 165). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
8. 1 Corinthians 8:4–6 (ESV)
9. Malachi 2:10 (ESV)
10. Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV)