Reflection on God's Word

DOING OUR PART TO KEEP UNITY IN THE CHURCH

by Tim Thomas

March 5, 2006

Ephesians 4:1-6

Chapter 4 marks a major transition in the book of Ephesians. Up to this point, the focus has been on God and the relation of the believer to Him. Now we shift to the Body of Christ, the collection of believers, and how each believer fits into the Body. Paul begins the transition with a plea to each of the believers in Ephesus, and by implication, to each of us today. His plea: in light of what he himself was suffering for the sake of the Messiah and for the sake of believers everywhere, and in light of all that he just taught us about our privileged relationship with God because of His great grace and mercy, we should respond with behavior consistent with our gratefulness for all God has done on our behalf.

Verse 2 begins describing what that behavior looks like, or more accurately, the attitudes that should underlie our behavior. The first attitude is humility. Many conflicts in the world today are due to the failure of either of the sides to walk in humility. The opposite of humility is pride. Pride is not the idea that we are important -- the truth is we are, and God wants us to know that. Pride is the idea that others need to recognize us for how important we are -- which, we might add, usually requires that they acknowledge we are better than themselves! It seems to me that when we come to really believe and understand that we are valued by God, we have less need of being affirmed of our intrinsic value by other people. In fact, as we understand that God values other people as He does us -- each one of us being significant for who we are, not for who we are not -- it helps us value them, as well. This is true humility, being able to recognize the intrinsic value and worth in others, and to honor them, even ahead of our own need to be honored.

A companion trait to humility is gentleness. Pride is rough, humility is gentle. Gentleness allows others to be drawn out, because they do not fear being hurt by us. Would you rather be told the truth roughly or gently? Would you rather have a doctor treat you who is rough or gentle? The answers are obvious. Gentle people bring life by not crushing the brokenhearted.

The third trait that Paul encourages is patience. We are all in transition, and patience recognizes that while somebody's actions and behaviors are difficult to live with today, there is hope that as God works in them, the situation might be different tomorrow. Patience recognizes that we are prone to failure, but that we can truly change, if given time, encouragement, and nurture.

The final trait listed in verse 2 is forebearance. That means simply "putting up with others", especially in their weaknesses and failures. Forebearing is being annoyed but recognizing that if you talked to the person about their shortcoming, they would not consistently be able to change right now. Sometimes forebearing has more to do with our reaction to someone else -- our shortcoming -- rather than theirs. Certain people grate on us. They don't seem to bother others, but when they are around us we are tense, critical, and irritable, because we see their glaring faults. Often our perception of them is distorted, viewed through the lens of past hurt or unresolved conflict that we experienced.

Paul exhorts us in verse 3 to exert ourselves in maintaining unity of the Spirit by walking in peace with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. If we are able to forebear another person's failures, that can allow unity of Spirit to prevail, because it maintains peace. Forebearance, however, is not avoidance. What is the difference? With forebearance, we stay in fellowship with the person who demonstrates weakness. With avoidance, we stay away from them. How can there be unity of Spirit if we avoid someone? We should not use avoidance as a permanent solution to a relationship problem in the Body of Christ. There are times when avoidance is an acceptable short-term solution -- cases where an important activity is taking place, and there is not sufficient time to address the relationship-impeding issue. But when time permits, the issue needs to be addressed. In general, this should be done through the two parties discussing the issue. Sometimes it is necessary to have others come along with us, to help us hear and be heard. It's amazing how two people can speak the same language and yet not understand each other. The ministry of reconciliation is indeed a vital one in the Body of Christ. Blessed are the peacemakers!

Paul states in verses 4 to 6 that all who profess faith in Jesus are one. Even though we often try to find distinctions between one believer and another, in God's eyes we are one. We all have the same Holy Spirit living in us. We all have the same Lord. Our faith in the work of Jesus is the same. We are all baptized in our faith in Jesus. We all have the same Father in heaven. Let us not let our distinctions divide us! It is fine if our distinctions build up the Body of Christ -- God gives us all different gifts and different personalities and inclinations and different calls on our lives. But let us not reject a brother or sister because their distinction is different from ours. Let us not speak badly about those from a different congregation or different denomination. Sure, there are things in probably every denomination and congregation that are not God's best for that group. But this does not keep them from being part of the same Body that all believers are.

We are saved and made part of the Church, the Body of Christ, not by perfect doctrinal beliefs, but by faith in Jesus. Many professing believers use doctrinal beliefs as the test of being in the Body of Christ, and this is wrong and needs to stop. If someone is in the Body of Christ, we need to embrace them, not because of their doctrinal differences with us, but despite them. We embrace them because they are a genuine brother or sister in Christ.

Now about baptism. This is clearly not the main point of verse 5, but it is mentioned there, and I feel impressed to exhort us in regard to baptism. There are many different beliefs in the Body of Christ regarding baptism. Must it be by immersion, or is sprinkling okay? Is infant baptism acceptable, or ought a person only be counted as having been baptized after they profess faith in Christ? I am personally of the conviction that a person ought to be baptized by immersion after professing faith in Christ -- but I am not out to change your mind on the issue of baptism. What I do feel impressed to do is to encourage you to live up to your conviction. If you believe that baptism ought to be done after professing faith in Christ, have you lived up to that belief? Baptism is a sacrament -- and outward sign of things that are taking place spiritually. Baptism was a very important thing for believers to do in the first century church. Yet sometimes we think it unimportant or irrelevant to our modern church. I believe that baptism is important to God, and also that it is a mistake to have a conviction that God would have you do something and yet not do it.

After I formed my belief that believers should be baptized by immersion, I sought out a pastor who would baptize me. At the time I was attending a "Christian Church" church (it's a denomination), and they have very strong feelings about baptism by immersion, so they were very happy to do this for me. Perhaps some of you have strong beliefs about infant baptism being God's ideal. Then to follow your conviction, it would be inappropriate to compromise by being baptised as an adult (assuming you were baptized as an infant). In all things, let us try to live up to our convictions, without judging (or withholding fellowship) from someone who is living up to their convictions. Undergirding this, however, must be some understanding of where the dividing line for genuine faith in Christ lies. To me, that point must be in the belief in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for our sins, and his resurrection from the dead, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father in heaven.