Unity in the Faith

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

UNITY IN THE FAITH

Eph 4:9-13

9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

NIV

Alright, having dealt with the different gifts to the church, in the sense of trying to understand their function or role and whether they all are still active, we have to deal with why they were given. We touched a little on the fact the reason they were given was for the perfection of the saints or preparing God’s people for works of service. The Greek word translated preparing in this version has been translated perfection in other versions. It does mean a complete finishing and also is a variation of a word which means the perfection of the soul. It seems the idea is still the same that we are to be made completely ready for works of service. Their reason for being given is for our benefit. But the reason we are to be perfected is for these works of service. This could be seen by some as doing things in the church or being involved in doing good deeds. It is in the sense because this work is a ministry, but only ministry which builds up the church for the purpose of reaching unity in the faith as well as knowledge of the Son of God and becoming mature believers, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. The whole idea is we believers need to be in complete unity of the faith. That seems like a really daunting task for those apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. When we think about it, although they have been at this task for over two thousand years now and we believers have still not yet reached this unity in the faith. In fact, it looks like we are more divided than when we started those thousands of years ago. What happened? Is it the fault of the false use of those gifts to the church? Could some men have usurped these positions in the church for their own agendas, instead of being the gift Christ intended? Here we have to use the personal pronoun I. In the sense I, personally have been called to be in this position of assisting the saints toward perfection and building them up, helping them reach the unity in the faith. We could say this unity stands for “Accepting Jesus”. As long as we all accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior then we are all in one accord, or in agreement, or in unity. The problem is all the secondary and tertiary concepts of Christianity. Here is where the church at large has divided itself up into many small isolated segments. Is it possible to bring them all into one body of Christ, to see others as their brothers and sisters in Christ? Through the power of the Spirit, this has to be possible. But the first task is to bring the local church into this unity, to love each other, to get beyond any form of division or dissension. All too often there is too much of this condition and it has to come to a stop. It has to begin with us first. Each believer has to see this as a paramount of importance. How can we all become or attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ if we are at odds with each other in any way whatsoever? There is hope because of the word until. The task of those five gifts to the church is to continue to serve its purpose until the church reaches unity in the faith. So we labor on until unity is reached.