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4th June 2024
TuesdayReflection
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John Piper
considers Ephesians 4:4
One Lord, One Spirit, One Body for All Time and All Peoples
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Why do you think Paul starts this section by calling attention to the fact that he is a prisoner?
"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord."
Writing from prison means that what he writes is dangerous.
It is not a nice, middle class way to solve your problems and be comfortable.
Real, radical Christianity is risky and unpopular and dangerous.
Jesus had given many warnings that following him was safe in the long run and dangerous in the short run.
For example, he said,
They will lay their hands on you and will persecute you.
There is something very powerful about a testimony from prison where your life is at stake.
That kind of talk from prison is like a stiff, wakening winter wind in the face of our drowsy, television-soaked, self-pitying kind of Christianity.
It wakes us up and makes us dress spiritually for the winter battles.
That's what Paul wants to happen when we read his testimony from prison.
We walk unworthily of our calling in Christ if we disregard the unity of the body and don't expend any effort to safeguard what Christ died to obtain.
"Be diligent," Paul says, "Be eager, be earnest" to keep the unity given by the Spirit of God and obtained with the blood of Christ.
This is Paul's prison burden for the church at Ephesus.
If we have any empathy for a suffering saint, it should make us say, Yes, that is utterly crucial.
How, brother Paul? How shall we do this?
The character traits that will preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace are humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love.
If you are humble, you will be gentle, and if you are patient, you will be forbearing or enduring.
And if you are gentle and forbearing in love, you will be a peacemaker and a unity preserver.
So be diligent and eager to be a humble and patient person by the power of Christ.
But beware of a modern mistake here.
Humble does not mean wishy-washy when it comes to truth.
Forbearing does not mean saying: truth doesn't matter.
It is a great mistake to confuse humility with uncertainty.
But many today do confuse them.
They think that the only humble demeanour is the uncertain, vague, iffy demeanour.
Is that what Paul meant?
He didn't seem to be that way.
I think G.K. Chesterton put his finger on our problem.
A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.
Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert - himself.
The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt - the Divine Reason. (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)
I think that's right because later in this chapter Paul says he wants Christians to not be babes any longer blown about by winds of doctrine but to come to the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God.
The humility that leads to unity is the demeanour that says: I am not the centre; truth is the centre and I submit to the truth and go where it leads.
I am not king; God is king.
My will is not the law; God's Word is the law.
I don't tell God how many faiths are acceptable to him; he tells me.
I don't define the foundation of the unity of the Spirit; God does.
One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father.
This is the objective foundation of our diligent efforts to preserve the unity of the Spirit.
What does this have to do with missions?
What does it have to do with the task of the church to evangelize the unreached peoples of the world?
The answer is that since there is only one God and one faith, we must take the news of this God and this faith to the nations.
Other religions and other lords will not save.
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
John Piper
is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy.
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