Short Summaries of

Sermons on Ephesians

by Rev. Ralph Allan Smith

God's Glory in a Unified Church

(Eph. 3:20-4:1; overview of 4:1-16)

Chapter divisions in the Bible are convenient for study, but they can also be deceptive. We are tempted sometimes to think that the original readers thought in terms of chapter and verse, and saw the divisions as we do. But they didn't. There is no large separation between chapter three and chapter four. Paul's prayer and the doxology that end chapter three lead into the exhortation which begins chapter four. This is even emphasized in the text. The second word in chapter four is "therefore" ("therefore" comes second because of greek grammar). Although Paul's exhortation in chapters four through six is based upon the entire instruction of chapters one through three, the closer context is especially important.

The Temple of God

Paul prayed that Christians might be strengthened so that they may be able to comprehend God's love and then be filled with the fullness of God. Two phrases in the prayer point to the Christian as God's temple: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," and "that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." In the light of the previous context, this is especially significant. The climax of Paul's teaching about the salvation of Jews and Gentiles at the end of chapter two is the explanation that Jew and Gentile together become God's temple: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone]; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2:19-22). The heavenly citizens of the kingdom of God are His new temple. For them to be indwelt by Christ and filled with the fulness of God is to realize the height of their meaning as the holy place of God.

Paul is confident that God can and will accomplish in us that for which He chose and saved us. Paul prays that God's will may be accomplished because it is through our prayers and good works that God's plan is perfected. Paul praises God for His power to accomplish that purpose within us both to glorify God and to instruct the Church.

God is able to do more than we ask. His power transcends our ability to pray, though it does not necessarily work in terms of our prayers, which are too often foolish and immature. God is able to do more than we think. We cannot imagine the glory that God has in store for His Church, either in history or in eternity. Paul emphasizes this further by saying that God is able to do "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." Although God does not work in history in the way that selfish men would like -- God's people given instant and easy success without pain -- the way He works is wonderful. In the end we will have no complaints.

What is most arresting and perhaps most important is the expression "according to the power that worketh in us." The great incomprehensible power that outstrips our imagination is already at work within us. We are indwelt by the power of God, that infinite power that will change the world and bring everlasting glory to Christ. This is what it means to be God's temple. We are each a holy place, filled with the glory-cloud of His presence.

One Temple

The first 16 verses of chapter four speak of the unity of the Church, as the one body of Christ. When the Church matures into Christ-like manhood, it will be able to function as the body of Christ in this world. Until then, however, immaturity hinders the progress of the kingdom of God. A mature Church is knowledgeable (4:13) for without knowledge Christians would be easily deceived by every Satanic device that men may employ (4:14). The dominion of the body of Christ is not based upon a violent but a verbal conquest of the world. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. The Church therefore speaks the truth in love to conquer the world and build up Christ's kingdom (4:15-16). For all of this, the Church must realize the unity that the Spirit of God has created in God's temple (4:3).

Though Paul is using the body analogy here in chapter four, it may help us appreciate his emphasis on unity if we reflect upon the temple analogy he used at the end of chapter three and to which he alludes, at least in part, by the word "therefore" at the beginning of chapter four. The disruption of unity in the human race began actually at the fall. After Adam sinned, he and Eve were not very friendly. Their first two sons were even worse. Unity in the human race was undone first of all by the fall. But after the flood, Nimrod sought to build a new unity based upon the confession of a single false religion, centered in and promoted at the temple-tower called "Babel." Babel, which was probably built like a ziggurat, was a symbolic attempt for man to reach unto God so that man could define himself and the world. It was Nimrod's substitute version of the Garden of Eden, constructed by man so that man could invade the heavenly realms, not literally, of course, but symbolically and magically. God judged that temple-tower by destroying it and confusing human language. The differences in language that resulted represent different perspectives, not merely different vocabulary. It requires much deeper confessional unity for men to communicate today than it did in the days of Babel. But the basis of communication is still confessional unity, not mere verbal conformity.

The unity of Babel, though superficial, was dangerous because when all men shared one "lip" [literal Hebrew], "nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them" (Gen. 11:6b). Nimrod's totalitarian state would be able to enforce a program of rebellion against God that would have been unstoppable without constant miracles. One miracle, that of confusing men's languages, solved the problem by destroying the unity of confession that made the total Babel-state possible.

But the idea of a unified people for whom nothing is impossible is not necessarily a bad idea. The human race was originally to have been unified and therefore powerful to express the glory of God. Christ's redeemed sons too are to be one, and therefore powerful to accomplish God's purposes in history. The kingdom of God depends upon the unity of God's people. Not mere conformity. Not institutional centralization. Unity of faith in Christ. When the Church has mature faith expressed by love to God and His people, the temple of God will be one. And when the Church is filled with the glory of God, nothing will be able to resist it.

It is this to which we were called in Christ: unity and holiness as the temple of God, to be, as it were, the true tower of Babel. Paul urges us to walk worthy of that calling. He reminds us that he is the prisoner of Christ not to elicit sympathy, but to encourage, for prison is the way to dominion, as we saw before. When the Church preserves unity by a confession of the truth, she will be able to bear fruit for the glory of God.

For the postmillennialist this is an essential vision. Premillennialists and amillennialists do not believe the Church is called to accomplish anything great in history. Unity is a secondary problem for them at best. For the postmillennialist Church unity is vital for without it, there will be no kingdom of God in history. But, as Paul shows us in this chapter, the unity to which we are called is not based upon compromise, the modern liberals version of Church oneness. It is the Spirit of God who creates unity, or, rather, has already created unity (4:3). We are called to become what in Christ we already are. This is not a call to compromise, but to realize the Truth.

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