Unity and the Christian Walk

At the Korean War memorial in Washington D.C., there’s a short reminder carved into a granite wall: “Freedom Is Not Free.” Americans tend to take their freedom, in particular religious freedom, for granted. Yet the New Testament gives its testimony again and again to the reality that Christian freedom has never been guaranteed, even for the men specifically commissioned by Jesus with unique and incredibly important ministries. Paul was one of these men. As he wrote his epistle to the Ephesians, he identified as, “Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles” (Ephesians 3:1). Paul had been imprisoned not simply because he was a Christian but because of his Christian ministry to the gentile world. He had been imprisoned to make them free.

Paul reminds the Ephesians of his imprisonment again in Ephesians 4:1. Having given his freedom so that they might obtain theirs through Jesus Christ, he makes one request of them: “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” Why does he make this request? Even though Paul had helped them to secure their freedom in Jesus, their failure to take meaningful steps consistent with their Christian calling would render all that he had done “in vain” (Philippians 2:16). Having granted a fellow soldier an opportunity at freedom and life by giving his own, a character in the movie Saving Private Ryan leaned in and said with his dying words, “Earn this.” Though it would be some time after Paul wrote Ephesians that he would eventually die, Paul is effectively saying the same here.

What does a worthy, consistent Christian walk look like? Though Paul would eventually say many things about moral, Christian living in the remainder of his letter to the Ephesians, he begins with the most natural behavior for one who has been made free in Jesus. Christian freedom is not about having Jesus as your “personal Savior” as is so often said; it is about Jesus tearing down walls of sin and human separation (Ephesians 2:14) to reconcile people “in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:16). It is about making people “fellow heirs, of the same body” (Ephesians 3:6). It is about uniting all saved people in “the church, which is His body” (Ephesians 1:22-23). The first and most consistent thing that we can do as Christians in our walk with Jesus is pursue unity with other Christians.

Yes, for Christians freed by the blood of Jesus, unity is paramount. It wasn’t just the pleading wish of the imprisoned Paul; it was the dying wish and prayer of Jesus Himself (John 17:20-23). Its importance can be seen in the price Paul expects us to pay to pursue it. Paul says Christians who are interesting in living consistently with their calling will exhibit: 1) lowliness/humility; 2) gentleness/meekness; 3) longsuffering/patience; 4) forbearance/tolerance toward their fellow Christians in love; 5) an intense effort and diligence to keep/preserve the unity and peaceful bonds Jesus created between us through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-3). The word translated “endeavoring” carries with it both the idea of effort and speed. It is the first priority of a worthy Christian walk, and its importance can be seen in both the imprisoned Paul and the crucified Jesus. Again, if Jesus died to abolish “the enmity” and “create in Himself one new man” from the divided segments of humanity, how can we say we are following Him when we do not try to maintain it (Ephesians 2:15)?

As Paul is quick to point out though, this is not token unity or agreeing to disagree. No, unity is principled. Paul describes the unity he wants us to keep, saying, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). There can no more be said to be more than one system of belief in the New Testament (“one faith”), one response to that system of belief to accept its salvation (“one baptism”), one church of saved believers (“one body”), or one aim and desire of the Christian walk (“one hope”) than there can be said to be one God, one Lord, and one Holy Spirit. The unity found in God defines the kind of unity He desires in His believers; it is not token unity but true unity.

It’s easy to see the work required to bring about unity as a chore or a burden; after all, it calls for major character modification as Ephesians 4:2 suggests. However, Paul would have us see something different when we think about this pursuit: unity is perfecting. He says, “But to each one of us grace was given” (Ephesians 4:7). What grace? Grace can be found in the individuals Jesus commissioned and equipped to help us to better understand our role in the body (Ephesians 4:11-12) and the mutual effort the entire body makes toward unity and growth (Ephesians 4:13). It is in the focused pursuit of principled unity, not swayed by false teachers or their teaching (Ephesians 4:14), that we can find true growth and God’s gracious supply (Ephesians 4:16). “Unity of the faith” is the product of one who truly has “the knowledge of the Son of God”; it allows one to be fashioned into “a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Our freedom was obtained at a price and is maintained at a price. Key to that maintenance is the pursuit of unity. However, as the text illustrates, the person who treats principled unity as paramount and pursues it discovers in their pursuit the perfecting grace of Jesus Christ. Please, do not try to pursue Jesus on your own or in your own way; let’s pursue Him together and strive “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:13).

-Patrick Swayne  
patrick@tftw.org