The Spirit who dwells in us and works in us is the oneness of the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4:3 says, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.” To have the proper Body life we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit. This is crucial and vital to the Body of Christ.
Oneness, strictly speaking, differs from unity. Unity is formed by many people coming together, whereas oneness is the one entity of the Spirit within the believers making them all one. Our oneness is the Lord Jesus Himself realized as the life-giving Spirit. Today Christ is the life-giving Spirit within us, and this Spirit is our oneness. Therefore, our oneness is the Spirit indwelling us as our life.
In Ephesians 4:3 this oneness is called the oneness of the Spirit. The oneness of the Spirit is actually the Spirit Himself, not something apart from the Spirit. If we talk about oneness but neglect the Spirit, this indicates that we regard oneness as something separate from the Spirit. The oneness within us and among us is the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, to keep the oneness is to keep the life-giving Spirit. Because the Spirit is the oneness of the Body, we should not act, move, work, or speak without the Spirit. We need to live, move, walk, and have our being in the Spirit. Then we shall keep the oneness. The only way to keep the oneness of the Spirit is to be in the Spirit. There is no other way.
In Ephesians 4:4 Paul continues, “One Body and one Spirit, as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” The Body is mentioned before the Spirit because the oneness among us is related to the Body and is for the Body. The reason we need to keep the oneness is that we are all one Body.
The Spirit is the essence of the one Body. Without the Spirit, the Body would be empty and have no life. The Body here is the Body of Christ, and the essence of the Body of Christ is the Spirit. Hence, the Body and the essence of the Body are one. It is impossible for the Body of Christ to have more than one essence. The unique essence of the Body is the Spirit.
The Spirit is in the Body. First Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” This reveals that the one Spirit is not only the essence of the Body but also the life and the life supply of the Body. Apart from the one Spirit, the Body could not exist as a living organism. Without the Spirit it is impossible to have the Body.
The Spirit is the reality of the Triune God. Therefore, the oneness of the Spirit denotes the oneness of the Triune God wrought into us. This oneness is called the oneness of the Spirit, and this Spirit is the Spirit in the Body. For this reason, Ephesians 4:4 speaks of one Body and one Spirit. This indicates that the Spirit is not only for the Body but in the Body. In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body. The Spirit is in the Body, not only in individual members. “One Body and one Spirit” means that this one Spirit is wrought into our being and constituted into our being so that we may be constituted into one Body. The Body is the constitution of the one Spirit. When we say, “One Body and one Spirit,” we mean that the Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, that the one Spirit has been wrought into the being of the one Body. Eventually, because the Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, we can say that the Body is one with the Spirit.
To build the Body is to have the Spirit wrought into us and constituted into us, to saturate and permeate every fiber of our being, to make us one with the Spirit. The church is the very constitution of the divine Spirit. The one Body and the one Spirit, therefore, are not two separate entities. On the contrary, the one Body is one with the Spirit, and the one Spirit is one with the Body. This is the reason there must not be any division in the church. Because the Spirit is one, there can be only one Body.
The fact that Ephesians 4:4 mentions the one hope of our calling along with the one Body and one Spirit implies that the indwelling Spirit is carrying out the process of bringing the Body of Christ into glory as the fulfillment of our hope. Therefore, in this verse we have the one Body, the one Spirit, and the one hope. Because we are all in the one Body with the one Spirit and have the one hope, we are one. There is no reason for us not to be one, and there is no cause to be different. We are one Body, and we have the one Spirit working within us to bring us to the goal of our hope. As we remain through the Spirit in the divine fellowship, we are kept by the Spirit in the unique oneness of the Body, a oneness that is the indwelling Spirit Himself.
Home | First | Prev | Next