C. H. Brown
In the first three chapters of Ephesians we have the highest point of Christian revelation. It is the Mt. Everest of Christian truth. The Apostle himself is so overcome, as he finished the unfolding under the directive of the Spirit of God of the truth of Christ and the church, that he bursts forth in that doxology that finishes the third chapter of Ephesians: "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Having finished the marvelous revelation of the mystery of Christ and the church, he comes down to the question of the practical walk inconsistency with such a marvelous revelation. So he says in chapter 4, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord"—he is talking now about the lordship of Christ—Christ as Lord has authority over our lives. We have obligations to Him as our Lord. So when it is a question of walk, it is in responsibility to One that has a claim over us as our Lord. "Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." in order to do that, of course, we have to understand what the vocation is.
That is the reason that it is so important for Christians to be instructed in the truth that we have in the epistles, for only in the epistles do we rise to the height of Christian truth. I am not discounting the authority of any part of the Word of God, but we never learn what a Christian is as to all our privileges, place and walk apart from the epistles. We will never learn what the church of God is apart from the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
The spirit in which we are to walk we have in verse 2: "With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." There is the spirit in which all is to be carried out.
There just is not anyplace in the Christian's program for pride, arrogance, self-esteem and self-importance. In the world, that is the common thing; the world thrives on that kind of thing. How you rate in the world is the big question, and men work, strive and labor, even to point of injuring their health, merely to attain a certain position, a certain influence, a certain fame or greatness. But in the church of God all is in reverse. We find that the Lord says, If you want to be great, become as the least. He also says, "I am among you as he that serveth." That blessed One set the example when He was down here. He was not seeking a place or position; He was seeking faithfully to do the will of Him that sent Him: salt was "with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." Oh, how little we know of that gentle spirit of Christ!
"I... beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." How much do we know of it? How much do we manifest it? As you review the transactions with Christians that you had this past week, how do they square up with these qualifications: lowliness, meekness, long-suffering and forbearance? Are those the qualities that characterize you, or were you on the defense of your rights? Were you standing up for number one, as the world says? Oh, how a self-examination like that betrays what spirit we are of! But if we want to follow in the footsteps of that blessed Man of God, we need to lay aside the old man, the first man, and put on the new man. Christians are viewed as having done that in the Word of God, and so we have, but how often we deny that fact as we give way to the ugliness of the flesh!
In the third verse of Ephesians 4, we are introduced to a new endeavor that was not the privilege of the saints of God in another dispensation: "Endeavoring to keep the unify of the Spirit." Notice verse 13: "Till we all come in the unity of the faith." Now we will put these two expressions together, "the unity of the Spirit" and "the unity of the faith." The word "unity" in both cases is exactly the same, and I understand it is nowhere else in the New Testament, just in this chapter.
There always have been saints down here in this world; God has always had children to walk together in various relationships down here. Yes, God had saints in the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham and so on down through the ages, awaiting the advent of the Messiah, the blessed Son of God. And when He was born in Bethlehem there were those here on the earth who were waiting for Him. But they knew nothing of the unity of the Spirit and for a very good reason—there was no such thing; it had not come to pass. The unity of the Spirit is a distinct thing that has come to pass in this particular administration. In the ways of God, you and I find ourselves in the highly privileged place of being included in that unity.
As to the saints under the promise made to Abraham, they were looked at as the innumerable grains of sand of the seashore. They were to inherit the promises made to Abraham, but grains of sand are just individual grains at that. Suppose you could take some of those grains of sand from the seashore, assemble them, put them in a great crucible, melt them and form one integral mass from them, and then cast a great reflecting mirror such as is in California on the top of Mt. Palomar. Now where are those grains of sand? They have been fused together to form a new entity, and now in that form it can reach up and catch the glories of the heavens: the sun, moon and stars. They can make them available to the amazement of the astronomer that gazes upon that image made available through the bringing into being of that magnificent, reflecting mirror that perhaps once consisted of innumerable grains of sand down on the seashore. Well, just as the glass is able to catch the glories of the heavens that they might be admired, so in the coming days the truth of God is going to be mirrored in this new thing, the church of God—this unity—this oneness that has been formed.
In Ephesians 4:4, "There is one body." That is the church, and in the coming age the wonders of God's ability, all the marvelous ability that God could display, is going to be seen in the church. We learn that in the Epistle to the Thessalonians.
In connection with the maintaining of that unity here on this earth, we find that the expression is brought in, "the unity of the Spirit." What relation does that expression have to the unity of the body? It is like this. Up until the day of Pentecost all the believers on the face of the earth formed just so many individuals. They were believers scattered here and there, but when that memorable day was come, God took them all, and when He sent down the Holy Spirit He formed them all into a new entity—a new oneness and that oneness was the body of Christ.
God did not entrust that into the keeping of any man, or any company of men. That was something that He did for His own glory. He is the Master Executor of the whole thing, and it was by the Spirit of God sent down to indwell the individual members that formed them all into this one body.
Thank God nothing vital has ever been entrusted to man, for man has made a mess of everything that has been entrusted to him. So when you have man put into a place of responsibility, he breaks down. True, when it comes to the question of baptism, that is given into the hands of man, and men do baptize. But remember there is nothing vital in baptism; it is not going to make a difference of heaven or hell to anybody. When it comes to the remembrance of the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread, it is a blessed remembrance, it is a precious hour, but there is nothing vital connected with it. By that I mean that it has no bearing whatever on the question of my getting life or my keeping life; it is merely that I might be reminded in this scene of the death of my blessed Lord and Savior—that I might show His death in the world that crucified Him and cast Him out.
While, as we said, there is nothing vital committed to man, there are certain responsibilities left with him, and one of them is to keep the unity of the Spirit. That unity had its beginning when the saints were baptized into one body. In 1 Corinthians 12:13 we read, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
Now that is a definite statement. That is something that God has done and remains unchanged and unchangeable, but when it comes to this point—"endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit"—then we are on different ground. If we follow on, after the day of Pentecost, we will see what pains the Spirit of God took that the unity might be understood, that it might be maintained down here in the world. This is the only place where you can keep it; there will be no more keeping the unity of the Spirit in heaven.
If we were to trace on through the Acts, you would find that there was a time when the gospel broke out beyond the bounds of Jerusalem. People down in Samaria received the gospel; they believed and were baptized. But the Spirit of God was not pleased to introduce them into this new thing until representatives from Jerusalem, in the person of Peter and his companions, went down from Jerusalem and laid their hands on them, and they in turn received the Spirit of God. Why was that? God would not permit that any question of nationality should be raised between Jews and Samaritans. "The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Had the Samaritans received the gift of the Spirit of God independent of the Jews, it almost surely would have been a Gentile church and a Jewish church. In His wisdom God saw to it that Peter, to whom were committed the keys of the kingdom, was on hand to admit the Samaritans down where Philip had been preaching the gospel.
We will go on to where the Gentile was admitted. In chapters 10 and 11 of Acts we find the Gentiles brought in. Peter again appears on the scene with six other brethren, and under his direction the Gentiles receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. They are brought in and under the very eves of the official representatives from Jerusalem. Can they withhold their sanction when they see the official demonstration that the Spirit of God has received the Gentiles? No, the very circumstance forces them to acknowledge that God has received them, so they sanction the fact that the too, are brought into this wonderful fellowship.
Now we have the Jew, the Gentile and the Samaritan all united, all baptized into this one body in the uniting bond of the Spirit that unites the body together.
How has man succeeded in maintaining the unity of the Spirit? As we look out on Christendom today, we find that everywhere there is the evident contradiction of the whole thing. "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit"—how many are doing it? The word "endeavor" is a word that has included in it the thought of a definite striving to do it, the expenditure of effort that it might be so. I wonder how many are making that effort? How Many believers in this world are definitely exercised before God about keeping the unity of the Spirit? Do they know anything about it or have they even heard of it?
There it stands as a challenge across the path of every one that will walk with God; the Word of Gad has never changed. When God gave us that Book, He gave it to us with the full intelligence of every heresy that would ever rise in the history of the church. When God instituted the church of God. He told us all about it; He told us exactly how it was going to fail in this scene. He told us of the end, and He marked out a path of loyalty and faithfulness for those who would walk with God in a day of ruin.
What a privilege it is to glean in this blessed Book. God is so concerned about you and me that He never allows us to be caught in a situation where we cannot have an answer in the blessed Word of God. If we consult the historic facts as they come before us in connection with the saints in the days of the Apostle, we find that they themselves broke down in the practical keeping of the unity of the Spirit, perhaps not to the extent that the thing is today, but the seeds of it—the germ of it—were there even in their day. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:10: "Nuys' I beseech von, brethren, by the name of our lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak same thing and that there be no division among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
Then look at 1 Corinthians 11:18-19: "For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." We are at the end of the present period here on this earth. Everything around tells us we are just at the threshold of His coming; our sojourn here is at the end. Oh, that we might be found in the path of His will and be consciously, daily exercising ourselves to do what He has asked us to do: to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Unity is not union; union is not unity. What a difference it makes. We know that the atmosphere today is just charged with the idea of union. You cannot pick up a newspaper or magazine but what there is talk about unions, and this union and that union, union of labor, union of capital, and all sorts of unions and get-togethers; it is the spirit of the day. But this is not what God is talking about in His Word. Keeping the unity of the Spirit must always be in consistency with that other expression to which I drew attention in our chapter, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith." Remember, they go together, "the unity of the Spirit" and "the unity of the faith," for there can be no unity of the Spirit if the faith of Christ is given up.
What do we follow, beloved? We follow the Word of God. We follow the gracious office of the Spirit of God in making good to our souls the will of God as found in the Word of God. It is not following man; it is loyalty to the truth in the unity of the Spirit and in the unity of the faith, and it will not contradict the Word. God is the One who has the right to instruct us. You and I are just children; we are learners and need to have the Word. We need to have the ear to hear. It is not left to our choice.
God is for us and we have the precious Word of God, the privilege of keeping the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace, of seeking so to walk manifesting Christ, and act and live as to contribute to all saints coming into the unity of the faith. Oh, what a precious privilege that is! May we all be exercised about it.
Let us, by the grace of God, strive earnestly to keep the unity of the Spirit, and thus help our brethren on toward that grand climax of all. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," as we will in that day when fie takes us to meet Him in the air.