The commitment to love and the commitment to peace are in parallel in these two verses. We see this relationship also in Colossians, a companion letter to the book of Ephesians.
Colossians 3:14
“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”
What would it be like to get a call from God? In a very practical and realistic way, Ephesians 4:1-3 tells us. The Lord instructs us to cease from our concern about the DOing, and focus on the WHOing. God is concerned about who we are.
Through the multiplicity of one’s, unity is possible
Ephesians 4:3-6 explains how unity is possible. It is through the many “one’s” that are listed. There is one:
body
Spirit
hope
Lord
faith
baptism
God and Father
While these are all linked together, “body” and “Spirit” are especially tied. One body and Spirit. It is God the Holy Spirit who indwells us and therefore forms the body of Christ, as His ministry of bringing people to the Savior yields results. No matter who we are, where we are, no matter what church we belong to, even what time in church history God places us, all believers are part of one universal body, united together by the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look within this “one” list at the word “hope.” One hope in the calling—that God has called us, appointed us to be part of the future promised Kingdom. “Hope” literally means “confidence with expectancy,”[1] especially of our salvation. All believers have that same confident expectation of the great wedding feast to come.
“One Lord, one faith and one baptism” naturally flow together, for it is the Lord in whom we have all believed (our faith in common), and in whom we have been identified or spiritually baptized. Obviously the use of “baptism” is not a reference to being physically baptized in water, because we have all done that at different times. There was certainly more than one event. But we are all united or identified together with the Lord Jesus—baptism in the sense of identifying with the Lord (just as the people of Israel were identified or baptized with Moses, as in 1Corinthians 10:2).
“And one God and Father Who is over all,” our God sovereign over us, whether Jew or Gentile, American or Asian; “through all,” He works His will on earth by using us; “and in all,” since through His Spirit resides in us.
Let’s summarize what we’ve seen so far. If we were to write our own verse based on this passage, it may go something like this: “God is not like man that He should add like man, for God’s math is not like man’s math.”
Unless things have changed, only 1 plus 0 = 1. But according to Ephesians 4:4-6, and the unity taught in this context, one plus these seven things still equals 1.
1 + ? = 1
There is a unity, a singleness, and a oneness—even after adding or putting together these seven things, it still comes out ONE. Since believers are committed to the principle of love, committed to the principle of peace, knowing that God has given them a call and challenged them to humility and patience, there is unity. The prioritization of certain values results in living a worthy life.
[1]The word elpis is defined by Rudolf Bultmann, in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 2:530 -31, Gerhard Kittle, editor, as the “expectation of something welcome…If hope is fixed on God, it embraces at once the three elements of expectation of the future, trust and the patience of waiting.”
