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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Ephesians 4:1-6, walk/calling/unity

Ephesians 4:1-6
[1] I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
[2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
[3] Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
[4] There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
[5] One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
[6] One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all
.
I have heard multiple interpretations of the passage, particularly these two:

1.) The "ones" are which ever ones you want them to be. (obviously wrong)

2.) The "ones" are all spiritual. (but there is more than one spiritual body--1 Cor. 6:15-20, 12:12-18, 15:44)

I believe that the correct interpretation would be that there is only "one" of each of those things in the christian walk, calling, and unity. (which is the context)

There is only one body, the context referring to one body/church of Christ. This excludes all other "bodies of Christ" because they do not exist (except for in the minds of Baptist Briders and Hyper Dispensationalists).

There is only one Spirit, capital S (Holy Spirit). This excludes all others because there are none.


There is only one hope of our calling, the blessed hope (Titus 2:13). This excludes all other hopes from what we were called to.

There is only one Lord Jesus Christ (capital L). This excludes all others because there are none.

There is one faith that is of Christ in the present dispensation (Eph. 3:12, 2 Tim. 4:7). This faith is the faith that we believe, such as a "statement of faith". Some call this the "body of truth given to the church". This excludes all other faiths because they are not after Christ but rather tradition and religion of men.

There is one baptism in the present dispensation and it is baptism into Christ (Rom. 6:3-4, Gal. 3:26-28, Col. 2:10-13, 1 Cor. 6:15-17, 12:12-18). This excludes all others because they were not given to the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 1:14-17, Acts 26:15-20).

There is only one God and Father. This excludes all other "Gods" because they are not real.

--Eli Caldwell

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