SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/6/2019
9:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Cause of the Worthy Walk”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians 4:4-6
Message of the verses: “4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you
were called to one
hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and
in all.”
In
today’s SD we look at the introduction to the last main point from John
MacArthur’s 11th chapter of his commentary on Ephesians. This will be the last section before Paul
begins to write about Spiritual gifts, and so I suppose you could call it the
introduction to the Spiritual gifts.
However there is an introduction to this main point and then there are
three sub-points under this last main point.
Notice
the seven highlighted “ones” in these three verses. Everything that is related to salvation, the
church, and the kingdom of God is based on the concept of unity and this can be
seen as we look at these seven ones. John
MacArthur writes “The cause, or basis, of outward oneness is inner
oneness. Practical oneness is based on
spiritual oneness. To emphasize the
unity of the Spirit, Paul recites the features of oneness that are germane to
our doctrine and life.
“Paul
does not develop the particular areas of oneness, but simply lists them: ‘body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism,
and God the Father.’ His focus is on the
oneness of those and every other aspect of God’s nature, plan, and work as a
basis for our commitment to live as one.
It is obvious that verse 4 centers on the Holy Spirit, verse 5 on the
Son, and verse 6 on the Father.”
Unity
in the Spirit: “4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope of your calling;”
Paul,
in speaking of one body is speaking of one church, only one church which is
made up of every person who has or who will accept Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Savior. Denominations don’t matter,
nor geographical, or ethnic, or racial body.
There is no Gentile, Jewish, male, female, slave, or freeman body. There is only the body of Jesus Christ, and
the unity of that body is the heart of the book of Ephesians.
We
mentioned in the introduction of this main point that verse four speaks of the
Holy Spirit, and then five is written about the Son, and verse six is written
about the Father, and so we can obviously see that there is but One Spirit,
which of course is the Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit of God is possessed by every believer, and so He is
therefore the inner unifying force in the body.
Let us look at 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 to show us the believers are
individual temples of the Holy Spirit. “16
Do you not know that you
are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys
the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and
that is what you are.” These “temples
[believers]) are collectively “being fitted together [and are] growing into a
holy temple in the Lord,…being built together into a dwelling of God in the
Spirit” (Eph. 2:21-22). We have also
learned in our earlier lessons from Ephesians 1:14 the following that the Holy
Spirit “who is given as a
pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own
possession, to the praise of His glory.”
We could actually say that the Holy Spirit is the divine engagement ring
(Pledge), who guarantees that every believer will be at the marriage supper of
the Lamb which is spoken of in Revelation 19:9 “Then he *said to me,
"Write, ’Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the
Lamb.’" And he said to me, "These are true words of God.’”
John
MacArthur writes “If all Christians were walking in obedience to and in the
power of the Holy Spirit, first our doctrine and then our relationships would
be purified and unified. The spiritual
unity that already exists would be practically manifested in complete harmony
among the people of God.”
Now
as we continue looking in verse four we can see that believers are also unified
in the “one hope” of their “calling.” “Our
calling to salvation is ultimately a calling to Christlike eternal perfection
and glory. In Christ we have different
gifts, different ministries, different places of service, but only ‘one…calling,’
the calling to ‘be holy and blameless before Him’ (Eph. 1:4) and ‘to become
conformed to the image of His Son’ (Rom. 8:29), which will occur when we see
the glorified Christ (1 John 3:2). It is
the Spirit who has placed us in the one Body and who guarantees our future.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: This book of Ephesians has a lot of things
for me to digest, and it is many times very difficult, but at the same time it
challenges me to understand these truths.
I am also challenged by the statement that John MacArthur wrote “There is only the body of Jesus
Christ, and the unity of that body is the heart of the book of Ephesians.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to try to better understand Romans
12:3 and Ephesians 4:2.
Verse that goes with yesterday’s
quotation: “He guards the paths of
justice, and preserves the way of His saints” (Proverbs 2:8).
3/6/2019
10:40 AM
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