Seven is the perfect number, or so goes the mantra. As if to give a perfect boost to his single call to Christian unity, Paul goes on in the next three verses.
Seven Ones
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6–ESV)
“Seven Ones” may sound like a game, but is more than that. Paul uses the word one seven times in three verses.
One body. The church is the body of Christ.
One Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent by God the Father into all the world. He moved from being around or on people into people at Pentecost.
One hope. That is what we long for. It is the signpost at the end of life as we now know it.
One Lord. Jesus is our master, our guide, our commanding officer.
One faith. There is none other to place our confidence in.
One baptism. There is no other organization or group to whom we can be beholden; nothing to dilute our allegiance.
One God and Father. Over everything that can be seen, felt, known, experienced is God the Father. He is omniscient, omnipresent, infused into the world.
No other one
Any time a person strives to be the one they put themselves in the place of God. Of course, there is a hierarchy, but the human tendency is to claw toward its summit. If you would have
Still unique
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, (Ephesians 4:7,11–NASB)
God the Father is the only being who holds the place of everywhere. He, as the one God and Father as verse 6 says, is over all and through all and in all. All the rest of us have our God-given niche. See this in verse 7? Each one of us has grace given according to the measure of Christ. Some have more and some have less, but all have according to the measure of Jesus Christ. We are not all things to all people, but just the right things to just the right people.
…not all things to all people, but just the right things to just the right people…
Sometimes when I see that someone else does a good thing I want to do it too and gain a reputation there. For instance, when I read the short stories composed by others, the author in me says, “I should put my hand to that plow,” but I am no Graham Greene. Or, when I roast coffee and am satisfied with it the entrepreneur in me says, “I should sell this stuff,” but I am no Brad Stone. When I learn to do videography and computer graphics the creator in me says, “I can do this too.” Then God says, “I made you an eye surgeon, stick with that.” When I agree, gradually, God gives back crucial pieces of this. I get to write this blog; I get to use computer graphics in very unique surgical videos. Seek him first and all these things get added.
In the church, the same thing happens. God has divvied up a set of tasks situating them to the people who comprise his body. That is what verse 11 points out. Some people have been apostles. Others have been prophets and so on down to our present age. The roles of apostle and probably prophet have expired, but others carry on the same eternal tasks given in those earliest days.
You and I may not have any of these roles, but each person who has accepted God’s gift of salvation is a part of the body of Christ: the church. We are the saints being equipped as Paul writes of in verse 12, and we will come back to that.
So, recognize God’s universal presence of God and the uniqueness of man inside his sphere.
Richard Ulrich says
My friend, Dr. William Conrad, points out that the Kingdom of God has two sequential parts. The first is the redemptive rule of God in each believer. The second is the realm where His reign will be exhibited over the whole earth, “in the ages to come” (Eph 2:7). Unity and diversity in our lives and in the church is very dynamic; and from time to time it certainly exhibits disconcerting discord and divisiveness . The advice St. Paul gives in this regard is “if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Rom 12:18 KJV). The mark of any successful manager or statesman includes “ability to get consensus” according to the late historian, Dr. Rufus Fears. This often implies a kind of compromise which is hard to sort out and to reconcile with principles. RAU