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Ephesians – What Does It Mean to Be One?
Read Ephesians and there are many statements of oneness and unity. However there is one theme we should notice.
1. The church is Christ’s body (1:22-23).
2. Both groups are one new man (i.e., a man has or is a body) (2:15).
3. Both groups are reconciled in one body (2:16).
4. Members of the same body (3:6).
5. There is one body (4:4).
6. Given to build up the body of Christ (4:12).
7. Grow to become a mature man (4:13).
8. Grow into the head who is Jesus (4:15).
9. From Jesus the whole body grows (4:16).
10. We are members of one another (4 :25).
11. Jesus is the Savior of the body (5:23).
12. We are members of his body (5:30).
Again, there are many metaphors of unity in Ephesians, but this one appears the majority of times. Is the concept of being one man and one body that of being separate individuals but unified in person? No.
Consider this, being one as in being one man, being one body, isn’t about goals, attitudes, or works. Being one is being identified with Jesus and Jesus being identified with us. When you see me, you see a man, and see my body. When God sees Jesus’s body, in a sense, He sees Jesus. That is oneness and unity. The body is Christ’s body and in an incredible sense, Christ is His body. That’s a oneness only God can create. No wonder we are commanded to keep the unity. To borrow words from elsewhere, can Christ be divided? It is no longer I who lives but Christ in me. We are identified with Jesus because we are His body. What a divinely created, mystical, revealed, unity of oneness!
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