“One”

Sunday, April 06, 2025

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

(Ephesians 4.4-6)

This passage falls right in the middle of Paul's letter to the Christians of Ephesus, at the very point at which he shifts from theory, to practice—that is, from telling them what things are so, to telling them what they ought to do about it. But, as is so often the case for Paul, even his instructions are accompanied by profound statements of truth, which should naturally lead us to behave in ways that please God. Here, he highlights seven “ones.”

One Body

By “body,” Paul of course means the church, which he identifies thus both in the ensuing verses, and again in the next chapter, where he writes that “Christ is the head of the church, his body” (Ep 5.23). Of course, there are many separate churches, comprising individual congregations all over the world, each of which can just as accurately be called a church. These congregations will have their own particular circumstances and quirks, because they’re all made up of unique individuals; but all together they constitute the body of Christ, spread out across space and even time, so that a Christian today is part of the same body as the Apostle Paul.

One Spirit

Of course, as there are individual churches with their own distinct characteristics, individual Christians also all have their own spirits. But we strive to empty ourselves of our own, and welcome God’s to take their place! As Paul wrote in another letter around the same time,

if there is any…participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

(Philippians 2.1-2)

One Hope

We likewise may hope for many different things—to recover from an illness, to receive a pay raise, to see a loved one succeed, or even that a particular sports team will win Sunday’s game. Yet for Christians there’s only one hope at the center of our lives—the hope “for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved” (Ro 8.23-24). This may seem obscure to an outsider, but it shouldn’t be difficult for a Christian to understand! Paul means the hope for resurrection—that is, to join Jesus in eternal life, at the Father’s side.

One Lord

There will be many people placed in positions of authority over you; get used to it! Paul even highlights one of these situations later in the letter, “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling” (Ep 6.5). The Greek word behind “masters” is, of course, simply the plural of κύριος-kyrios, of which he has written that there is only one! It helps to think in terms of the Jews’ covenant with God. In order to avoid using God’s name יהוה-Yahweh flippantly, they replaced it with אֲדֹנָי-’Adonai-“Lord.” Notwithstanding the many earthly authorities with the right to tell you what to do in some matters, there is only one who has complete authority over you!

One Faith

The word faith can mean so many things that, while the proclamation of “one faith” seems perfectly plain on its face, a moment’s reflection yields up many questions and alternatives! Is this “one faith” the Christian religion? The belief that Jesus is the Son of God? The vocal profession and inward commitment to our Lord? The pattern of life and worship we follow? The short answer is, yes to all of these. The Greek word πίστις-pistis takes on all of these meanings in the Bible, with a few more nuances besides. But we can sum it all up in what Peter told the Jews’ council of leaders, that “there is salvation in no one else” but Jesus, and “no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Ac 4.12). People choose to put their faith in a wide variety of supposed powers, but only one faith is worthy.

One Baptism

From the time when John the Baptist began to “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Mt 3.3), preaching the imminent arrival of the kingdom of heaven, baptism was a central rite. Of course, “John’s baptism” appeared in contrast to baptism “in the name of the Lord Jesus” at the beginnings of the church in Ephesus (Ac 19.3 & 5); and both John and Jesus mentioned contrasting baptisms, such as water, Holy Spirit, fire, and more. Even John’s baptism was modeled after the ritual cleansing prescribed in the Law of Moses to achieve or restore ritual purity. Although there is a great variety of bath-like cleansing ceremonies observed all over the world, in Christ there is “one baptism,” which is a participation in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, constituting “an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1Pe 3.21).

One God

The world is, and has nearly always been, full of idols. In former times, most people venerated objects fashioned after the likeness of imagined deities. These days, that practice has mostly died out; but idols have multiplied! For one thing, it’s more and more common to serve abstract idols, like wealth—Paul tells us that “covetousness…is idolatry” (Co 3.5). On top of these, there are more and more impostors, in the form of entirely false religions, as well as the more insidious perversions of the true one. But John instructs Christians, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1Jn 5.21), just after reassuring us that we “know him who is true” (v20). Make sure you’re serving him.

Jeremy Nettles

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