Church Defined: One Focus (Ephesians 4:4-6)

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were 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.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Eph 4:4–6.

• The church must keep its focus on the seven realities Paul repeats as fact: one body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, and God and Father.
• Believers are diverse members of Christ's one body and therefore belong to one another rather than treating the church as personal property.
• Every Christian is indwelt and sealed by the same Holy Spirit, which undermines pride, judgmentalism, and claims of spiritual superiority.
• The church shares one resurrection hope and one Lord, Jesus Christ, who bought his people, governs them, serves them, and prays for their unity.
• One faith centers on Christ and the authority of Scripture; it reaches beyond any single congregation or denomination while retaining doctrinal truth.
• One baptism marks disciples as belonging to the triune God, and one Father draws the church upward toward his glory and inward toward genuine unity.

• Is the church's work centered on the seven shared realities of Ephesians 4, or on preferences and activity detached from them?
• How am I functioning as a member who needs and serves the rest of Christ's body?
• Do I look down on another believer whom the same Holy Spirit indwells?
• Where has comfort, money, politics, ministry success, or personal ability displaced Christ as my one hope?
• Do I submit to Jesus as the church's only Lord and to Scripture as his authoritative Word?
• Can I recognize genuine Christian unity beyond my congregation or denomination without treating doctrine as unimportant?
• How should belonging to the one triune God redirect a current church disagreement?

One body

The whole company of believers united to Christ their head and made mutually dependent members of one another.

One Spirit

The Holy Spirit who seals and indwells every believer and builds the church into God's dwelling place.

One hope

The shared confident expectation centered on the risen Christ and the inheritance kept with him.

One faith

Trust in the one crucified Savior together with submission to the scriptural truth that reveals him.

One baptism

The covenant sign and seal administered in the triune name, marking disciples as belonging to God's visible people.