“I put a dog and a cat in a cage together as an experiment, to see if they could get along. They did, so I put in a bird, pig and goat. They too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then I put in a Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist; soon there was not a living thing left…”
This illustrates with humor how little the Christians of Mark Twain’s time, more than a century ago, valued being united as one body.
I think that this still reflects the reality of many churches today.
Therefore, I’d like to talk about what God wants from us as a church through today’s text.
To better understand today’s scriptures, I’d like to briefly explain the background of this text.
Primarily, Ephesians is a book on what it is to be a church.
Chapter 1 through 3 provides a dogmatic explanation of what a church is.
In Chapter 1, Paul teaches that the church was God’s predestined event.
That is, the church was not accidentally formed, but was a community planned even before the creation.
This is the theme of Chapter 1.
In Chapter 2, Paul teaches that the church is a community of reconciliation and peace.
It explains that the essence of the church is tearing down the wall between Jews and Gentiles, and uniting Jews and Gentiles as a community of reconciliation.
In Chapter 3, Paul mentions the amazing blessing that people like us who are Gentiles could now enjoy just like the Israelites.
The word emphasized here is “together.”
In Jesus Christ, Gentiles become members of one body which shares the promise of Jesus Christ.
This is the theme of Chapter 3.
Next in Chapter 4 through 6, Paul talks about how to live our lives in order to keep the unity of the church made into one by Jesus Christ.
Verse 1 starts with “I, therefore.”
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you.” (verse 1)
Paul writes this letter in prison, but urges them “to live in a way that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
He explains what the calling is in verse 3.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (verse 3)
Paul tells us to make an effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.
One of the important missions of the church is to demonstrate the exemplary unity of the church.
That is because if the church fails to become a community bound in peace or to achieve true reconciliation in fellowship, it would not be able to deliver the message of peace and reconciliation to the world.
Yes, before we proclaim to the world the message of reconciliation, we must achieve the model of unity.
That’s why the scripture tells us that we must make an effort to keep what the Holy Spirit binds as one.
Paul knows that it is not easy, so urges us to “make an effort.”
He then presents the basis of such unity in verses 4 through 6.
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (verses 4-6)
What is the basis of such oneness?
In short, we all believe in and serve one God, who called us with one goal.
Despite the differences in cultures, generations, races, or backgrounds, the reason why Christians can become one is because we are gathered under one flag of Jesus Christ.
This is the conclusion in verse 5 and 6.
However, what is more important is how we can achieve oneness in our lives.
Today’s scripture describes some attributes that allow us to keep the unity.
In verse 2 Paul says,
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (verse 2)
Here we find four attributes: humbleness, gentleness, patience, and forbearance.
When our relationship is broken, it is very likely that one or more of these characteristics is missing in the relationship.
It can be a lack of humbleness, gentleness, patience, or forbearance, which causes disputes and conflicts in the church.
If we desire to build unity in our community, we should work to develop these four attributes in our lives.
We should be humble, gentle, and patient, and bear with each other in love.
I hope and pray that we are growing in these characteristics as we have fellowship with each other in Christ.
First of all, humbleness is the first attribute to keep unity.
Arrogance is the opposite of humbleness.
The Bible shows that arrogance is the first sign of being away from God, and this was the first sin found in the Bible.
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve took the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and ate it, the serpent said to them,
“when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
It was arrogance that the serpent used to cause them to fall.
“You will be like God. You will know good and evil just like God…”
But the consequence created a broken relationship with God.
Arrogance in us leads us to a broken relationship with God.
To the contrary, 1 Peter 5: 5 says,
“In the same way, all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Literally speaking, “to clothe yourselves with humility” means to clothe yourselves with “a towel of humility.”
Apostle Peter must have been reminded of a particular scene in his mind when he was writing this verse.
The scene comes from John 13:
”Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5)
Whenever Peter was preaching about humbleness, he must have recollected the time when Jesus was washing his disciples’ feet.
Jesus showed an example of what true humbleness is by his washing the disciples’ feet.
Therefore, Peter urges us to clothe ourselves with the towel of humility.
I hope and pray that we can be clothed with humility.
I hope we can grow more humble like Jesus by kneeling in front of God and serving each other.
The second attribute to keep unity is gentleness.
Gentleness is often associated with an easy-going or weak-willed person.
However, in the Bible, gentleness is far from being weak or submissive; rather, it is being under God’s control even though we have a strong and boiling emotion.
The Greek word for gentleness is “Prautés” and this word is used to indicate well-trained or disciplined animals.
It is a state of being under the control of God, even though you have strength and power.
When we have more people with gentleness in our church, we can keep peace and unity because they follow the will of God.
On the contrary, if we easily lose our temper and become angry and upset with small matters, this indicates that God is not fully in control of us.
As a result, the unity of church would become more difficult to keep.
In Matthew 11, Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11: 28-30)
While the world teaches us to have and use power for happiness, Jesus teaches us the opposite.
Jesus teaches us that we need to restrain our power and learn His gentleness, which will bring us peace and rest.
20180930 Sunday worship Sermon
“The way to keep unity” (Ephesians 4:1-6)
A famous writer, Mark Twain used to say,
“I put a dog and a cat in a cage together as an experiment, to see if they could get along. They did, so I put in a bird, pig and goat. They too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then I put in a Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist; soon there was not a living thing left…”
This illustrates with humor how little the Christians of Mark Twain’s time, more than a century ago, valued being united as one body.
I think that this still reflects the reality of many churches today.
Therefore, I’d like to talk about what God wants from us as a church through today’s text.
To better understand today’s scriptures, I’d like to briefly explain the background of this text.
Primarily, Ephesians is a book on what it is to be a church.
Chapter 1 through 3 provides a dogmatic explanation of what a church is.
In Chapter 1, Paul teaches that the church was God’s predestined event.
That is, the church was not accidentally formed, but was a community planned even before the creation.
This is the theme of Chapter 1.
In Chapter 2, Paul teaches that the church is a community of reconciliation and peace.
It explains that the essence of the church is tearing down the wall between Jews and Gentiles, and uniting Jews and Gentiles as a community of reconciliation.
In Chapter 3, Paul mentions the amazing blessing that people like us who are Gentiles could now enjoy just like the Israelites.
The word emphasized here is “together.”
In Jesus Christ, Gentiles become members of one body which shares the promise of Jesus Christ.
This is the theme of Chapter 3.
Next in Chapter 4 through 6, Paul talks about how to live our lives in order to keep the unity of the church made into one by Jesus Christ.
Verse 1 starts with “I, therefore.”
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you.” (verse 1)
Paul writes this letter in prison, but urges them “to live in a way that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
He explains what the calling is in verse 3.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (verse 3)
Paul tells us to make an effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.
One of the important missions of the church is to demonstrate the exemplary unity of the church.
That is because if the church fails to become a community bound in peace or to achieve true reconciliation in fellowship, it would not be able to deliver the message of peace and reconciliation to the world.
Yes, before we proclaim to the world the message of reconciliation, we must achieve the model of unity.
That’s why the scripture tells us that we must make an effort to keep what the Holy Spirit binds as one.
Paul knows that it is not easy, so urges us to “make an effort.”
He then presents the basis of such unity in verses 4 through 6.
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (verses 4-6)
What is the basis of such oneness?
In short, we all believe in and serve one God, who called us with one goal.
Despite the differences in cultures, generations, races, or backgrounds, the reason why Christians can become one is because we are gathered under one flag of Jesus Christ.
This is the conclusion in verse 5 and 6.
However, what is more important is how we can achieve oneness in our lives.
Today’s scripture describes some attributes that allow us to keep the unity.
In verse 2 Paul says,
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (verse 2)
Here we find four attributes: humbleness, gentleness, patience, and forbearance.
When our relationship is broken, it is very likely that one or more of these characteristics is missing in the relationship.
It can be a lack of humbleness, gentleness, patience, or forbearance, which causes disputes and conflicts in the church.
If we desire to build unity in our community, we should work to develop these four attributes in our lives.
We should be humble, gentle, and patient, and bear with each other in love.
I hope and pray that we are growing in these characteristics as we have fellowship with each other in Christ.
First of all, humbleness is the first attribute to keep unity.
Arrogance is the opposite of humbleness.
The Bible shows that arrogance is the first sign of being away from God, and this was the first sin found in the Bible.
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve took the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and ate it, the serpent said to them,
“when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
It was arrogance that the serpent used to cause them to fall.
“You will be like God. You will know good and evil just like God…”
But the consequence created a broken relationship with God.
Arrogance in us leads us to a broken relationship with God.
To the contrary, 1 Peter 5: 5 says,
“In the same way, all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Literally speaking, “to clothe yourselves with humility” means to clothe yourselves with “a towel of humility.”
Apostle Peter must have been reminded of a particular scene in his mind when he was writing this verse.
The scene comes from John 13:
”Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5)
Whenever Peter was preaching about humbleness, he must have recollected the time when Jesus was washing his disciples’ feet.
Jesus showed an example of what true humbleness is by his washing the disciples’ feet.
Therefore, Peter urges us to clothe ourselves with the towel of humility.
I hope and pray that we can be clothed with humility.
I hope we can grow more humble like Jesus by kneeling in front of God and serving each other.
The second attribute to keep unity is gentleness.
Gentleness is often associated with an easy-going or weak-willed person.
However, in the Bible, gentleness is far from being weak or submissive; rather, it is being under God’s control even though we have a strong and boiling emotion.
The Greek word for gentleness is “Prautés” and this word is used to indicate well-trained or disciplined animals.
It is a state of being under the control of God, even though you have strength and power.
When we have more people with gentleness in our church, we can keep peace and unity because they follow the will of God.
On the contrary, if we easily lose our temper and become angry and upset with small matters, this indicates that God is not fully in control of us.
As a result, the unity of church would become more difficult to keep.
In Matthew 11, Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11: 28-30)
While the world teaches us to have and use power for happiness, Jesus teaches us the opposite.
Jesus teaches us that we need to restrain our power and learn His gentleness, which will bring us peace and rest.
I hope and pray Jesu