Fight for Unity, not our Ideas!
Ephesians 4:1-6 January 17, 2021
I. Introduction:
A. The pain of division is deep and the blessing of unity is sweet to the soul!
1. In 2020 and the start of 2021 our nation has felt the pain of division and it has
reached into the church, our friendships and families.
2. As I have sought to process this, I certainly do not have all the answers and to
be honest with you, I do not even know where much of...
Fight for Unity, not our Ideas!
Ephesians 4:1-6 January 17, 2021
I. Introduction:
A. The pain of division is deep and the blessing of unity is sweet to the soul!
1. In 2020 and the start of 2021 our nation has felt the pain of division and it has
reached into the church, our friendships and families.
2. As I have sought to process this, I certainly do not have all the answers and to
be honest with you, I do not even know where much of the truth is with so
many lies, distortions, exaggerations, half-truths, withheld or censored
information, truth and views being promoted from personal agendas by
extremist politicians on both sides of the aisle, and by the media of every
type!
3. This I do know for sure – division should not have reached into the church as
the church is supposed to be the one place of unity in the world. The ultimate
answer to divisions comes from Jesus and His Word, which has no lies,
distortions, exaggerations, half-truths.
B. After Paul spent the first three chapters in the book of Ephesians teaching us
amazing truths about who we are as believers and as a church, now there is a
major transition where Paul distills all this truth into real life wisdom regarding
how these truths are supposed to work out in our lives.
C. Turn to Ephesians 4:1 where we see this major transition. Read v1a
1. Therefore, the first word in this verse is simply saying this – here is the
conclusion from everything that you heard in the first three chapters. So
chapters 4-6 become the “so what” of everything we learned in chapters 1-3.
2. He gives us the first “so what” in v1-6. As I read, it watch for what I believe
to be the heart of the passage: “a fitting lifestyle for believers is to fight for
unity by tolerating others!”
3. As I read this section, remember that the Jews and gentiles made up this
church with very different backgrounds and had a long history of hostility
towards each other!
4. Read v1-6
• Let’s look at this big idea a piece at a time! Let’s start with …
II. A fitting lifestyle for believers
A. Now he is talking about the way we walk as believers, our lifestyle.
1. Read v1a-b
2. He starts off with a serious plea to live our lives in a way that is worthy, that
is fitting, that is suitable,
B. He is talking about a life that is appropriate of the calling to which we have been
called.
1. Read v1c
2. That is what we learned in chapters 1-3, who we are as believers and as a
church!
• So he is calling us into a fitting lifestyle for believers and that consists in
III. Fighting for unity!
A. In verse 3, we are told specifically to work hard, to give intense effort to guard the
unity of the spirit.
1. Read v3
2. A great application of this verse is what my good brother Ron Benton has
said to me often– we need to fight for unity not for our ideas!
B. In addition, it will take a fight to be unified.
1. We in the church are different in so many ways: not only ethnic differences
but political, background differences, different degrees and kinds of
brokenness, age differences, gender differences, socio economic differences,
spiritual maturity differences, spiritual gift differences, etc., etc.
2. Add on top of this that in 2020 things like masks, racial tensions and politics
provided plenty of bait for us to create divisions.
3. Here is the worse part – sometimes we fight over interpretations of the Bible
like Democrats and Republicans fight in Congress!
4. All of these have the potential to rub against us in a way that can create
division within a church.
C. Then in v4-6 Paul shares seven unities that all believers share, this becomes the
basis of our unity, the foundation upon which our unity stands. For the sake of
time, I will read them but only illustrate two of these as to how they practically
become the basis of our unity! Read v4-6
1. Illustrate -
a) Lord – Jesus Christ is the Lord – if we want unity, we must seek the
lordship and will of Jesus rather than our own wants and ideas or we will
constantly be divided.
(1) This is about not my will but thine be done. It is about seeking and
fighting for God’s will over my best ideas or deepest desires!
b) Faith – there is one body of truth that God has given us that we put our
faith in and that is the Bible. It is our constitution, blueprint and owner’s
manual!
(1) If we want unity our decisions, beliefs, practices and ways must
come from the same starting point and authority – the Bible!
(2) We will never be unified if we look instead to how the business
world does things, how my political party does it, how psychology
does it, how other organizations do it, best practices of others, my
own best ideas, how my family did it, etc.
(a) There may be help with some of these things but they
cannot be our starting point or the foundation for our
discussions!
(2) 1 Corinthians 3 says that there are believers who are carnal. They
walk like mere men, nothing in their life or thinking is different
from those of the world!
(a) Your chances of unity in discussion with a believer like that
are about as good as a discussion with a person who does
not know the Lord or accept the Bible
II. Now we know that a fitting lifestyle for believers is to fight for unity, but how do we
get there? It is all in our attitudes, it comes …
III. By tolerating others!
A. To be honest with ourselves it is easy to be with people who are just like us but
people who are very different from us take a lot of work!
B. Tolerance simply means bearing with someone who is very different from me,
one who thinks very differently from me even someone that has opinions that
mine very different from me!
1. Most of the world today defines tolerance as choosing to love, accept and
treat with respect and kindness anyone and everyone, except for those who
disagree with us! Especially biblically minded Christians
2. Biblical tolerance is choosing to love, accept and treat with respect and
kindness anyone and everyone, even those who disagree with us!
C. In verse 2, he shows us the three attitudes that will be necessary to tolerate other
believers who are very different from you to fight for unity.
1. Watch for these as I reread v2 – 3a
D. Unity comes when we diligently watch over our own hearts and attitudes. So let
me ask you a few questions to consider before the Lord this week.
1. What do you learn about your own heart by the way you responded to people
and ideas that are very different to yours in 2020?
2. How closely did your heart match up to the three key attitudes in verse 2 that
are necessary to show tolerance to others in love?
a) Humility – means lowliness of mind, is just the opposite of pride where
deep down I think I am better than, and of greater value that other person
who is different from me.
b) Gentleness – this simply means you are not harsh, forceful, stern or
rough. Instead you are delicate, mild and tender with people and ideas
that are different than yours
c) Patience – this is the one of the three that challenges me the most when I
understand what it means. I love the way one Greek dictionary says it is–
a state of emotional calm without complaint or irritation when faced with
something or someone that provokes you or a misfortune.
(1) It goes on to say another way to say it is like this – “to remain
seated in one’s heart” or “to keep ones heart from jumping”
(2) That means that someone who is very different from me or an idea
that is very different from mine or one of the issues of 2020 comes
in front of me like bait. Either I can sit there in my heart quietly
and without complaint and respond with humility and gentleness or
I can take the bait and my heart jumps with irritation and harshly
respond to them.
E. Interesting to note that two of these three qualities (gentleness and patience) are
fruits of the Holy Spirit. That means I need to depend upon the Holy Spirit to
produce this in my life and when these attitudes are not present that is evidence
that the Holy Spirit is not in control of my life
II. Conclusion
A. I remember as if it was yesterday when God was first challenging me about my
impatience with those who had different ideas than mine. My heart was in the
habit of jumping up out of its seat and being irritated and sucked into a divisive
argument.
1. I remember going to a meeting knowing that ideas will be expressed that I
did not agree with and knowing the tendency of my heart to jump and be
sucked into a divisive argument.
2. I prayed for hours before that meeting that the Holy Spirit would control me
and I would not be sucked in and jump out of the seat of my heart.
3. God supernaturally did it and I remember coming home so excited because
the strong difference of opinion came but I did not jump out of the seat of my
heart. Instead, I responded with gentleness! The next morning I woke up still
amazed and rejoicing in what God did and I remember that God tapped me
on the shoulder and said, I do not expect that from you for just one meeting
but rather as part of your lifestyle every day when encountering people and
ideas that are different than yours!
B. That drives me to depend desperately upon the Holy Spirit moment by moment to
have “a fitting lifestyle that fights for unity by tolerating others!
