one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Sermons
I. "THERE IS ONE BODY." The body with its many members and its many functions is yet one. Similarly, "we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (Romans 12:5); so that believers, no matter how separated by race, color, language, station, opinion, interest, circumstance, experience, are members of this one body. The body cannot, therefore, be an external visible society, but a spiritual body of which Christ is the Head. It may not be so easy to realize this unity in the midst of the multiplication of sects and denominations, each with its well-defined lines, of doctrine and order, and each more or less sharply distinguished from its neighbor. Yet there is still but "one body" -there is amidst accidental diversities a substantial unity, a unity that covers all truly essential elements. The diversity arising from temperament, culture, habit, has had its due effect in the development of truth; for some parts of the Church have thus given prominence to some truth which other parts have allowed to fall into the background. The beauty of the Church is manifest in this very diversity, just as it requires all the hues of the rainbow to make the clear, white ray of colorless sunshine. The duty, therefore, of believers is to regard the differences that keep them apart, not as hindrances to loving intercourse, but as helps to the fuller development of Divine truth and the fuller manifestation of the mind of God to the Church. II. "ONE SPIRIT." As in the human body there is but one spirit, with a single vivifying power, so in the Church there is but one Spirit, animating all its members, as the common principle of life. "By one Spirit were we all baptized into one body," and "were made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13). "We have access by one Spirit unto the Father." There is, therefore, no room for a conflicting administration. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:4); and therefore all sins against unity are sins against the indwelling Spirit. Sectarian or divisive courses have a tendency to grieve the Spirit. Indeed, it is a mark of a separating apostasy that it has not the Spirit (Jude 1:19). Let us remember that the one Spirit who animates the body of Christ produces as his own choicest fruits - "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22). These are graces with a distinctly unifying tendency. III. "ONE HOPE OF YOUR CALLING." 1. Its nature. Here it is not the thing "hoped for," as it is in Colossians 1:5 and Titus 2:13, but the emotion of hope, the expectation of future good. All believers have the same aspirations, the same anticipations of coming glory, as the effect of the Spirit's indwelling. The hope is subjective. 2. Its origin. The hope is "of your calling." It springs out of the effectual call of the Spirit, who begets us to "a lively hope" (1 Peter 1:3), being himself the Earnest and Seal of the future inheritance. We naturally hope for what we are invited to receive. 3. Its effect. Just as two strangers meeting for the first time on the deck of an emigrant ship, both bound for the same new land, and purposing to pursue the same occupation, are united by a common interest of expectation, so believers are drawn together into unity by a consideration of their common hopes. IV. "ONE LORD." As the Head of the Church, the supreme Object of faith, and into whose Name all saints are baptized. There are two ideas involved in this blessed lordship - ownership and authority. 1. Ownership. Jesus Christ is not only Lord of all, but especially Lord of his own people. We are not our own, for we have been redeemed and bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20), even with his precious blood. For this end he both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living (Romans 19:4). 2. Authority. Therefore we are subject to him, ore' reason to his guidance, our conscience to his precepts, our hearts to his constraining love. There is no part of our being, there is no event of our lives, that is not subject to this authority which brooks no rival. It is this subjection of all believers to one Lord that marks the inner unity of the Church; for loyalty to a common Lord makes them stand together in a common hope, a common life, a common love. V. "ONE FAITH." Not one creed, though all believers do really hold all that is essential to salvation, but one faith in its subjective aspect, through which the one Lord is apprehended. It is one in all believers, for they are all justified in exactly the same manner, and it is in all a faith that "purifieth the heart," "worketh by love," and "overcometh the world." It is not, therefore, an external unity that this faith builds up, but a union of a spiritual character, wrought by the grace of God. This principle or grace of faith has a thoroughly uniting tendency, because it brings us near to the Savior, and the nearer we stand to him we stand the nearer to one another. VI. "ONE BAPTISM." There is but one baptism, once administered, as the expression of our faith in Christ; one initiation into the one body by one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13); one dedication to the one Lord. All believers are baptized unto the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27, 28). Christendom owns but one baptism. It has been remarked as strange that the Lord's Supper - "the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17) - should not have a place among the unities, as it is essentially the symbol of union among believers. But it differs from baptism in two important respects: (1) baptism is individual, the Lord's Supper is social; (2) it is by baptism, spiritually regarded, we are carried into the unity of the one body (1 Corinthians 12:13); it is by the Lord's Supper we recognize continuously a unity already accomplished. Thus baptism is included among the seven unities, because it embodies the initial elements that enter into the unity. VII. "ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL, who is above all, and through all, and in all." The unity of the Church finds its consummation at last in him, who originated the scheme of grace and from whom all the other unities are derived. If God be our Father, then are we members of one family, brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, and are therefore bound to live together in unity. The counsel may well come to us, "See that ye fall not out by the way" (Genesis 45:24). All the unities are secured by the relation of God the Father to the Church. He is "over all" its members, and therefore there can be no rival sovereignty. The Church "is the habitation of God through the Spirit." He is "through all," in respect of pervading and supporting energy; he is "in all," as the Source and Spring of constant light and grace and goodness. There is here no pantheism. Thus there are seven unities, like so many distinct obligations, to incline believers to the unity of the Spirit, which can only be preserved in the bond of peace. Believers ought, indeed, to be of one heart and one soul. - T.C.
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. I. A TRUTH PROCLAIMED BY THE GOSPEL.II. A TRUTH MANIFOLDLY CONFIRMED BY CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 1. The Divine Father is over all His children. Fatherhood the ultimate truth concerning God on which all others rest, and out of which they grow. Expressive of (1) (2) (3) 2. The Divine Father is through all His children. This preposition suggests movement and instrumentality. (1) (2) (3) 3. The Divine Father is in all His children. (1) (2) (A. F. Muir, M. A.) The ideas connected with God and Father are here joined beautifully in the same person — power and love. Majesty is softened with tenderness, and the splendours of the Divinity tempered by the condescensions of paternal love. This principle is indeed wonderfully exemplified in all God's dealings with the human race since the beginning of the world. The entire Jewish theocracy was the clothing the splendours of the present Ruler under the forms of a carnal ritualism. Whenever, in the old Testament, the glory of the Lord appears, two things take place — the sinful creature is laid in the dust, and then a word of comfort comes from the excellent glory: power is tempered with grace; the majesty of Jehovah with the human heartedness of the Father. Thus it was with Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5-9); Ezekiel fell prostrate (Ezekiel 3:23); and Daniel fainted and was sick certain days (Daniel 8:17-27); John, the beloved, fell down as dead before the glory of his Master (Revelation 1:17); and even the fierce murderer of the saints (Acts 9:4, 5) was overwhelmed by the manifested glory. It is a source of comfort to remark that in these and all such cases there is ever some word or act of kindness on the part of God to raise up and strengthen His trembling creatures. It is the realizing of the name, "God and Father." This is, indeed, the principle of Incarnation. The awful glory of the incorruptible God is tempered, softened, humanized in the person of Christ.(W. Graham, D. D.) There are degrees of Fathership; or rather, there are such different degrees of the development of a Father's love as make new orders in the relationship. He is the Father of the inanimate creation. Job calls Him the Father of the rain. In a higher sense and measure, He is the Father of the whole human race. All are the creatures of His hand; all are the subjects of His special providence; for all Jesus died. But the believer says it as a heathen or man of the world never says it. Or, see it again in this way. God has only one begotten Son, Jesus Christ. As many as believe are united to Jesus Christ; they become members of that mystical body. So they become sons by a double process, and by virtue of their union with Christ they are sons indeed. Therefore to them in a further degree God is Father. I do not say He is a reconciled Father to them, that He did not need (that is not in the Bible), but they are reconciled children to Him. There are two persons who best know what it is to say "Father." One is a little, simple, trusting child, "of the womb of the morning," who has not yet unlearnt the faith of his infancy. The other is a penitent, rising up from his sin, going back to his home — "I will arise, and go to my Father, and will say unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee." I believe the remedy of all sorrow and almost all sin will be to think of God more as a Father. But this is not the line of thought along which I wish to take you now, but it is this, that God is the common Father of us all. Surely it would be a great thing if we could have it always before us — "One God and Father of all." There is a great deal of harshness of opinion in the world just now, and men are very busy unchurching and un-Christianizing one another. The rich speak of the poor as "the lower orders," and the poor — partly in consequence because they think the rich look down upon them — the poor dislike the rich much more than the rich dislike the poor. But ought this to be where all are one family? Do we call brothers and sisters "lower orders"? At this moment, have you any disagreement with any living man? have you any quarrel? Now think — That person has the same Father that I have; how patient that Father has been with that man; how very patient God has been with me; and is this the way, as a child of God, I should act to another child of the same God? There are deep mysteries in God's providence — why some are heathen and some are Christian, some know nothing and some know much, some have so many advantages and some have so exceedingly few. But let us never forget the Word, and all it tells, and all it teaches us to do — "One God and Father of us all." I know nothing which brings heaven so near. Here are we on earth trying to say, and we ought to say, every day, "Our Father." And up there, just inside the blue veil, the hundred forty-and-four thousand have "the Father's name on their foreheads." Was this the reason why Christ taught us to say, "Our Father"?(J. Vaughan, M. A.) The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy. The lowly pine on the mountain top waves its sombre boughs, and cries, "Thou art my sun." And the little meadow violet lifts its cup of blue, and whispers with its perfumed breath, "Thou art my sun." And the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind, and makes answer, "Thou art my sun." So God sits effulgent in heaven, not for a favoured few, but for the universe of life; and there is no creature so poor or so low that he may not look up with childlike confidence and say, "My Father, Thou art mine."(H. W. Beecher.) When Bulstrode Whitelock was embarking, in the year 1653, as ambassador for Sweden, he was much disturbed in his mind, as he rested at Harwich on the preceding night, which was stormy, while he reflected on the distracted state of the nation. It happened that a good and confidential servant slept in an adjacent bed, who, finding that his master could not sleep, at length said, "Pray, sir, will you give me leave to ask you a question?" "Certainly." "Pray, sir, don't you think that God governed the world very well before you came into it?" "Undoubtedly." "And pray, sir, don't you think that He will govern it quite as well when you are gone out of it?" "Certainly." "Then, sir, don't you think you may trust Him to govern it properly as long as you live?" To this last question Whitelock had nothing to reply, but, turning himself about, soon fell fast asleep, till he was aroused and called to embark.People Colossians, Ephesians, PaulPlaces EphesusTopics Acts, DwellsOutline 1. He exhorts to unity;7. and declares that God therefore gives various gifts unto men; 11. that his church might be edified, 16. and grow up in Christ. 18. He calls them from the impurity of the Gentiles; 24. to put on the new man; 25. to cast off lying; 29. and corrupt communication. Dictionary of Bible Themes Ephesians 4:6 1040 God, fatherhood 1040 God, fatherhood 1511 Trinity, relationships in 7967 spiritual gifts, responsibility Library January 14. "Unto the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ" (Eph. Iv. 13). "Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. iv. 13). God loves us so well that He will not suffer us to take less than His highest will. Some day we shall bless our faithful teacher, who kept the standard inflexibly rigid, and then gave us the strength and grace to reach it, and would not excuse us until we had accomplished all His glorious will. Let us be inexorable with ourselves. Let us mean exactly what God means, and have no discounts upon His promises or commandments. Let … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth July 27. "The Building up of the Body of Christ" (R. V. , Eph. Iv. 13). June 15. "Grow up into Him in all Things" (Eph. Iv. 15). The End of Religion The Likeness of God Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity the Christian Calling and Unity. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Duty to New and Old Man. The Calling and the Kingdom The Goal of Progress A Dark Picture and a Bright Hope The New Man Grieving the Spirit The Threefold Unity 'The Measure of Grace' Christ Our Lesson and Our Teacher Of the Church The Ascension of Christ Forgiveness Made Easy Grieving the Holy Spirit The Prison-House. The Authority and Utility of the Scriptures Of the Creation 0F Man The Central Sun The Truth in Jesus. 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