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The Church is one. When the apostle wrote this Epistle there were societies of Christians — Churches — in Rome, in Corinth, in Thessalonica, in Philippi, in Colosse, in Ephesus, in the cities and towns of Galatia, in the Syrian Antioch, and in Jerusalem. There were less famous Churches in other cities. They stood apart from each other; every separate Church had authority over its own affairs, maintained its own discipline, elected its own bishops and deacons, organized its own worship. As yet there was no confederation of these independent societies under any central ecclesiastical authority. Their unity was not constituted by an external organization, but by their common possession of the Spirit of God, and it is therefore called by the apostle "the unity of the Spirit." He has spoken of the unity of the Church in the earlier part of the Epistle. The exclusion of the pagan races from "the commonwealth of Israel" had ceased; "the middle wall of partition" which separated them from the sacred court in which the elect nation had nearer access to God had been broken down. There was now one city of the saints, of which all Christian men of every nation were citizens; one household of God in which they were all children; one holy temple "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone," into the sacred walls of which they were all built "for a habitation of God in the Spirit." He has asserted this unity in a still bolder form; for after speaking of the glory of Christ, who sits at the right hand of God, "far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come," he described the Church as "the Body" of Christ, the organ of His life and thought and will, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." And now he returns to this great conception. The "Body" of Christ, he says, is "one"; the "Spirit" of Goal who dwells in it is "one"; and in harmony with this unity of the "Body" of Christ and this unity of the "Spirit" who dwells in it, the great "hope" of all Christian men, of all who have been called into the Divine kingdom and have obeyed the call, is "one." There is "one Lord," only one — Christ Jesus the Prince and the Saviour of men; "one faith" — not a common creed, but a common trust in Christ for eternal righteousness and eternal glory; "one baptism," and one only, the same rite by which Christ visibly claims men as belonging to the race for which He died, and over which He reigns, is administered to all. There is "one God and Father of all"; we all worship before the same eternal throne, and in Christ we are all the children of the same Divine Father; His sovereignty is absolute and supreme — He is "over all"; the power of His life penetrates the whole Body of Christ — He is "through all"; and His home is in all Christians — He is "in all."

(R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

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KJV: There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

WEB: There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling;