Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
The best arguers don’t point their fingers. That’s according to a study reported in Psychological Science. The study also said the person who says “we” the most during an argument suggests the best solutions.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied 59 couples. Spouses who used second-person pronouns (you) tended to be negative in interactions. Those using first-person plural pronouns (we) provided solutions to problems.
The study concluded, “‘We’ users may have a sense of shared interest. ‘You’-sayers tend to criticize and disagree.”[1]
[Unified in One True Faith]
In this morning’s epistle, the Apostle Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write to the Church in Ephesus and to all Christians that we are to be unified in the one true Christian faith.
Paul writes: “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
We are not to be divided, but instead united under one God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What Paul is writing is for all Christians to hold fast, keep, and treasure the unity we have in the Triune God. He is telling us to not create something new, but to hold on to the one true faith that was given to us through Christ and His apostles.
In today’s culture, we may want to change what we believe in order to gain more people in the pews. But, Paul is saying just the opposite. He is saying to remain true to the faith and to not to change with the culture.
An example of changing in hopes of gaining more people in the pews has been done by seven major mainline denominations, which now say, “Being in full communion and bonding together makes us stronger.”[2]
Instead of holding to God’s Written Word as found in the Holy Bible, they sought unity for unity sake. These church bodies have gone into full altar and pulpit fellowship just because they could.
They say they have a mutual recognition of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which allows for joint worship. But, in reality, they disagree. Each church body has differing opinions on the Lord’s Supper and what the Lord’s Supper does. This spectrum goes from the true body and blood of Christ shed for us for the forgiveness of sins to being a memorial meal or a reminder on what Christ had done, which eliminates the Lord’s Supper as a Means of Grace – a means of forgiveness.
So, in the end, they agree to disagree on fundamental doctrinal statements of belief. But is this what Paul meant by “unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:3)?
No, this is unionism. Unionism is joint worship and fellowship among churches that are not in doctrinal agreement. This might sound like a good way on unifying the Christian Church to many of us, but this is exactly what Paul is warning us about.
So, instead of “walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which [they] have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2-3), these churches are choosing to walk together in conflict. Their only agreement is that proper Christian doctrine does not matter.
As Christians, we are united in doctrine. For only in pure doctrine are we are unified in “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5).
We are unified in one Lord – not many Lords, but one Lord – who is Jesus Christ. We are unified in one faith – not many faiths – which is the true doctrine handed down to us in God’s Written Word. We are unified in one baptism, when we were adopted by the Triune God and thereby joined.
[Early Creedal Statement]
Well before Christians began memorizing the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, there were other creedal statements being memorized by Christians.
One such creed is in today’s epistle. In fact, I have already said it.
“There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
Here we read God’s Triune Name, but only backwards: Holy Spirit, Son, Father.
And, this creedal statement could even be seen as a creed within a creed, when Paul writes: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
You see, creedal statements were important to the early Christians and are equally important to Christians today.
These statements of faith say what we believe as a Christian. Statements such as these help us understand the Christian faith in just minimal words. These statements of faith also guard us against false teachings that float around in the culture.
You see, creeds such as “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” were written for one essential purpose: to unite Christians.
[One Faith]
During the time of the Reformation, there were many ideas floating around from the various reformers. Some reformers wanted to throw out everything connected to the historical Church.
Martin Luther, on the other hand, argued against throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Luther made some changes, but only changes created by man, rather than the Triune God.
As many other reformers were “tossing to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14), Luther remained faithful to the one true Christian faith as handed down by the Creeds.
Luther said, “[The Creed] holds together the Christian community, preventing factions and schisms. So Paul here [in Ephesians 4] admonishes men to be careful for harmony, making every endeavor to preserve it. [Paul] thus emphasizes oneness of doctrine – the one true faith.
“Above all things, then, the effort must be to preserve, in the Church, the doctrine of the Scriptures, pure and in its unity.”[3]
So, why is the Creed so important?
Well, for those who do not have the entire Word of God memorized, the Creed is the next best thing, since everything from the Creed is from God’s Word.
The Creed also reminds us on what is taught in God’s Word.
We are reminded that “there is one body”, which is the one holy Christian and apostolic Church.
According to God’s Word, the Church is the assembly of all those on earth who believe in Christ, just as we pray in the Creed. “Hence, although they be a thousand miles apart in body, they are yet an assembly in spirit because each one preaches, believes, hopes, loves, and lives like the other.”[4]
Pure doctrine is what unites the Christian Church.
Now, you may be thinking: “Does doctrine really matter? Don’t we want to be more appealing to those outside our church walls?”
Well, as Luther puts it, “Doctrine saves” because through proper teaching we learn about what Jesus has done and continues to do for us.
[Baby Food and Steak]
Now, as Christians it is difficult to comprehend pure doctrine depending on what stage of life you are in as a Christian.
When we were infants, we didn’t eat steak. As adults, we don’t eat baby food.
Likewise, when we are young in the faith, we can only comprehend what we can handle, but the goal is to mature and thus grow deeper in the one true faith.
Paul tells us that Jesus “gave us apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints” (Ephesians 4:11-12) – to outfit all Christians as a soldier for battle against false teachings.
In being handed down pure doctrine, we are able to know what is correct and wrong and thus we know how to defend ourselves and others from wicked teachings.
As our Lord Jesus Christ said in today’s gospel lesson, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27).
Then the crowd, which just witnessed the Feeding of the 5,000, asked Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28)
Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).
You see, the Holy Spirit gives us faith so we can believe in Jesus as our Lord, so we can be saved through Him.
[Jesus Unites Us to Him by Grace]
Today, we receive a foretaste of “the food that endures to eternal life” in the Lord’s Supper.
In this Supper, our faith is strengthened and our sins are forgiven.
All other food perishes, but Jesus is the “bread of life” who gives us life through His death on the cross, His resurrection from the grave, and His ascension to heaven where He lives and reigns to this day.
He alone gives us food so we shall not hunger. He alone gives us drink so what we shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
We have received this gift by grace through faith in Him – our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone “is the head” (Ephesians 4:15) of the whole body that unites us in the one true faith. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
T SOLI DEO GLORIA T
[1] 1001 Illustrations That Connect, “The
Best Arguers” (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2008), 328.
[2]
“Stronger Together: ELCA congregations find vitality through full-communion
partnerships,” Living Lutheran
(official ELCA magazine), August 2018, p. 14-19.
[3]
Thomas Winger, Concordia Commentary:
Ephesians (Concordia Publishing House: St. Louis, 2015) 489-490,
[4]
What Luther Says, #767, 260
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