'Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 13
(R.V.).
The thought of the unity of the Church is much in the Apostle's mind in
this epistle. It is set forth in many places by his two favourite
metaphors of the body and the temple, by the relation of husband and
wife and by the family. It is contemplated in its great historical
realisation by the union of Jew and Gentile in one whole. In the
preceding context it is set forth as already existing, but also as lying
far-off in the future. The chapter begins with an earnest exhortation to
preserve this unity and with an exhibition of the oneness which does
really exist in body, spirit, hope, lord, faith, baptism. But the
Apostle swiftly passes to the corresponding thought of diversity. There
are varieties in the gifts of the one Spirit; whilst each individual in
the one whole receives his due portion, there are broad differences in
spiritual gifts. These differences do not break the oneness, but they
may tend to do so; they are not causes of separation and do not
necessarily interfere with unity, but they may be made so. Their
existence leaves room for brotherly helpfulness, and creates a
necessity for it. The wiser are to teach; the more advanced are to lead;
the more largely gifted are to encourage and stimulate the less richly
endowed. Such outward helps and brotherly impartations of gifts is, on
the one hand, a result of the one gift to the whole body, and is on the
other a sign of, because a necessity arising from, the imperfect degree
in which each individual has received of Christ's fulness; and these
helps of teaching and guidance have for their sole object to make
Christian men able to do without them, and are, as the text tells us, to
cease when, and to last till, we all attain to the fulness of Christ. To
Paul, then, the manifest unity of the Church was to be the end of its
earthly course, but it also was real, though incomplete, in the present,
and the emphasis of our text is not so much laid on telling us when this
oneness was to be manifested as in showing us in what it consists. We
have here a threefold expression of the true unity, as consisting in a
oneness of relation to Christ, a consequent maturity of manhood and a
perfect possession of all which is in Christ.