One Faith

"One Faith" (Eph. 4:5)

The heart of Jesus' prayer in John 17 is for the Unity of His Church. Paul in Ephesians 4 tells us this unity is produced by the Holy Spirit, but we are to be careful not to grieve the Spirit and to not give the devil any opportunity by maintaining the unity. He instructs us to do that by paying particularly close attention to what we say.

In Eph. 4:4-6 there are 7 different "Ones" that form the basis of our unity. We have already seen that there is only One Body, the corporate universal church, and there is One Holy Spirit that breathes life into that body. And we are united around our common hope of the incredible inheritance we have in Christ and which God has guaranteed in our lives by the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Yesterday we noted the fourth "One" which is the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is also one faith. That is the body of common belief that comprises orthodox doctrine. Yes, there are many things that we can debate and be divided over in interpretation, but the essence of the Scripture, particularly the Gospel is not debateable. There is only one way to become a follower of Jesus Christ. There is only one basic body of truth that comprises the core of faith.