Articles
PLEASE EXPLAIN EPHESIANS 4:4-6, ONE BODY
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all.” These verses are commonly called the “seven ones” of Ephesians 4.
ONE is single in number. There is ONE BODY, not two, three, or three hundred! How strange for people to subscribe to the idea that the Lord has many bodies when the text plainly says there is ONE. Preachers can preach for people to join the body (church) of their choice, but it will not change what the Bible says; there is only one.
The ONE BODY is the CHURCH. Ephesians 1:22-23 says God gave Christ to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body. And he is the head of the body, the church (Colossians 1:18). There is one head. There is one body. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up (Matthew 15:13). Every church existing today that is not (in every particular) practicing what the church of the New Testament practiced, is not the church built by our Lord. Denominationalism is not part of the one church because it does not practice the doctrine of the New Testament.
Christ died for the church, the body. He purchased it with His own blood (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Jesus said, I will build my church (Matthew 16:18), and that is exactly what He did. It was established on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The church of Christ was not an accident (Ephesians 3:10-11). It is the eternal kingdom prophesied through the ages (Matt. 16:18-19; Acts 2:16).
The church is composed of the saved, all the saved (Ephesians 5:23), because those who are saved are added to it by the Lord (Acts 2:41,47). There are no saved people outside the church, for it is the church the Lord will save when He comes again (Ephesians 5:23). There is only one door of entrance into the church. We are all bap-tized into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13). Those on Pentecost became members of the church by being baptized (Acts 2:38-41). Why not become a member of the ONE BODY, the church of Christ? It's the only way to be saved from your sins in this wicked world.
An article from the DAILY CORINTHIAN (Corinth, MS)
