What is the unity of the faith in Ephesians 4:13?
Ephesians 4:13
KJV - 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
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Asked November 13 2020
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Judith ayitu
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Jack Gutknecht
"Unity" in Eph 4:13 carries forward the ideal in Eph 4:1-6 -- The unity (4:1-6): Paul appeals for Christian unity based on 7 wonderful scriptural facts. 1. There is one body (4:1-4a): Christ's body. 2. There is one Spirit (4:4b): The Holy Spirit. 3. There is one hope (4:4c): Eternal life. 4. There is one Lord (4:5a): The triune God. 5. There is one faith (4:5b): The Christian faith. 6. There is one baptism (4:5c): The baptism of the Spirit into Christ's body. 7. There is one God and Father (4:6): The heavenly Father. "In the faith"--NIV-- (not "of the faith" as in the ESV) means the Christian common conviction about Christ and the teachings about Him, as the succeeding words of Eph 4:13 clarify. See also "the apostles' teaching" in Acts 2:42.
Tim Maas
I would say that, as Paul's words indicate by using the future tense, the unity of which he speaks is not a present condition. Even at the early time in which Paul wrote, there were apparently already divisions within the church, which prevented its members from being in complete agreement on all matters of the faith, and which have subsequently only grown over time to the multitude of denominations existing today. However, these conflicts were (and still are) not God's plan for the church, but reflect the result of the church being composed of individuals who (although they have been reconciled to God through faith in Christ) are still fallible beings living in a fallen world. In eternity, however, those distinctions will no longer apply or be present, since the process of Christians becoming ever more Christlike through the aid of the indwelling Holy Spirit will have been brought to completion, and the redeemed will be in complete agreement, in fulfillment of Jesus' high priestly prayer in which He prayed to the Father that His followers might be one in the Father and the Son, just as He and the Father were one (John 17:21).
Idorenyin Etuk
The Ministry gifts were given for edification of the Church, to build every member of Christ till we all come to believe alike about Christ, know Him in the same depth, reach maturity and are able to use our gifts in Him to serve one another and indeed humanity with the gospel. The gifts of Christ will not stop working in us until this has been achieved. This means till the Lord returns.
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