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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Ephesians 4:4 - 4:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The connection with the preceding verses is as follows: I exhort you to unity, for you stand related to the Church, which is one body in Christ; to the one Spirit who informs it; to the one hope which your calling inspires; to the one Lord, Christ, in whom you believe with one common faith, and receive one common sign of that faith, baptism. Above all, to the one God and Father.
Body - Spirit
The body is the invisible Church, the mystical body of Christ: the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Πνεῦμα spirit, is never used in the New Testament of temper or disposition.
Even as
To the facts of one body and one Spirit corresponds the fact of their calling in one hope. Compare Col 3:15.
In one hope of your calling (ἐν μιᾷ ἐλπίδι τῆς κλήσεως ὑμῶν)
In, not by. Their calling took place in the one hope as its moral element or sphere, since they were called to fellowship with Christ who is the one object and the one inspirer of hope. Compare called in peace, 1Co 7:15; in sanctification, 1Th 4:7 (Rev.). Hope here is not the object but the principle of hope. The phrase hope of your calling signifies hope which is characteristic of God's call to salvation, and is engendered by it. See on Eph 1:18.