Eph 4:6 One Father and Lord

This seventh and final blessing from God, is meant to cause or inspire unity as the first six, but what does it mean that God is our father question

If we are to confess God is our father, it would be beneficial if not revealing, to define what a father is therefore defining or exploring how we perceive God to be our father in our accuracies or in accuracies

Why do you think God choses to describe Himself as a father ?

this is not asking what “father” means to you, rather what “father” means to God

Just as Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness to turn from the three great aspects of fatherhood so two are we tempted

Matt 4:1-11

Luke 4:1-13

their sequence changes but the narrative is the same:

Matt. 4:1 ¶ Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Luke 4:1 ¶ Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness

Matt. 4:2 And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

Luke 4:2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.

Matt. 4:3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Luke 4:3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Matt. 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written: ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”

this was a temptation to distrust his father’s provisional abilities and do it himself 

Deuteronomy 8:3

Matt. 4:5 ¶ Then the devil *took Him along into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,

Luke 4:5 ¶ And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

Matt. 4:6 and he *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written: 

‘HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS ORDERS CONCERNING YOU’; 

and  ‘ON THEIR HANDS THEY WILL LIFT YOU UP, 

SO THAT YOU DO NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

Luke 4:9 ¶ And he brought Him into Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;

Luke 4:10 for it is written: 

‘HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS ORDERS CONCERNING YOU, TO PROTECT YOU,’

Luke 4:11 ¶ and, ‘ON THEIR HANDS THEY WILL LIFT YOU UP, 

SO THAT YOU DO NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

Matt. 4:7 ¶ Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written: ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

Luke 4:12 ¶ And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been stated, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

This was a temptation to abuse the protection of the Father just to prove it, to test it (an abuse founded in doubt)

Deuteronomy 6:16

Matt. 4:8 ¶ Again, the devil *took Him along to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;

Luke 4:6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I want.

Matt. 4:9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.”

Luke 4:7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”

Matt. 4:10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

Luke 4:8 Jesus replied to him, “It is written: ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

This was a temptation to give ourselves to any thing other than to our Father for gain, for profit, for power. (“sacrifice God’s plan for you life in exchange for an easier one … I’ll even promise you the same destination as long as you surrender your trust in Him and trust me instead”)

Deuteronomy 6:13

Matt. 4:11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to serve Him.

Luke 4:13 ¶ And so when the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

The Temptations give us insight into what a Father is, does (and how a man is made in God’s image to reflect our Father in heaven)

• Provision
  • Jesus went from needing bread to becoming our bread (the manna from the Father)
• P rotection
  • Jesus went from refusing sin by refusing to abuse the protection of God to being abused by His creation in order to free us from the abuse of sin.
• P
• residing
  • Jesus refused to deny the Father’s authority (submitting to His plan and even timing) in order to . in time, become the very plan and authority over all creation.

His Fatherhood to us is tied to our submission to these three facets of Him 

our experience and power as His children, is proportional to the degree we live out these three facets

(to say “I know … but” is already going down the wrong path, away from the Father)

Some seem to bargain with God (going on strike as it were) when you come through for me, I’ll step towards you more (“I’ll act more like your child when you give me what I want and when I want it”)

Psalm 37:4

“Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

 (flipping this verse backwards , waiting for the desires out our heart , flesh or spirit, to be fulfilled before we will submit our hearts to Him (which would have made our desires in alignment with His and safe to fulfill)). Even His timing is an issue of submission 

Jesus taught this in 

John 15:7

If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

(but we like to focus on the “whatever you wish” and ignore the “remain in me” which is often translated “abide in me”

Common love for the Father is supposed to unite brothers and sisters

Luke 15:11-32 as opposed to being divisive or even jealous of each other in the presence of the Father

Who we act like reveals who our Father is

John 8:44

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies

the biblical notion of Fatherhood included the idea that the child reflected their father, in nature, in character, 

For God to tell us, here in Eph 4:6 that He is our One Father is to remind us that one of the seven blessings of unity is that we are all supposed to reflect Him in our interactions with each other and the world.

A good child reflects well upon their Father so that those who see them, see Him

• John 12:45
  • And the one who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.
• Galatians 4:6 
  • Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”
• Hebrews 1:3-5 
  • 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and [b]upholds all things by [c]the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, to the extent that He has inherited a more excellent name than they. 
  • 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say,
  • “You are My Son, Today I have fathered You”? And again, “I will be a Father to Him And He will be a Son to Me”?
• Hebrews 12:5-11 
  • 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had [a]earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of [b]spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
• 1 John 3:1, 9-10 
  • 3 See [a]how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.
  • 9 No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: [a]anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.

Would we expect to discover division within the Trinity ?

(why not?)

but if we reflect Him, and are empowered by all three persons of the Trinity to do so,

why should our unity be any different than theirs ?

the obvious answer is that sin creates the division, selfishness creates competition, division, arguments

(see James treatise on double mindedness dividing the body of Chris)

James 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his ¹natural face ^ain a mirror;

James 1:24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, ¹he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

James 2:14 ¶ What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

James 2:15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,

James 2:16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

James 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

James 2:18 ¶ But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

James 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

James 2:20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

he then talks about the tongue, and how the tongue should promote the same unity that our faith demands

James 4:1 ¶ What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

James 4:2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

James 4:6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

James 4:7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

who is over all and through all and in all

ἐπὶ πάντων καὶ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν.

this is not pantheism …

over all

through all

in all

same word for all used each time (the “all” is the same but what is the “all”

is this saying that God is in everything ? (trees, our communion bread, the bird eating a worm)

that is pantheism

(God is all and all is God)

that is like trying to say that God IS the creation He created (He created Himself?)

scripture teaches that God exists eternally, and spoke creation into existence 

His will, His Word, is the source of all that is created

(He therefore has to exist outside of that creation)

God created all things

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11

God is omnipresent 

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalm 139:7–10

saying his presence is everywhere is not the same as saying creation is either part of God, or is God.

Pantheism implies that miracles are impossible. A miracle requires God to intervene on behalf of something or someone outside of himself. Thus, pantheism rules out miracles because “all is God and God is all.” Christianity believes in a God who loves and cares about people and intervenes miraculously and regularly in their lives.

Bible teaches God exists outside of all creation (meaning He is not in the creation)

John 1:1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

So this all used 

over all

through all

in all

is not talking about creation.

the context indicates that “all” refers to all His children (all believers)

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

these are the all in Eph 4:6

those are united because they are of one Father and God, who is over all of us, working through all of us, and in all of us.

Eph. 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Eph. 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;

Eph. 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Eph. 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

We are commanded to always work for, submit towards unity as a body, because of these seven things God has given to us

The one body of the Church

the One Spirit

The One Hope of our calling

Our One Lord

the One faith,

One baptism (into that body)

One Father (who is God), who is over all of us, working through all of us, and is in all of us

Providing, Protecting, and Presiding to empower us to achieve and hold this unity He desires