I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,(2) with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, (3) endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (4) There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; (5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism; (6) one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (7) But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ……..(11) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, (12) for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, (13) till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to be a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the apostle Paul, while he was in chains in Rome for preaching the gospel. In our verses today the apostle exhorts readers to walk worthy of their vocation, characterized by humility meekness, long suffering, and zeal to promote spiritual unity and peace. This unity is consistent with great diversity of gifts – various classes of ministers, evangelists and pastors who are teachers for the edification of the church and to bring all its members unity of faith and knowledge (doctrine). But often those churches that promote unity do so with scant concern with sound doctrine. There are forces urging us to set aside doctrinal differences. For Christian unity we must make sure we all are founded on the biblical basis – biblical unity built in the trust that there is one Spirit. The Spirit is the agent of regeneration or new birth

The church is one because it has one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father who is through and in all its members. There is no doctrine of Scripture more plainly revealed than the Spirit of God who dwells in all believers and that His presence is the ultimate ground of unity as the body of Christ. One body is not an exhortation but a declaration; all believers are in Christ. There is one Spirit which is the life of the body and dwells in all members. It is demanded of us that we love our brethren and live at peace with them.

The universal church is that body of individuals – all believers – bound together in unity. C.S. Lewis writes in ‘Mere Christianity’ that we can assert that it is required for “The Big Idea” to have a concise, ultimate list of the essentials of the Christian faith. This quote could lead us to say that the essential of essentials is “that there is one God and that Jesus Christ is His only Son.”