Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Ephesians 4:5

Ephesians 4:5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Here we have the way and means of salvation, presented as facts on which unity among Christians rests. A misapprehension of the second and third terms has led to diversity rather than unity. ‘One Lord' is the Personal Christ. The whole Epistle shows that out of Him there is no unity of the Spirit. He is not only the one object of faith, but the Lord to whom allegiance is due, and the loyal trust in Him, exercised by all who are Christians, is the ‘one faith.' For ‘faith' here does not mean what is believed, but the act of believing. The New Testament use of the word upholds this view; the conception of ‘faith' as a universal dogma belongs to later times, and has not been promotive of unity. Because we all exercise this one belief in the one Lord, we are to preserve unity. The other view because we need unity, let us lay down one creed has not been fortunate in its application. To this subjective fact of believing in the one Lord, there is added a third: ‘one baptism,' the external sign and seal of faith,' by which, as a badge, the members of Christ are outwardly and visibly stamped with His name' (Alford). The importance of baptism is thus emphasized, and it is further suggested that it has no efficacy apart from the ‘one Lord' and ‘one faith.' Baptism is named, rather than the Lord's Supper, since the latter is a manifestation of union preserved, while the former, ‘from its single celebration and marked individual reference, presents more clearly the idea of unity' (Ellicott), thus furnishing a motive for preserving it. The view that the third term prescribes one mode of baptism not only seems foreign to the drift of the Apostle's argument, but has proven unfortunate as a means of maintaining unity.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Ephesians 4:5

Old Testament

New Testament