One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
All Commentaries on Ephesians 4:6 Go To Ephesians 4
John Chrysostom
AD 407
The love Paul requires of us is no common love, but that which cements us together, and makes us cleave inseparably to one another, and effects as great and as perfect a union as though it were between limb and limb. For this is that love which produces great and glorious fruits. Hence he says, there is one body; one, both by sympathy, and by not opposing the good of others, and by sharing their joy, having expressed all at once by this figure. He then beautifully adds, and one Spirit, showing that from the one body there will be one Spirit: or, that it is possible that there may be indeed one body, and yet not one Spirit; as, for instance, if any member of it should be a friend of heretics: or else he is, by this expression, shaming them into unanimity, saying, as it were, You who have received one Spirit, and have been made to drink at one fountain, ought not to be divided in mind; or else by spirit here he means their zeal. Then he adds, Even as you were called in one hope of your calling, that is, God has called you all on the same terms. He has bestowed nothing upon one more than upon another. To all He has freely given immortality, to all eternal life, to all immortal glory, to all brotherhood, to all inheritance. He is the common Head of all; He has raised all up, and made them sit with Him. Ephesians 2:6 You then who in the spiritual world have so great equality of privileges, whence is it that you are high-minded? Is it that one is wealthy and another strong? How ridiculous must this be? For tell me, if the emperor some day were to take ten persons, and to array them all in purple, and seat them on the royal throne, and to bestow upon all the same honor, would any one of these, think ye, venture to reproach another, as being more wealthy or more illustrious than he? Surely never. And I have not yet said all; for the difference is not so great in heaven as here below we differ. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Behold the hope of your calling. One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. For can it be, that you are called by the name of a greater God, another, of a lesser God? That you are saved by faith, and another by works? That you have received remission in baptism, while another has not? There is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. Who is over all, that is, the Lord and above all; and through all, that is, providing for, ordering all; and in you all, that is, who dwells in you all. Now this they own to be an attribute of the Son; so that were it an argument of inferiority, it never would have been said of the Father.
