Transcript
Greetings in Jesus’ name. I am glad you have been able to join us today. It’s been a couple of weeks since I have been able to put up a lesson. I have had some other engagements I have been seeing to. And I want to make sure I send special greetings to all the different ones I have had an opportunity to visit with over the past couple of weeks, and to the different ones who have reached from here in Jeffersonville, and also all over the world. The saints in New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Alberta – God bless you all. Our brothers in Africa who reach out – I send you my love and greetings. I am so thankful for all the good reports we keep hearing. And to the brothers in the United Kingdom who have been working with me the past couple of months – God bless you. We have you in our prayers. And let us also keep in prayer the saints in Israel. And I would also ask you to pray for the brothers in the Philippines who are facing a lot of opposition. Let’s pray that God will bless their efforts.
In case this is your first time joining us here, and you wonder what we are up to. My name is Charles Paisley. I and most of our listeners here are formerly part of the cult following of William Branham known as The Message. I am formerly the associate pastor of the second oldest message church in the world, right here in Jeffersonville where The Message started. It was for many years the largest Message church here in the Jeffersonville area. And this is just a little mission we run to offer support and encouragement to people who are exiting The Message. And I thank everyone who listens, I appreciate your prayers and your support.
Let me also send my greetings to all our friends at Faith Assembly who are listening in regularly as well. I appreciate all the different ones who reached out from there the past couple of weeks. We are keeping you in our prayers, and looking for a change in your circumstances.
Today we are resuming our study of the book Ephesians. We were actually at a good stopping point just before we took our break a couple of weeks ago. We finished chapter 3. And today we are coming to chapter 4. So I invite you to open your Bibles, turn with me there, and I am going to read the first three verses of the chapter.
1 I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4 English Standard Version:
Let us pray. Lord God, I am so thankful for your kindness and grace towards each of us. We thank you for an opportunity to look into the scripture and to learn of you. Help us to see and understand the height, and the breadth, and the depth of these things. This we ask, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, brothers and sisters, as we come here to chapter four I am both excited and a bit anxious over going through this chapter of Ephesians. I have actually had people ask me a number of questions concerning things that are in this fourth chapter. And part of the reason I started this study of the book of Ephesians was to undertake to answer some of those questions.
In the places I come from, the message churches I once fellowshipped with, this was probably the most important chapter of the bible to us. In case you are not familiar with our background, The Message is built on the teachings of the earlier Latter Rain movement. The Message is one of the main branches of the Latter Rain movement. And this chapter here had very special importance to the Latter Rain movement. And in the churches I come from, specifically, the things we find in this fourth chapter defined the entire program of our church. And Message churches do have programs, even though they pretend not to. They have an objective they are working towards. And the basic of that program, where I come from, is based in part on a terrible misreading of this chapter of the bible.
And we are going to walk through this whole chapter nice and slowly and try to put everything in its proper place. And if you have been following along from the start of this series, it is going to be very helpful. Because everything we read in this fourth chapter, Paul has already given us an important context for it all in the preceding chapters. When Paul talks about unity here – he already explained what unity was in the preceding three chapters. When he talks about being filled with the fullness – he already explained that in the prior chapters. And as we come through here – everything Paul says in this fourth chapter is built upon what he said in the preceding chapters. And if you just start reading here, from chapter 4, you are going miss a lot of important context. And you can read this in a very wrong way. So I encourage you – if you have not listened to the prior lessons on Ephesians – you should go back and do that.
Now as we think of where we are overall within the book of Ephesians, chapter 4 is where Paul begins speaking of practice or practical application. This is where he starts explaining how we should behave and conduct ourselves as Christians. That is what chapter 4, 5, and 6 are going to be. Chapter 1, 2, and 3 are chapters about doctrine, chapters about how to think about things. And chapters 4, 5, and 6 are chapters about how to behave and how to conduct ourselves both as individuals and as a corporate church. So it’s important to recognize right here that Paul is making a major transition in his epistle.
Walk Worthy of Your Calling
Now, we notice this truth just by that first verse in chapter 4. Paul starts out by calling his Ephesian readers to walk worthy of their calling.
And that is exactly what the next three chapters are going to be about. It is going to be an explanation of what it looks like to walk worthy of our calling.
But before we start talking about that, let’s first consider and examine Paul’s opening phrase. Paul says – I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling.
And the way he says that tells us a few things. First off, it tells us these people are called.
We could go back to chapters one and two, and Paul explained how that works, and how it happens when people are called. Jesus Christ called the Ephesians to be part of his kingdom. In chapter one, Paul explained that they had been called to a hope, a hope that there is a brighter day coming, in which all things be made new, a hope that one day everything that is corrupt will be made pure. That is what the Ephesians have been called to. And so, we can go back to chapter 1 and understand exactly what this calling is, which Paul is speaking of. It is the calling to be a follower of Jesus Christ and calling to look for that hope of a better tomorrow when all things are made new.
And so, Paul is asking the Ephesians to walk worthy of that calling. And so that lets us know something else. It lets us know there is a walk that is associated with this calling. There is a way, or a lifestyle, or a manner of living, that is associated with this calling. And anyone who has spent much time reading the bible knows that to be true. There is a way to live that is godly, and there is a way to live that is ungodly. There is an upright way to live, and there is a wicked way to live. There is a way God wants us to walk, and there is a way God does not want us to walk.
And when Paul urges the Ephesians to walk worthy of their calling, he is urging them to live and walk in the upright and godly way, to live and walk in a way that matches their calling. He is asking them to live a good life as Christians.
As we consider that, it has another implication, and it is this: Walking worthy of our calling is not exactly an automatic thing. A person may be called, a person may be in Christ Jesus, yet Christ may not be living in their hearts in an active sort of way. Don’t forget the prayer which Paul prayed that ended chapter 3. In that prayer, Paul was praying for Christ to live in the hearts of the Ephesians so they could be rooted and grounded in love. He was praying at the end of chapter 3 for the exact same thing he is now telling them to do in their Christian walk at the start of chapter 4. And these Ephesians he is writing to are all Christians. These are people who are fully saved to the utmost. Paul made that abundantly clear in chapters 1 and 2. Paul is writing this letter to saved Christian people. But these saved Christian people have not developed a fully Christ-centered life. And it is important for us to notice that because some of us may have the idea that from the moment you are saved – you instantly and automatically live this perfectly Christ-centered life. But as we read what Paul is writing to the Ephesians, we see that is not the reality of their circumstances. They were saved, they were born again, yet they were not yet living a fully Christ-centered life at the time Paul writes this letter to them.
And that was obvious to us from the prayer at the end of Chapter 3, and it is obvious to us again from the opening words here in chapter 4. Paul actually has to pray for them and urge them to live a Christ-centered life, to live a life worthy of their calling.
Now, as you consider that, it tells us something. It tells us, it is possible to be saved – but not be living a fully Christ-centered life. It is possible to be saved – and not live in a way that is fully worthy of your calling.
That is implicit in what Paul is saying because that is exactly the circumstances of the Ephesians church. And the way Paul speaks of this, it lets us know there is an element of pressing, there is an element of seeking and desiring, and an element of being urged that helps encourage people to reach that Christ-centered life. There can be, and there usually is, a journey from the moment of our salvation to the moment we reach a truly Christ-centered life. It does not all come at once, just like it did not all come at once for these Ephesians.
And we should not let that discourage us. We should not let that make us disbelieve our salvation. But it should help us see exactly what Jesus told his disciples. He is the vine, and we are the branches. And we are going to grow as Christians. And when we abide in the vine – when we live and maintain a relationship with Jesus – over time we are going to grow. And it is a lifelong thing. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Every day with Jesus, we are growing. Every day, we are seeking to walk worthy. Every day, Christ is becoming a little bit more the center of our lives.
It is not a one and done sort of thing. The idea that someone is saved and immediately they are perfected for the rest of their life, that is not the typical sort of an experience we see expressed in scripture. In fact, that seems to actually contradict what we see showing us. If you get saved one day, and are immediately perfect forever after, then how can you ever grow? If you are instantly complete – there is no growing. And if we are supposed to be instantly complete – then why are there all these verses in the bible about growing? If you skipped the newborn phase, and you skipped adolescent phase, and if you went straight to maturity, that would not really match what the bible tells us. Scripture talks about growing. It does not talk about some sort of an instant total transformation.
Just like we are reading here in Ephesians 4. These people who are saved and in Christ, they have room to grow.
Now there is a movement that came up with the belief that all of this is instant and immediate. They believe you are instantly a perfected and totally mature from the moment you are saved. They are called the higher life movement. Some people call them the holiness movement. And they do indeed believe that the moment you are saved, you live sinlessly perfect the rest of your life. And if you don’t do that – then they will say you are not actually saved. That is the called doctrine of instant entire sanctification.
John Wesley didn’t believe in that. When people tell you that comes from John Wesley – they are lying to you. That is not what he believed.
John Wesley believed in progressive sanctification where we gradually grow into maturity. And that is actually what the bible teaches, that is what Paul is saying right here in Ephesians.
And let me give you one more thing to think about on this. If someone who is saved will automatically and instantly live in sinless perfection the rest of their life, if that is the case, then why would there ever be a need to preach about sin? If getting someone saved means they would live in sinless perfection forever, then all we would need to do is give them the gospel and see them be saved. We would never have to preach about holy living because they would all be perfect at the moment they got saved. Right?
And when you consider that, the mere fact that the bible spends so much time talking about living a good life and walking worthy, that is enough to let us know that being saved does not translate into some sort of automatic sinless perfection.
I believe we can all understand that, and the truth of what I am saying is implied right here in the words of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians.
The Fruit of the Spirit
So let’s move on to the next point. Immediately after Paul urges the Ephesians to walk worthy of their calling, he gives them a short summary of what that looks like. You could say, he immediately goes to the key points, a top ten list, the top items that encompass what it means to walk worthy of our calling.
And what do you think that list is? If you sat down and you asked someone in the places we come from, “What is the top ten things of walking worthy of your calling?” What do you think their top ten list would be? I am sure we would get lots of answers. But I can guarantee it will not be Paul’s top ten list. Let me read again Paul’s top-of-mind list of things, the top things it means, to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So, let me recap that list: humility, gentleness, patience, love, and peace.
And we will talk about unity of the spirit in our next lesson. But for now, let’s catch those things Paul gave: humility, gentleness, patience, love, and peace.
Let me ask you a question – what are those things? If you have ever gone to most any Christian church in the world, you should immediately recognize what those things are. Now, if you come from the places we come from, you might not recognize what those things are. But those things are the fruit of the spirit.
Going back to the parable of Jesus, he said he was the vine, we are the branches, and the branches will bear fruit when they are connected to the vine.
And these things we are reading right here, this is the fruit of the spirit. Jesus Christ himself told us love is the fruit of the spirit. And Paul explained, in his epistles, that really – all the rest of these things are components of love. Love is patient, love is gentle, love is kind, love is not puffed up, and the fruit of the spirit is love.
And so when we read what Paul is saying here, we understand that these things are the fruit of the spirit, and they are all attributes of love.
And, as we go through these verses, we will find that Paul keeps coming back to love as being the key here. If you jump down to verse 15 and 16, you will see Paul brings this back to love there, or if you go over to chapter 5, Paul is really clear. At the start of chapter 5 – he very plainly says that this walk he is talking about is about walking in love. So, How do we walk worthy of our calling? By walking in love, by showing the fruit of the spirit.
Let me read it again.
2 … [Walk with] all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So, this is what Paul is immediately drawing our attention to as he begins to talk about our walk and our lifestyle. When he begins to explain to us the sort of live we should live, this is where he starts. He starts with the fruit of the spirit.
And here is the thing – and you can go check and see if this is not so. But whether you go to Romans, or Colossians, or 1st Corinthians, or Galatians, or on down the list, this is always where Paul starts. This is always what Paul wraps the lifestyle of a Christian all around: love, joy, peace, patience, humility, faithful, the fruit of the spirit. The centerpiece of the Christian lifestyle is the love of God.
The hallmark of a Christian lifestyle is love. Jesus said, by this shall all men know you are my disciples because you love each other as I have loved you. Love is the centerpiece of the Christian lifestyle.
And Paul tells us, most clearly in 1st Corinthians 13, Paul tells us the fruit of the spirit are the treasures of heaven. These are the things which, moth and rust cannot corrupt. These are things that will be part of our lives and character for all eternity. And it is that godly character that defines holiness. It is God’s very nature that defines his holiness. And that is what the fruit of the spirit is – it is a character that is in the image of God, it is being Christ-like.
Jesus said, I am the life and I am the way. And when we live like Jesus, and when we walk like Jesus, it is going to look godly, it going to look like the character of God.
And so, it should be no surprise to us, that when Paul tells the Ephesians to walk worthy of their calling, Paul’s emphasis goes immediately to the fruit of the spirit, to the love of God.
This love of God is the top of the list of what it means to walk worthy of our calling.
Godly Character
These things are attributes of true godly character, and Paul starts out with humility, there in verse 2. Humility is about recognizing who we are, what we are, recognizing both our strengths and our weaknesses.
Being humble does not mean that we pretend like we are good for nothing, but being humble means having an honest assessment of ourselves. We know what we are good at, and we know what we are not good at. We know where our talents lie, and we know where we are weak. We know where we can help, and we know where we need help. And that is true humility. And in terms of our Christian walk, we know that we all need a savior, we know that none of us can save ourselves. And when I recognize that I need a savior, just as badly as you do, that is going to allow me to walk in a humble way.
When we are humble, we are not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.
And another thing about a humble person is that they are easy to get along with. A humble person doesn’t expect a lot, they don’t think the world owes them something.
There are people you meet in the world, and just about the first thing they do is tell you how wonderful they are, how big and successful and important they are.
But humble people are not that way. I heard a true story about a particular man, and he was a very wealthy millionaire, but nobody knew it. He lived just like everyone else in his town. He never told anybody about his great accomplishments, he never bragged about all the things he had done. And most of the people living around him just had no idea. To them, he was just a kind man who treated everyone good, who always lent a helping hand. And it was not until he died they even found out just how wealthy and successful he had been because when he died he split up his fortune between his friends and neighbors in his will. And you know, that is how I would like to be remembered. I don’t need people to recognize me because I am successful or wealthy or anything like that. I would just like people to recognize that I was a kind and loving person.
That is the kind of treasure that lasts forever.
And it really takes a work of God to bring about that sort of character in our lives. It’s not something we can really fake. It takes an act of the Holy Spirit to give us this sort of character.
So being humble, that is the first thing Paul mentions here, and the second thing is being gentle.
And I want you to think about that one. To walk worthy of your calling requires you to be gentle.
And I think we all know what gentleness is. When you hold a little baby, you hold it gently. When you pet your cat, you pet it gently. Gentle is the opposite of harsh and hard and sharp. Gentle defines the way we do things. There is a gentle way to speak, and there is a harsh way to speak. There a gentle way to handle situations, and there is a harsh way to handle situations.
And showing gentleness is walking worthy of our calling. In fact, it’s right up here at the top of the list.
Now the places we come from, there is not a lot of gentleness there. There is a lot of harshness, there is a lot of unnecessary hardness, and unnecessary cruelty. They have that in spades.
But you and I, we should strive to be better than that. We should take the words of Paul to heart. We should seek to be gentle people who can treat others in a way that is tender and loving. And as Paul says, with patience.
That is the next attribute Paul mentions, patience. Bearing with one another in love. And that means giving each other grace, it means we are going to show each other some tolerance.
And as you think about bearing with one another in love, that means we are going to be some things to bear, right? That means, there are going to be some differences, it means there is going to be some different points of view, some different ways of doing things, different people at different places on their journey. And we are going to have to bear with one another in love, we have to give each other some leeway.
Being in unity does not mean we are all identical, being in unity does not mean there are no differences in our views or differences in the way we do things, because we are still going to have to bear with each other at times, in love. That is what verse 2 is telling us. Verse 2 is telling us, we are not all going to be the same, we are not all going to be identical. And in fact, there are still going to be things that can cause friction. And we need to let love and patience and humility and gentleness guide us through those things which can cause friction. And verse 3 is telling us that when we do that, we will be maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
So, Paul is pretty plainly telling the Ephesians – they are going to have to learn to put up with some differences. And it’s going to take love, and patience and gentleness and humbleness to do that.
I want you to catch this. Paul is not painting a picture of everything being perfect and without friction. That idea absolutely does not align with what Paul is saying here. It’s actually the exact opposite. He is saying there will be friction. But we need to respond to those frictions with godly character. And when we do that – that will be maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
When I respond to a difference or a friction in a way that is loving, and kind, and gentle, and patient, and humble, when I do that, I am maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And that is exactly what Paul is asking the Ephesians to do.
Unity of the Spirit
Now, what is this unity of the spirit?
The unity of the spirit is the same unity Paul has been talking about since chapter 1. Remember how many times Paul said, “in him”? In him, in him, in him. I went back and counted, and Paul said that 29 times in the first three chapters. 29 times, by my count, Paul has talked about being in him, being in Christ. That is the unity of the spirit, being in Christ.
And in chapter 2, Paul explained how the unity was created, and it was created in him. You can go back to those lessons again if you want to be reminded of it all. But we are in unity from the moment we are saved. And this verse lets us know this unity is achieved through the spirit, which is really the same thing Paul explained in chapter 2 as well. Our unity is spiritual, it is supernatural, and it is in Jesus Christ, through the spirit.
It is exactly what Jesus said, “I in them, and thou in me, that we may all be made perfect in one.” That is the unity of the spirit, being one with Christ, which happens the moment we are saved.
And so, when you start reading this fourth chapter, don’t come to it with a predetermined idea of what unity is, and how it is created. If you do that, you are going to go down a wrong road. Unity is being united with Christ, and unity is created with him – and with all our brothers and sisters – from the moment we are saved, and are in him. That is exactly what Paul told us back in chapter 2.
And there is not basic unity, and intermediate unity, and advanced unity. There is just unity. And you either have it, or you don’t. You are either united with Christ through the spirit, or you are not.
And understanding that is important; otherwise, you will read this verse wrong.
Let me read it to you again. Verse 3 says, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Now, if you come from the places that we do, we believed that the thing we were supposed to maintain was the unity. We thought maintaining this unity was our job. And if we didn’t do it, if we didn’t maintain this unity, then we did not have unity.
If you have a disagreement, or if you don’t obey the preacher, or if you had friction, or all kinds of other things, if you had any of that, then you did not have unity.
And this is the very verse from which that idea comes.
But that is wrong. That is totally wrong, and that is not what this verse is saying.
You and I have absolutely nothing to do with maintaining or creating this unity. This unity is created the moment we are saved, and it persists in spite of anything and everything. Absolutely nothing breaks this spiritual unity. Satan cannot break it, we cannot break it. Nothing can break this unity. It is created by Jesus Christ. He holds it together, and nothing can break it. Jesus Christ created the unity, not me. He created it – as we learned in chapter 2 – by uniting himself with us and every joint in the body, every spot where we are connected together that matters, is in him. He is the spot where we all intersect. He is where all the joints come together, and that is the unity that counts, the connections in him.
And I encourage you to go listen to the lessons from chapter 2 if you missed them.
But you and I are not the ones who created this unity, and we are not the ones who maintain this unity. If we take that position, then we are taking a position that contradicts and denies what Paul wrote in chapter 2.
The unity is not created or maintained by you and me. The unity is created and maintained by Jesus Christ, and it is a supernatural unity that transcends all the differences of men and women. It is the unity of the body of Christ. And, I really want to drive that point home here.
Let me read verse 3 again. It says, “We should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
So if this unity is created and maintained by Jesus Christ, what exactly is Paul saying here? And when we look at unity the right way, we can understand the emphasis here is on the latter half of the verse. It is the bond of peace where our responsibility lies. The unity is created and maintained by Jesus Christ, despite us and in spite of us. If you and I are both in Christ, we have unity. Jesus created it, Jesus maintains it, and you and I may have a disagreement. There may be friction, there may be a different way of doing things. But we are still in unity, if we are in Christ. We are still united with Christ, and we are still united with each other, in Christ, regardless of anything else.
We are not responsible for the unity, but we are responsible for the bond of peace. We are responsible for that latter part of the verse. That is where the emphasis is here. It is our choice whether we will maintain this unity in the bond of peace or not in the bond of peace.
It was the Ephesians’ choice whether they would keep that unity in the bond of peace or not. They could be hostile, they could let their differences over eating pork and wearing phylacteries and those sort of things divide them. And we could go back to chapter 2 again, and Paul there says, none of that sort of stuff divides us. We may think those sort of things divide us, we may in fact even let it divide us. There are all kinds of things we could let divide us.
But Paul is saying here – keep the unity in the bond of peace. Keep relations between us peaceful. Even if we have some frictions, even if we have some different views, even if we have some different ways of doing things, we should not let that make us hostile towards each other. We should be able to let love and patience and humility and gentleness guide us through those differences, and that should let us keep the bond of peace with each other. That is the main thrust there in verse 2. It’s about getting along with each other and avoiding discord and disharmony.
“2 … bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
This is not about creating or maintaining the unity itself, but it is about what we should do in light of the fact that we do have unity because Jesus Christ has united us. And we should maintain the bond of peace. We should bear with one another. We should get along, not to create this unity, but because of the unity Jesus Christ already created. That is why we should behave this way.
Encouragement
So, as I bring this lesson to a close, I hope that we can look at the first part of chapter 4 with new eyes. I hope that the Holy Spirit will begin to open our understanding, and I hope you are beginning to see the direction we are going here with chapter 4.
And, as we will go into the next verses, we will see that this does not mean we accept anything and everything, that we put up with anything and everything. There is a minimum threshold, you might say, there are minimum things which we have a right to expect from each other, and we will look at that next time. But I hope you see that these verses are set up to allow people with a variety of differences to find a way to still get along.
And I hope you see already that the entire way we approached this chapter in the doomsday cult was fundamentally flawed. It was not based on a plain reading of the book of Ephesians. It was instead something based on false notions from false preachers, and they did it in order to confuse the people and to take power over them and rule them in a totally unbiblical way.
Where we come from, unity is all about saying, “I agree and support the preacher 100%,” and I must have heard that ten thousand times in my life. And they thought that was unity. But that is just a man-made unity. It was not the unity of the spirit, it is not the unity of the faith, it is not a unity with Jesus Christ. What it is, is a unity with man.
And I want to encourage you to see that Paul focuses on the fruit of the spirit here. Doing that is working worthy of your calling, and Paul is going to have a whole lot more to add by the time we get to the end of chapter 6. But I want to encourage you to seek and desire this fruit of the spirit. Desire to be humble, and patient, and gentle, and loving, and peaceful. Those attributes, the real version – not the plastic version – the real version is what this whole Christian walk is seeking to produce within us. That is God’s most grand plan for our lives. It is to redeem us, to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ, so that no matter where we go, no matter what we do, whatever our pursuits are in life, whatever our career, or wherever we live, whatever that looks like, that in whatever we do and wherever we do it, we can be like Christ, that we can show others kindness, and love, and gentleness, that we can be patient with others. That is truly the greatest treasure we can obtain in our life, is to have a character that is Christ-like.
And if you look in your life today, and like me, if you see room for improvement, then let us take these very words of the apostle Paul to heart. He is urging us all to walk worthy of our calling. There is room for us to grow, and if we abide in the vine – if Christ lives in our heart – we will grow day by day, and these things will with time come to define our character, and it won’t be because of a reform program, but it will be because the Holy Spirit is at work with us, making us to be fruitful Christians.
Prayer
Let me close in prayer. Holy Father, how wonderful it is to have understanding. You told Jeremiah not to let a man boast in his riches or his strength, but if a man boasts, let him boast in this, that he knows and understands me. Lord God, we are so thankful that we understand, we are so thankful that we know you. Help us each and every one, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.