Doug Smith wrote this reflection during our recent Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The Ecumenical Commission commends it as a thoughtful follow-up to our unity theme and an invitation to reflect more deeply on Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:5: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
– by Doug Smith
Ephesians 4:5 stands as one of the New Testament’s most uncompromising affirmations of ecclesial unity. It is not aspirational rhetoric, nor a sentimental plea for cooperation. It is a theological declaration grounded in reality as God has established it in Christ. Paul does not say we should strive to have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. He says we have them. The tragedy of the divided church is not that unity is difficult to achieve, but that it already exists and is routinely denied in practice.
One Lord
At the center of Christian unity is not agreement, culture, liturgy, politics, or even doctrine in the abstract, but lordship. To confess “one Lord” (κύριος) is to affirm the exclusive sovereignty of Jesus Christ over the Church and over his world. This confession relativizes every secondary authority—denominations, traditions, leaders, ideologies, and movements.
In today’s fractured church, divisions often arise not because Christ is unclear, but because rival lords quietly take His place. Political allegiances, national identities, theological camps, or personal platforms function as functional sovereignties. When Christ’s lordship becomes nominal rather than determinative, unity collapses. Churches may still speak His name, but they no longer submit together to His reign.
Paul’s assertion confronts a church that has learned to say “Jesus is Lord” while living as though He were a partisan ally rather than the crucified and risen ruler of all. Where Christ truly reigns, unity is not negotiated—it is recognized.
One Faith
“One faith” does not mean uniformity of opinion, nor does it erase theological development or legitimate disagreement. Rather, it refers to the shared apostolic confession—the gospel once delivered, centered on the saving work of Christ. It is faith received, not faith constructed.
The modern church often treats faith as a customizable product shaped by preference, experience, or ideology. In doing so, faith becomes a marker of tribal identity rather than a shared submission to revealed truth. The result is not diversity within unity, but fragmentation into self-reinforcing echo chambers.
Paul’s claim rebukes both doctrinal minimalism and doctrinal weaponization. The former empties faith of content in the name of peace; the latter uses doctrine as a tool of exclusion rather than communion. “One faith” calls the church back to a shared center—Christ proclaimed, Christ trusted, Christ obeyed—without which unity becomes hollow and without which diversity becomes chaos.
One Baptism
“One baptism” grounds unity not in sentiment, but in participation. Baptism is the act by which believers are incorporated into Christ and into one another. It is not a private spiritual milestone but a public, ecclesial reality. To be baptized is to be marked as belonging to the same body, sharing the same death and resurrection.
In a divided church, baptism is often reduced to a denominational boundary marker or a personal testimony detached from communal consequence. Paul will not allow this. Baptism declares that believers no longer define themselves primarily by race, class, culture, or tradition, but by union with Christ. To deny unity with those who share the same baptism is to contradict baptism’s meaning.
The church’s divisions therefore represent not merely organizational failure, but baptismal amnesia. We forget who we are and to whom we belong.
A Word to the Divided Church
Ephesians 4:5 does not call the church to manufacture unity through compromise or institutional consolidation. It calls the church to repentance—to align its visible life with its invisible reality. Unity is not created by lowering convictions, but by re-centering them on Christ. It is sustained not by sameness, but by humility, patience, and love (Eph. 4:2), virtues that only make sense when we acknowledge that we already belong to one another.
The divided church stands condemned not because it disagrees, but because it forgets. It forgets that it has one Lord who judges all factions. One faith that precedes all preferences. One baptism that binds believers together whether they choose it or not.
Ephesians 4:5 is therefore both comfort and confrontation. Comfort, because unity is not fragile—it is secured in Christ. Confrontation, because every schism, every rivalry, every refusal of fellowship must be measured against this unyielding truth: there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism—and the Church has no authority to live as though there were more.
Doug Smith is a member of the Servants of the Word and of the Charis Community in Belfast. He also serves in the Ecumenical Commission of the Sword of the Spirit. Doug has worked with Youth Initiatives for 34 years, and this reflection is grounded in the experience of seeing young people growing up amid Catholic–Protestant division in Northern Ireland, and in the urgent need for a more united Christian witness to the gospel.
