Paul here is switching from who is God and teaching theology to now what do you do with what you have been given. How do you act knowing who you are and what you have been given? Paul is using the word “therefore” to switch from doctrine to practice. Chapter 1-3 is doctrine and Chapters 4-6 is practice.
Paul calls himself “a prisoner for the Lord”. He is addressing the church this way, so they understand he is one who belongs to the same fellowship, but for now he is a prisoner for what he is doing for Christ. What should they be doing for the Lord? This is where he will begin to tell them.
He is in chains and not with them but wants them to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called”. Here begins the request for duty. Doctrine then Duty.
Read Ephesians 4:2-3
Guidelines are being setup for what it means to “walk in a manner worthy”. As brothers and sisters in Christ we are to have humility, be gentle and patient with one another. Not haughty or aggressive and short with the members of the body, this is what love is. Love is a verb, not a feeling. Love is trying to be those 3 things when dealing with others within the Church and outside the Church. They will know us by our actions. This was true in Paul’s day and today it is a truth that still stands. We should strive for these things because that is love. If you “love Jesus” you will follow His commandment. What is His commandment? John 13:34.
“Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit”. This is not something we work to achieve we already have it. There is this unity when the Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jew or Greek, slave or free- and all were made to drink of one Spirit”. 1 Corinthians 13:2. All brothers and sisters, believers have been united by one Spirit and we should preserve that unity between us. No matter the denomination of the church or the disagreements between certain doctrines. Preserve the unity and follow Jesus’ commandment.
In a bond of peace. The Colossians were called to let the “peace of Christ rule in your hearts…which you were called into one body” (Col. 3:15). It is this peace that is in view. If they live at peace with one another the unity of the Spirit will be preserved for them. The fruit of the Spirit are these things.
Read Ephesians 4:4-6
Vs. 4 – Here Paul is stressing the unity of One. One body and One Spirit that called you into one hope that belongs to your call. Jesus prayed this before His crucifixion in John 17:21-22. Paul is reiterating what Jesus’ prayed for all believers, then and now.
What does Paul mean by call?
He says, “hope that belongs to your call” – If we look back at Ephesians 1:18 it says, “the hope of His calling”.
David B. Curtis says this, “Paul prays that his readers might grasp more fully the hope into which God has brought them by His call. The genitive that follows “calling” is a subjective genitive and should be translated: “The hope produced by His calling.” – Commentary on Ephesians
Again, as I have said in other studies the “hope” that Paul is talking about is for the 1st Century believers and not for us today. The Second Coming of Christ was the hope of the early church, but for us today that hope has been fulfilled. For more information about Preterism and why I say the Second Coming has already happened study or listen to these lessons from David B. Curtis.
Vs.5 – There is one object of the Christian faith, that is Jesus Christ. With that one object is one faith, not multiple faiths. Not faith that if I work for the Kingdom I am saved. If I don’t drink, smoke, dance and participate in secular things like music I will be saved. It is one belief that Jesus was God that came in the flesh and died. That is the one faith that saves.
The “one baptism” here is not talking about water. Paul is talking about the baptism of the Spirit. Water is the physical symbol of what the Spirit does first.
For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slave or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13
To further research if water baptism plays a part in the baptism that saves go here.
Vs. 6 – This is not talking about God as the Father for all. Only for those who believe in the son Jesus the Christ. 1 Peter 1:3. He is our Father because we have been given the right to be called His children and share in the love the Father has for His son. John 1:12.
Over all and through all means Jew and Gentile a like. The elect is what Paul is talk about here. Though God is over all creation and controls everything including what happens to non-believers. This passage is strictly talking to believers only.
“So far as the grammatical forms are concerned, the gender might be either masculine or neuter, but the word is most probably to be understood as personal, as in the preceding phrase: ‘one God and Father of all’. That he is transcendent over all His children needs no emphasizing. He exists “through” them perhaps in the sense that they are instruments or agents through whom He works.” Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) pg. 337
Crack A Bible 