You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
In the previous verse, one Spirit was defined. In this verse, one Lord is defined. And in the next verse one Father will be defined.
These statements alone eliminate all other religions and distinguish Christianity as unique and completely separate from them all. And especially Islam which did not exist back in that day, but even today makes the claim of authoring the Bible. See the study on Islam in the Special Study Library online.
One Lord, is a reference to Jesus Christ. He is the same Lord that walked in the Garden with Adam. He is the same Lord that created the universe and all life. Jesus Christ is God and man in the same person. The unique person in all of existence. As God He has always existed. As man, Jesus was born into this world to his mother Mary, but that does not make Him any less of deity, but makes Him unique. All other gods or god want-to-be's are false.
One faith, is a reference to the method of salvation. Faith is a non-meritorious belief, and Christianity promotes faith in Christ as the one and only method of salvation. There are no works involved, no effort of man by which he may be saved, no contribution by man whatsoever in the work of salvation. There is no other method and no other source of salvation. Christ alone went to the Cross, not humanity in general. Christ alone paid the price, not humanity in general.
Where most if not all religions and beliefs and philosophies look to mans effort or discovery for achievement of some higher existence, Christianity is the one and only faith, that is totally controlled, run and maintained by faith.
One baptism, is the reference to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Other baptisms teach this principle by using water baptism, fire baptism, sprinkling baptism and so forth. But the actual purpose of Baptism is to establish a real consecration, a sanctification, a hallowing, a setting apart of the individual from the rest of the world, and water is symbolic only and cannot accomplish that. Anyone can take a swim or a shower with or without water, but only the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, who actually enters into each and every believer at the moment of salvation, actually achieves this independence of the individual from the world.
While many other religions claim separation, they are merely the same as everything else, with only the smoke and mirrors of lies that support them, which means that they accomplish nothing.
