Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
One God - The same God; therefore there should be unity. Were there many gods to be worshipped, there could be no more hope of unity than there is among the worshippers of Mammon and Bacchus, and the various other idols that people set up. People who have different pursuits, and different objects of supreme affection, can be expected to have no union. People who worship many gods, cannot hope to be united. Their affections are directed to different objects, and there is no harmony or sympathy of feeling. But where there is one supreme object of attachment there may be expected to be unity. The children of a family that are devoted to a parent, will be united among themselves; and the fact that all Christians have the same great object of worship, should constitute a strong bond of union among themselves - a chain always kept bright.
And Father of all - One God who is the Father of all; that is, who is a common Father to all who believe. That this refers to the Father, in contradistinction from the Son and the Holy Spirit, seems evident. The Spirit and the Son are mentioned in the previous verses. But the fact that the "Father of all" is mentioned as "God," does not Proverbs that the Spirit and the Son are not also endowed with divine attributes. That question is to be determined by the attributes ascribed to the Son and the Holy Spirit in other places. All sincere Christians worship "one" God, and "but" one. But they suppose that this one God subsists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united in a mysterious manner, and constituting the one God, and that there is no other God. That the Father is divine, they all hold, as Paul affirms here; that the Son and the Holy Spirit are also divine, they also hold; see the John 1 note; Heb. 1 note; Philippians 2:6 note; Romans 9:5 note. The meaning here is, that God is the common Father of "all" his people - of the rich and the poor; the bond and the free; the learned and the unlearned. He is no respecter of persons. Nothing would tend more to overcome the prejudices of color, rank, and wealth, than to feel that we all have one Father; and that we are all equally the objects of his favor; compare notes on Acts 17:26.
Who is above all - Who is supreme; who presides over all things.
And through all - He pervades universal nature, and his agency is seen everywhere.
And in you all - There is no one in whose heart he does not dwell. You are his temple, and he abides in you; see Ephesians 2:22; notes, I Corinthians 6:19. The argument here is, that as the same God dwelt in every heart, they ought to be one. See this argument beautifully expressed in the Saviour' s prayer, John 17:21; compare John 14:23.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Ephesians 4:6:
Zephaniah 3:9
Ephesians 3:15
Ephesians 4:8
Colossians 3:15
1 Timothy 2:5
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