4:5a

one Lord: We all have the same Lord. Here one Lord refers to the Lord Jesus.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

There is one Lord (Good News Translation)
-or-
We have only one Lord (Contemporary English Version)

one faith: The phrase one faith refers to belief in the same teaching/doctrine about Christ.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

Christian doctrine/teachings
-or-
set of beliefs/teachings
-or-
one way of believing

See faith, Meaning 2 in the Glossary for more information.

4:5b

one baptism: The word baptism refers to a special ritual washing to purify someone. In this context the ritual implied purifying/cleansing from sin. It was an initiation that marked the beginning of that person’s life as one of God’s pure people.

You should translate baptism in a similar way as you translate “baptize.” However, the form of the word or phrase may be different. For example, here are some ways to translate baptism with a descriptive term:

ritual washing
-or-
purification/initiation ⌊for God⌋
-or-
entering the water

• Use a term for a similar ritual that is already used in your culture. You may need to indicate that in this context it has a special connection with God. For example:

God’s ceremonial bath
-or-
initiation water for God

• Use a term that is already accepted by the local churches. In some areas this term may have been borrowed from the national language or transliterated from Greek or English.

General Comment on baptism

The meaning here is that we all have been baptized with the same baptism. Paul also meant that we all were baptized as a symbol that we are Christians. In the first century, when Paul wrote this letter, baptism had not yet become an issue that Christians argued about. So he was not talking about the method of baptism (sprinkling, immersion or some other method). Baptism was something that all Christians had in common.

Some people think Paul was talking about being baptized by the Holy Spirit here (see 1 Corinthians 12:13), but most people think he was talking about water baptism. Your translation should be general and should not specify any one kind or mode of baptism.

© 1999, 2019 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.