<P> `` There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call one Lord , one faith , one baptism , one God and Father of all , who is over all and through all and in all '' . This list in the Pauline letters of factors making Christians one body , one church , is doubtless not meant to be exhaustive , says Francis Aloysius Sullivan , but it affirms the oneness of the body , the church , through what Christians have in common , what they have communion in . Elsewhere , Paul the Apostle says : `` There is neither Jew nor Greek , there is neither slave nor free , there is no male and female , for you are all one in Christ Jesus '' ( Gal. 3 : 28 ) . This statement was about Christians as individuals , but it applied to them also as groups , as local churches , whether composed mainly of Jewish or Gentile Christians . In 1 Cor. 15 : 9 , Paul spoke of himself as having persecuted `` the church of God '' , not just the local church in Jerusalem but the same church that he addresses at the beginning of that letter as `` the church of God that is in Corinth '' ( 1 Cor. 1 : 2 ) . In the same letter , he tells Christians : `` You are the body of Christ and individually members of it '' ( 1 Cor. 12 : 27 ) , and declares that , `` just as the body is one and has many members , and all the members of the body , though many , are one body , so it is with Christ '' ( 1 Cor. 12 : 12 ) . </P>
what is meant by the church is one
the oneness of the body , the church , through what Christians have in common , what they have communion in