The Unity

"Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Eph. 4:3)

It is important to notice in this passage of scripture that Paul writes about "the" unity and not "a" unity. The unity is produced by the Holy Spirit. It is a precious gift and it is a unity that happens inwardly among the members of the church, which Paul describes as the body of Christ. The responsibility that the individuals members of the body have is to "keep the unity" or maintain the unity. It is a word that means to guard diligently.

So how do we do that? Paul says in v. 1, "Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." In other words, he says, live up to the name that Christ has given you. Be who He has enabled you to be in the new life He has given to you. Two of the characteristics of that new life are given to us in v. 2, where he says we are to walk in humility and gentleness. Those qualities will equip us to do what he says in the rest of that verse; "making allowance for each other's faults because of your love." (NLT)

Then Paul begins a list of seven "ones" that unite us; "One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all." The mission statement of our church is "Believe, Belong, and Become." I think we do pretty good in comprehending the first and the last part of that. We are called to believe in Christ, and to become like Him. We are living in a time, however, where people spend a lot of time church hopping and church shopping. We have lost sight of the concept of membership. Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 all speak of these same concepts. We are members one of another.

Another metaphor used by Paul is to describe the church as the "bride of Christ." When we fail to make a commitment to the Body of Christ, we spend our lives dating Christ instead of being married to Him. Get connected today. By the way, if you find a perfect church with a perfect pastor, and perfect membership, don't join that church. You will likely mess it up.

I'm Just Saying.

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." (Eph. 4:29)

I find it hard to often quote Mark Twain because he could be such a profane man. Once, however, he said, 'It is not the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that bother me, but rather the parts I do understand." Certainly there are some difficult words in the Scriptures that challenge us in every dimension of our lives.

Perhaps we need to look again at the power of our words. The old adage, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," just isn't true. Words bring a blessing or a curse to those who hear them. And notice this Word from God in Ephesians that only gives us permission to speak (or for that matter write) words that give grace. It seems to me then we should only speak words that bring glory to God, bring a witness to the lost, or build up another Christian in faith.

And we are instructed to be sure that they bring grace to everyone who hears, not just someone we would speak directly to or about. Satan must jump and dance for joy when God's children speak words that hurt and accuse. When we speak words other than words of grace, we do satan's work for him. God help us speak words that minister grace to everyone.