All for One and One For All

Written: December 27th, 2013

So one thing I’ve been thinking about recently is the topic of unity. What is unity? Or better yet what is true unity? Biblical unity. It’s a topic I’ve really been dwelling on. When I decided to dive into this topic I went to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. Paul sets the base for this topic pretty firmly. “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace.” Ephesians 4:2-3 Very straightforward. One of the first things that really popped out and stuck with me is “EAGER to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” After reading this I decided to look up the Greek word for eager, the word is spoudazó and the meaning is hasten. The word spoudazó is a verb, the word also originates from the Greek word spoudé which means “Speed, haste, earnestness, enthusiasm.” Think about that for a second. What Paul is saying here is to be quick to, earnestly, enthusiastically maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. I don’t know why this stuck out to me so much but it did. To maintain unity it requires us to play a part and actively strive for unity. I feel like now a days we get lazy on this and stop striving for unity. It’s the mentality if we are in unity great! If not, well then I’m not going to do anything to attain or maintain unity. It’s seems as though it’s something we just let float instead of something we actively pursue.

Paul then sets the foundation in verses 4-6 “There is one body and one spirit- just as you were called to 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.” He is laying down the foundation of what we believe. The core statement I guess you could say. He says later in the chapter “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Ephesians 4:13-16 One thing that kills unity is tradition or personally thinking one thing we believe is better than another. We need to bring back unity and stop focusing on our differences and stop arguing and disagreeing. All it’s doing is killing unity. We must be eager, excited, happy, quick to attain and then maintain unity in the spirit. When a group is in unity they can achieve almost anything. Just look at what the 12 disciples did when they were in unity. Things run smoothly when in unity. A constant theme throughout the New Testament is the body of Christ. Let’s say I need to bring some medicine to some one who is sick and what If my right leg wants to go forward but my left leg wants to stay still, will I ever walk? No I won’t. Because my body isn’t in unity to achieve the common goal which is to get me from point A to point B to bring medicine to the sick. As the body of Christ we all have one common goal and that’s to bring the greatly needed medicine(Jesus, The gospel) to the sick and dying(The word) until he returns. We can not achieve this goal when not in unity. “Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” Matthew 12:25.

Going back to the beginning of chapter 4 and to verses 2-3 they say “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace.” So one thing we all need to understand is, it’s not going to be easy. If it were easy we would all already be in unity. First thing is that we must be humble and gentle, when we become prideful everything becomes about us and we get hard and tend to hurt people. Instead of being humble where it’s no longer about us but others, then being gentle so we don’t hurt those around us. Also we must be patient and bear with one another in love. The truth is we all get on each other’s nerves. Times we all just want to fight with one another and not be together in unity. We must deal with one another with love. We must be patient with our brothers and sisters in Christ, if you have real brothers and sisters one thing you’ll understand is being impatient. It’s like when they get on our nerves we are so quick to give them what they deserve rather then dealing with them in love and being patient. Like I said early to maintain unity it’s an active part. Something in which we must pursue with our lives. If just 12 people who were in unity changed the world as we know it. How much more would happen if the Church, Christ’s bride, lived in unity. Today strive for unity. Actively search for ways you can help maintain unity. Because unity is vital.