Immediately after Paul’s passionate prayer for spiritual strength through “him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think,” he defines that which we, two thousand years later, tragically consider impossible – the perfect unity Jesus prayed for:
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 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” (Eph 4:1-3).
What is the calling to which you and I have been called?
- Humility
- Gentleness
- Patience
- Bearing with one another in love
- Eager to maintain unity of the Spirit.
- In the bond of peace
One:
- Body
- Spirit
- Lord
- Faith
- Baptism
- God
- Father
Grace.
“But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph 4:7).
Grace is what we get when we turn from the bad fork in the road of temptation, disobedience, and disunity, onto the good fork in the road of repentance for sins, the never-ending love of God, and restoration and forgiveness of our sins. That is, when we complete the Cycle of Perfect Unity.
In that process, we are made one as Paul has mapped out above.
But what we receive is Christ’s free gift of grace, a gift unique to each one of us (Romans 12:3,6). What is the gift Christ has given you as a result of his forgiveness of your sins? Every one of us receives a gift from Jesus. It is the totality of all the gifts he has given all of us which are needed for us to realize true perfect unity in the church.
Hurry back for Part 2 as Paul amplifies this critical concept of unity, using the metaphor of one human body.
Meanwhile, spend some time absorbing the two bullet lists above. Do you see all of these behaviors contributing to one in perfect unity?