Paul said that there was a way we should walk through this life: worthy walking and we talked of that much in the previous lesson. Three keys to worthy walking are humility, gentleness, and patience. Walking worthy is not just a duty or payback for all that God has done for us. It is heaven’s style of life. It is God’s pattern, the very best shape.
Eager to unity
1 I
therefore , a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3–ESV)
Gentleness, humility, and patience are practical steps that are to flow from the heart, the source motivation. Paul teaches renewed motivation in these verses as the unity of the Spirit. Paul urges them, “Be eager for unity; strive for peace.”
Many times life in and around others will threaten unity. Oftentimes that threat degenerates into the squabbles common to man. Paul was not naive to that but wanted the members of a church community to strive against the common. When a group of people is eager toward a goal there is a better likelihood for success in that matter. Human eagerness does not guarantee success, but human eagerness in the hand and wind of Divine purpose is another matter.
In this life you and I will have collisions with others, but what can happen if we accept this and strive to bear the shortcomings of others? Is it not better to hold our tongue than to bare our teeth? Is God unaware or unable to help the deficiencies of others? How sure are you that your annoyances are weighty matters in the hand of God? Maybe this is just their different style. If their style rubs you wrong, bite your lip; don’t rub them back.
How about a hands free law?
In Georgia, your body cannot support a cell phone while driving. Of course, we know that means you cannot hold it, but it goes farther than that. It cannot even sit on your leg. That is the gist of the hands-free law.
Let’s spiritualize it a bit in terms of the unity of the Spirit. Think for a moment of a cell phone. Those ubiquitous electronic devices are delivery information and distract from life. If we walk down the hall pouring over our mobile device we risk bumping into all manner of things. Consider now your cell phone as representing your own self-interest. Focus there and you bump into others. If we take our gaze off of our own interests, our cell phone so to speak, and put it on Jesus while we drive or walk down people-street won’t we will have fewer collisions? If we take our motivations off of self and put them on Christ we foster unity of the Spirit.
If we put on the seatbelt of peace while we drive through this life, unavoidable collisions are less likely to seriously hurt us. These ideas could be called the hands-free law of Christian unity. Unity of the spirit is an option through the bond of peace. That is good, great, eternal, helpful, pleasant.
Richard Ulrich says
My friend, Dr. William Conrad, points out that the Kingdom of God has two sequential parts. The first is the redemptive rule of God in each believer. The second is the realm where His reign will be exhibited over the whole earth, “in the ages to come” (Eph 2:7). Unity and diversity in our lives and in the church is very dynamic; and from time to time it certainly exhibits disconcerting discord and divisiveness . The advice St. Paul gives in this regard is “if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Rom 12:18 KJV). The mark of any successful manager or statesman includes “ability to get consensus” according to the late historian, Dr. Rufus Fears. This often implies a kind of compromise which is hard to sort out and to reconcile with principles. RAU