Group of Unity

As we continue to consider this process of producing an environment always conducive to reaching people for Christ and helping them to be all that the Lord desires for them to be, one thing that is most important is to maintain an attitude of unity.  We can do a lot and do it with an attitude that does not maintain or preserve a unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

In last week's class we discussed briefly what this means.  The scripture reference was Ephesians 4:1-6 with emphasis on the first three verses. 

Ephesians 4:1-3  I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We focused on the question of, "What is this unity of the Spirit?"  The answer to this question is dependent on the answer to "How do we walk a walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called?"  This unity of the Spirit is preserved, or as Dale would point out from his KJV, it is kept,  as we Christians walk a life with all "humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to on another in love."

A Worthy Walk:  We saw from the text that the scripture lays out a progression of attitudes of the heart that are characteristic of the worthy walk. They are "all humility," "gentleness," "patience, and  "forbearing love."   It was brought up that these are a result of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and are therefore a testimony of His presence as the fruit of the Spirit is demonstrated.   
Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love (forbearing love), joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness (meekness), self-control. Against such there is no law.


Are these characteristics that will be present in the life of all believers?  If we base the answer to this question on the fact that these characteristics of a worthy walk are also fruit of the Spirit, then I believe we could say all believers will eventually demonstrate these and the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace will be evident.  Christians will be united in the Spirit because this unity is defined based not on what they do but on who they are. 

Weust, in his Word Studies of the Greek NT, says, "Keep or preserve" is tereo, "to keep by guarding, to guard by exercising watchful care."  It speaks of guarding something which is in one's possession.  "Unity" is henotes, "unanimity, agreement."  It is the unanimity or agreement among Christians that is the product of the Holy Spirit.  "Bond" is sundesmos, "that which binds together."  "Of peace" is genitive of description, defining this binding factor.  Peace is the binding factor which will preserve the unity which the Spirit has produced.  In other words, "The unity, therefore, which is wrought among these Ephesians by the Spirit of God will be theirs in so far as they make peace the relation which they maintain one to another, or the bond in which they walk together."

Therefore, if I understand what Weust is saying, the unity is something that we do not produce but is something we are given by the Spirit of God.  It is something we possess.  The Unity is the product of the Holy Spirit and it binds us together as long as we have peace.   So, how do we have peace?  This is experienced as we have humility, meekness, patience, and forbearing love and these are fruit of the Spirit.  Sounds like a closed loop, and it is, everything is relative to the presence of the Spirit, so if we are Christians we can, or are, united in the Spirit.  It is something God does as we experience the reality that we are His.  It is fruit that is based on who we are, not on what we do.

Can you not see this in the Lifegroup?  Our unity is centered around the truth that we are brothers and sisters in the faith, not on what we know. 

But, where does doctrine come in?  This is what we will be discussing this coming Sunday.  Your assignment is to read chapter 4 and be prepared to discuss what the unity is mentioned in verse 13 and is it different from the unity mentioned in verse 3?

Hint: What do we do to maintain, preserve, keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?