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. Ephesians 4:1-3
After spending the first three chapters of Ephesians, laying out in great detail the magnitude of the grace of God and essentials of sound doctrine – Paul takes a turn in chapter four to a more practical approach. In chapter four, you find the beginnings of the “how’s”, which are laid on the solid doctrinal foundation in the preceding chapters.
He starts by entreating the Christians at Ephesus to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called”. A glimpse of what this walk really means can be seen when he follows up this call with some “how’s” – “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.”
Unity of the Spirit amongst the believers was critical at the time. Is it not so now? Think about it. Today, you’ve got the universalists and the liberals and the fundamentalists and the emergents and the reformed and the arminians and on and on and on. So where’s the unity?
Well, first of all, unity is not unity without regard to Truth. Many so called Christian groups have about as much truth in their midst as Bill Clinton at a family reunion. Unity cannot be claimed if the Truth of God’s Word – the Truth of the gospel – is not present.
So amongst what we would call – relatively sound groups of believers – what are barriers to unity? Dig deep and give me some good examples.