Why the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Matters

There is a lot of conversation in the world today about the subject of unity. In some cases, the discussion is about the lack of it. Many seem to value it for its benefits; however, some have manipulated its benefits for personal gain. During World War II, Hitler commanded all religious groups to unite so that he could control them. Among the Brethren assemblies, half complied, and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time—those who did not face harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp. When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups, and there was much tension. Finally, they decided that the situation had to be healed. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining their own heart in the light of Christ’s commands. Then they came together. Francis Schaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend there, “What did you do then?” “We were just one,” he replied. As they confessed their hostility and bitterness to God and yielded to His control, the Holy Spirit created a spirit of unity among them. Love filled their hearts and dissolved their hatred. When love prevails among believers, especially in times of strong disagreement, it presents to the world an indisputable mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ. ¹ Why the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Matters that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Strive not to strive that is not involved with conflicts that rob your peace and hinder the body of Christ from operating in God-style unity.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
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Question: What do you believe about the vital nature of unity? Please share your testimony in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find more information on the book of Ephesians by clicking on the links below.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Defining the Unity of the Spirit

In last week’s podcast, we started in Ephesians and homed in on gentleness as a giant fruit of the recreated, born-again human spirit.

Ephesians 4:1–8 (ESV) — 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. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

What Is the Unity of the Spirit?

In a previous podcast, ‘Why Unity Is Essential in All Things God,’ we mentioned that the Word Unity in the Bible occurs four times.  Psalm 133:1 (ESV) — 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Ephesians 4:3 (ESV) — 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:13 (ESV) — 13 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,

1 Peter 3:8 (ESV) — 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

So, we have brothers living in unity, we have unity of the spirit, we have unity of faith, and we have unity of mind.
We also mentioned that the concept of unity is also expressed in other terminology in scripture besides the actual word ‘unity.’
So, you want to look up words, one accord — one mind — like-minded — agree with one another.

Philippians 2:2 (ESV) — 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Did you hear these similar phrases to unity — same mind, same love, full accord, one mind — all speak of unity?
Here’s another verse in Romans — hear it — pick out the unity part.

Romans 15:5–6 (ESV) — 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Live in harmony with one another — that’s unity.

Romans 12:16 (ESV) — 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

Colossians 3:14 (ESV) — 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Live together in unity — walking in love in perfect harmony — that’s what the Spirit of God is saying, and with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

Charles Osgood told the story of two ladies who lived in a convalescent center. Each had suffered an incapacitating stroke. Margaret’s stroke left her left side restricted, while Ruth’s stroke damaged her right side. Both of these ladies were accomplished pianists but had given up hope of ever playing again. The director of the center sat them down at a piano and encouraged them to play solo pieces together. They did, and a beautiful friendship developed. What a picture of the church’s needing to work together! What one member cannot do alone, perhaps two or more could do together—in harmony.²

Man, that is a great picture of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So, you see, unity is in the Bible many times even though it’s not expressly spelled out u-n-i-t-y.

Unity of the Spirit: Ephesians Four Style

Now, let’s reread verses two and three of Ephesians four, and I want you to take note of something.

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.

These areas that we are supposed to walk in, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance in love, funnel into unity.
Keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is the result, the last stop on the trail, the last exit on the highway.
These four traits pour like water from a river that bottoms out into the sea.
Did you know the Amazon River bottoms out into the Atlantic Ocean?
The Atlantic Ocean in this metaphor is unity; the Amazon River is humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance in love.
But first, we need to know what unity looks like and what it doesn’t look like.
Unity of the Spirit encompasses these four traits: if you don’t have humility, you don’t have unity.
Think about what’s happening politically in the world today, and I think you will see that humility is missing.
Why should we walk in humility? — it keeps us unified.
Look at it from the opposite side.
Pride brings division among people.
Arrogance is the source of strife and war.

James 4:1–3 (ESV) — 1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Follow that up with this verse in Proverbs.

Proverbs 13:10 (KJV 1900) — 10 Only by pride cometh contention: But with the well advised is wisdom.

The word contention in Hebrew means strife or bitter conflict.
It means heated, often violent dissension.
Gentleness, that giant fruit of the Spirit, is at work when there is real God-style unity.
Can you see that when you act in a manner that is mild and even-tempered, instead of harsh and hot-headed, that unity is the result?
When you are hot-headed and touchy, nobody enjoys that — give people a break.
Harshness drives people away.

Patience and the Unity of the Spirit

Let’s talk about patience for a moment.
What is patience?
Patience is long-suffering.
Long-suffering means to be long-tempered.
It is the ability to endure discomfort without fighting back.
Patience, like gentleness, is one of the fruits of the recreated, born-again human spirit.

Galatians 5:22–23 (KJV 1900) — 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Notice that unity is not a fruit of the spirit.
It’s a by-product of these fruits.
You don’t have to pass legislation to accomplish a spirit of unity.
Legal avenues do not obtain unity.
That’s not how you get there.
A verbal plea for unity, where you’re asking people to get on the same page, is not how you get to a spirit of unity.
The way you get to the unity of the spirit is by developing the fruit of the spirit in your everyday life.
When you do that, unity is the byproduct.
You walk in these fruits, and unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is the result.
Now, watch this about patience – understand this about being long-tempered.
Go over to Colossians one.

Colossians 1:9–11 (KJV 1900) — 9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

So, Paul is praying about strength just like he did with the Ephesian believers in Ephesians three.
It’s right to pray for one another to be strengthened.
But there is another part that needs to be understood.
Here it is in chapter three of Colossians.

Colossians 3:12–14 (ESV) — 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

‘Put on’ — look at those words ‘put on.’
Look at it closely.
Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
You must put on patience.
What does ‘put on’ mean?
It means you must wear it.
You must intentionally put it on.
Put it on like you put on a garment, a coat, a suit of clothes.
You understand what it means to put on a garment, don’t you?
I mean, you get dressed in the morning, don’t you?
At least I hope you do; you put on clothes in the morning before you head out.
You don’t go out of the door naked, do you?
Put on patience.
You wear it like a coat.
Here’s the thing about getting dressed.
It is an intentional thing.
You don’t get dressed haphazardly.
What would you look like going out that way?
You dress methodically — everything goes where it’s supposed to go.
What if you forgot something?
What if you forgot to put on your pants?
Wouldn’t that also be a mess?
What happens when you don’t put on patience?
It can be a mess, lead to a bad day, and lead to disunity.
So, you must pray and put it on – remind yourself that you are a person of patience.

Pictures of Unity on Planet Earth

So, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, let’s look at some more pictures of what this looks like.
Let’s reread this verses three through six.

Ephesians 4:3–6 (ESV) — 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Everything in these verses is of spiritual matter.
There is nothing natural in these verses.
The peace that we are talking about is not natural.
It’s not peace talks between opposing sides.
It’s not the slogans – ‘give peace a chance.’
The world doesn’t know what real peace is.
How do we know that?

Philippians 4:7 (ESV) — 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

To be at a point higher than another on a scale of linear extent, rise above, surpass.³
The Greek word for ‘understanding’ is the word translated as ‘mind’ — your mind.
So, when you put these two definitions together, the concept here is to show that the ‘peace of God’ is on a scale way higher than the mind can grasp — it surpasses the mind.
The unity that we are talking about here is in the same vein.
It is not natural unity.
It’s not ‘ra-ra’ unity – it’s not natural at all.
Now, let’s look at the list.

The Unity of the Spirit and One Body

The term ‘one’ — as in one body — does not mean one meaning singular but one meaning plural.
It does not mean ‘one’ as in number.
‘One’ refers to a plurality of people who are plugged in and joined together with believers they’ve largely never met.
Think about the small number of believers you have met versus the gigantic number of believers who have said yes to Jesus whom you have never met.
You don’t know 99.9% of them, yet they are all over the planet.
Not to mention all of the believers who have gone on to heaven before — you don’t even know 99.9999% of those people.
You are functioning in a body on unknowns held together in unity by one Holy Spirit of God.
But these four traits – these four fruits of the spirit that lead to the unity of the Holy Spirit in the bond of peace function the same in all Jesus people.
So when you meet a fellow Jesus follower for the first time, and you run into that gentleness of God that makes us all great, you recognize that, and it’s like you’ve known each other forever.
If you meet a Jesus follower in Japan, you will be amazed at how similar your conversation about Jesus and spiritual things is.
It’s a remarkable thing, this unity of the Spirit.
One body refers to the body of Christ – of course, that’s a spiritual body, not a physical one.
The Spirit of God inspired people to describe the spiritual body of Christ by comparing it to physical body parts.
The physical eye can’t say to the physical hand; I do not need you.
But that’s an analogy of how we are to be with one another.
I cannot say that I don’t need you — that I don’t need to be around you.
I need your faith, I need your confidence, I need your prayers, I need your compassion, I need your understanding, I need you putting up with me, I need your forbearance, I need the Spirit of God who comes upon you, I need you.
You should feel the same way about one another.
Let’s talk about one hope – one body and one hope.

The Unity of the Spirit and One Hope

Again, nothing in this list is natural.
One hope refers to spiritual hope — not natural human hope.
It’s not ‘let’s keep hope alive.’
That’s a catchy Jesse Jackson coined term — but catchy or not, it’s still natural.
This spiritual hope operates as it connects to faith and love making it a threefold cord that cannot be broken.
See it in First Corinthians thirteen.

1 Corinthians 13:11–13 (ESV) — 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Everyone understands that love is important for a Christian, and we all get that we must have faith in a God that we cannot see, but this hope bit, I’m not sure we get that.
Hope is on the same level; it’s in the same room, it’s in the same company as faith and love.
Holy Spirit-inspired hope is a compelling, largely untapped, misunderstood, or ununderstood Spirit reality.
Look at this passage in Hebrews.

Hebrews 6:17–20 (ESV) — 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

I love this passage.
It shows your Father God in heaven reaching down to men and endeavoring to communicate with them on a level that they can understand.
God cannot lie.
You know that as a fact in your mind.
But to magnify that and seal that, God came down and cut a covenant; the way men cut it so that by Him swearing as men do in a Blood Covenant ceremony, you have both the fact that He cannot lie and physical demonstration of it via the Blood Covenant ceremony.
Blood Covenant’s — you should study that — in fact, just sign up on the website emeryhorvath.com and you’ll get 65-page teaching on the Blood Covenant for subscribing.
Study it.
Blood covenants were the strongest binding contracts on planet earth, and they’ve been around long before lawyers messed everything up.
If you broke a blood covenant contract, that was an automatic death sentence.
Generations of family would hunt you down for breaking the covenant.
Here is God at work cutting a covenant with Abraham.
You remember that Abraham and Sarah were childless, yet God is saying to him, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you can number them. So shall your offspring be?”
Now Abraham believed that word from God — He believed that God would not lie.
God said it, so it must be so.

Genesis 15:6 (ESV) — 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

But there was more — there was the land that all Abraham’s immediate seed needed.
Everybody needs a home — needs a stay place.
Abraham asked the Lord,

> ‘Where is this land coming from? The only place I know of around here is full of giants. And these are of the mean and nasty variety — mean nasty and ten foot tall — that’s a bad combo, God — Where are you gonna get this land from?’

Genesis 15:7 (ESV) — 7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.

There’s the covenant ritual – take an animal — split it down the backbone — lay the pieces side by side — blood all over the animals — blood on the ground.

Genesis 15:12 (ESV) — As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

Then the Lord appears, and here is His oath.

Genesis 15:13–16 (ESV) — 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

That’s the oath.
Here is the ceremony.

Genesis 15:17–18 (ESV) —17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram…

The Lord came down and walking through those pieces – He got blood on His shoes.
Now that’s the back story – go back to Hebrews six.

Listen to it now — He did all of this — He went to this length with Abraham so that we might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
That hope came by promise.
But this is Abraham, you might say.
How does it help me in the hearing now?
Here’s the answer to that.
Jesus Christ became a blood covenant sacrifice for you, and with that blood covenant sacrifice, there were certain terms of that covenant, an oath that God made to you and me.
We read portions of this oath in Ephesians one through three.
God’s promises are sure and steadfast.
How do we know?
We know it by two immutable things: the fact that God cannot lie and by the Blood Covenant sacrifice of Jesus.
You might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before you by those two things.
Now fasten your seat belts because we are not through.
This part will blow your mind.
We are down to Hebrews six nineteen.
Hebrews 6:19–20 — We have this…

What is this?
It’s the hope you have laid hold of.

… as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

He’s talking about the original Tabernacle that is in heaven.
He’s talking about the original Mercy Seat — it’s in heaven — it’s still there.
Not the one that Moses had built for the children of Israel.
No, that’s a copy — that’s a replica.
The real Tabernacle and Mercy Seat and Ark of the Covenant, the one that Indiana Jones was looking for — I can tell why he couldn’t find it — it’s in heaven — you have to die to see it.
Your hope in your heart here on planet punches through the heavens and reaches inside the veil.
And people say, ‘Well, now don’t get your hopes up too high.’
Can I just be honest with you without you getting offended – don’t get your hopes up to high is just another stupid saying by men ignorant of the scripture.
Your hope is designed to go higher than the heavens, but it reaches behind the current where only the High Priest could go.

20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So, Jesus steps into that Tabernacle and goes past the torn curtain, and He is in there with the Mercy being a living picture of everything that Mercy Seat represents.
But He has company in there.
That room is surrounded with hope — your hope — your Holy Spirit-inspired hope.
It swirls around Him in that place.
Your hope speaks to the very Son of God.
We will have to pick this up.
You guys have a great God week in Jesus’ Name Amen.

#014: Being a Two Dimensional Believer [Podcast]

__________

References:

Our Daily Bread, October 4, 1992, Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
Don Higginbotham Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1033. ↩

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Why the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Matters

Podcast: Light on Life Season 9 Episode 16

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe on Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Question: What do you believe about the vital nature of unity? Please share your testimony in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find more information on the book of Ephesians by clicking on the links below.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Defining the Unity of the Spirit

What Is the Unity of the Spirit?

Unity of the Spirit: Ephesians Four Style

Patience and the Unity of the Spirit

Pictures of Unity on Planet Earth

The Unity of the Spirit and One Body

The Unity of the Spirit and One Hope

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe on Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Question: What do you believe about the vital nature of unity? Please share your testimony in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find more information on the book of Ephesians by clicking on the links below.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Defining the Unity of the Spirit

What Is the Unity of the Spirit?

Unity of the Spirit: Ephesians Four Style

Patience and the Unity of the Spirit

Pictures of Unity on Planet Earth

The Unity of the Spirit and One Body

The Unity of the Spirit and One Hope

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