Paul now begins the practical section of his letter and he does so by highlighting the importance of unity. In verses 1-3, he describes what we could call the path of unity and in verses 4-6 he refers to nine aspects of unity, divided into three sets, with each member of the Trinity connected to a different set. By this method, Paul indicates that unity is possible and that it reflects the Trinity in action.
The first point to note is that Paul does not ask his readers to create unity, but to maintain it. The unity, which he calls the unity of the Spirit, was created when peace was made between them and God. As we have seen in earlier readings, this unity was created when Jesus came and preached peace to them through his servants, and they were converted. This means that any expression of practical disunity is a denial of the unity created by the gospel of peace.
The second point to note is that unity is progressive – we can see that this is the case from the apostle’s use of the word ‘walk’ in verse 1. Paul points out that their behaviour must be in line with their high calling to be God’s people. The calling they had received was based entirely on God’s grace. They had not deserved it, and that detail should never be forgotten.
Not only was it undeserved, the calling was unparalleled with any other because they had been called to be God’s special people, members of his family. Moreover, this calling was unending – they are God’s people forever. He has no intention of annulling the unity he has created when forming his people.
The third point to note is that there will be tensions that will work against this unity. If there were no tensions, then Paul would not have to urge them to maintain the unity. Without tensions, the unity would occur. In heaven, no one needs to be urged to maintain the unity, it just happens. The threats to the unity will come from the sin that remains in Christians, and the history of every church will show how this has taken place frequently.
The fourth point to note is that unity is maintained by correct attitudes. Paul mentions five essential attitudes – humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with others lovingly, and eagerness. It is not difficult to see how they contribute to unity. One way to see the need of them is to consider what their opposites are. The opposite of humility is thinking too highly of oneself, the opposite of gentleness is aggression, the opposite of patience is intolerance, the opposite of bearing with love is indifference, and the opposite of eagerness is disinterest.
We can say that a proud, aggressive, intolerant, indifferent and disinterested person contributes nothing to church unity. All of those things are matters of the heart and if they are present to any degree they disrupt unity. We may say that no Christian will have them present strongly in his or her life, but that is not Paul’s point. His point is that their presence in any degree will cause problems with unity. Instead, God’s people should be marked by the positive features of humility, gentleness, patience, love and eagerness.
No comments:
Post a Comment