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
Continuing with my study from last week, I finished the sentence Paul started in verse 1. The real goal of this whole coming section of scripture is Paul exhorting his readers to seek unity. The following passage is translated into English using the word "one" many times. Here, Paul is building up to that point by presenting this as the thesis for the next big point of his letter.
In summary, he tells us to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." He says we do this by being humble, gentle (or meek), patient, and forebearing.
Humility is a virtue that once you realize you have it, you've lost it. To be humble, you must never admit or declare that humility is yours, as such is the demonstration of humilities opposite: pride. Humility is a virtue that orders ones priorities correctly: (1) Christ, (2) others, and finally (3) self. Humility is the name we give to modesty and selflessness. This is a virtue for maintaining unity because a truly humble person is willing to absorb an insult to their pride because they have no pride to wound. If someone says, "You're an idiot!" The humble person agrees or at least takes the insult and then considers, "Am I an idiot?" The humble person is always evaluating himself for faults and never willing to accept the status quo. Romans 12:3 puts it well, "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has alloted to each a measure of faith." Humility is not martyrdom, "Oh, my life is so tough. Why am I such a loser?" No. This is self-pity and is placing one's own pity for self above concern for others.
The word translated as "gentleness" above is frequently translated as "gentleness and meekness." Gentleness is, according to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, "the quality or state of being gentle" and gentle is defined as "docile; free from harshness, sternness, or violence; moderate." Meek is defined as "enduring injurie with patience and without resentment; mild." The Bible Exposition Commentary defines meekness as "not weakness. It is power under control." They have this definition based upon the fact that both Moses (Numbers 12:3) and Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:29) were called meek. Moses smashed the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments when he first came down the mountain and found Israel worshiping a golden calf. Jesus Christ is the God-man and had all the power of creation to command at his will. He once silenced a storm with a word and physically threw the money-changers out of the temple for their abuse of the temple rituals. When I think of gentleness, I think of how one can gently wake a person by speaking their name or nudging them versus jumping on them and screaming, "Wake up or you'll be late!" (as my sister used to do in high school when my mom wanted me to get up for school.) A person being gentle has the power to be violent, but chooses to use a more subtle force. The Bible Exposition Commentary also mentions that the Greek language used this particular word to refer to soothing medicine, a broken colt, or a soft wind—all things that could cause rather more violent actions, but aren't. This is a force of unity because it means that one will make every effort to talk through a disagreement rather than resort to angry argument or violence.
The next virtue of unity is patience. Patience means "long-suffering" or in the Greek literally, "long-tempered." Patience is to endure discomfort without fighting back. Patience is a word seen frequently in the New Testament. This particular word for patience appears 14 times in the New Testament. In James 5:10, the James admonishes his readers, "As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord." The Old Testament prophets often suffered a great deal at the hands of a sinful Israel and yet they suffered without fighting back in many cases. Elijah, one of the greater prophets, was nearly killed on a number of occasions because of his uncompromising stand for Christ.
The final virtue of unity is forebearance, "bearing with one another in love." Forebearance is described as "a grace that cannot be experienced apart from love." This is a culmination of patience, humilty, and gentleness in love. We patiently bear with one another out of love for one another. We are humble and willing to pass over a slight against us by another out of love for one another. We are gentle in speaking to one another because we want the best for one another.
Now we come to the key clause, "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit with the bond of peace." Some translations use the term "endeavoring" rather than "eager" and both seem to be appropriate. To endeaver, according to Merriam-Webster, is "to attempt (as the fulfillment of an obligation) by exertion of effort; to work with a set purpose" and to be eager is to be "marked by enthusiastic or impatient desire or interest." It is a bit odd to see eagerness and patience set side-by-side, but we see that this is a harmony and they compliment one another in the way they are each used. We're "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit" which means that we are patient out of love for one another. Not only are we eager, but we are doing this because we intend to do so, this is our set purpose.
The phrase here can also be translated "we must constantly be endeavoring to maintain this unity." Unity is not something that comes naturally, but requires a maintaining force. Unity is not a natural part of the fallen world, it is a state that is only achieved through vigilence. The moment we stop maintaining unity, we lose it. As a side note, I feel that it is possible to maintain a sort of unity without vigilence, but this is a false unity we call "complacency." Unity occurs when two people differ in opinion, but agree to work together for the good of their common goal anyway. Complacency is not caring enough to have an opinion and not really working toward a goal.
Unity is also not uniformity. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses the human body to illustrate the idea of unity. Each part of the body does something different, but all the parts together are required for the human body to function normally. The same is true in the church, we all have different gifts and abilities and it is our goal to work together for the common goal of glorifying God through works. We may even differ on how that should be done, but, assuming the one we disagree with is not working outside of God's precepts (which compels me to continue the body analogy into tumors), we should work together in unity.
Finally, Matthew Henry puts it this way, "The seat of Christian unity is in the heart or spirit; it does not lie in one set of thoughts, nor in one form and mode of worship, but in one heart and one soul." Unity isn't about preferences or whether or not I believe the Bible teaches Calvinism or Arminianism. It's about working together to equip each other to do God's work and to reach out to those who are lost in the hope that they might be redeemed. I can disagree with my brother in Christ and still work with him to do Christ's work. We can even, in unity, vigorously debate our differences in order that we might spur one another on and use our differences as a lever to dive into God's word and understand more deeply God's truth. Unity is not uniformity.
Finally, this unity is carried out through "the bond of peace." Literally, by peace treaty. Ideally, if two nations disagree, they sign a peace treaty and each side agrees that they will accept a compromise in the interest of avoiding bloodshed. This requires that both sides of the agreement stick to the provisions of the treaty, even if they think they do not have everything just the way they'd prefer. Colossians 3:15 says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful." We should agree to seek unity in peace as Christ delivers such virtue to us and be thankful that Christ has given us such grace.
In conclusion, James 3:13-4:10 tells us that this peace is maintained only by getting our relationship with God right. If we aren't relating to God as we should, we will break the unity Jesus would give us grace to maintain. We must first get our priorities straight (i.e. be humble) and seek to know God and become closer to Him as our highest priority. Through maintainence of that relationship we may grow in unity with others. Soon we may find that we have the ability to endure the foolishness of others and not be quick to anger. We will be able to maintain unity through the bond of peace.
