| Our Unity in the Spirit
Division among Christians brings shame and disrepute to the church, to Christ, and to His gospel. Christian unity brings glory to Jesus Christ and demonstrates the reality of God’s grace, love, and forgiveness. In other words, our oneness is our witness!
Paul shows us in Ephesians 4:3-6 that keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace comes down to this one thing: oneness. Unity is oneness. Not sameness, but a special oneness centered on a few core essentials—one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God the Father. Some would seize on the word unity in verse 3 and say, “That’s the problem with the church today! It’s not unified! We need to gather all the churches and all the denominations into one big church. Then the church will have power, because there is power in numbers! Churches of the world, unite!”
From the world’s point of view, such feelings certainly make sense. Those sentiments lead to a move toward ecumenism, toward a single universal church, in the world today. But those who pursue a unification of all church bodies into a single, worldwide church body miss what the Bible teaches about the unity of the Spirit.
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