2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:2-3)
The obvious theme in today's text is unity. Why would God direct Paul to, at this point in this letter, address the need for maintaining the unity of the Spirit? The Holy Spirit has provided believers with unity, but it is up to us to maintain it. Our unity is of utmost importance if we are to accomplish the call of God on our lives.
In Ephesians 4:3 the way to lead a life worthy of our calling is to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:2 tells us how to maintain spiritual unity. This will be our content for today.
In v.3, the Apostle commands us to "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit." The Holy Spirit has provided for us the unity by unshackling us from the slavery of the irrational, self-defensive prejudices of our flesh and of this world. The Holy Spirit was the One who enabled us to have faith in Christ and to discover confidence in the God of the Bible. And it is the Holy Spirit who bears the fruit of love in our lives. It is from this posture that we "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit."
In v.2 the Apostle Paul commands us to "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." There are two stages in v.2 which are produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives to realize love among us.
The first stage that leads us to unity is to be humble and gentle. The knowledge of our high calling should make humble. Humility is a disposition of thinking lowly of ourselves and highly of Christ. Christian meekness is the demeanor of a person with this disposition.
Christian humility makes us to be accurate in our appraisal of ourselves in light of God's unmerited mercy and grace. We are growing in being defined by God. This causes us to be gentle with others, especially those who are in the family of God. This is the first stage of love, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to see the awesomeness of God.
The second stage of love results from the first. It involves "being patient and bearing with one another." Humility is the prerequisite of patience. Arrogant people are not patient. Once we have seen God for who He is, we know how underserving we are. The patience and the forbearance with others flow naturally from this disposition.
Paul is saying be humble in spirit so that you can patiently endure the differences and the sins we encounter in the church. The humble are minutely aware of the immensity of our debt toward God and how far He has gone to redeem us from the slavery of the flesh and of the world.
It is said that when the British and French were fighting in Canada in the 1750s, Admiral Phipps, commander of the British fleet, was told to anchor outside Quebec. He was given orders to wait for the British land forces to arrive, then support them when they attacked the city. Phipps' navy arrived early. As the admiral waited, he became annoyed by the statues of the saints that adorned the towers of a nearby cathedral, so he commanded his men to shoot at them with the ships' cannons. No one knows how many rounds were fired or how many statues were knocked out, but when the land forces arrived and the signal was given to attack, the admiral was of no help. He had used up all his ammunition shooting at the "saints."
