Everyone wants peace and unity, but they don’t just happen. The Apostle Paul’s commitment to unity made him “a prisoner for the Lord”, literally being held in Roman custody due to hostility toward how he preached peace (Eph. 4:1; cf. Acts 28:17-20). Even though proclaiming God’s plan to “unite all things” in Christ led to his own freedom being restricted, Paul still urged us as Jesus’ followers to be humble, gentle, patient, loving, and especially “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 1:10, 4:1-3).
“Eagerness” is exactly what it takes. Because we are all so different, unity requires that we purposefully find common ground. For Christians, that part should be easy: it’s Jesus. We share “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). The challenge lies in making Him our focus when we interact with that difficult family member, debate that tough decision, or react to political controversy. This means loving our Christian brothers and sisters even more than family (cf. Matt. 12:46-50). It means seeing others with the compassion of a shepherd who never stops searching for the one lost sheep (cf. Luke 15). No matter how much we want unity, we will never achieve it so long as our thoughts aren’t humble and gentle, our speech isn’t patient and loving, or our focus is on any agenda other than Jesus.
Yet when we are focused on Jesus, our differences become “gifts” given to each one of us by Christ to be used for the purpose of building up His body (Eph. 4:7-12). Instead of scoring points or winning arguments, our aim becomes helping “all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:13). Instead of promoting divisive rhetoric or even blatant falsehoods, we are “speaking the truth in love”, specifically with the goal of helping everyone become more like Jesus (Eph. 4:15).
None of this is easy, especially in a world that walks with futile minds and darkened understanding, “alienated from the life of God” by hard hearts (Eph. 4:17-18). Yet while it is tempting to fight the callousness around us with our own half-truths, anger, or abusive language, that’s not the way we have learned Christ (Eph. 4:20). We are called to love; and if we are both eager to maintain unity and willing to work for it, we will be amazed at the ways Christ makes us grow.
Ready to learn from Jesus and His apostles how to be truly united? Check out our sermon series “That They May Be One”.