The Unity of the Spirit
Treasuring the Body of Christ, Part 2
In my last post, I ended with this question: If God’s people are, in a spiritual sense, His family, His bride, His temple, and His Body, what this mean for us as a worshipping community? What does it mean to love on Jesus by loving one another?
Honestly, this is a really difficult question to live out in our daily experience. I have been in the midst of some pretty painful situations, where sincere, Christ-treasuring people struggled to see eye to eye, where I said something in way I thought was gentle or helpful but it was taken as an insult, where no matter how much we tried, unity and reconciliation eluded us.
One Scripture that I’ve been meditating a lot on recently is Ephesians 4:1-16, where Paul encourages the Ephesians 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” (v 1-3). What does it mean to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”?
The unity of the Spirit is a particular kind of unity. It is not uniformity, where there is one party line that everyone subscribes to, and by which all others are silenced. It is not an exterior unity that masks internal dysfunction by sweeping conflict under the rug. It is not a lowest-common-denominator unity in which we only discuss the things we agree on, and discard the other things. The unity of the Spirit occurs when the community is walking in step with the Holy Spirit’s purposes and pattern for life together.
The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to let the world know about God’s plan for restoring humanity – “one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (v 4-6). So the unity of the Spirit walks in step with that purpose, living “in the bond of peace,” that common commitment to the gospel which makes it possible for people to know one another by grace as brothers and sisters instead of enemies and strangers. The pursuit of this deeper understanding of reconciliation is often challenging, full of tough conversations and difficult decisions that must be pursued with humility, gentleness, patience, and loving forbearance with one another. The goal is never to win (while others lose), but to achieve together a greater commitment to God’s purposes of reconciling us and others to him.
The Holy Spirit has a particular pattern for ordering the Body of Christ. “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (v 7). Where there is a unity of the Spirit, each individual member of the Body is courageously and humbly seeking to do his or her part according to the measure in which grace has been given to him or her. Paul told Timothy, “Do not neglect the gift you have… fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (1 Timothy 4:14, 2 Timothy 1:6-7). We must all help one another be courageous, giving opportunity to practice and grow in our gifts. Leaders in particular are responsible for setting the tone and the shaping the environment in such a way that every person can discover and be released, in the power of the Spirit, into their unique contribution in God’s kingdom (see v 12f). Only then will we find true unity, the unity of the Spirit.
The unity of the Spirit also requires a wealth of humility. Sometimes it is tempting to try and take on more than one is able to do, or to fill a role that doesn’t fit our gifts. This may be because we have a hierarchy of gifts in our head, and want to be known for something “higher” on the list. Perhaps it is because we desire the benefits that are connected to certain gifts over others. Perhaps it is because we are afraid to trust others to do it better than we can. But doing this is never helpful to the body; it disrupts the unity of the Spirit. It is not living according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Instead of treasuring His Body as He has shaped it, it is saying, “I don’t like the way you ordered the body; I have a better idea.” Thus, it is important for all of us to discover what we do best, and leave the things we don’t do well to others. If we have been playing a role that doesn’t suit us, for the sake of unity, we should find one that suits us better.
Treasuring the way that Christ has measured out His grace in the Body also calls us to delight in one another’s gifts. This is why I value collaboration in worship planning (as in many other things). I really believe that every person who is involved has something to bring to the table: creativity, imagination, discernment, encouragement, wisdom, intercession. If we are to reach our full potential as teams and as a community, we need to learn to celebrate and make a place for every gift that is present, and to encourage every person on our teams and in our community to invest in the growth and maturity of their gifts. The result of this kind of equipping, where everyone is operating within their gifting, is a body that is growing in maturity, attaining “to the unity of the faith and of knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v 13).
Finally, the unity of the Spirit – full maturity in Christ – is developed as the people of God learn to “speak the truth in love” (v 15). This is the element of unity that can be really difficult to navigate. Perhaps people don't seem to be working for the Spirit’s purposes. People are resisting the Spirit’s pattern for the Body. People aren't striving for Christ-likeness in the way they relate to one another. The temptation is to sweep the truth under the rug in the name of an external unity instead of facing it courageously and humbly for the sake of a more mature unity. But the right thing is to “speak the truth in love” so that “each part is working properly” (v 16), even if it shakes things up for a while. If you’ve had an ingrown toenail, a sprained ankle, or a splitting headache, you know that ignoring the truth is not the path to wholeness; you have to “speak the truth” to your body with the right kind of interventions, so that the body can move on to maturity and effectiveness. Similarly, we must do this in our Christian communities. It often requires a great deal of listening to one another. It requires careful inquiry to make sure that what we are addressing is based on truthful information. It requires honesty about our own contribution to dysfunction and the willingness to be admonished or corrected. But the key element is love – speaking the truth, as tough as it might be, for the good of others, with humility, gentleness, patience, loving forbearance, always seeking to live out God’s reconciling mission with one another.
I pray that God will give us wisdom as we walk the journey of worship and service together, that we will be able to taste a measure of the unity of the Spirit, which is ultimately a taste of the day when God makes all things new, when all things will work according to His purposes, and our clumsiness, short-sightedness and brokenness will only be a memory.
Thoughts? Send me an email!