Walking towards Unity

Reading from Ephesians 4:1-16

In Paul's letter to the Church in Ephesus, the first 3 chapters of the letter he was talking about the doctrine and the next half of the letter he emphasized on the practicality of the doctrine.

In the churches today, we need unity. Although, the people who make up the church are different; not one person have the same quality and character in the church. Just like an old Chinese illustration; one can break a single chopsticks into two, but hold a whole bunch together it is not easy to break. God has called us to be new people of God bound together in unity under Christ. How does that unity arise and how is it to be maintained? In Ephesians 4:1-16 there are four lessons we can learn on how people of God can be united.

1. The Grace of Unity - Paul lists 5 characters that a Christian that unity depends on: Humility, Gentleness, Patience, Mutual Forbearance, and Love. Love is more of an overarching quality that takes on all the other four characteristics. Think about it for a while, do you have these characteristics in your relationship with others? Pray about it, ask God to change us to be more like Christ.
2. The Grounds of Unity - Unity derives from the fact that the one Father creates the one family, the one Lord Jesus is the focus of one faith, hope, and baptism, and the one Spirit creates the one Body.
3. The Gift of Unity - Unity is enriched and built up by the diversity of gifts in the Church. Although there is only one Church and one God, One Spirit, one Lord, the church itself is made up of a whole lot of individuals, everyone is different from all the rest. So the list of gifts that are mentioned are important in the church for building the church up.
4. The Growth of Unity - If we are to achieve unity, we need to strive for maturity! to be grown up! In the case of church maturity this equates with attaining the full measure of the stature of Christ.

Let us grow up by becoming more like Christ as we grow into him, seek the truth in love, grow into Christ who is our head. Do your part in bringing the church to maturity, to unity, to the full stature of Christ.