Keeping the Unity of the Spirit
"I THEREFORE, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." As we have seen, the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our unity with the Father and the Son, and the means of our attaining unity one with another, and here is set before us our duty to endeavor to keep this unity of the Spirit. And the basis of that unity is the word of God, which was written by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is this word in which all are to be of the same mind and about which all are to speak the same thing. It is in the truth of God that all are to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. It is in the faith and work of Christ that there is to be no division. For he said, "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." And, "Thy word is truth." John 16:13; 17:17. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Cor. 2:14, 16. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." But "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Rom. 8:9, 14.