Ephesians 4:1-7 (New International Version)
Ephesians 4
Unity in the Body of Christ
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle ; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
There is only one true unity that remains till the end,and that is the unity of the Spirit and that has got nothing to do with any flesh, whoever you are recognised as, in this temporal world that is going to be destroyed soon.The unity of the Spirit will remain forever in the new heaven and the new earth.All the other temporary unity will fail.Today we see 'unity' being misused for business,financial,social and very personal concerns.This is the place where Christ The Word becomes second to this abominable thing called 'Money'.The pursuit of more money,fame,prestige,recognition in public and government,power and pride becomes the main objective of that unity they strongly promote.In the pretext of seeking these temporal things, they will not hesitate to misuse Christ's Name.
Unity of the Spirit is very different from what they have misunderstood 'unity' to be.In the unity of the Spirit there is peace with one another,not pride,jealousy,strife,anger,envy,discrimination,hatred,self-boasting, selfish ambition,arrogance and feelings of superiority.Infact, if you have these things in this 'unity'- you're walking in the pathway to destruction,although you name the name of Christ with your filthy lips.You must repent and come out of that evil path.
Unity in the Spirit of God is, unity among those in whom true Christformation is taking place.They are not bound by beautiful,eye-catching,comfortable,ego-enriching buildings and wall decorations.They are not bound by things that deceive their eyes and understanding of who Christ Jesus our Lord is actually.Those with the unity of the Spirit will never take pride in the things that these eyes could see.They will take comfort in the things that are unseen by the physical eyes.They will be given spiritual eyes to see the things of Christ and our God.They will rejoice in those things the world considers foolishness.Hypocrisy will be far from them.
It is Christ who apportions everything to all those who believe in Him and love Him,that means those who keep all His commandments as in John 14:23. If you read this verse, you'll know that you can deceive men but you cannot decieve Christ himself.He knows those who are His.Unity among His people will only come when we unite Father ,Son and Holy Spirit to dwell in us by us obeying His commandments.
In this troubled world today, people 'unite' for many earthly reasons.The most destructive is when they use the name of Christ to forward their earthly pursuits.
We know that in the book of Revelation,there is a prophecy nearing fulfillment where an evil unity is being formed called 'The mother of all prostitutes' also nicknamed 'Babylon'- meaning 'they who sell themselves away to the Devil for earthly profit'.This should ring a bell in your head! Many who call themselves as God's people will turn and be united with this unified group because they would not want to be hated by the world.They will choose to maintain friendship with the world and be recognised by them.This has begun to happen and is exactly what is grieving the Spirit of God now.
There will be very few left, who will maintain the unity of the Spirit."Wide is the road that leads to destruction and many will travel on it" and very few will persevere on and be united with the Spirit of God on earth.Very few will follow the pathway that eyes could not see.These people who have their 'unity in money' will tread only on the road that their eyes could see and be attracted to the "Mother of all prostitutes" and thats where they should belong unless they choose to truly repent from this evil and turn fully to Christ, with Christ being formed in them fully.
