February 21, 2010 | David Crosby
Passage: Ephesians 4:1-6
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, just hours before he was crucified, petitioned the Father on our behalf. He prayed for us, “that they may be one as we are one.” Jesus prayed this “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21-22).
I fear that unity has never been as important to the church as it was to her Lord. We have consistently forfeited our unity too soon for reasons that should have been secondary to our unity. We have succeeded usually in partitioning the church more so than protecting her, in demonstrating a divisive spirit rather than expressing the unity of Christ in love.
The great apostle expresses his own love for believers as he pleads with them to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Eph. 4:1). In order that the heart of God may be properly expressed through his church, he charges them to “keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).