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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. (Ephesians 4:1-3)

As we move to Ephesians 4, all of a sudden this sweeping theology Paul has been weaving begins to take on flesh and enter into the practicalities of our lives. \\xa0We find that here in the opening verses that Paul now implores us to live out the \\u201cbond of peace\\u201d forged and preached by Christ through his cross and Spirit that we\\u2019ve been hearing about for the last three chapters.

There is a strange paradox that arises here. \\xa0Paul urges us to \\u201ckeep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.\\u201d \\xa0It\\u2019s a paradox, because as Paul will go on to say, \\u201cthere is\\u2026 one Spirit.\\u201d \\xa0This singular Holy Spirit is already united in and with Himself as are the people of God in whose lives this Spirit is active\\u2014so this unity Paul urges us toward is already there. \\xa0It\\u2019s a gift. \\xa0So what\\u2019s to keep? \\xa0Yet, on the other end of the paradox we discover that the people who claim this self-same Spirit of Christ are often divided, living in dis-unity. \\xa0

Unity with the whole church of Christ is a gift we have nothing to do but receive from the Spirit as He joins us to the reality of \\u201cpeace\\u201d Christ has worked, and yet this unity with the whole church of Christ is also a goal we must strive to keep in all our Christian lives and living.\\xa0 Unity is a gift and a goal.\\xa0

Paul wrote this challenging line from prison. \\xa0A place of being set apart, divided from the rest of the church. \\xa0There is therefore, a sense of urgency to receive and live and not take for granted or squander this good gift of God in Christ. \\xa0Paul urges us all to live worthily of the calling we have received. \\xa0

Far from striving to heights of success, which often includes puffing up our own pride and resume through competing and outshining others, the calling we have received includes a call to walk the humble, gentle, patient, loving path of Christ and his cross instead. \\xa0This slow, lowly, and unspectacular path of Jesus is the means of living out our calling to keep what we already have and to remain what we already are: united to Christ and one another through the Spirit by the will of the Father.

We\\u2019ve been adopted into this family by the grace of God, the work of Christ, and the power of the Spirit. \\xa0

But as with any family: it takes some humility, love, and patience to remain united as a family. \\xa0We don\\u2019t always get along so well. \\xa0We annoy each other, disagree with one another, hurt each other, and take from one another. \\xa0Our families can wound us more deeply than most any others, because we are so much closer to them.

Those collected wounds and annoyances can drive wedges that eventually blow families apart in divorce and estrangement. \\xa0But, they are also places where the Spirit can quietly break down the barriers of hostility and forge a redeeming peace that unites us again, despite ourselves. \\xa0 \\xa0

This is the work of Christ\\u2019s cross in our lives. \\xa0It is the work we are called and urged to join. \\xa0We are continually called to reconcile with one another, confess to one another, and forgive one another. \\xa0This is the slow, humble, gentle, loving work of keeping the unity of the Spirit-joined family in the bonds of Christ\\u2019s peace. \\xa0It is the hardest work of our Christian lives. \\xa0But we do not do it alone. \\xa0Unity is not just a goal, it is also the Spirit\\u2019s persistently worked gift as he unfailingly unites us ever deeper to Christ. \\xa0

May we seek and find just such a reconciled unity as we gather around the family dinner table, the Lord\\u2019s Table, once again this Sunday.

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