Bond of Peace
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
- Ephesians 4:1-6
Bond of Peace - Condensed Video
Think of a time when you laughed so hard your body hurt. Who were you with? Think of times when you felt true happiness, joy, wholeness in your soul. Who did you share the experiences with? We are designed in God’s image to be relational, and genuine, transparent, mutual loving relationships are fundamental to God’s design. We share wholeness, joy, happiness, grief, sorrow through genuine, loving relationships.
God is all about unity. The Holy Trinity presents an example of unity that we cannot quite wrap our simple brains around, and Jesus prays that we might be one in the same way the Holy Trinity is united (see John 17:21). As believers, we are each components of a single Body of Christ, a single gathering, unified through the Holy Spirit in the bond of peace. As we each grow closer to God, we grow closer to one another and, ideally, the Body of Christ reveals God’s glory to the world.
Because God is all about unity, Satan is all about tearing us apart. He seeks to separate us from God and break apart genuine, loving, transparent relationships where trust is warranted. He wants to cloud transparency and remove our ability to trust one another and replace genuine love with an artificial version of it. Satan prowls like a lion seeking to destroy us and everything good in our lives (see 1 Peter 5:8).
As they shared the meal now known as the Last Supper, Jesus taught the disciples lesson after amazing lesson. He got up from the meal, removed His outer clothing, washed the disciples’ feet and taught about loving service. He commanded the disciples to love one another as Jesus loved them. He taught about the Holy Spirit and, using several different images, He desperately tried to help them (and us) understand the connection that exists between God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, each individual believer, and the collective community of believers (see John 13-16).
Jesus dwells in the Father and the Father dwells in Him. The words Jesus speaks are the Father’s words and the works Jesus does are the Father’s works. Jesus Christ dwells in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells in Him. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit dwell in each believer, and each believer dwells in Him. And the members of the community of faith share a unique, heavenly, spiritual connection.
In the two remarkable sentences set forth above, Paul merges these thoughts. He begs us to live with “all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” It is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us who give us His Spirit of love, peace, humility and unity, and it is His light and life flowing through us that has been described as fruit.
Peter urges us forward on the same path writing, “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). The transformation of our spirits and souls leads to “genuine mutual love,” the essence of unity.
During His last evening of teaching before surrendering Himself to death on the cross, during His final hours, He urgently taught about the spiritual connections we share. We are connected to God through faith, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, and we experience unity with the Body of Christ. And I firmly believe that Satan actively seeks to destroy our links – our links to God and our links to one another. And on that evening 2,000 years ago Jesus prayed for us and for our unity.
After the Last Supper, Jesus prayed. John records the prayer as chapter 17 of his Gospel. It is an amazing, chapter-long prayer that Jesus prays before walking to the Garden of Gethsemane where He surrendered to authorities. He begins by praying for Himself. Then He prays for the disciples. After that, He prays for us. As He prays He says,
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:20-21
Later that evening, after all His teaching, after teaching about the links connecting the Holy Trinity and the Holy Trinity to each of us and the collective body of believers, He prays for unity. He prays that we, the body of believers, will be joined together as one in the same way the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one. And He prays for unity, not just so that we might know the glory and pleasure associated with dwelling in God and experiencing Him and knowing Him, but so that the world might believe that Jesus is who He claims to be.
God’s holy word says, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). By discussing the inter-dwelling between the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and each believer, and Jesus as the point of access and the embodiment of God the Father, Jesus clearly presents the link, the connection between the Holy Trinity, between each of us and the Holy Trinity, and between the members of the Body of Christ. We are all linked with God and with each other.
God fills you with His holy power. Arm yourself with His holy word, protect yourself with the strength of your faith, cloak yourself in prayer. May you continue to grow in Christ Jesus, may you continue to surrender yourself to the indwelling Holy Spirit, may you continue to know the joy, happiness, comfort and peace of genuine loving relationships, and may God protect our bond of peace.