F 7 LESSONS FOR SISTERS: ECCLESIAL MEMBERS - UNITY

1. Ephisians 4:3  “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.
2. This quote has to do with practical discipleship, it has to do with being meek and long-suffering, forbearing each other in love and giving diligence to keep ‘unity in the bond of peace’.  It is not something that just happens.  It is the concern of each of us to work towards the unity in ‘the faith’.
3. Apostle Paul told the brethren and sisters to be unified in ‘one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one God and Father’.  Paul meant that we must be unified in understanding the teachings of Jesus Christ, of the prophets and the apostles, in faith and in practice.  
4. This means we are guards of the one faith.  Paul said to ‘mark them which cause divisions and avoid them’.  These divisive people were causing division for their own benefit.
5. Paul was NOT writing about us all being exactly alike.  We are all part of the body of Jesus, just like the eyes, the hands, the feet are all part of the body but all are different and have different purposes.  We are all different.  The unity required is to bring all forces together for a common purpose of glorifying, serving and loving God.
6. At the last supper, Jesus prayed for his disciples that ‘they may be one, as we are’. God and Jesus had the same desire and willed the same things, were one in purpose, direction and objective.  They are two distinct beings but one.  The unity was and is perfect.
7. ‘Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’.   This means that it is the bond which enables the disciples to keep united.  It allows every separate part to work together for the good of all.  All differences are brought together in harmony.  This is how to guard Unity.  
8. There is true unity within the One Body.  We are all one, even though in different countries, different races, different genders, different skills.  Physical distances don't matter.  We don’t need any popes, any bishops, any heads other than Christ.  We are all one.
9. The power and wisdom of God, in practice for unity, is:

1.  proclamation of the true Gospel to all who would hear,
2. maintaining the principles of the Gospel,
3.  teaching how to live Godly in an ungodly world,
4.  knowing the sympathetic priesthood of Christ and
5.  the right of access to God through prayer and communion to Him by Christ’s mediatorship,
6.  helping, healing, encouraging all our brethren and sisters and those in need.  
7. Break down the barriers, heal the wounds so that when Christ returns, He will find his body unified.