Unity of The Spirit

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THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT

by Andrew Murray

'That ye walk with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,


forbearing one another in love; giving diligence to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit.'- Eph. 6:1-4.

'Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.... All these
worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as He
will. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body; and were all made
to drink of one Spirit.'- 1 Cor. 12:4, 11, 13.

We know how, in the first three chapters of the Ephesians, Paul had set forth the
glory of Christ Jesus as the Head of the Church, and the glory of God's grace in the
Church as the Body of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, growing up into an
habitation of God through the Spirit, and destined to be filled with all the fullness of
God. Having thus lifted the believer to his true place in the heavenlies, with his life
hid in Christ, he comes with him down to his life in the earthlies, and, in the second
half of the Epistle, teaches how he is to walk worthy of his calling. And the very first
lesson he has to give in regard to this life and walk on earth (Eph. 4:1-4) rests on the
foundation-truth that the Holy Spirit has united him not only to Christ in heaven, but
to Christ's body on earth.

The unity of the Spirit needed for a holy walk

The Spirit dwells not only in Christ in heaven and in the believer on earth, but very
specially in Christ's body, with all its members; and the full, healthy action of the
Spirit can only be found where the right relation exists between the individual and t
hewhole body, as far as he knows or comes into contact with it. His first care in his
holy walk must be, therefore, to give diligence that the unity of the Spirit be
maintained intact. Were this unity of the one Spirit and one body fully acknowledged,
the cardinal virtue of the Christian life would be lowliness and meekness (vers. 2, 3),
in which each would forget and give up self for others; and all would forbear one
another in love amid all differences and shortcomings. So the new commandment
would be kept, and the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Love sacrificing itself wholly for
others, would have free scope to do His blessed work.

The need of such teaching the first Epistle to the Corinthians remarkably illustrates.
In that Church there were abundant operations of the workings of the Holy Spirit.
The gifts of the Spirit were strikingly manifested, but the graces of the Spirit were
remarkably absent. They understood not how there are diversities of gifts, but the
same Spirit; how, amid all difference, one and the same Spirit divides to each
severally as He will; how all had been baptized in one Spirit into one body, and all
made to drink of one Spirit. They knew not the more excellent way, and that the
chief of all the gifts of the Spirit is the Love that seeketh not its own, and only finds
its life and its happiness in others.

Reverence the work of the Holy Spirit in your brother

To each believer who would fully yield himself to the leading of the Spirit, as well as
to the Church as a whole, in its longings for the experience in power of all that the
indwelling of the Spirit implies, the unity of the Spirit is a truth fraught with rich
spiritual blessing. In previous writings I have more than once made use of the
expression of Pastor Stockmaier - 'Have a deep reverence for the work of the Holy
Spirit within thee.' That injunction needs as its complement a second one: Have a
deep reverence for the work of the Holy Spirit in thy brother.

This is no easy thing: even Christians, in other respects advanced, often fail here.
The cause is not difficult to discover. In our books on education we are taught tha
the faculty of Discrimination, the observing of differences, is one of the earliest to
be developed in children. The power of Combination, or the observing of the harmony
that exists amid apparent diversity, is a higher one, and comes later; as the power of
Classification, in its highest action, is only found in true genius. The lesson finds most
striking exemplification in the Christian life and Church. It needs but little grace to
know where we differ from other Christians or churches, to contend for our views, or
to judge their errors in doctrine or conduct. But this indeed is grace, where, amid
conduct that tries or grieves us, or teaching that appears to us unscriptural or
hurtful, we always give the unity of the Spirit the first place, and have faith in the
power of love to maintain the living union amid outward separation.

Helps for keeping the unity of the Spirit

Keep the unity of the Spirit: such is God's command to every believer. It is the New
Commandment, to love one another, in a new shape, tracing the love to the Spirit in
which it has its life. If you would obey the command, note carefully that it is the
unity of the Spirit. There is a unity of creed or custom of church or choice, in which
the bond is more of the flesh than of the Spirit. Would you keep the unity of the
Spirit, remember the following things.

Seek to know that [inner life] in thyself in which the unity is to find its power of
attachment and of victory. There is much in thee that is of self and of the flesh, and
that can take part in a unity that is of this earth, but that will greatly hinder the
unity of the Spirit. Confess that it is in no power or love of thine own that thou canst
love; all that is of thyself is selfish, and reaches not to the true unity of the Spirit.
Be very humble in the thought that it is only what is of God in thee that can ever
unite with what appears displeasing to thyself. Be very joyful in the thought that
there is indeed that [inner life] in thee which can conquer self, and love even what
seems unlovable.

Study also to know and prize highly that [inner life] in thy brother with which thou
art to be united. As in thyself, so there is in him, but a little beginning, a hidden seed
of the Divine life, surrounded by much that is yet carnal, and often is very trying and
displeasing. It needs a heart very humble in the knowledge of how unworthy thou
thyself art, and very loving in the readiness to excuse thy brother - for so did Jesus
in the last night: 'the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak' - to look
persistently at what there is in thy brother of the image and Spirit of the Father.

Estimate him not by what he is in himself, but by what he is in Christ, and as thou
feels how the same life and Spirit, which thou owes to free grace, is in him too, the
unity of the Spirit will triumph over the difference and dislike of the flesh. The
Spirit in thee, acknowledging and meeting the Spirit in thy brother, will bind thee in
the unity of a life that is from above.

Keep this unity of the Spirit in the active exercise of fellowship. The bond between
the members of my body is most living and real, maintained by the circulation of the
blood and the life it carries. 'In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.'
'There is one body and one Spirit.' The inner union of life must find expression and
be strengthened in the manifested communion of love. Cultivate intercourse not only
with those who are of one way of thinking and worshipping with thyself, lest the unity
be more in the flesh than the Spirit.

Love every believer

Study in all thy thoughts and judgments of other believers to exercise the love that
thinks no evil. Never say an unkind word of a child of God, as little as of others. Love
every believer, not for the sake of what in him is in sympathy with thee or pleasing to
thee, but for the sake of the Spirit of the Father which there is in him. Give thyself
expressly and of set purpose to love and labor for God's children within thy reach,
who through ignorance, or feebleness, or waywardness, know not that they have the
Spirit, or are grieving Him. The work of the Spirit is to build up an habitation for
God; yield thyself to the Spirit in thee to do the work. Recognize thy dependence
upon the fellowship of the Spirit in thy brother, and his dependence upon thee, and
seek thy growth and his in the unity of love.

Pray for the unity

Take thy part in the united intercession that rises up to God for the unity of His
Church. Take up and continue the intercession of the Great High Priest for all who
believe, 'that they may be one.' The Church is one in the life of Christ and the love of
the Spirit. It is, alas, not one in the manifested unity of the Spirit. Hence the need
of the command: Keep the unity. Plead with God for the mighty workings of His Spirit
in all lands and churches and circles of believers.

When the tide is low, each little pool along the shore with its inhabitants is separated
from the other by a rocky barrier. As the tide rises, the barriers are flooded over,
and all meet in one great ocean. So it will be with the Church of Christ. As the Spirit
of God comes, according to the promise, as floods upon the dry ground, each will know
the power in himself and in others, and self [will] disappear as the Spirit is known and
honored.

And how is this wondrous change to be brought about, and the time hastened that the
prayer be fulfilled, 'that they all may be one, that the world may know that Thou hast
sent me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me'? Let each of us begin with
himself. Resolve even now, beloved child of God, that this shall be the one mark of
your life, the proof of your sonship, the having and knowing the Indwelling Spirit. If
you are to unite, not with what pleases you, or is in harmony with your way of thinking
and acting, but with what the Spirit in you sees and seeks in others, you must have
given yourself entirely up to His way of thinking and acting. And if you are to do this,
He must have the mastery of your whole being.

The working of the Spirit within

You need to abide in the living and never-ceasing consciousness that He dwells within
you. You need to pray unceasingly that the Father may grant you, according to the
riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. It
is in the faith of the Triune God, the Father giving the Spirit in the name of the Son,
and the Spirit dwelling within you; it is in this faith brought into adoring exercise at
the footstool of God's throne; it is in direct contact and fellowship with the Father
and the Son, that the Spirit will take full possession, and pervade your entire being.
The fuller His indwelling and the mightier His working is, the more truly spiritual your
being becomes, the more will self sink away, and the Spirit of Christ use you in
building up and binding together believers into an habitation of God.

Christ's Spirit will be in you the holy anointing, the oil of consecration, to set you
apart and fit you to be, as Christ was, a messenger of the Father's love. In the
humility and gentleness of daily life, in the kindliness and forbearance of love amid all
the differences and difficulties in the Church, in the warm-hearted sympathy and
self-sacrifice that goes out to find and help all who need help, the Spirit in you will
prove that He belongs to all the members of the body as much as to you, and that
through you His love reaches out to all around to teach and to bless.

Prayer
Blessed Lord Jesus, in Thy last night on earth Thy one prayer for Thy disciples was,
'Holy Father, keep them, that they may be one.' Thy one desire was to see them a
united flock, all gathered and kept together in the One Almighty Hand of Love. Lord
Jesus, now Thou art on the Throne, we come to Thee with the same plea: Oh, keep us,
that we may be one! Pray for us, Thou Great High Priest, that we may be made
perfect in one, that the world may know that the Father hath loved us, as He loved
Thee.

Blessed Lord, we thank Thee for the tokens that Thou art wakening in Thy Church
the desire for the manifestation to the world of the unity of Thy people. Grant, we
pray Thee, to this end the mighty workings of Thy Holy Spirit. May every believer
know the Spirit that is in him, and that is in his brother, and in all lowliness and love
keep the unity of the Spirit with those with whom he comes into contact. May all the
leaders and guides of Thy Church be enlightened from above, that the unity of the
Spirit may be more to them than all human bonds of union in creed or church order.
May all who have put on the Lord Jesus above all things put on love, the bond of
perfectness.

Lord Jesus, we do beseech Thee, draw Thy people in united prayer to the footstool of
Thy Throne of Glory, whence Thou givest Thy Spirit to reveal Thy presence to each
as present in all. Oh, fill us with Thy Spirit, and we shall be one! - one Spirit and one
Body. Amen.

NOTES

1. The health of every member, and even every particle, of my body depends upon the
health of the surrounding portion. Either the healing power of the sound part must
expel what is unhealthy, or this will communicate its disease. I am more dependent
upon my brother than I know. He is more dependent on me than I know. The Spirit I
have is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in my brother too: all I receive is meant for him
too. To keep the unity of the Spirit in active exercise, to live in loving fellowship with
believers around me, is life in the Spirit.

2. ‘That they may be made perfect in one.’ They approach perfection as they approach
unity. Perfection is impossible in a state of separation. My life is not wholly given to
me, but a part of it is given to my brother, to be available to me when I abide in him.'
- Bowen

3. It has taken thee time and prayer and faith to know the Spirit of God within thee;
it will take time and prayer and faith, and much love, to know fully the Spirit of God
in thy brother.

4. ‘It is only in the unity of the body that the Spirit of God can fully and mightily
display His power, either in the Church or to the world. God speaks to companies of
men as He never speaks to solitary watchers, or students; there is a fuller tone, an
intenser fervor, in Pentecostal revelations than in personal communion, and, as we
ourselves know, there is a keener joy in sympathy than can be realized even in the
devoutest solitude.' - 'The Paraclete.'

Source: Andrew Murray, The Spirit of Christ, (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian
Literature Crusade, 1963), pp. 198-204.
(This article has been only slightly edited for grammar and clarification. Headings
have been added.)

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