“…keep the unity of the Spirit…until we all reach unity in the faith”

What do you think of when you hear the words, “majors and minors”?  Maybe sports—major and minor leagues.  Perhaps music—major scales and minor keys, or vice-versa.  How about academics—major in psychology, minor in human resources.  Good possibilities.  However, these words describe what it takes to keep the unity of the Spirit, which we find mentioned in Ephesians 4:3.

The whole verse reads, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  The word keep doesn’t mean just hang on to or maintain ownership.  It means to guard, protect, preserve.  Unity is something that needs to be guarded and watched over, because it is quite fragile.  Guarding it is constantly challenging and takes daily vigilance.

It is instructive that God never told us to make unity, only keep it.  Making unity is impossible…at least for us.  It took God’s involvement in human affairs.  He got the ball rolling back in Genesis 12 when he called Abram to leave Haran and venture to Canaan.  The ball picked up speed when his descendents the Jews received the law at Mt. Sinai over 400 years later (Galatians 3:17).  Five centuries later the ball got into high gear when Solomon built the temple.  In this structure was a wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from other parts of the building accessible only to Jews.  Archaeologists have even recovered a sign warning Gentile trespassers to not go beyond a certain point.  Paul called this wall “the dividing wall of hostility” in Ephesians 2:14 because the separation of Jew and Gentile unfortunately lead to hatred between the two groups.  Unfortunate because the whole calling of the Jews in the first place (Exodus 19:4-5) was intended for world redemption.  We see many of the psalms (Ps. 67, for example) telling of the salvation coming to the Gentile nations, the global intention of their call.  However, in fallen creatures this purpose degenerated into ethnic pride, exclusivism and animosity.  The history of the failures and resulting captivities of God’s Old Testament people give obvious testimony to this fact.  Indeed, the Jewish canon ends literally with a curse (Malachi 4:6)!

This division was a much bigger problem than any mere man could handle.

Enter Jesus.  He is the only one who could unite two groups so mutually hostile toward each other.  But it required his death to destroy “the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16).  In other words, his death eliminated those things that created the separation in the first place, eliminating the hostility through his peace.  Words do not adequately describe how big a feat this was.  Only God could unite what God had separated in the first place.  This explains why it was impossible for us to ever create unity.

But keeping unity is something we can do.  And this brings us back to majors and minors.  Who are the most difficult Christians who constantly thwart spiritual harmony?  Isn’t it the ones who constantly harp on minor issues and forget what’s ultimately important, majoring in the minors?  Whether it’s a past offense, a small slight, an ethnic issue, a personal preference for something, a minor doctrinal point, an unwillingness to forgive, priorities out of order, you name it.  All of these things are overemphasized minor things compared to major issues, such as the authority of God’s Word, the Trinitarian God, salvation by grace through faith, the return of Christ, the Great Commission, and the unity of his Body. Why is it that the Church is so fragmented and having anemic results in some parts of the world?  Because fussy members delight in their own petty issues to their own, as well as others’, detriment.  Ditto with marriages too.  There have been times when I’ve seen believers in strong disagreements.  I have wanted to have T-shirts ready to give them that say, “We are God’s people on the same team!”, and tell them to put them on.  Uniforms are good for reminding us of this fact.  That’s what uniform means:  having the same form.

What kind of T-shirt are you wearing these days?  Does it reflect the majors or the minors?  Are you keeping the unity of the Spirit that Jesus died to create?