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Unity: Humility

“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 4:2, 3

“Be completely humble and gentle.”

“Keep the Unity.”

“Completely” is a superlative. It is also absolute. It modifies “humble” and “gentle”.

This complete humility and complete gentleness is a lot of humility and complete gentleness. These two characteristics precede the command to keep the unity. If these two attributes were a little bit evident in churches today, keeping unity would be a piece of cake.

The command is a “be” command. It is not a “do” command. It addresses what we “are,” not what we “do”.

We have a hard time “being”. We are so used to “doing”. If we succeeded in being, our doing would be okay. We “do” out of what we “are”. How do we “do”, “being?” We don’t. We start by “doing” nothing. Are we not to obey? Yes, but not by effort. We are to obey out of we are. We start with “being”.

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