Unity takes place wherever people let God do His work “in Christ.” Every member enters that unity by entering Christ. And every member should then “keep” that unity and peace.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). M
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3).24 M
Humans, with all their best wishes and works, cannot create this unity (any more than they can create the family of God). Unity is the Spirit’s gift to the family, the birthright of each child born into the kingdom. But each child should “keep” or maintain that wonderful gift. He does so by letting the Spirit develop in him Christ-like attitudes toward all of Christ’s brothers and sisters. These attitudes include humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness.25 Indeed, healthy relationships grow by thinking and behaving in family terms at their best:
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity (1 Timothy 5:1-2).
Do we truly believe this family exists? Do we believe that unity is its very nature? Then we know to which church we belong, or should belong. There simply is no other church authorized. Scripture recognize no other body. The King builds and saves His own church.26 He purposefully trains its members to be “perfectly united,” and to have “no divisions.”27
24. Research subject – Peace, harmony: Romans 12:18; 14:17-19; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 7:15; 14:33; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Ephesians 4:3; 6:23; Colossians 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:13; James 3:17-18
25. Research subject – Attitudes for unity: Ephesians 4:2,15,23-32; 5:1-2; Colossians 3:8-17; Galatians 5:22-26
26. Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11; Ephesians 5:23
27. Research subject – Unity: John 17:20-23; 1 Corinthians 1:10-17; 3:1-11,16-17; 12:12-25; Romans 12:16; 15:5; Philippians 1:27; 2:1-2; 4:2-3; Colossians 2:2; 3:14; 1 Peter 3:8; Psalm 133:1