5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Unity of the Spirit

Unity of the Spirit.

The fifth key characteristic of authentic Christianity is endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. This is the culmination of all the previous five characteristics. In other words, similar to a staircase, this is the highest point or highest step. You must get through the first four to be able to get here, yet at the same time, the previous four also work to establish this characteristic too.

In this mini-series, I explain the foundational challenge of living as a Christian and explore the five key attitudes that go along with it. In the first article, we discussed balance together. Not just any kind of balance, but a special balance: the responsibility we have as Christians to balance God’s call on us (as indicated through the three senses of the Gospel) and our walk or lifestyle. In subsequent articles, we look at each of these five key characteristics of a gospel-consistent lifestyle.

The challenge for each of us is to walk consistent with the wonderful realities of the Gospel. Yet, God enables us to do this, which is the blessing. Although God graciously gives us a challenge, He also provides the ability to live up to that challenge.

Living consistent with the Gospel requires five key attitudes in order to glorify God. Today is the fifth: endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.

Five Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Unity of the Spirit

As I mentioned above, as you consider each of these five key characteristics of walking with Christ, think in terms of a staircase. Unless you begin at the first step, it is impossible to get to the rest of the corresponding steps. The first step is humility, the second is gentleness, the third is patience, the fourth is forbearance, and the fifth is endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

¹ I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, ² with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, ³ endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)

This final attitude is the ultimate attitude or characteristic of the Christian. If you live life doing this, you will live a God-honoring, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered life. Why? Because you are protecting the unity of the Spirit. As far as it depends upon you, you strive to protect, honor, and live in light of the peace provided through the Spirit between you and other Christians.

To best understand this, let me explain it from the perspective of the bond of peace and then endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.

The Bond of Peace Comes from Christ.

When Paul challenges the follower of Christ to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, the question becomes, “What is the bond of peace?” I am glad you asked. The actual answer provides incredible context to this entire passage.

The bond of peace is that peace that is provided for between believers by Jesus through the cross. Notice how Paul describes it earlier in the Book of Ephesians:

¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵ having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Eph 2:14-18)

Christ provided peace between individual followers of Christ and between God and all followers of Christ. On the cross Jesus broke down all barriers between people and all barriers between us and God. When you consider this, the truth here is incredible.

Let me give you an illustration to help you get this. I remember when we first moved to the country. All the lots in our country neighborhood were a little less than one acre. The way our house was situated, you could walk out on our back deck and see for a long distance. All the acre lots came together in a way that there were five other lots that bordered our own. From our back deck then, we had a sense that we lived on quite a bit more land than what we actually did. In fact, our children and dogs, like every one else’s who lived in this area, could roam between the houses. It was simply delightful. Until one day.

One of those neighbors changed. A stranger moved into our closely knit group. And with the neighbors – gasp for air – a wooden fence. This new neighbor built a fence! Where once all of us could see across quite a bit of land, all of us could feel the greatness of the spance, and all of us could enjoy wandering over multiple lots, now it had all changed. Our neighbor built a fence.

What does a fence do? It separates. It keeps one person on the outside and another person on the inside. Where once nothing separated us all, now there was separation.

In this illustration, the fence was the separation between people prior to Jesus dying on the cross. Between neighbors there was a spiritual separation. As individual sinners our sinful disposition and sinful behavior separated us as the law pointed out.

But when Jesus died on the cross, what separated people came down. Instead of separation, we enjoy peace. Where there once was enmity, now we celebrate the peace we have together in Christ. As followers of Christ, all the barriers between us have come down. We experience peace in Christ together.

That is not all we experience though, we also experience peace with God. Christ did not just provide us peace as neighbors; He also provided peace between all of us neighbors and God. Therefore, you experience peace with God and your neighbor in Christ.

How valuable is this peace? It cost Jesus His very life to provide it. Arguably, it is the most expensive thing you will ever possess in this life or the next. The peace you enjoy with God and your neighbor cost the most ultimate amount – the life of Jesus. The peace you experience is priceless.

More In This Series
Balance: More than Just Merely a Goal or Good Idea
5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Humility
5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Gentleness
5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Patience
5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: Forbearance
5 Key Characteristics of Walking with Christ: The Application – Living Like Christ

⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Eph 4:4-6)

Seven times the word one is used. One body (the body of Christ), One Spirit (the Holy Spirit), One hope of your calling (salvation leading to sanctification), One Lord (Jesus Christ), One faith (the core of our beliefs once delivered to the saints through the Word of God), One baptism (the baptism of the Spirit), One God and Father of all (God the Father). What does all this mean? It means the unity that we each have in Christ is valuable; therefore, it must be protected.

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