That the saints of God are responsible to keep the unity of the Spirit is quite evident (Eph. 4:44There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; (Ephesians 4:4)). But the question naturally arises, What is the "unity of the Spirit" we are exhorted to keep? "Surely God has not told us to use diligence to keep a unity, respecting the nature and extent of which He has given us no instruction. This cannot be: what the unity embraces must be in the word of God, though believers may be unwilling to see it." (C. H. M.) "The unity of the Spirit is the unity that exists due to the fact that the ONE SPIRIT has united the members of Christ in one body. God has set Christ "to be the head over all things to the Church which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." That is to say, the Church as a body, is the complement of the head,—Christ. God has quickened us together with Him, both Jews and Gentiles. He has made us, as Christians, sit together with Him in the heavenly places. "For to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body.... Now therefore ye (Gentiles) are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (of the New Testament. See Eph. 3:55Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; (Ephesians 3:5)). Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye (Gentiles) also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Such are the grand truths upon which the unity of the Spirit is founded. It is this unity the faithful are exhorted to keep,-a reality in the power of God."
( J. N. D.) "Only God Himself could form such a unity. Man has made, and makes, many unions; but God forms not unions but a UNITY, which is a vastly different thing. God's UNITY is a Center without a circumference, whereas man's unions would be satisfied with a circumference without the Center." (F. C. B.)
"It is clear, that, if 'by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body,' we must own every one thus united as being a part of that body or we shall not keep the unity. Breaking the unity of the Spirit would be the case if we held that there are many bodies, or more than one when God says there is but one.
"Looking into the New Testament, it is easy to find examples where the unity was broken. For instance, the assembly at Corinth was maintaining in their midst a wicked person. Was this keeping the unity of the Spirit? Surely not. Paul demanded that the man should be put out, and we know Paul spoke the mind of the Lord.
"We see here that the unity of the Spirit may at times be maintained by cutting off a wicked person. And we gather further instruction on this point by the directions given to the elect lady in 2 John, where she is told not to receive one into her house, nor wish him Godspeed, if he did not bring the doctrine of Christ.
"In the first of these cases we see HOLINESS demanded; in the second TRUTH is demanded. And these exactly agree with the character of the Spirit. He is the HOLY SPIRIT and the SPIRIT OF TRUTH." (1 John 5:66This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. (1 John 5:6).) (C. H. M.)
"If men, if Christians even, lightly esteem the divine unity of the Church, or, when forced to avow that it is outwardly gone, seek to substitute for it a miserable daubing with untempered mortar and content themselves with an appearance of unity which does not deceive even those upholding it; if, in a word, men form alliances between their various sects, proving the very ruin they seek to justify;—let us turn away from such things, humbling ourselves on account of the ruin of the Church (looked at on the side of human responsibility) without conforming to it; boldly proclaiming that 'there is one body and one Spirit,' endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace' (Eph. 4:3-43Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; (Ephesians 4:3‑4)), refusing all fellowship with the evils of the day, 'and above all things putting on love, which is the bond of perfectness.' “(Col. 3:1414And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. (Colossians 3:14).) (H. L. R.)