Ephesians 4:3. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Aloha Friends and neighbours! It’s Friday March 1st… And a joyful shout of ‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday yes!’ rings out from the jubilant work force, realizing that this is the last day of the workweek. And I guess nobody’s happier than the folks in the northern climes, who have been battling the nasty, treacherous weather all week. It’s bad enough to have to endure traffic jams everyday, both morning and evening, you definitely don’t want slippery, slushy roads to further aggravate the situation. And fortunately, the weekend looks like it will be sunny, but cold. So to set the right tone and mood for it, let’s chant our Friday Chant with much enthusiasm and perfect harmony. As one now: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through another week of work! It hasn’t been easy, but with your generous help, I made it through. Now, please help me to get sufficient fun, fellowship, rest and relaxation in these two short days off, so that I can be renewed and refreshed in soul, body and mind, to go back out and do it all over again next week, furthering your glorious kingdom with each step I take. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.’ Wonderful chanting my people! Jesus was pleased. And having laid the foundation for the right perspective on the weekend, let’s turn to our Bit: ‘Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’ Yes Friends, it’s the same as yesterday, because unity, spiritual unity in particular is such an important aspect of Christian fellowship, one in which we’re definitely lacking. Now yesterday we saw where Bruh Paul talked about the Oneness of believers, united in One faith, One Saviour, under One God, the Father. (Eph.4:4-6) After that, he goes on to talk about some of the spiritual gifts given to members of the church after Jesus’ ascension, so that His church would be well equipped to minister to those who needed it, to grow and be self-sustaining. ‘And he (himself) gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.’ (Eph.4:11) And why did Jesus do that? ‘For the perfecting (equipping) of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.’ (Eph.4:12) Now hear the scholars’ comments on that verse. ‘This verse discloses the purpose for the gifted individuals of verse 11. Their responsibility is the perfecting of the saints, that is, to train and equip the rank-and-file Christians to do the work of the ministry. The aim of this ministry of Christian service is for the edifying of the body of Christ, that is to build up the church numerically and spiritually.’ And all of that will continue: ‘Till we all come in (into) the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (mature) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph.4:13) Yes my brethren, the edifying, the learning and the building of the church is to continue until we all attain spiritual maturity. But as the scholars point out: ‘Since new believers are constantly being added to the church, this objective will not be realized until the Lord returns.’ Ah Friends, I simply can’t understand why it’s so hard for us who claim to believe in the same three in one God-head, have such trouble in being unified. I guess it’s because we don’t have what Bruh Paul so emphatically said to the Colossians, re Christian virtues. ‘And above all these things put on charity (LOVE), which is the bond of perfectness.’ (Col.3:14) Yes my brethren, the bond of LOVE, betwixt and between us is definitely not strong enough! I like how the scholars describe it: ‘Charity is LOVE, here called the bond of perfectness. LOVE is the crowning grace completing the list of virtues required for perfectness or spiritual maturity. As a “bond” it binds all other virtues together in harmony and unity.’ And by that definition, as I said before, we obviously don’t have enough spiritual maturity, especially in the area of LOVE, the main bonding agent in Christian brotherhood and fellowship. That’s why we’re so divided and so easily conquered, which is certainly displeasing and disappointing to our Leader and Saviour, Jesus. We’re simply not doing a good enough job. Don’t you feel badly about that Friends? Don’t you feel badly when we disappoint Jesus? We all should! But it’s obvious that we don’t, otherwise we’d do better. And we’ll end with some wonderful words of wisdom and truth from Psalm 133, where Bruh David proclaims the joy of brotherhood, the preciousness of family unity. ‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!’ (Ps.133:1) Oh my people, we all know that verse, but it’s plain to see that we don’t follow it. So today, I’m asking us all to ponder on the case of unity, or disunity, in Christ’s church, and let’s seriously try in our individual efforts to bring about that harmony and unity that Jesus sacrificed His life for, and wants His followers to continue, until He comes again. I pray, in Jesus’ name, that all of us will step up to the plate and do better than we’re presently doing, re Christian maturity and unity. That’s wisdom in its highest form! Much LOVE!…only through real unity of believers…will Christ’s church attain the success…He desires of it…
SCRIP-BITS 