Every Effort

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

EVERY EFFORT

Eph 4:1-6

4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

NIV

Although we have examined and considered living this life worthy of our calling and being completely humble along with being patient, bearing with one another in love, we have not considered this concept of the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. This appears to be something we are to make every effort towards. That also seems to mean we cannot rely on others, or for that matter God, to make this happen. The Greek word translated here for every effort can be used in either the sense of hurry up, do in haste or exert oneself. Within the context, it would make sense to see it as to exert oneself to keep the unity of the Spirit, but then it could be seen as do not delay, but get this done right away, in haste. The idea is still the same as that we are to have unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. We are not to be divided, there such be no divisions or factions among us. This goes hand in glove with being humble, gentle and patient, bearing with one another in love. Except here we cannot expect others to do this and we just sit back and wait for them to make the effort. It is up to us to make this effort. We have to apply all our abilities, every effort to be in unity. It would seem as we all have the same Spirit indwelling within us and it is the same Spirit who brought us to Salvation that we would be living as if we were all of the same affection. That is we all try our very best to get along with each other as though we are one people living under one God having been called to one hope in one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all of us and through all of us and in all of us. So then, why would we ever have differences between us? The word one cannot be divided unless into fractions and there is no fraction in God, who is one and there should be none in us. One is one and that means singular, not plural.  All our efforts for this unity are to be done in the bond of peace, which means harmony between us. Again, this means no bickering or backbiting, or gossiping or bitterness, which implies disharmony, or no peace at all. A church living with disharmony is no church at all. For the simplest definition of church is the body of Christ with Jesus being the head. So then we all need to function in harmony with each other, if we don’t, Jesus does not have a body to be the head of. Let us apply, not some effort to this unity, but every effort.