Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

            Imagine the challenge of the charge Paul has just given us. Take a group in which each person is naturally inclined to look out for himself. Every member is sinful by birth, and therefore intrinsically selfish. Because they are all individuals, not little robots rolling off an assembly line, each person comes with his own set of ideas, his own tastes and preferences, his own way of doing things.

            Now remember that your task is impossibly bigger than the cute bumper sticker telling religious people we are supposed to “coexist.” It is not enough if we simply tolerate fellow believers–more or less grit our teeth and put up with them. It would be a miracle of Biblical proportions if we merely managed to love the other members of this spiritual family, but the call is bigger still. “Keep the unity.” Become and remain as one. Live and work together as though you were a single body.

            This is harder than herding cats. Only one force in all the Universe can bring real unity and keep it with a fallen race like ourselves: “…keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” God made peace between us and him through the gospel that forgives our sins. Instead of sin driving us away, forgiveness draws us close. Instead of judgment, God made peace, the peace he proclaimed from one end of Jesus’ ministry to another. It was peace the angels sang to the shepherds the first Christmas Eve. “Peace” was Jesus’ first word to his disciples on the first Easter evening. Peace is what people find with God when God has forgiven our sins.

            So God has connected our forgiveness of each other to his own. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” we pray. Forgiving those who trespass against us creates the bond of peace and keeps the unity of the Spirit. Forgiven people forgive each other–that’s just how Christianity works. That preserves the unity. That is how Christians can maintain peace with each other.

            “We are all Americans,” a Facebook post once complained about the divisions in our country. “Let’s start acting like it.” “You are a leader,” a Forbes magazine article once reminded the business men and women who read it. “Start acting like it.” We are Christians, sinners God has forgiven and made his very own children by faith. Start acting like it, by living in unity and peace.