Ephesians 4:1-6 (NKJV)

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

This is all about unity in the Church. You see it in a lot of places in the Church, but there are too many places where unity is missing. And what about all the denominations? We say that for most denominations, we differ only in the minor doctrines, but it just does not look like unity to me. Take a look at all the so called minor doctrines in the verse: one Spirit, one faith, one baptism. How can you get multiple out of that? I believe the solution is found in the above verse. It is in the beseeching part. The keywords are: lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering, bearing, love and endeavoring. The people that I know who can be described like that are never guilt of being divisive.

I love how the passage finishes with a crescendo. God is one, not many. God's relationship to believers is like a Father. What a comforting thought that is. He is above or rather outside of our space-time domain. Time and space are just another created thing. He is involved in every aspect of our world, through it all. He is near to the believer, nearer than any other person can be because He is in the believer. There are seven one's in the last statement of this verse. I like the number seven. It's my favorite number.

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