Unity or Disunity?

Ephesians 4:2-3 (GNT): Unity or Disunity

Be always humble, gentle, and patient. Show your love by being tolerant with one another. Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together.

Paul teaches that peace, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, and love bind us together in Christ. And this is a deep truth many of us experience on both sides of the issue. We experience unity through loving acceptance and disunity through shallow prejudgment. The choice, often, is ours. Which do we choose?

Several years ago, my neighbor asked if he could borrow my mattock to dig out some bushes and exposed tree roots in his yard. In the past, I have always been protective of my tools, and I have to admit Shakespeare's Polonius whispered in my subconscious, “Neither a borrower nor lender be,/ For loan oft loses both itself and friend” (Hamlet 1.3.75-76). Polonius aside, I gave in and lent him the mattock.

Fast forward three weeks, and the mattock never made its way back to my garage. I began to seethe with anger and the gossipy defamation began to flow. “Who does he think he is not returning my mattock? The audacity. . . ,” I grumbled with a few choice words peppered in. I quickly began to lose my cool, and in my mind, my neighbor was no longer someone I could say hello to each day, and he became a person I resented.

After two months, I mustered-up enough courage to walk over, knock on his door, and ask if I could have my mattock back. When I did, he looked puzzled. He excused himself, disappeared into his garage, retrieved the tool, and handed it back with an apology and thanks. He had simply forgotten I had lent it to him.

After weeks of anger, impatience, judging, and isolating myself from my neighbor, I discovered I was wrong. All of this could have been avoided if I would have been humble, patient, and gentle in my thoughts, words, and actions. Due to my short sightedness, I destroyed the peace and communion with my neighbor and opted for the easy path of disunity and conflict.

Paul reminds us to look at our own relationships. Do we, too, jump to conclusions with each other, refusing to offer the benefit of the doubt? Instead, Paul writes, we should always be “humble, gentle, and patient,” showing our “love by being tolerant with one another.”

Loving God, we pray for the humility to be kind, loving agents of Jesus Christ in this world, preserving the peace and unity that your Spirit gives. We pray in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

Have a blessed week!

Stan