In Ephesians 2:18 Jew and Gentile are together before the Father in communion. The unity of the Spirit begins here, but it goes a good deal further.

The three great principles of the unity of the Spirit are – 1st, The new man. 2nd, Access by one Spirit to the Father. 3rd, Builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

The unity of the Spirit is the power of the Spirit which keeps saints in the realization of what their relationship is to all other saints, and this secures, when fully carried out, the realization or manifestation of the one body on earth.

The unity of the Spirit is an abstract idea; and the difficulty comes in making it an absolute fact. The unity of the Spirit is when your mind and mine go on together with the mind of the Spirit. When we do not see together, the unity of the Spirit is not realized; but one would not say it is broken. If you and I are quarreling, we are not doing it in the unity of the Spirit.

But apart from all ecclesiastical questions or ideas, I am to go on with you; and if I am naughty you need to forbear me in love. Then the unity of the Spirit is kept on your part, whatever it is on mine. Two godly Baptists might be morally endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit, but they have also broken it by being strict Baptists. Taking the unity of the Spirit in its completeness, you cannot separate it from "the one body." The "bond of peace" is walking as Christ walked.

Unity is by the power of the Spirit down here when God's mind and ours are all in one. Abstractly, I understand the unity of the Spirit to be God's mind. Walking according to the Spirit can be done individually; but for the unity of the Spirit there must be walking with others.

The unity of the body cannot be touched, for the Holy Spirit unites to Christ all those who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit-that is, received Him-and they are members of the one body. It is the unity of the Spirit we have to keep-that is, to walk in that power of the Spirit which keeps us in unity on the earth, and that needs "endeavoring." J. N. D.