employed to call in question controversy over doctrine, and to justify the

shameful `soft pedalling' or `watering down' (2 Cor. 2:17) of the Truth

committed to our trust, or to so stress `the bond of peace' as though such

`peace' in such a context was a Scriptural synonym for `compromise'.  Before

applying the principle of `comparison' to this exhortation of Ephesians 4, we

earnestly commend the following considerations to the reader.  Ephesians 4

is, obviously, half way through the epistle.  Moreover, by its very contents,

it is the commencement of a section which seeks to enforce and to demonstrate

the kind of practice that should follow the revelation of doctrine found in

the first three chapters of this epistle.  Its keyword is expressed in the

words `Walk worthy' of a calling already revealed and accepted.  Now it is

manifest, that to ignore the vital link binding Ephesians 4 with the

preceding chapters which urge a walk that should be worthy of such a calling

which is there revealed, and to use it to justify compromise as though `The

unity of the spirit' was not something already clearly defined, or

to misapply the words `the bond of peace' as though Christians were justified

in dropping certain lines of teaching if they disturb the peace of fellow

believers, is to do despite to the `Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth'.

Let us face at once this unchanging feature of Divine Truth.  `Practice

follows, never precedes doctrine', or to use a homely illustration borrowed

from 2 Kings 19:30 `Take root downward, and bear fruit upward'.  Practice is

the fruit on the tree, and is only possible because the root of the tree is

already established.  No Christian practice can be isolated from the grace of

God already manifested in the Person and Work of Christ; any attempt at

`practice' that ignores that fundamental basis must necessarily be but the

tradition of man and the elements of the world against which the Scriptures

utter continual warning.

The unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace look back to Ephesians

2:11 -19 where `the both' are made one, where we read of the `One Body' and

the `One Spirit' (Eph. 2:16,18) and where the bond of peace is the peace made

by the blood of Christ, which peace looks to the enmity which had previously

existed but is now abolished.  The sevenfold unity of the Spirit, given in

Ephesians 4, opens with the words `There is One Body'.  This is the

`reconciled' Body of Ephesians 2:16, and the `unity' stressed in Ephesians 4

is incipient in `the both' which have been made `one' in Ephesians 2.  The

unity of the Spirit moreover is but a manifestation of the fact that `the

both' have been reconciled in One Body by the cross, where the unity resides

in the word `reconcile'; or the emphasis in the Spirit looks to the fact that

this unity was made `by the cross' and is a `creation', (ktizo `make' Eph.

2:15), having `slain' whatever was the cause of enmity.  Surely it is evident

that this is no unity that man can either make or destroy.  The enjoyment and

the practical loyalty to all the elements of this unity are within the

compass of human responsibility, but it is to spoil the whole purpose of

Ephesians 4 to reduce the exhortation to keep the unity of the spirit to the

level of unanimity among believers.  This desirable quality is provided for

in the injunction to walk

`With all lowliness and meekness, with long -suffering, forbearing one

another in love' (Eph. 4:2),

which not only precedes the injunction to keep the unity but lies at the

threshold of the three chapters of consistent practice.