(Matt. 11: 28-30; 21: 5; II Cor. 10: 1).  The unbelieving world, not understanding,

confuses meekness with weakness! Patience and forbearance with others is best realized

when we continually remember how patient God has been with us!  He is indeed the

God of patience (Rom. 15: 5) not only with us, but with the world at large (I Pet. 3: 20;

II Pet. 3: 8, 9). We shall certainly need patience in our daily walk and witness, and in

our dealing with others. The impatient person will get little or no result in Christian

service. How much witness for the Lord has been ruined by impatience! Like the

gardener and the farmer, we may have to wait a long time for results, after sowing the

seed of Truth and it is patient endurance that we shall need to prevent us from being

discouraged and perhaps giving up in despair.

"Giving diligence to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (4: 3 R.V.).

"Giving diligence" is the same word as "study" in II Tim. 2: 15, and has no primary

reference to study with books, but is rather "showing keenness". As believers we may be

keen in all sorts of ways, but here is a "must". If we desire to walk worthily of our high

calling, we must be keen to jealousy guard the seven-fold unity of the Spirit which has

been created by God and entrusted to us (4: 3-6). This seven-fold unity is held together

by the "bond of peace" and this is not just any kind of peace, but is that specifically

mentioned in 2: 14, 17.  Love is the other great bond (Col. 3: 14) that ties all the

members of the Body together, and should therefore be exhibited constantly towards each

other. If this is not realized, discord will result which only gives Satan an excellent

opportunity to do his deadly work of upsetting and dividing the people of God and their

united witness to the Truth. The seven-fold Unity of the Spirit has a disposition well

known in Hebrew parallelism, namely of introversion:

A | One Body.

B | One Spirit.

C | One Hope of the calling.

D | One Lord.

C | One Faith.

B | One Baptism.

A | One God and Father.

It is significant that right in the middle stands the One Lord Who alone makes the

other items real and possible so far as we are concerned. Firstly, there is One Body. This

is the creation in the mind and purpose of the Father before the foundation of the world as

1: 3-6 makes clear. It is the newly created New Man as 2: 14, 15. This is evidently why

the One Body balances the One God and Father in the above structure. The phrase "one

Body" had been used before by the Apostle in the Acts (Rom. 12: 5), but, as we have

seen, the church connected with the Secret and made known by Paul the prisoner in

Ephesians, was uniquely "a joint-Body", where every member is equal doctrinally and

dispensationally, which was not true of the church in the Acts, otherwise Rom. 11: with

the symbolism of the olive tree and the wild olive grafted in (Gentile believers who

stand by faith), grafted in to the olive tree of Israel, could never have been given. All

man-made bodies and groups pale into insignificance beside this Divinely created

company. This is the first aspect of the Spirit's unity to guard.