Ephesians 4:3
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Throughout the past 2+ years, I’ve been grieved by many things. We’ve experienced a unique set of losses in navigating a global pandemic, and I’ve been acutely aware of various ways that loss has hurt my heart, quenched my energy and diminished my ambition. But I believe one of the greatest causes of the grief I’ve carried is the division and discord within the Church.
As an Enneagram Type 9, I am a pursuer of peace at my core. For me, this means easily seeing all sides of every story; adapting my preferences, interests and temperament to whoever I’m around; craving quiet spaces of rest (with tea and sweatpants!); working to resolve conflict as quickly as possible and doing everything in my power to ensure I’m not the one causing it; and really loving sleep (the most peaceful activity of my day!).
This means that when I have a front row seat to conflict, I tend to be incredibly uncomfortable and my energy gets zapped quickly. When it involves people I love, I am inevitably heartbroken. Not only is my own equilibrium disturbed, but my loved ones are being deprived of this gift that I hold in such high esteem: peace.
So while the Christian Church has gradually imploded over the past few years over politics, power, fear, misinformation, and misalignment, it has weighed so very heavy on my heart. The space and community where one might expect the best hope for a unified experience and safety from the outside trauma, was actually becoming a place with much of the most heated discord. And Jesus showed me that His heart has been broken too.
Navigating this grief has left me with little hope and momentum to pursue the unity and peace that Scripture has promised us. In fact, it’s caused me to question how much the potential of peace within the walls of the Church was even still within reach. And these questions and pains have been seriously destabilizing as so much of my foundation has relied on a state of experiencing and promoting peace! How could I walk in this journey of faith without this cornerstone?
But this passage of Ephesians highlighted a new and refreshed perspective for me: a bond of peace. A commentary helped further illuminate this choice of words and what Paul may have been articulating:
The means of maintaining and demonstrating the unity of the Spirit is through peace, which has a bonding effect… Earlier Christ has been depicted as the personification of peace who brought reconciliation with God and reconciliation between Jew and Gentile, but now believers are to be agents of peace and reconciliation within the community in order to preserve its unity.
Andrew Lincoln, Word Biblical Commentary
Essentially, peace isn’t a state of mind or being to pursue and strive to maintain, but rather it is the actual mechanism for achieving unity! This perspective empowers Jesus-followers to take action and identifies a method to access and maintain the unity offered through the Spirit. When you and I are looking for opportunities to reconcile, we are prompted to make generous assumptions, extend compassion and act out of love rather than fear. We develop a bond that hinges on our shared humanness and interest in protecting rather than harming one another; a bond of peace.
And with access to this bonding experience, we find alignment, togetherness, unity.
In the mainstream world, a beautiful picture of the act of pursuing peace is found in a practice called Restorative Justice. This model exists within the Criminal Justice System, and involves individuals who have committed a crime pursuing a reparative relationship with the victim of the crime, within a highly structured and intentional setting. Healing and growth is pursued through human connection, as those involved practice the three core tenants: Encountering, Repairing, and Transforming. Eventual unity can be reached through a bond built by reconciliation and peace.
I’m so thankful to know and be known by a God who is about restoration and relationship. He works alongside us in the practice of peace and provided his son to establish our path to unity.
Ephesians 2:14-18
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
About the Author
Britni is a quiet but fearless spirit who is earnestly seeking the beauty of the redemption that Jesus has personally determined for her life. Committed to the truth that listening breeds understanding and understanding results in compassion, she clings to the power of life’s stories. She has embarked on the venture of discovering her own story and lending an ear to the stories lived out in others and savors the trace of Jesus that is woven throughout them all. Currently, that journey has landed her in a balancing act between the role of wife, momma, and a mental health Care Coordinator.