Advent Devotionals
Advent Devotionals
5 Ways the Holy Spirit Enables Us to Live in Unity with One Another
The Holy Spirit Indwells Us
The apostle Paul explained that just as a human body has hands, feet, eyes, ears, and so on, and yet it remains one body, so it is with the body of Christ. We are very different and have different kinds of gifts, but we are all in this one body. How are we one like the human body? Paul said it is because “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” (1 Cor. 12:13). At the point of our conversion, the Holy Spirit immersed us into Christ so that we are all united to him. He is our head, and we (collectively) are his body. This is a spiritual rather than physical union.
The apostle went on to say that the Holy Spirit not only baptized us into the body of Christ but also indwells us from the time of our conversion. To borrow Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians, we “all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). What the Spirit does as he indwells us results in the experience of unity among us as believers. Let us look at some of these results.
1. The Holy Spirit Opens Our Eyes to Christian Truth
The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to Christian truth so that it becomes a compelling worldview to us. The apostle Paul referred to this when he wrote to the Corinthians why they should be different from the surrounding culture in their attitude toward their leaders and preachers: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12). The truths taught in the Bible become very real to us, from Genesis to Revelation. We understand them and continue to grow in our understanding of them. This is because the Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets and the apostles to write the various books of the Bible is the same one who now resides in us. We benefit from our pastors and other teachers of the word of God, but they are not intermediaries between us and God’s word. We can read it and, to a large extent, understand it for ourselves because of the Holy Spirit, who is in our hearts.
This unity in understanding biblical truth is foundational to Christian unity. Whereas we may not see eye to eye on every jot and tittle in the Bible, true Christians are united in their understanding of essential biblical truths. This is especially true in our understanding of the gospel, because it is the very basis of our salvation. We come to Christ in repentance and faith, and he clothes us in his righteousness. It is on that basis that God pardons us. It is on that basis alone that he will receive us in glory.
This understanding of the way of salvation is directly and indirectly taught in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. With spiritual eyes opened by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are enabled to see this and rejoice in it. We find others who are also indwelt by the same Spirit rejoicing in these truths, and that unites our hearts to theirs.
Unity
Conrad Mbewe
In this concise guide, Conrad Mbewe explores unity as a fruit of the gospel, urging believers to respond to Paul’s apostolic plea—standing together for the advancement of the gospel and the kingdom of God.
2. The Holy Spirit Gives Us Love for Other Believers
The indwelling Spirit also gives us love for other believers, wherever we meet them. In writing to the Galatians, the apostle Paul spoke of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). The very first of these is love. If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, he will make you a loving person. He will empower you from within to care for others. One major expression of this is love for fellow Christians. The Bible refers to this as brotherly love (philadelphia). It is the love enjoyed in the natural family when parents and children care for one another more than they care for those outside the family.
This love enables us to accept one another despite our differences and shortcomings. That was what the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:1–2). As Christians, we can often irritate one another by our insensitivities and our mistakes in doctrine and practice. It is the love in our hearts for one another that enables us to bear with these faults and keep us united. No wonder Paul said to the Colossians:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Col. 3:12–14)
3. The Holy Spirit Enables Us to Be More Godly
When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts, he begins the process of sanctification. We do not use this word often in our daily conversation, but all it means is that he makes us more holy and godly, like the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the power and dominion of sin is broken at the point of our conversion, the presence of sin is still with us, tempting us from within to do evil. The Holy Spirit enables us to die to this sin so that we live more for God. This is a lifelong process. We never arrive in this life. It is our responsibility to actively put to death the misdeeds of the body, but we are enabled to do so more and more by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We ought to be ever grateful to God that this is the case, because without the help of the Spirit, we would be miserable failures. This is why the apostle Paul told the Philippians, “Therefore, my beloved . . . , work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13). Yes, it is because he works within us that we can be guaranteed of progress and victory in holiness.
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The sins that war against Christian unity are born from selfishness and pride. James wrote: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1–2). This is why genuine unity is impossible in the unbelieving world. Sin makes us selfish and prideful, and so we fail to put the interests of others first. Part of the process of sanctification is putting to death the fountain of such sins and thus enabling an ambience that fosters true godly unity. Paul had this process in mind when he wrote:
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Eph. 4:30–32)
4. The Holy Spirit Gives Us Gifts That Are Interdependent
The Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts that enable us to work together to enrich the body of Christ and to reach out to the world. In 1 Corinthians 12 the apostle Paul showed that the spiritual gifts were gifted to the church by one and the same Spirit. He said that this was “for the common good” (1 Cor. 7). The wider body of Christ was meant to benefit from the individuals who were thus gifted; it was the very purpose of the bestowal of those gifts. Later in that chapter, the apostle argues for the interdependence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, using the same analogy of the body:
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. . . . If the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. (1 Cor. 7:14, 16–20)
The point the apostle was making was that the Holy Spirit gifts his church in such a way as to make us all interdependent. No Christian has all the gifts necessary to carry out the Great Commission. No single church has all the gifts to do so either. We all need one another. The Spirit ensures that it remains this way by how he distributes his gifts in the local and global church. This was evident even among the apostles.
Curtis C. Thomas warns about pastors and churches who isolate themselves:
This isolation will surely retard the growth of the gospel in that particular geographical area. It obscures the unity of the body of Christ. It tells the world that Christians are not one in spirit. Not having fellowship with and learning from other brothers and sisters in Christ stunts spiritual growth of that pastor and congregation.1
We find others who are also indwelt by the same Spirit rejoicing in these truths, and that unites our hearts to theirs.
5. The Holy Spirit Energizes Us in Gospel Endeavors
The Lord Jesus was categorical about the effect of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. He said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). His coming was to be an empowering activity. We saw the effect of this on Peter on the day of Pentecost itself—he became a courageous preacher. Likewise, in an extraordinary way, the Holy Spirit sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29) and Peter to the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:19) to share the gospel. The Spirit also told the church in Antioch to release Barnabas and Saul to continue the work of church planting (Acts 13:2). Although today we do not hear an audible voice giving such direct instructions, we can testify of a Holy Spirit–inspired burden in our hearts that gives us a sense of what God wants us to do in gospel endeavors.
Part of the energy to do evangelism comes from the fact that the Holy Spirit makes us firsthand witnesses of his saving and sanctifying grace. His presence in our hearts enables us to know that we are God’s children. As Paul wrote to the Romans:
You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom. 8:15–17)
This is a glorious reality. We are not left merely to infer from cold logic that we are children of God. There is a real warmth in our hearts that assures us of this fact.
Conclusion
We should thank God for the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Jesus said to the disciples in the upper room, the Spirit takes the things of Jesus and makes them real to us (John 16:14–15). That is precisely what he has done to enable the church to experience unity. Jesus secured our unity, and the Holy Spirit is applying it to us in more ways than one. We have seen that he has done so by baptizing us into the one body of Christ and by indwelling all who are God’s children. We have also seen that by indwelling us, he has blessed us with common experiences and desires, which cause us to want to be together and serve together for the glory of God’s name.
No wonder the famous benediction of the apostle Paul ends with the words “and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). This fellowship binds us together as one.
Notes:
- Curtis C. Thomas, Practical Wisdom for Pastors: Words of Encouragement and Counsel for a Lifetime of Ministry (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), 174.
This article is adapted from Unity: Striving Side by Side for the Gospel by Conrad Mbewe.
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