Unity of the Spirit
2. Lowliness—meekness. See on Matt. 11:29; 5:5.
Long-suffering. See on Jas. 5:7.
Forbearing (ἀνεχόμενοι). See on Luke 9:41.
3. Endeavoring (σπουδάζοντες). Not strong enough. Originally the verb means to make haste. So the kindred noun σπουδή haste, Mark 6:25; Luke 1:39. Hence diligence. Rev., here, giving diligence.
To keep (τηρεῖν). See on reserved, 1 Pet. 1:4.
Unity of the Spirit. Wrought by the Holy Spirit.
Bond of peace. The bond which is peace. Compare ch. 2:14, our peace—made both one. Christ, our peace, is thus a bond of peace. Others, however, treat in the bond as parallel with in love of ver. 2, and cite Col. 3:14, “love the bond of perfectness.”
4. The connection with the preceding verses is as follows: I exhort you to unity, for you stand related to the Church, which is one body in Christ; to the one Spirit who informs it; to the one hope which your calling inspires; to the one Lord, Christ, in whom you believe with one common faith, and receive one common sign of that faith, baptism. Above all, to the one God and Father.
Body—Spirit. The body is the invisible Church, the mystical body of Christ: the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Πνεῦμα spirit, is never used in the New Testament of temper or disposition.
Even as. To the facts of one body and one Spirit corresponds the fact of their calling in one hope. Compare Col. 3:15.
In one hope of your calling (ἐν μιᾷ ἐλπίδι τῆς κλήσεως ὑμῶν). In, not by. Their calling took place in the one hope as its moral element or sphere, since they were called to fellowship with Christ who is the one object and the one inspirer of hope. Compare called in peace, 1 Cor. 7:15; in sanctification, 1 Thess. 4:7 (Rev.). Hope here is not the object but the principle of hope. The phrase hope of your calling signifies hope which is characteristic of God’s call to salvation, and is engendered by it. See on ch. 1:18.
5. Faith. The principle of faith; not that which is believed—the body of Christian doctrine, which does not promote unity. See on Acts 6:7.
Baptism. The external sign of faith, but of no significance without the Lord and the faith. Baptism is emphasized instead of the Eucharist, because the latter assumes and recognizes unity as an established fact; while faith and baptism precede that fact, and are essential to it. Baptism, moreover, is not administered to the Church as a body, but to individuals, and therefore emphasizes the exhortation to each member to be in vital union with the whole body.
6. One God and Father. The fundamental ground of unity. Note the climax: One Church, one Christ, one God.
Above all (ἐπὶ πάντων). Rev., over: as ruler.
Through—in (διὰ—ἐν). Through, pervading: in, indwelling. Compare
“that for the sinner humility involves the confession of sin, inasmuch as it involves the confession of his true condition; while yet for the unfallen creature the grace itself as truly exists, involving for such the acknowledgment, not of sinfulness, which would be untrue, but of creatureliness, of absolute dependence, of having nothing, but receiving all things of God