Without the Holy Spirit There Is No Spiritual Unity

True, spiritual unity is not about a man-made, organized unity, which is often linked to the demand for a uniform theology or a uniform approach on certain issues. True spiritual unity has nothing to do with “indifference” or the acceptance of a lowest common denominator. Unity is something that, as the name implies, is “one”—that is, it is not “two.”

True spiritual unity is something that only the Holy Spirit can bring about. To achieve such Spirit-led unity, we must wholeheartedly allow the Holy Spirit to actually do what He is able to do. If Christians do not truly open themselves to the Holy Spirit, genuine spiritual unity is unattainable and nothing more than a pipe dream.

Because in a spirit we are all too in one body were baptized … and were all filled with the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:13

Make every effort to Unity of the Spirit to preserve through the Ribbon of Peace: One body and one Spirit, just as you were called to share in the hope of your calling!
Ephesians 4:3-4

However, if Christian groups have reservations about this “agent of unity”—the Holy Spirit—are confused by Him, or perhaps even more or less openly reject Him and His supernatural work, then any unity is nothing more than a human-made endeavor. I’m not saying that this is necessarily bad, any more than a shared barbecue or a coffee get-together is bad. But in my opinion, it’s not much more than that either. We should never equate a community in which people merely agree to be in harmony on certain theological points with what the Bible understands as true spiritual unity.

Without the Holy Spirit, spiritual unity is unthinkable!

 

Martin Baron
Excerpt from the book *God and Germany* (Introduction to Part 1)