# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S23
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1906. 23

the unity in the Spirit is produced through the Gospel alone. But for this the Gospel must be rightly preached. Where it is obscured or corrupted by human doctrines, the Holy Spirit cannot work through it, and so the unity in the Spirit is not established there. From this it follows again: If people stand together in one church and want to comply with the demand of the Gospel for unity in the Spirit, they must also teach harmoniously according to God's Word. Therefore we say:

To preserve the unity in the Spirit, its practical significance in the life of Christians on earth should move us. 1. Unity of the Spirit and purity of doctrine condition each other, and likewise 2. unity of the Spirit and purity of conduct.

The Apostle exhorts Christians to preserve the unity in the Spirit also for the purpose that they may remain in the pure doctrine. That results from the further course of Eph. 4. He says at once in v. 7: "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ," and after he has then shown from a saying of the Old Testament that Christ has obtained these gifts, he continues in v. 11: "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." The connection seems to me to be this: We are to preserve the unity in the Spirit in order to remain firm in the purity of doctrine and through the pure doctrine to grow ever more firmly up into the LORD Jesus and so become a perfect man. We can apply this to practice thus: When there is talk of unity of the Spirit among the many members of the Church, then in our limited circumstances on earth the question at once arises: How can all these personalities be one and remain one? According to the old Adam it is natural that we diverge into as many differences as we are personalities. Therefore Paul often, also in the Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, comes to this image of the body and calls attention to the fact that in the one body there are many members, which nevertheless all work unanimously with and for