Philippians 4:3,4

Philippians 4:3

One Spirit and One Body.

I. This measureless body, spread out before our eyes in vast outline, so varied, so glorious, so wonderful, is convincement enough of the wealth and grandeur of the Spirit whose body it is, whose manifestation it is. It is God revealing Himself to the eyes of our flesh. The whole body is as full of soul for our souls, as of glory for our eyes. There is soul in the sun, and the earth is full of the same soul. In the beast world, the bird world, the tree world, the flower world, the one soul is present, and revealing Himself. "There is one body and one Spirit."

II. Endeavour to keep the unity of both, that you may come to wisdom. If you break up the unity and begin to analyse, you may have little bits of knowledge, but no wisdom, fragments of this and fragments of the other, but no philosophy, no apprehension of the order of God. Sacredly keep the unity of every material form, for its life, its Divineness, depends on its holiness. If you want to get at the unity of the Spirit, do not desecrate the unity of any body in which the Spirit dwells. Respect the unity of your own body, and do your utmost to keep its unity, for directly it loses its symmetry and balance your health is gone, and your life is in danger.

III. Man is the miracle of the universe, a little unity of body and spirit, representing the great unity of the one body's nature and of the one Spirit, God. Man is the epitome of all wonders, the looking-glass of the universe, the house of God's incarnation. Reflect why Jesus is Lord: He is not Lord because He is called Lord; He is Lord because the great, mute body of the universe is unified in Him. The humanity of Christ found the secret path through death to heaven, because the unity of the Spirit was in Him. It is in virtue of His secret inmost essence likewise that He opens every secret door in man, touches the most secret springs, and remakes the soul. He is the Divine reconciliation of all things; therefore He is creation's peace and our peace.

J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 21.