Verse 2 says, “With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love.” To have lowliness is to remain in a low estate, and to have meekness is to not fight for ourselves. We should have these two virtues in dealing with ourselves. Long-suffering is to endure mistreatment. We should have this virtue in dealing with others. By these virtues we bear one another; that is, we do not forsake the troublesome ones but bear them in love. This is the expression of life.
The word “all” governs both lowliness and meekness. It does not mean that there are many kinds of lowliness and meekness; it means that we should have lowliness and meekness in all things. Thus, we must keep the oneness of the Spirit with all lowliness and meekness.
The problem, however, is that in ourselves we cannot be either lowly or meek. If we are honest and sincere, we shall admit that we have no genuine lowliness or meekness. On the contrary, we tend to exalt ourselves and to fight in defense of ourselves. Just as we do not have lowliness or meekness, we are not long-suffering and we cannot bear others in love. Nevertheless, Paul charges us to have such a worthy walk.
If we would keep the oneness of the Spirit, we must have a proper humanity, a humanity with lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering and a humanity that bears others in love. If we do not have such a humanity as our “capital,” then we cannot operate the “business” of keeping the oneness of the Spirit. The fact that the virtues in verse 2 are mentioned before the oneness of the Spirit in verse 3 indicates that we must have these virtues in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
In order to have the virtues spoken of in verse 2, we need a transformed humanity. In our natural humanity there is no lowliness, meekness, nor long-suffering. But these virtues are to be found in our transformed humanity, that is, in the humanity of Jesus. In Matthew 11:29 the Lord Jesus said that He was meek and lowly in heart. Meekness and lowliness are characteristics of the humanity of Jesus. Any meekness or lowliness that we may seem to have in ourselves is a pretense and cannot survive any real testing. Praise the Lord that the humanity of Jesus in His resurrection life can be ours today! The more we are transformed, the more of the humanity of Jesus we have. By having the humanity of the resurrected Christ, we spontaneously have the virtues required to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
The genuine oneness in the Triune God is seen in the picture of the tabernacle with its forty-eight boards of acacia wood overlaid with gold. In themselves, the boards were separate from one another, but in the gold they were one. The bars that held the boards together were also made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. As we have pointed out elsewhere, the golden bars signify the uniting Spirit. The acacia wood signifies humanity, and the gold signifies the divine nature. In the uniting Spirit there is the element of humanity. This indicates that the uniting Spirit is not merely the Holy Spirit of God, but the Holy Spirit mingled with our spirit.
This mingled spirit is seen in Romans 8. Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.” The spirit here is our human spirit mingled with God’s Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.” This verse clearly points to the mingled spirit, that is, the Spirit with our spirit. In the mingled spirit which constitutes the uniting bars, there is the transformed humanity with the virtues of lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering.
For years I tried to be meek and lowly, but I failed time after time. Eventually I learned that the lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering in 4:2 are not to be found in our natural humanity, but are characteristics of the transformed humanity, the humanity of Jesus Christ. This transformed humanity with all its virtues is typified by the acacia wood within the uniting bars. This indicates that in the uniting Spirit there is the transformed humanity, our humanity transformed by the resurrection life of Christ.