Have you ever worked at a job where you felt a strong bond with your co-workers? Perhaps you were united by a sense of mission, or by a respect for your boss, or by the belief that a prosperous company will benefit everyone financially. The more points of agreement among members of a group, the more they will be unified, the better they will perform, and the less likely they will be to fight among themselves.

Christians have a built-in list of unifiers that can keep them working together with a oneness of spirit. In Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul listed seven uniting "ones." Think of how helpful they can be to any group of believers working together on the same project:

    One body—we are a single family unified for one purpose
    One Spirit—we all have the Spirit as our power source
    One hope—we all look forward to the same future
    One Lord—we all trust the same Person in charge
    One faith—we all trust Jesus' sacrifice for our salvation
    One baptism—we all have a single identity
    One God and Father—we all share the same source of our existence

What a difference it would make if we all could dwell on those seven "ones."  — Dave Branon