Violating the Unity of the Spirit

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”
– Ephesians 4:3 –

Any church that lifts up its head on high and boasts over other churches has violated the unity of the Spirit. If other churches reply, “One is our Master, and we are all brothers,” they do not violate the unity of the Spirit, for they simply claim their rights and speak the truth. The other church that forgets its true position as merely one member of the family and begins to claim precedence over its fellow servants has lost the ability to keep the unity of the Spirit, for it has violated it once for all. 

A church that would keep the unity of the Spirit must not consider itself so perfect in its judgments that it is a sin not to belong to it. What right has any one church to set itself up as the sole standard of truth? And even if the church claiming supremacy is larger in number than others, are divine things to be determined by the majority? Where would the church of God be on any given day if it came to counting members? I am afraid the devil would always win the vote. We wish to keep the unity of the Spirit, and if there is a smaller church, we will treat it all the more kindly, due to the small number of its members…

Let us meet on equal ground. Let us lay aside all claims of superiority. Let us really aid and not oppress each other. Let us come together in prayer. Let us unite in confession of sin. Let us join heartily in reforming our errors. If we do so a true evangelical alliance will cover our land. If any church will take the Bible as its standard and preach the name of Jesus in the power of the Spirit of God, there are thousands of us who will rejoice to give the right hand of fellowship with a hearty greeting to every church like this. We are striving every day to get other churches and ourselves more and more into that condition in which, while remaining independent churches, we can still keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

From Spurgeon on Unity, p. 36, 37