making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

On the last verse. We have humility, gentleness and patience in the service of putting up with one another in love.

“Putting up” means I am not trying to change you. I don't think I have to notice everything, react to everything, be moved by everything, meaning I should keep things in perspective, not make too much of things that should not be made too much of, no overblown issues. It extends to the tone of your voice. Putting up is a powerful thing.

Putting up with others in the last verse is connected to making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So in the space of two verses, Paul mentioned four things in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23): gentleness, love, patience and peace.

It is interesting that humility is not mentioned in the list of the fruit of the Spirit.

What that tells me is that humility is tied to the action you take or not take; the fruit of the Spirit is mostly like the emotional coloring; humility is concrete action or inaction as the case may be.

Fruit is disposition; humility is the action.

For example,

Putting up with one another is clearly about what you are not doing, and in all these things you are not doing, Paul, in this verse, says that what you are doing is making an effort.

You are making an effort by not doing anything. That is not how we think about making an effort.

It’s the example that Jesus left for us. He did much with passivity, just taking on the blows and not calling on the angels to come and rescue Him (Matthew 26:53). As the Lamb was being led to the shearers, He opened not His mouth. Opening His mouth would have been to do something (Isaiah 53:7).

The point is, there is an underrated virtue of passivity, or a restful posture, demeanor, not an urge to sort everything out, make every point, sort everyone out, fight all the battles.

In another place, Paul urged the strong to bear with the weaknesses of the weak and not to please themselves (Romans 15:1). Bearing is a disposition, an inner posture. Pleasing yourself is an action. After you have shouted, you may feel pleased by the sense of power. But you are wrong. That is the truth.

It seems that the one who is strong, or thinks they are strong, who can put everyone in their place, may need to watch out so that they are not inadvertently making an effort to pull away from keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And the division (the opposite of unity mentioned in this verse) can be over little things, like someone saying meat is okay and the other saying that it’s only vegetables (Romans 14:2).

That means the unity is not in conformity; it has to be in diversity. It just has to be if the operating principle is tolerance.

You are not the same as me; you do not come to the same conclusion as me, and I should not shame and pummel you for every opinion divergence.

If I do those things, I may think I am making an effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, but maybe I am not. I am definitely not. I am making an effort, but my effort is in the opposite direction.

That means the right hard work may not look like it; it may not look like holding debates and tracing things out, it may not look like marshaling arguments and making every effort to slice and dice the other's points, we may actually be slaving and dicing the peace in the process based on this passage we are exploring.

How important is the unity of the Spirit? How important is the bond of peace? Very important. So important that Jesus prayed about it (John 17:20–23), that Paul is urging all in that regard.⁠

And everyone has to make that effort. It does not lie with one person. Everyone has to do it.

To think it has nothing to do with you, but it’s someone else’s responsibility, makes you the weak link, in my opinion. And it is not unity for unity's sake; it is peaceful unity amidst genuine connection.

And there is a famous psalm that hints at this:

We do it because that is what God wants. Not because it is convenient. And that is the whole point. Humility, patience, gentleness and love are all about our orientation towards others.

May God help us