union and communion of the members of Christ’s body, which is the fruit and evidence of the Spirit’s presence. As hatred, pride and contention among Christians cause the Spirit to withdraw from them, so love and peace secure his presence. And as his presence is the condi- tion and source of all good, and his absence the source of all evil, the importance of the duty enjoined cannot be over-estimated. Our Lord said: ‘“ Blessed are the peace-makers.” Blessed are those who endeavour to preserve among the discordant elements of the church, including as it does men of different nations, manners, names and denominations, that peace which is the condition of the Spirit’s presence. The apostle labours in this, as in his other epistles, to bring the Jewish and Gentile Christians to this spirit of mutual forbearance, and to convince them that we are all one in Christ Jesus.*
As in Col. 8, 14, love is said to be “the bond of perfectness,” many commentators understand “the bond of peace” in this passage to be love. So Bengel: Vin- culum quo pax retinetur est ypse amor. But as the passages are not really parallel, and as in Colossians
* Osi animis nostris insideret haec cogitatio, hance legem nobis esse propositam, ut non magis dissidere inter se possint filii Dei, quam regnum coclorum dividi, quanto in colenda fraterna benevolentia essemus cau- tiores ? quanto nobis horrori essent omnes simultates, si reputaremus, ut decet, cos omnes se alienare a regno Dei, qui a fratribus se disjungunt ? sed nescio qui fit, ut secure nos esse filios Dei gloriemur, mutuae inter nos fraternitatis oblitii Discamus itaque ex Paulo, ejusdem hereditatis minime esse capaces, nisi qui unum corpus sunt et unus spiritus.—CALVIN.