The Bible talks about a couple of bonds between brothers and sisters in the church: the bond of peace and the bond of perfectness. What are these bonds? And how does one walk in them such that the high and beautiful fruit of love results?

First, to have bonds in place is to have no divisions. And the cross we are called to subject ourselves to—the dying to the life of self—is the answer to all the divisions in the Body. We will all say we are of Christ our Head when we are following Him according to Luke 9:23. The verse reads: “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself (deny letting his soul have dominance over the Indwelling Lord), and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”Embracing the cross comes before experiencing intimate union with the Lord or flowing together with Him in the life of the spirit. We are one spirit with the Lord 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, but there is a veil of flesh which must be rent for more in terms of interior experience to open up. [See http://artkatzministries.org/articles/the-veil-of-self/.]

It’s in Ephesians 4:1-6 that Paul writes about the bond of peace:

“I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love, being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, even as you were also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and one Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The prescription for keeping the bond of peace in place involves love. The call to walk in lowliness and meekness involves walking in such a way that we put others before ourselves. We must keep the fleshy self-life under the cross. Thus, we are to practice the moment-by-moment crucifixion of the flesh. The prescription does call for suffering and endurance at times. Our reaction patterns must be governed by the Indwelling Christ and the Word stored in our hearts such that we don’t sin. So we’re to let Psalm 119 realities prevail.

“Peace is the issue of the working of the cross,” Witness Lee says in his Recovery Bible notes. When we stay in the flow of the spirit, we stay in oneness. We are for others’ well-being. Our lives together are marked by harmony, concord, and blessedness. The parts of the Body function rightly.

Colossians 3:12-15 discusses the peace of the spirit as umpire and arbitrator among us. This passage tells how peacekeeping keeps love, which is the bond of perfectness, in place.

“Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, inward parts of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering; bearing one another and forgiving one another, if anyone should have a complaint against anyone; even as the Lord forgave you, so also you should forgive. And over all these things put on love, which is the uniting bond of perfectness. And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body; and be thankful.”

There is a certain mature saint I know who so lets peace rule in her heart that she walks at a very high level of selfless love. In fact, she has reached such levels of loving your neighbor as you love yourself that she is qualified to teach. Her name is Dottie Bell.

Dottie grew up in an era and a part of the country where Christian principles in general informed the society around her. Love existed among family and friends. She encourages learning the social graces because they so help in seeing how to be kind and considerate. As we are the true royalty in the earth, why not learn the good manners that go along with the royal law of love?

Dottie, who happens to be my mom, didn’t find peace and love to be so easy in a marriage to an unsaved husband and around the true church. She recalls, “Growing bonds with others took a long time. The people in spirit-filled circles often came from lives of trouble and pain. The backgrounds were so different, and I had to work to overcome the differences. And many people faced real warfare. At first, I knew not how to defeat the devil.”

[Note: Dottie’s husband, Ed, turned to the Lord and received Jesus as Savior in the last days before his passing. His decision for Christ followed upon decades of concerted intercession for him.]

Dottie learned to get her love needs met at the deepest levels from Christ. She learned to look to the Lord as her great source of fulfillment and found that the Lord was her nourishment—her “All in All” as 1 Corinthians 15:28 terms God. She invested in her life in the Word. Dottie studied what it meant to be one spirit with the Lord. In time, as she found the way of the cross, her experience was one of union with the Lord. And it was from Christ Jesus she was able to draw as she encountered all kinds of human need. Today she still lives Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”“You have to be prepared for people who do not know how to love and can’t love you back,” Dottie states.

“God is perfect at everything. He knows what He is doing when He puts you in situations where you need more patience or grace or love. Right in the test, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with His good fruit. He will do so and enable you to walk through any interaction. You have to be quick to forgive to stay free of offense. Forgive right at the threshold of thought,” my mom explains.

“I wanted to stay in peace inside. I did not like the way negative thoughts disturbed peace. So I began to pro-actively send love to others by way of thought prayers. I also wanted to see God work. I desired others to know the Lord as the great God He is—the Answer for everything. So instead of letting negative, fiery darts in, I began to pray for those before me. I released love and good will from the wells of salvation within. I asked God to bless them and teach them how to be victorious. And, I asked God to show me ever better ways to relate to others. I grew in all this. The flow of love increased as I maintained peace and turned my thoughts first Godward (necessitating they be turned away from self), then to others,” Dottie relays. These disciplines of grace are ongoing.

Mom continues, “If we’ll keep practicing pouring out God’s love, He’ll continue to flow through us. We’ll be conduits. Go about doing good like Jesus. Do a kindness whenever and wherever. The Lord loves to answer prayer and bless through us. Also, bind and loose to get people free. Study Matthew 16:19 and books on these keys. I like Liberty Savard’s books. Know that all through these actions God will grow you in many things. Die to any resentment as you stay under or subject to the cross.”

“You must exercise yourself in love. Ephesians 4:31 says, ‘. . . dislikeof others should have no place in your lives.’ Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with a sincere liking for this one or that one. Ask for ideas for good words and good deeds. Beseech God for a right heart. Over time you will grow to truly like all types of people,” Dottie adds. “The command is to like as well as love.”

“Stay in peace within. Know God accepts you when He corrects you. He is love,” she finishes.

[Note: Praying for other souls is a way of loving them. You can love people (care for them) through prayer even when you do not feel the emotion of love. And the act of praying will enlarge your capacity for love. Through Spirit-led intercession, you enter into God’s heart for others.]

The Recovery New Testament, available free through www.biblesforamerica.org, has excellent notes for those who desire to walk according to the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The notes so help in the way of the cross and the release of the spirit from within. A key tool for overcomers.

1 Corinthians 6:17Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

¹⁷But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

Luke 9:23Living Bible (TLB)

²³ Then he said to all, “Anyone who wants to follow me must put aside his own desires and conveniences and carry his cross with him every day and keep close to me!

Luke 9:23New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²³ And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

Matthew 22:36-40Living Bible (TLB)

³⁶ “Sir, which is the most important command in the laws of Moses?”  ³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’ ^38-39 This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: ‘Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.’ ⁴⁰All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others.”

James 2:8 AMPC If, however, you are [really] fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, if you have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit]” you are doing well.

Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

Ephesians 6:16Living Bible (TLB)

¹⁶In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows (darts) aimed at you by Satan.

Isaiah 12:3King James Version (KJV)

³Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Matthew 16:19Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.

Breaking The Power-Revised and Updated: Of Unmet Needs, Unhealed Hurts And Unresolved Issues In Your Life by Liberty Savard 2012

Binding & Loosing: Exercising Authority Over the Dark Powers (1999) by K. Neill Foster and H. Robert Cowles

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