On Unity: Living in Spiritual Unity

This year's OCF theme is unity, centered around Psalm 132:1 (OSB),

"Behold, what is so good or so pleasant as for brothers to dwell together in unity."

This week is part five of a six-part series centered around Orthodox perspectives on unity. The series will consist of reflections from student leaders and College Conference workshop speakers, leading up to College Conference at the end of December.

This is a guest post from Kiana Murray. Kianna is a freshman at Oregon State University in the Honors College. She is the Northwest Student Leader on the Student Advisory Board.

"Teach me thy way, O Lord, that I may walk in thy truth; unite my heart to fear thy name."
- Psalm 86:11

We are all on a journey, with gifts bestowed upon us to fulfill His purpose, but we cannot walk the path we are called to without being united with Christ and the Holy Spirit.

To live in unity, as Paul writes about in Ephesians 4, creed must influence conduct. We must admit that to be filled with the fullness of God, we must walk with the Spirit in us. Not only in ourselves, but with one another in love, we are united under God by the cohesiveness of the Spirit. Therefore we are called to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3); not to breed infighting, but to walk together as one body in Christ.

CC Image Courtesy of Molly Sabourin on Flickr

The earthly road that we find ourselves on is saturated with choices and quick turns that we cannot navigate without the Lord. I aspire, and believe that we should all aspire, to grow in Christ unceasingly “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4:13a).