There are three aspects of our unity that are commended here to us for consideration, Our spirit, our mind and our purpose. Ot all begins with a spirit that is aimed at the God who IS. This is not a small matter, nor is it one that we can change of our own accord. The scripture affirms that in our own nature we are spiritually dead. That we are unconditionally aimed AWAY from God. That our very breath is sin and that we hate the God of the universe with every fiber of our being. That left to our own devices, we would be full of our own evil, recklessly pursuing our own destruction and nothing but hell bound. A spirit like this is incapable of unity with anyone but self. All alliances are formed only with selfish intent, and are dissolved as quickly as they are formed as soon as the perceived benefit is no longer visible. But God, in the greatness of His mercy and grace, lays hold of our rebel hearts by the effectual calling of His Spirit. He takes out our stony hearts of hatred and wickedness and puts into their place tender hearts of flesh... He shows us our sin, our great and terrible rebellions and then presses on us the knowledge of our offense against His goodness. The first cry of a newly awakened heart is the cry for mercy, it is heart that repents, which is filled with a new and overwhelming love for the God that it previously hated, and which seeks only to walk faithfully after that same God who has loved us so... once this spirit has been placed into us by God, we find that all over the world there are other true followers of Jesus Christ who themselves have been given this same spirit, this same living heart, and who have been given this same love, and this same heart of repentance. And these spirits, unified in nature are also unified in truth!! There is a love and unity born in the hearts of those who are themselves loved by God, which binds us together always, regardless of any outward thing which would have divided us before our conversion. It is this love, this uncanny, unearthly, alien love which has been poured out in our hearts by Jesus Christ. It is this love, my children, which will testify of that same Christ to a lost and dying world, which will speak peace to those trapped in hatred, and which will itself break the bonds which hold others in captivity. Stand then, firm in one spirit and let your life display the truth of the risen Savior!!