(3) When St Paul adds “with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love,” he is opposing a cause of division quite different from the last,--to wit, _impatience and resentfulness_. A high Christian ideal and a strict self-judgement will render us more sensitive to wrong-doing in the world around us. Unless tempered with abundant charity, they may lead to harsh and one-sided censure. Gentle natures, reluctant to condemn, are sometimes slow and difficult in forgiveness. Humbleness and meekness are choice graces of the Spirit. But they are self-regarding virtues at the best, and may be found in a cold nature that has little of the patience which bears with men’s infirmities, of the sympathetic insight that discovers the good often lying close to their faults. “Above all things”--above kindness, meekness, longsuffering, forgivingness--“put on love, which is the bond of perfectness” (Col. iii. 14). Love is the last word of St Paul’s definition of the Christian temper in verse 2; it is the sum and essence of all that makes for Christian unity. In it lies a charm which can overcome both the lighter provocations and the grave offences of human intercourse,--offences that must needs arise in the purest society composed of infirm and sinful men. “Bind thyself to thy brother. Those who are bound together in love, bear all burdens lightly. Bind thyself to him, and him to thee. Both are in thy power; for whomsoever I will, I may easily make my friend” (Chrysostom). Verses 1-3 exhibit the temper in which the unity of the Church is to be maintained. Verses 4-6 set forth the basis upon which it rests. This passage is a brief summary of Christian doctrine. It defines the “foundation of the apostles and prophets” asserted in chapter ii. 20,--the groundwork of “every building” in God’s holy temple, the foundation upon which Paul’s Gentile readers, along with the Jewish saints, were growing into one holy temple in the Lord. Seven elements of unity St Paul enumerates: one _body_, _Spirit_, _hope_; one _Lord_, _faith_ and _baptism_; one _God and Father of all_. They form a chain stretching from the Church on earth to the throne and being of the universal Father in heaven. Closely considered, we find that the seven unities resolve themselves into three, centring in the names of the Divine Trinity--the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. The Spirit and the Lord are each accompanied by two kindred uniting elements; while the one God and Father, placed alone, in Himself forms a threefold bond to His creatures--by His sovereign power, pervasive action, and immanent presence: “Who is over all, and through all, and in all” (comp. i. 23).