making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

A song of ascents, ²  by David. Look! How good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together! ³ 

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to ¹  the measure of Christ’s full stature. ² 

Then I cut the second staff “Binders” in two in order to annul the covenant of brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

And to all these ¹  virtues ²  add ³  love, which is the perfect bond. ⁴ 

Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another ¹  in accordance with Christ Jesus,

Finally, all of you be harmonious, ¹  sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble.

“Your hands have shaped ¹  me and made me, but ²  now you destroy me completely. ³ 

and the two will become one flesh. ¹  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Grace and peace to you ¹  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

I in them and you in me – that they may be completely one, ¹  so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.

And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language ¹  they have begun to do this, then ²  nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. ³ 

In Judah God moved the people to unite and carry out the edict the king and the officers had issued at the Lord’s command. ¹ 

For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body – though many – are one body, so too is Christ.

For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ¹  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,

and by not being intimidated in any way by your opponents. This is ¹  a sign of their ²  destruction, but of your salvation – a sign which ³  is from God.

And similarly, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way?

So I ¹  began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter, the most afflicted ²  of all the flock. Then I took two staffs, ³  calling one “Pleasantness” ⁴  and the other “Binders,” ⁵  and I tended the flock.