"The Unity of the Spirit" Eph. 4:3

This is from a discussion list. Howdy, Rob Perkins here.

First of all when 100 plus translators choose to capitalize the “S” in Spirit I give that a lot of credence. I see that in Ephesians sometimes we see “Spirit" and sometimes we see “spirit". In 5:16, we see…”but be filled with the Spirit” however in the footnotes (AS) they say “or in spirit”. I think the lower case makes more sense in this passage but only mention it because in some cases the translators give an option. I respect options.

Of course the epistle was written because there were issues between greek and jewish Christians. Hence we see in 1:13, both groups had the commonality of being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

In 2:18, both groups have access to the father in one Spirit, and are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

In 3:16, Paul prays that they would be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man.

All these texts have Spirit with the upper case “S” then we come to the text in question… “giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. I see no reason to suddenly decide to take issue with the translators and argue for the lower case “s”. I’m not sure there is a compelling reason to do so. Perhaps because the action is placed on the believer to “keep the unity”. However, a similar action is placed upon the believer when he is told to not “grieve the Holy Spirit of God”

We give diligence to “keep the unity of the Spirit” by “walking worthily” (4:1). Similarly we “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” (4:30) by also walking worthily, i.e., no bitterness, wrath, anger, etc.

I also suspect “Spirit” in 4:3 is capitalized because it is preceded by the definite article “the”.