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Maintaining Unity - Part II — 9/16/2026 10:00 AM
Today's speaker is Dr. Mike Kwiatkowski, Lead Pastor at Mercy Hill Church in Yulee, FL. Pastor Kwiatkowski continues his two-part series on maintaining unity from Ephesians 4:1-3. In this message, he focuses on the qualities of gentleness, patience, and forbearance.
Notes
In today’s chapel, Dr. Mike Kwiatkowski, Lead Pastor at Mercy Hill Church, explained three qualities we must cultivate to maintain unity.
Gentleness
Sometimes the word “gentleness” is translated as “meekness,” which is wrongly associated with weakness. Meekness refers to power under control; it means you restrain how you act.
Christ is the ultimate example of this. In Matthew 26:52–54, when Peter drew his sword to defeat Jesus’s enemies, Jesus commanded him to put it back in its place. He knew He had the authority to summon a multitude of angels to destroy the opposition, yet He didn’t. While He had the power, He restrained it so He could bring peace to sinners. We must have the same type of gentleness.
Gentleness stops the fight before it gets started. It cools things down before they are set ablaze. While humility is viewing others as more important than yourself, gentleness is showing that they are more important. Ask yourself, “When I enter into a relationship with someone, does it bring them conflict and division, or does it bring them rest?”
Patience
The word “patience” could perhaps be better translated as “longsuffering.” Longsuffering is being placed in a situation where we suffer for a long time. Patience is perfected in hardships that seem to have no end in sight.
Paul is specifically talking about being patient with difficult, aggravating people. We were these people before we came to Christ. We aggravated God with our sin, doing everything we could to run from Him. Yet He was patient with us because He didn’t want us to die.
Even after salvation, God is still extraordinarily patient with us. We are new creatures with new hearts, yet we stumble many times a day. It’s easier for us to be patient with others when we are aware of the patience God has for us.
Bearing
While patience is the inward attitude toward difficult people, bearing with one another is the outward action. We are called not only to bear with people but also to bear with their sin. God’s Word calls us to truly love others from the heart as we do this. By showing forgiveness, patience, and kindness to them, we hope they will eventually overcome that sin.
The problem is that sometimes they won’t. While we shouldn’t neglect to call people to repentance, we also must realize that no one will be perfected until they get to heaven. There are some sins we will struggle with for our entire lives, and the only way to maintain unity is to bear with one another in love until that day.
You will never enter into a relationship with a perfect person. Every person you meet is a sinner, and so are you. Walking in unity with someone has more to do with your qualities than theirs. By cultivating humility, practicing gentleness, being patient with others, and bearing with them, we maintain the unity that Christ died to give us.