The Spirit Who Binds

Christians across traditions have spoken of the Holy Spirit as the bond of love. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the Spirit is described as the eternal love that flows between the Father and the Son. Gregory of Nyssa wrote, “The Spirit is a mediating power, by which the Father and the Son are joined together.” That’s a striking image: the Spirit is not an optional extra, but the very life of love at the heart of God.

This isn’t only an Eastern insight. Augustine, in the West, called the Spirit the nexus amoris — the bond of love — between the Father and the Son. And Calvin picks it up too. He writes that the Spirit is “the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself” (Institutes III.1.1). The Spirit who unites the Father and the Son is also the Spirit who unites us to Christ.

The Bible itself gives us this picture. Paul says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). Jesus prays that his disciples may be one, “just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John 17:21). The Spirit brings us into that communion. Or as Paul puts it elsewhere: “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom 8:9).

This binding work also appears in the Prayer Book. At the conclusion of communion we pray:  "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore" (quoting 2 Cor 13:14). Note the emphasis Paul accords to each member of the trinity.

So what does this mean for us? It means the Spirit is the living bond that connects us to Christ and his benefits. Calvin insists that Christ’s saving work on the cross remains “outside of us” unless the Spirit applies it to us. The Spirit binds the Word to us, so that when we read Scripture or hear the gospel preached, it isn’t just information (as it was for the Pharisees, John 5:39). It becomes a living encounter with Christ the Word (Heb 1:1-2).

And so, the Spirit’s binding love is not abstract. It is deeply personal and deeply practical. He binds us to God and to one another. He binds our hearts to the promises of Scripture so that they become real. He binds us to Christ, so that his life flows into ours, and his love overflows through us.

Father, pour out that Spirit and fill our hearts.