Bond

Greek Word Pronunciation: SUN-des-mos
Strong's Number: 4886
Goodrich/Kohlenberger Number: 5278
Key Verse: “... put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” -- Colossians 3:14

Sundesmos, as a noun, is a compound word comprised of sun, meaning “with” and desmos, meaning “a band, fetter, anything for tying” and is used 4 times in the New Testament. The verb form is found only in Hebrews 13:3, to “remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them” (literally, “as having been bound with them“).

Act 8:23 speaks of the wicked behavior of Simon the Sorcerer who is “in the bondage of iniquity.” It is expressing both the awfulness of his condition and the captivity to it in which he was held, alluding to the way the Romans secured their prisoners. He was bound over to the judgment of God by the guilt of sin, and bound under the dominion of Satan by the power of sin.

Ephesians 4:3 speaks of “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Peace is the binding factor which will preserve the unity which the Spirit has produced. Peace functions as binding twine of unity. God gives it to us, producing equality and understanding.

Colossians 2:19 is in reference to “the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments …” (KJV translates as bands, and NIV as sinews.) Faith, love, and peace, are the spiritual bands connecting one member of the Body to another, allowing the Body to get nourishment and strength, and thus to grow. The Body of Christ can only grow when the believers are connected to one another under Christ.

Finally, in COLOSSIANS 3:14, “... put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Here, love is the “girdle” that holds the various garments, those graces and virtues which together make up perfection. Thayer comments, “that in which all the virtues are so bound together that perfection is the result, and not one of them is wanting to that perfection.”