Articles

A Biblical View of Unity

By Rachel F.

God wants believers to be unified. Psalm 133:1 says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!" And there are good reasons for us to be unified. As Malachi 2:10 a asks, "Do we not all have one Father? Is it not one God who created us?" We Christians are part of one family. We have one Father and we are brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what our denominations or political party affiliations. There needs to be unity despite those diversities. Paul says in Romans 12: 4-5 "For just as we have many parts in one body and all the body's parts do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually parts of one another."

We will not agree with every believer on every point, but we don't need to in order to get along. We can be agreeable, even when we don't agree. It's a matter of attitude. And when getting along is our goal, we'll often find that, although there's one point of disagreement, there are many other areas of agreement.

What an example it sets for the world if we can get along with one another! Jesus said, in

John 13: 34-35, "I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples."

Everyone will not be our best friend, but we can ask God to help us to be at peace with all of our brothers and sisters.

Love and Unity

Love and Unity - Signs of a Follower of Jesus

By Leah Childers

Do you remember the song, "We are one in the Spirit"?

It's a song about Christian love and unity.

The chorus says, ”They’ll know we are Christians by our love."

The song was inspired by a Bible verse, John 13:35.

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

This is a powerful statement. When we obey what the Lord tells us to do, the way we treat each other will be so unusual that the only explanation is that we are followers of Jesus.

Luke 6:32 -35 is another passage that describes the unique Christian love that God requires.

Verses 32 – 34 tell us that if we ONLY love, do good or lend (help financially) to those who love us, are good to us or can afford to pay us back, we shouldn’t be impressed with ourselves because EVERYONE thinks like that - whether they are Christians or not.

Christians are called to think and behave differently.

God tells us to love those who hate us.

I'll repeat that.

LOVE those who HATE us!

Oh, my!

That is a huge statement on its own, but God doesn’t stop there. He also tells us to DO GOOD to those who hate us.

The Lord knows us so well. He gives us no wiggle room. If He left it at telling us to love those who hate us (no easy feat, by the way), we would say, “I do love them. I pray for them all the time.” We’d feel great about that, wouldn’t we? We could politely ignore them, hear about problems they were having and do nothing, but still maintain that we are loving them – just from a distance.

Well, God doesn’t stop there. Here is the next verse – Luke 6:35.

"But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

No wonder God says that others seeing this behavior, this unusual kind of love, will KNOW there is something different. It isn’t possible to love like this without the Holy Spirit living within us and choosing to obey the teachings of Jesus Christ.

In the Garden, Jesus prayed that He wanted His followers to be as one.

He wants us to live in unity with other believers.

Once again, God isn’t telling us to do something that’s easy.

Just because we became Christians, we won’t automatically know to change our past behaviors and unify with other sinners who are saved by grace.

That’s why we read God’s Instruction Manual, the Bible.

Unity can be challenging because Christians aren’t all the same. We have different weaknesses, personalities, backgrounds, interpretations of the Scripture and even different political leanings.

Yet, we are called to be as one - unified with these different believers.

How do we do that?

Fortunately, God makes this clear in His Word.

- We need to start with the heart to obey God in everything. Trust and obey. He created us and knows how we will function best and be at peace. He tells us all about it in His Word, the Instruction manual. Proverbs 3:5, 6

- He wants us to be as one with others, so we are to choose to do that. John 17:21-23

- Understand that God demands that we love others, even those who don't like us AND may have personalities that don't match ours. Matthew 5:43, 44 & Colossians 3:13

- Forgive, forgive and forgive again. Matthew 6:14, 15 & Matthew 18:22

- If you have disagreements, settle them between the two of you. Don’t gossip to others about the problem. Matthew 18:15

- Pursue peace. Hebrews 12:14 & Psalm 34:14

- Think of others FIRST. Philippians 2:3,4

- Listen to constructive criticism. (Surprisingly, we aren’t always right and have blindspots about ourselves.) Proverbs 15:31, 32

- Be mindful that in ALL arguments, pride is involved. Proverbs 13:10

- Remember these are your brothers & sisters in Christ. Romans 12:10

- Be Kind. Ephesians 4:32

- Speak the truth IN LOVE. Ephesians 4:15

- Admit your faults. Apologize. James 5:16

- Know that the enemy wants division & that division is not of God. Romans 16:17-20

- Ask God to forgive you when you fall short and start over. I John 1:9

- Always go back to point one. God wants us to be unified so, we say, “Yes, Lord” and obey Him. John 14:15

Amen?

God bless you.