*Podcast version on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Anchor!
It’s no secret we’ve all struggled through the past few years, but for various reasons. Personally, I’m grieved by the growing division amongst followers of Jesus.
I recently finished reading Francis Chan’s Until Unity. Y’all… I HIGHLY recommend it and I’ve linked it here. I’m not foolish enough to attempt anything more original than him, but it’s worth sharing highlights I found especially compelling.
So, if you’re weary of divisiveness, and still think unity is possible, then this is for you!
6 thoughts to compel us and propel us toward unity.
1. Why unity?
Because it was Jesus’ dying wish. One of Jesus’ very last prayers before being crucified was for unity. I think we sometimes breeze past this without giving it much thought.
We can become enthralled with someone’s last words, death bed confession, or final blessing before they pass. With this in mind, should we not give more consideration to Jesus’ desperate last words to Almighty God in the garden before His own death?
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. 22 I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are One— 23 I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.
– Jesus, in John 17:20-23
2. Unity: Because nothing is more important
We weren’t called to follow political parties or ideology, nationalism, consumerism, or power. Instead, we were called to apprentice ourselves to Jesus’ way of life. We were called to be part of establishing the Kingdom of God here and now in our walking-around lives.
– Sarah Bessey, Out of Sorts
If we’re truly a people that believe Jesus’ call to unity is as important as He says it is, then by default all the other things that may define us or divide us are simply not as important, and should not take precedent over our unity and the fellowship of believers. It’s that simple.
3. Unity: Because it’s the one thing that makes our mission effective
If we can at least agree that the believer’s mission is to make disciples of all nations, then scripture is clear that love for one another is the way that we’ll succeed in our mission.
This is how everyone will know that you are My followers: if you love one another.
– Jesus, John 13:35
Notice how Jesus doesn’t say, everyone will know you are my followers if you form compelling arguments regarding:
- correct ways to worship
- women’s roles in the church
- spiritual gifts
- the relationship between church and state
- strong Biblical literacy vs. charismatic Christianity
- Biblical politics
It’s solely about how we love one another!
4. Unity: Because division grieves a Holy God
When love is shallow, all it takes is something as trivial as a disagreement to divide us.
– Francis Chan
Division has plagued the church for centuries. So if we can get serious about this and consider that the disagreements we’ve allowed to divide us are actually the work of the enemy, and not Spirit-filled conviction from God, we would be humbled to realize that we are actually grieving God’s Spirit who dwells in us.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
– Ephesians 4:29-32
5. Unity: Because I couldn’t possibly be right all the time
The love chapter (1 Corinthians 13) states that for now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Friends, how can we be so arrogant to think we are right all the time, every time? How?
Even the Apostle Paul admits in this passage that he couldn’t know it all perfectly on this side of heaven! I love how Francis Chan puts it when he says that if God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34 and James 4:6), it’s hard to imagine those who are most arrogant would be the most accurate. Yes!
He goes on to say that…
Everyone seems to start out with the assumption that his or her opinion of God is right, rather than recognizing that all of us have an incomplete, flawed knowledge of God. Without humility, we will never have unity. More importantly, without humility, we cannot be in a right relationship with God.
6. Unity: Because nothing matters more to God
Consider this, if God moved heaven and earth in sending Jesus to die so we could be reconciled to Him, would it not make sense that He would also want His beloved children to be reconciled to one another as well?
His plan of salvation, the goal of redemption, is to reconcile all things unto Himself! Allow these words to wash over you from Colossians 1…
15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through Him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through Him and for Him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and He holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is His body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So He is first in everything.
19 For God in all His fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through Him God reconciled
everything to Himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault.
This passage really struck me as I asked myself a simple question. I encourage you to reflect on it too:
If I will stand before God, holy and blameless without a single fault after all He’s done to reconcile me to Himself — what is stopping me from lovingly accepting a fellow believer who I don’t understand, cannot relate to, and have rejected as dead wrong?
Am I justified in that?
What’s in the Ears
Do you also share the grief of disunity among believers? Let me know if this encouraged you! Send me a message, comment below, and share with a friend!
*Podcast version on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Anchor!
From The Overflow 