08/22/2021
It should hurt the heart of every Christian to see how divided we are in our faith, and in our world today, and in this regard there is no one who is innocent; not even the Church, that has so successfully divided itself. What will we answer in judgement when we are asked why we have lived our lives divided in this manner? Will we begin by telling God how someone did some certain thing to us, or we didn’t love another because they didn’t like us first? Maybe we will say that the church down the street doesn’t really love Him, nor Jesus, and give a trivial example related to what robes they wear while worshipping, or how they take communion too often, or not enough. I can hear God’s heartbreak as He says “REALLY?”
“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—”
Ephesians 4:4 ESV
I was looking at a picture of my two brothers and me, and as I did it struck me that we had so many similar features. I commented to my wife that the older we get, the more we look alike. I also saw how much we looked like our father, and grandfathers. Have you ever looked at one of your pictures and seen family resemblances? Sure, my youngest brother has red hair, and my next younger one is stockier than me, but our eyes are the same, as are our noses, and other characteristics. Well, we should do the same when we look at our churches, and view each other as Christians. We should look at what is alike in us… our belief in God, and that Jesus is His Son, and we are Joint Heirs in Him. Everything else should be regarded as less important as we chose to bring ourselves together for a family picture. Are we individuals? Yes, but we are more than that… we are brothers and sisters in Christ… children of God.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
1 John 3:1-2 ESV
We are experts at dividing ourselves. Certainly there are things we like or don’t like in the world, preferences we have in the way we worship, and differing opinions regarding what the deeper nuances of scripture might mean, but if we place the more obvious points of God’s Word before all else, then perhaps we can begin by agreeing on these, and through prayer and conversation, not intransigence, we can unite ourselves more perfectly in faith. Besides, our divisions are rarely brought about by scripture, but more in how we attempt to justify our chosen way of life in this fallen world by looking at scripture in different ways.
But, when we do chose to divide ourselves using scripture as the basis of our division, how do we go about it? Reread our opening verse, and then read the three verses below as the thought of unity continues on…
“one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
Ephesians 4:5-7 ESV
These verses sound straightforward, and are meant to demonstrate that we are not to be separate, but even as these words are being spoken we use them to divide ourselves… what is baptism, how is it performed, when should it be administered, and is God really the God of my enemy, how is He my Father, what does it mean that He is over us, and how about when it says “through” us… what is that all about? Points of division, used as arguments of the dark one to drive a wedge between us, and separate us from God. How wonderful is God’s Word, and yet in our attempt to stand in the midst of it, and use it to guide our lives and faith, we end up dividing the right from the left, rather than immersing everyone in it as one. Think on this, pray on it, and ask the Lord to show us how we are the same, and to set aside our differences so the that together we can serve His will as one.
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”
1 Corinthians 12:12-20 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Holy Word that brings together all of your people… your children. Thank you Lord for your Son Jesus who serves to join us and reveal to us the likeness we all share with Him, and with you by your image in which we were created. Help us Father to be joined as one so that we can demonstrate to the world the peace it can experience if only it would live as one. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God, and Father. Great is your plan for us as brothers and sisters in Jesus, and great is your desire for all of creation to be joined as one in Christ. Let our prayers be offered in intercession for the world… praying that all would come to Christ, and see your image in themselves when lifted up from the waters of baptism… made new, and loving one another as themselves.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:7-11 ESV
Rich Forbes