05/29/2025
In my devotional message yesterday, we discussed being one with Jesus and the fact that this promise is for today and not some future time. We talked about knowing God's will for us and submitting ourselves to Christ. So, to begin our study today let's dig a little deeper and ask ourselves why God would offer all of His children such a precious gift. Today we will discuss this even further, but the simple answer to why God would extend to us the same relationship He knows with Jesus, who was without sin, can be summed up in one sentence, and it’s all about God’s love and our accepting a single belief...
“for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
John 16:27 ESV
God loves us and He gives us the oneness with Himself through Jesus because we have come to believe that Jesus is His son. Our faith has led us to this truth, which we call the gospel. Don't be deceived by the nay sayers of the world, this gift was not just for the disciples, nor was it for a select few who personally knew Jesus, but for all the world. Scripture is very specific about this and in John 3 and 17 we are told us as much:
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17 ESV
And…
“"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
John 17:20-23 ESV
Did you notice Christ’s words when He said: "that they may be one even as we are one" as you read the scripture from chapter 17 above? We are not meant to be divided. We are meant to be as one with one another. All of our petty differences in worship and religiously divisive calculations are leading us astray. We are not meant to be divided. If we are to be as one then those differences in liturgy, or minor points, cannot be allowed to overshadow our firm belief in Jesus and the fact that He is the Son of God. We can't allow ourselves to be drawn by darkness into squabbles within the body of believers that can separate us. This is not God's will for us.
Growing up in a family of five children, there were various opinions about many things... some of us liked liver, some did not; some liked the color red, some liked blue or green. There were too many differences to count, but we could boil them all away by realizing that we all liked to eat, we all had a favorite color, and none of these divisive things could bring us to deny that we were all brothers and sisters with the same mother and father... despite our likes and dislikes we were one family.
You have probably heard the old adage that brothers can fight with each other, but woe be it if someone else tries to harm one of them. That is true. I can remember my younger brother and I fighting like cats and dogs, but I can also remember coming to his defense when someone would pick on him. We were one family. I can also remember my sister verbally snipping and cutting at me, but I also recall the night she was crying because her boyfriend (a Westpoint Cadet) had stood her up on a date... that night I went straightway to that young man's front door and in front of his parents I questioned his ability to be an officer and a gentleman. As a VMI cadet I could do this from a particularly southern advantage... Yes, I loved my sister and we were one family.
As Christians, we can't let our minor differences overshadow our foundational beliefs. Despite all of our likes and dislikes, our feelings of spiritual aloofness, or liturgical correctness, we are one family... we are one with Jesus, and in Him, we are joined as one with God.
This past Monday was Memorial Day here in the United States and as a nation we remembered those who had given their lives in defense of our country. On this holiday we memorialize those whose lives were lost in wars that had been fought because people had lost sight of Christ, and lost sight of their oneness with God. You see, giving your life for another is an unparalleled sacrifice, and we not only honor these men and women, but we also mourn the fact that their lives were required of them. Jesus spoke of this, but He would also tell us that love should not have Geographic, social, or political borders. We should all be as one in Him.
“"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
John 15:12-14 ESV
So, we are offered a oneness with Jesus and God out of love, and through our belief in the fact that the Lord is our God, and that Jesus is His Son. I hope that we have also come to realize through our discussion today that we are to be one with one another as well. In these things we are meant to find our true Christian family and heritage in the will of our Father. Are we seeing this now and beginning to let go of our petty differences for the greater uniting truth? Are we glorifying God through our unity and oneness?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who you sent to redeem me. He laid down His life out of great love for You and me alike. He reconciled us by doing your will and drinking the wine of suffering and death from the cup He was offered. Lord, no greater love has someone than this. I ask Holy Father that you heal the divisions between your children and bring your Church together in their belief in you and your Son Jesus... increase those things we find in common and lessen the importance of the marginal arguments that separate us. Gracious Father, lift the cup of unity to our lips and bring us together. There will be those who will say "take this cup from me," but Father let them see how much you want them to drink from this cup and to let your plan overcome all else. Let the sweet drink of unity please our palates and let your grace and love heal all our wounds as we turn to you our Father and see ourselves as one… as family. In this way help us to realize that we are not enemies with those you love, nor of our brothers and sisters in Christ… even though we might bicker like children. By realizing our oneness and praying in the name of Jesus, we will praise you as one today and give you all the glory forevermore.
Amen
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:1-6 ESV
“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”
1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV
“10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Ephesians 6:10-13 KJV
Rich Forbes