04/23/2026
As Christians, do we love one another, or do we divide ourselves so completely in our perceived love for Jesus, that we distance ourselves from each other? I look around Christendom and see one head and many bodies. I see one cup, one bread, and one table, being bitterly contested over and claimed by each body to the point of refusing to serve another family member at the one table that Jesus set and provided for. Is this the way He meant for us to behave?
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."”
John 13:34-35 ESV
It seems that we have convinced ourselves that we are the sole owners of the truth in Christ, and this has prompted our divisions to deepen into broad chasms over the years. One Word, which is the same Canonized Bible, One God, One Jesus, One Table, and yet all the chairs but our own have been pulled away from that table. We have succeeded in doing the very thing that Jesus commanded his disciples not to do... we have taken the one bread of Christ and divided it into portions... and then refused to admit we are sharing the same loaf as we serve it.
“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”
1 Corinthians 10:17 ESV
We have divided ourselves as individuals within our one Church, and we do this as denominations, and in so many other ways within Christendom. We teach our children to follow our entrenchment, and write our intransigence into church doctrine and documents... we do this so successfully that I wonder if Jesus would recognize His bride if He were to come right now? I read Pastor Andrew Murray as he wrote of this division within the Church... listen...
“This thought is often forgotten at the Lord’s Table to our great loss. How often have guests at Jesus’ table sat next to each other for years without knowing or loving or having fellowship with one another? Many have sought a closer connection with the Lord and not found it because they have the Head without the body!” - Andrew Murray
I live in the United States, and it is a large country which was settled over the years by many different peoples from around the world. Today we are one country with many accents and nuances to our language. In traveling from region to region you hear the uniqueness of our speech, and see the diversity in local customs, but all these people are citizens of the same country. The differences in the way we live out our one citizenship brings strength to us as a single country. They provide character and interest that serves to make us better, but our core principles are the same… such as freedom and liberty.
In Christianity our cornerstone is Jesus Christ, but we tend to forget that foundations are not comprised of just one stone. They are oriented, and founded based on the corner, but are built with many stones... this is what Jesus was communicating... we must all love one another, we must all claim each other as family, we must all acknowledge that we are the same structure, the same building, the same bride which Jesus wishes to claim as His own.... many disciples, but one God, one Christ and one love.
I love my wife, and I remember the sight of her coming down the aisle in her wedding gown on the day we were married, but I also remember the jeans, the blouse, the sweater, and the jacket she was wearing the day we met. I also know that she has many outfits, and ways of dressing, and that they each of them makes her interesting and beautiful... yet she is still the same woman. I know her and love her regardless of how she is clothed...
As Christians we need to be able to see the person too, and not so much the clothes. We need to hear the dialect we each speak with interest and appreciation, and stop using it as a border that separates us and one to be guarded with our lives. One day we will stand before God, and we will look to our left, and to our right to see those who are there with us... do we want Jesus to say then what we are saying today about His other disciples... “I never knew you”?
“"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”
Matthew 7:21-23 ESV
I am asking today that in our state of division and animosity that we consider which of the commandments we choose to obey? One of them? Two? All of them, or all except this one… founded on love? Do we wish to obey them as individuals? how about as a Church? How many do we turn away from our guarded table? How many do we refuse to acknowledge as our kin at the family feast because they still speak the language of the old country, or have the customs of another locale? How many are set alongside the same cornerstone that we are, and yet we deny that they are part of the same building as ourselves? We tend to see the cuts in the stone resting next to us and instead of acknowledging that they were made by the same mason, we judge that they aren’t as beautiful as ourselves, and sometimes deny that they are even stones.
“Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”
Matthew 21:42-43 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the diversity in your creation, and thank you for the uniqueness we see in your Church. Thank you Father for being able to look around as we sit at your Table and see the many who are partaking of your Son with us. I thank you Holy Father for the many roads that lead to you from around the world because they are all paved with the stones of the disciples of Christ, and they each bear the marks of His chisel. Help me Merciful Father to step back and see the magnificence of your completed work, and not my nearsighted view of my own stone and perhaps the one on either side of me. Let me see your perfect will for me, and understand that although you have called someone else to a different mission, we are both called by you... one head, one body, but two hands, and many fingers. I pray that you pronounce me worthy on the day of judgement Merciful Father, and that Jesus knows me on that day saying this is my brother, or sister, and my joint heir. Help me as I obey your commandments, and love me as I love you and my fellow believers. Help me to pray the Lord’s Prayer as taught us… in plural… OUR Father, OUR daily bread, forgive us OUR trespasses as WE forgive those, lead US not into temptation, and deliver US from evil. O Holy Father, great is your love, and open are your arms... Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who was, and is, and is to come, and Holy are you who leads US ALL to you through your ONE Son Jesus Christ..
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 King James Version
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his uniquely existing Son so that everyonewho believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 International Standard Version
“For God loved the world in this way: He gavehis one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 Christian Standard Bible
“But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Luke 10:29-37 ESV
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah… Amen!
Rich Forbes