Month: May 2025

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Our Yes to God’s Gift

In a holiday note to a fellow Kairos Prison Ministry volunteer, I reflected, “There is a saying: ‘God loves us enough to meet us where we are, and He loves us too much to leave us there.’ I see this among our Kairos brothers — we’re flawed, but God uses us anyway, and over time He transforms us, so we are less like our flesh and more like our Savior. . . It is the best example of the church I can think of. Flawed people [united] on a journey together toward Christlikeness, ministering along the way.”

For on a Kairos Weekend inside prison walls, each volunteer assumes his assigned role, all converging to share the love and forgiveness found in Christ Jesus. Leaders lead, servants serve, and musicians usher us into praise and worship. Pray-ers pray, and bakers bake (over 4000-dozen cookies). Speakers tell of God’s merciful work in their lives, and table family leaders facilitate inmate discussions of what they just heard. It is a modern-day example of an Old Testament phrase, “the people gathered as one man.”1 Realistically, as people born of the Spirit into Christ, we are closer still, for we gather not merely as though one man, but as a people united in one man — Jesus. To the Colossians, Paul wrote, “Christ is all, and in all,”2 and to the Ephesians he echoed, “There is . . . one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”3 We live in the Father’s “yes” to the Son’s petition: “May all [believers] be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us.”4

So now what? Paul directs us as a people united. “Put on then . . . compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and . . .as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. Be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”5

This is life in Christ. This is the way of unity in Him. This is our “yes” to God’s gift.

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” — Psalm 133:1 ESV

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Romans 15:5-6 ESV

1 Ezra 3:1 ESV; Nehemiah 8:1 ESV
2 Colossians 3:11 ESV
3 Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV
4 John 17:21 ESV, emphasis added
5 Colossians 3:12-17 ESV

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“Perfectly One”

Unity — we think of it as a gathering of disparate parts, or their fusion, perhaps. In the natural world, we unite behind an idea, under a leader, against an oppressor, or toward a goal. But in Christian unity we grow together as one into a person — Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus petitioned the Father for our oneness through His presence in us. Count the numbers of “one” and “in” in these two sentences: “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 . . .”1 [“One” 4; “In” 6.] God in us and us in God — such unity is beyond our understanding, yet how vital this must be that Jesus would pray for it so passionately. It is life itself.

Indeed, the Father has done it — He has united us into the body of Christ and with each other. Paul writes, “We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”2 Moreover, “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.”3 We have in fact become “perfectly one.” Then what does it mean for us?

It means living into our unity with each other through our oneness with Christ, setting aside our flesh for the good of the body and the glory of Christ. Paul again, “I . . . 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.”4

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” — Colossians 3:15 ESV

Yes, Father, fill us with your Spirit — each of us and all of us — that You would be glorified in our oneness in You. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 17:20-23 ESV
2 Romans 12:4-5 ESV
3 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 ESV
4 Ephesians 4:1-6 ESV

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Low Hurdles

Hypophoras (high-PAH-fuh-ruhs) — you’ve heard them all your life. Hypophora is a rhetorical device in which the speaker poses his own question and immediately answers it. Politicians used this device to steer press conferences their way, frustrating the media to no end. Yet a hypophora can also set an engaging tone, and it is an effective means of emphasizing a point. James, for instance, employed this technique to address disunity within the early church: “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.”1 He’s right, of course, so in our continued discussion of Christian unity, let’s identify other obstacles that stand in our way of it.

The obstacle of pride. Prodding the Philippians toward unity — to be “in full accord and of one mind” — Paul challenged them, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.”2 Instead, “Let each of [us] look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others.”3

The obstacle of false teaching. Paul alerted the church in Rome, “to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.”4 We do well to guard against those who bend Scripture to their liking instead of submitting themselves to its authority. “Avoid them,”5 counseled Paul.

The obstacle of judgmentalism. Paul admonishes the church, “Let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.”6 Instead, “let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”7

Other obstacles of the flesh. Among the works of the flesh — our human inclination toward sin — Paul includes these: “enmity, strife, . . . rivalries, dissensions, [and] divisions.”8 He exhorts us to the contrary, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”9

The obstacle of opposition. Jude reminds us, “There will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” 10 He continues, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God . . . And have mercy on those who doubt.” 11

Should we be surprised by these and other obstacles to unity among us? No, for Satan seeks “someone” to devour. But our unity is God’s will and Jesus’ great desire, so let us clear all hurdles that stand in our way and submit as one to the love and power of Christ.

Father, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!”12 In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 James 4:1-2 NIV
2 Philippians 2:2-3 ESV
3 Philippians 2:4 ESV
4, 5 Romans 16:17 ESV
6 Romans 14:13 ESV
7 Romans 14:19 ESV
8 Galatians 5:20 ESV
9 Romans 13:14 NIV
10 Jude 1:18-19 ESV
11 Jude 1:20-21 ESV
12 Psalm 143:10 ESV