Tag: unity

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Where Division Comes To Die

It was the summer before Matthew’s senior year of high school when Peggy and I took him on a college visit to the University of Chicago. Together with other prospective students and their parents, we gathered in an auditorium for a Q&A session with a panel of UChicago undergrads. At one point in the open, positive exchange, a young guest asked, “Why should I not come here?” One of the panelists answered perhaps a bit too quickly, “We sometimes call this ‘the place where fun comes to die,’” he replied, adding, “The library is full on Friday night.” That’s all Matthew needed to hear. He enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis.

Had the young panelist paused momentarily, he might have made his point more palatably, e.g., “The hard work you put in at a university of this caliber will position you to excel in your professional career.” That said, let’s apply his more earthy approach in our study of Christian unity. For our overflowing life in Christ, our eternal oneness in Him, must be the place where division comes to die. What might this look like? The Scriptures show us.

Regarding our persecutors. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”2 Be the place where division comes to die.

Regarding our oppressors. “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”3 Be the place where division comes to die.

Regarding our offenders. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. . . If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”4 Be the place where division comes to die.

Regarding our relationships. “If you are offering your gift [to God] and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift . . . and go. First be reconciled to your brother.”5 Be the place where division comes to die.

Regarding situational differences. “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.”6 Be the place where division comes to die.

Regarding earthly government. “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”7 Be the place where division comes to die.

Regarding others’ flaws. “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”8 Be the place where division comes to die.

Father, when we were separated from You, You brought us near to You by the blood of Christ.9 May we, in Him, be vessels of unity and overcomers of division today. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Today’s post augments our “unity series,” which ran weekly from February 26 through June 13.
2 Matthew 5:44-45 ESV
3 Matthew 5:41 ESV
4 Romans 12:17-18 NIV
5 Matthew 5:23-24 ESV
6 Romans 12:16 NIV
7 1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV
8 Colossians 3:13 NLT
9 Ephesians 2:12-13

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A Body in Motion

“In him we live and move and exist.”1 — Paul, to philosophers in the Areopagus

We have been focusing on Christian unity over the past four weeks, for it is God’s desire and design that we be one with Him and with each other, and His Word has much to say about it. In our March 12 post, we saw that, we who were once separated from God, now exist as “a people.” Our March 19 post centered around our Biblical depiction as “living stones . . . built into a spiritual house,”2 as the dwelling place of God. So today let’s consider a third portrait of the united church: “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”3 For though we are a people, we do more than exist as a people, and though we are living stones, each strengthening the whole, we do more than hold together in perpetuity. We act; we go. We move as one body.

To the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”4 Note the paradox: the plural “you” forms our collective identity in Christ, in whom each singular “you” is included. Then each of us brings something useful to the whole of us, and each of us has our own “function”5 as we move together in unison. Paul wakens us to the truth of our oneness with each other and exhorts us to act upon it: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”6

You see, I cannot go and shine in your place of business, but you can, for Jesus lives in you. Are you a prayer warrior? The body — indeed, the world — needs your intercession. Perhaps leadership is not our thing, but service is. Praise God, for our gift of service multiplies into gifts for those we serve. And maybe you can reach a populace that for whatever reason cannot hear my heart.

The call is clear: go in your gifting, shine in your station, be who you are — an inextricably integral part of the body of Christ, uniquely gifted for your function and your call. For we exist as a people, we hold together as living stones, and we move as one body with Christ as our head.

Father, thank You for including us in Christ as one body of believers in Him. Be glorified as we in our giftings step into our individual calls today. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Acts 17:28 NLT
2 1 Peter 2:5 NIV
3 Romans 12:5 ESV
4 1 Corinthians 12:17 ESV
5 Romans 12:4 ESV
6 Romans 12:6-8 ESV


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The Stones

Peggy and I were in awe as we toured Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (translated “holy family”), the concept of Antoni Gaudi. From its towering spires to its intricate reliefs and tree-like pillars — all expressed in a cohesive blend of free-flowing styles — this cathedral visually testifies to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Construction of this elaborate design began in 1882 and is anticipated for completion in 2026, 144 years later and 100 years after Guadi’s death. The Catalon architect reportedly once quipped, “My client is in no hurry.”

Truly magnificent though it is, this edifice is merely an artistic expression of something infinitely more marvelous, namely the true church, a people born of the Spirit through faith in Christ and united in Him. Paul teaches we were once “separated from Christ . . . having no hope and without God in the world,”1 but this is no longer true about us. For the apostle asserts a new and collective identity we live together: “members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”2 Members of God’s household, joined together as a holy temple in which God lives — might we be in a most real sense a “sagrada familia”? Yes, and Paul awakens the church to this reality: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? . . . God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”3 Pause to grasp this; soak it in, it is our identity as a people.

So we are, in Peter’s words, “living stones . . . being built up as a spiritual house.”4 We are no longer unused building materials piled high, separate, and idle; rather, we are built into something far greater than the sum of our individual parts. Then what happens when we as living stones are blended together as one? We testify as one body — a new creation — to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Such an honor.

Father, “May [You] the God of endurance and encouragement grant [us] to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together [we] may with one voice glorify [You] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”5 In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Ephesians 2:12 ESV
2 Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV
3 1 Corinthains 3:16-17 NIV (emphasis added)
4 1 Peter 2:5 ESV
5 Romans 15:5-6 ESV