Tag: Unity series

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Living on the Patibulum

No, we’re not speaking about water frontage, like living on the French Riviera. Nor is it the same as living on the dole, relying on government unemployment funds. For a patibulum (pa-TIH-byu-lum) is the horizontal beam on a Roman cross. Likely you have seen Christian relationships illustrated by a cross, the vertical pole representing our oneness with God, and the horizontal timber — the patibulum —symbolizing our unity with others through Christ. For “Christ is all and in all”1 and “in him all things hold together.”2 In Christ we are “one” not just with Him, but also with all who live in Him through faith.3 So perhaps we can think of “living on the patibulum” as living in Christlike love for others. For “we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.”4 He who lives in you lives also in me, each of us entirely by grace.

Yet living as a people united is by no means easy, for we all harbor “the flesh,” that self-willed part of us that insists we live life our way and not God’s. So, while we aspire to love God with our whole heart, our embrace of brotherly love is somewhat less enthusiastic. But we have a saying in Kairos Prison Ministry: Christ loves our enemy as much as he loves us. This notion agitates us a bit, for relinquishing resentment toward an unfriendly foe is far different than basking in the beauty of a sinless Savior.

Then we could write volumes about latitudinal living, but let’s just focus on a couple thoughts on life on the patibulum.

Use your words. Often when offended, we share our grievances with everyone but the offender. But Jesus sends us straight to the source of our agita: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.”5 Engage with a heart set on restoration and relationship. Do your best to resolve conflict there and leave it there, “between you and him alone.”

Forgive anyway. Dying in innocence upon the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”6 Did you ever notice, though, that no one there ever asked Jesus for forgiveness or even confessed their wrong? But Jesus forgave anyway. So Paul writes, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”7 No conditions. Just pardon.

Loving others as ourselves can be incredibly greater than any fleshy surrogate we substitute for it. Eager to listen, eager to resolve, eager to forgive — life on the patibulum.

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” — Romans 12:18 ESV

Father, in Christ, we are one. Lead us together in Your way of selfless love. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Colossians 3:11 ESV
2 Colossians 1:17 ESV
3 John 17:20-26
4 1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT
5 Matthew 18:15 ESV
6 Luke 23:34 NIV
7 Colossians 3:13 NIV

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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