When Christians allow God to knit their hearts together with His love, they stand. When they don’t, they fall apart. They “bite and devour one another.” They destroy each other and refuse to walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:15-16)
Jesus prayed that all His followers be united as one, as He and the Father are one, so that the world will know that He was sent by the Father. (John 17:21). Paul told the early Christians to “keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). The more Christ-followers are united as one, heart to heart, by God’s love and by Christ living in and working through them, the more people will recognize that Jesus has been sent from God. (John 17:20)
Unfortunately, we Christians have devoured and destroyed the unity Jesus prayed for. We have shattered ourselves into tens of thousands of denominations and many hundreds of thousands of fully independent churches headed by merely human leadership instead of being directly led by the Spirit under the true Headship of Christ.
When will we learn that we will never be united by church attendance or obedience to religious institutions or politics? We can only be united by surrendering our thoughts, opinions, desires, and feelings to the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57) and to the Holy Spirit’s direct inner leading. (Romans 8:14)
People who love and obey Jesus more than their pride, their opinions, their church, their family, their friends, and their country discover amazing heart-to-heart unity with one another. Their intense adoration for and surrender to the risen Jesus living in and through them (Colossians 1:27) keeps them connected by great love and compassion for one another. (John 13:34-35) It’s not an institutional or doctrinal unity. It’s family unity.
Christians have allowed American politics to divide us and make us hostile toward one another. It’s time to ask God and one another for forgiveness and move beyond that divisiveness. Although I strive to speak the truth with love and compassion, I’m sure I slip up sometimes. Please forgive me if I have ever made you feel belittled or disrespected.
Learn how to discover supernatural unity. Google: The Joy of Early Christianity.
