Getting Along for Jesus Sake

What must our Lord Jesus feel, think, and see as He looks at the lines of dissension that have worked against all of the commandments in the Scripture for unity, and even His own high priestly prayer for us, “that we would be one as He is one with the Father, that the world would know that He was sent from the Father,” (John 17:20, 21). In the greater context of these verses, He prays to the Father about us who have believed on Him as our personal Savior, and are known as the special group of redeemed people, whom the Father gave to the Son as a special gift before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3). His desire is that the Father would bless us with the capacity to experience unity in our love fellowship with God, (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and with one another. The thing that distinguishes the Father and the Son’s unity is that they are joined by a nature of LOVE. God is love (I John 4:8), and that same nature of the Father and the Son has been given to us to share and express that same love to each other.

The principle of unity among God’s people operates from a higher supernatural power working through yielded lives to the Holy Spirit who has brought the life and love of God into our human experience. Is this not strongly implied from Romans 5:5, “Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  Love spread to one another is to bring the fruit of our hope into our Christian experience and in doing so our disagreements and conflicts are still under the governance of the supreme law of love. Unity is not conceived by us, but we are to endeavor to maintain the experience of it in the bond of peace which cannot exist without the love of God dominating our lives (Ephesians 4:2, 3). Galatians 5:22,23 clearly reminds us that you cannot have the bond of peace without love because both of them are fruit of the Holy Spirit and are not  manifested without each other by the Holy Spirit in us and then through us.

What shall we say to truths like these as they relate to our lives? Do we have the capacity to have unity and love consistently dominate the experience of our lives and relationships? The answer is an  unequivocal and undeniable “yes and amen” to the glory of God’s Spirit in us. The simple question to us has to be, have you asked for it? Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). If His word is in us, as He Himself is supposed to be in us, we will ask for Word driven desires and they will be granted to us. Ask Him to make you a lover of the brothers and sisters like He loves them, and watch and wait for Him to manifest it in you.  Unity among us is based upon the joined new natures of believers ruled by the living principle of the love of Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Father in heaven, relationships with all kinds of people who say they love You, like I say I love You, is a major challenge and risk. Please make my heart like Your heart so I can express Your nature toward the people You love for unity sake. Please forgive me for not being as serious about it as You are in expecting it from me. I will purpose to be better in this area. In Jesus Name, amen.
By Pastor Wayne Cockrell