Achieving Unity
Unity is something we desire, but there is precious little of it in the world today. Unity is the opposite of strife and conflict. That is the reason we want to achieve it. Most people are tired of all of the stress and the conflicts of life. The question is, "How can we have real unity?"
One thing is sure; we can't have unity as long as everyone does his own thing. There can be no true unity when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. That is a huge philosophy in our world, though. Everyone seems to think that they are entitled to independence and self determination. That is true to some degree. We are all responsible for making our own choices as an independent person. However, to have unity we must have agreement, so we must come together with others and be willing to find common ground. However, there is still a problem. Who will begin? With whom must we agree? If everyone would just agree with us, we would be fine. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, does it?
The only real unity comes through submission. Most people don't like submission to start with. Then, the only true, lasting unity comes through our submission to God. Then, we are willing to follow His Word and exhibit His ways in an unselfish way. That produces unity without any coercion. In fact, it is joyful submission and loving unity. In John 17 the Lord Jesus says that is His goal for His followers. He wants us to have the same unity He has with the Father. What an ideal! I pray that we will reach it. We would have some Heaven on Earth. It's pretty easy, really. We just have to let God be God. We have to deny ourselves and follow Him. Oh yeah, I left out an important part, didn't I? He said, "Take up your cross." That means death to self. It makes it not about us, but about Him. Then, there is perfect unity.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Judges 14-16.
One thing is sure; we can't have unity as long as everyone does his own thing. There can be no true unity when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. That is a huge philosophy in our world, though. Everyone seems to think that they are entitled to independence and self determination. That is true to some degree. We are all responsible for making our own choices as an independent person. However, to have unity we must have agreement, so we must come together with others and be willing to find common ground. However, there is still a problem. Who will begin? With whom must we agree? If everyone would just agree with us, we would be fine. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, does it?
The only real unity comes through submission. Most people don't like submission to start with. Then, the only true, lasting unity comes through our submission to God. Then, we are willing to follow His Word and exhibit His ways in an unselfish way. That produces unity without any coercion. In fact, it is joyful submission and loving unity. In John 17 the Lord Jesus says that is His goal for His followers. He wants us to have the same unity He has with the Father. What an ideal! I pray that we will reach it. We would have some Heaven on Earth. It's pretty easy, really. We just have to let God be God. We have to deny ourselves and follow Him. Oh yeah, I left out an important part, didn't I? He said, "Take up your cross." That means death to self. It makes it not about us, but about Him. Then, there is perfect unity.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Judges 14-16.