Reading: Romans 15:8-13
Reflective Thoughts
Unity
We think highly of unity. People have called for it to win wars and declare peace. John Dickinson wrote “By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall” in a Revolutionary War song back in the 1770s. Sonny and Cher sang some of the same lyrics in a song about the brotherhood of humanity in the 1970s. In the church, we tend to think of unity in terms of people who are just like us. But Jesus has something wholly different in mind. He prayed about unity this way: “… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21).
His prayer for unity is not generational or cultural. Both the Jews (the circumcision) and the Gentiles were saved through Him. Unity is not even based on our relationships with one another. Close friendships and allied theology does not equal spiritual oneness. Unity is first based on relationship with Christ. We don’t need to be multicultural or cross-generational or theological experts to love one another. We need to be experts in our own relationship with Jesus. How is yours today?
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