“We are not divided; all one body we, one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.”–Sabine Baring-Gould It is not an easy claim to make or defend. The church of Jesus Christ sure seems divided. Denominationally. Theologically. Interpersonally. (Read 1 Corinthians 1) Maybe the unity claimed by the Scripture (and our hymnody) is deeper than the surface. “There is ONE body, and ONE Spirit and ONE hope. There is ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism and ONE God.” (Ephesians 4:4-6) The Scripture doesn’t say that there should be only ONE. It says that there is only ONE! We may split things up to suit our own preferences but God knows there is only ONE family and all who truly belong to Him belong to it! As we meet today for worship, please pray for the Lord to teach us the lessons of unity. Soldiers need to stick together. The world (and the Lord) sees it when we do. I will see you in a few hours. Don
Interesting thought. It made me think/pray this morning about whether or not it is possible to “see” this reality. Is this part of what it means to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen (2 Cor 4:18)? If so, how do we do this?… what does it look like? If we did would we then “see” that we are to love one another deeply, prefer others over ourselves and have equal concern for one another in the Body… value every “part” as absolutely essential to the proper functioning of the Body?
Then as we worshipped today we sang the song Hosanna.
I see a near revival stirring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees. We’re on our knees.
Heal my heart and make it clean.
Open up my eyes to the things unseen.
Show me how to love like You have loved me.
Break my heart for what breaks Yours.
Everything I have for Your Kingdom’s cause.
As I walk from earth into eternity.
Makes me think that not only can we “see” the unseen realities, but we should seek the Father’s heart until we “see” what He desires to do through us…. and then allow Him to. My heart almost explodes at the thought of this possibility.
I started out thinking about this and then ended praying for revival in our nation and a return to unity/purity/holiness (or whatever else He wants) for the American Church. Thanks for inspiring all this!! (Great sermon today, BTW)