THE LOST ART OF RELATIONSHIP
or non-denomination). We have made Scripture the catalyst for division when it should be the very thing that should unite us.
Relationships are messy.
With anything that takes effort, discipline (work) is needed to maintain a spirit of unity in relationships. It is one thing to discuss the need for unity; it is another actually to put it into practice.
Discipline requires one to become a disciple of Jesus first. We see this in Colossians 3:9–11, where Paul says,
“Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.”
Even in the days when Paul wrote to this church in Colossae, people were divided. They were separated by casts, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, beliefs, and preferences. Some were even teaching that to believe in Jesus, you must be circumcised. Paul blasts that belief into oblivion by stating, very simply, that the sections we have divided ourselves into are of no circumstance in the eyes of God.
This way of thinking was and is so different than how we continue to live our lives, even today. We are still so separated. I would not expect those who do not know Jesus to be forced to adapt to this line of thinking. I would, however, expect those who believe in Jesus and live for Him to understand and live in such a way with other believers that shows we are in complete unity with each other, if not for the express purpose of living out the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17:20–23,
“My prayer is not for them alone. I also pray for those who believe in me through their message, 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”