Monday February 24, 2014

Read 1 Corinthians 1:10. John 17:20-26

Unity has evaded the church for almost 2,000 years. Even the briefest perusal of church history will reveal that the church has been wracked with dissension and turmoil and disunity almost from the day of its inception.

Unity is not built upon verbal agreement. Much of today’s unity is simply built upon standing side by side and declaring to the world that we believe together in God or Jesus. What each party actually believes is left unspoken because there-in lies a huge source of disunity. We simply agree to disagree.

In what has become to be known as the High Priestly prayer, Jesus prays that all believers become one as He and the Father are One. This unity within the Godhead is not a verbal unity with different underlying interpretations and beliefs. God the Father and God the Son (and, indeed God the Holy Spirit) were perfectly united in every sense. True unity would show the world that God had sent His Son into the world to bring salvation and judgment.

 When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about unity (1 Cor 1:10) he appealed to no less than the name above all names for unity. He called all of them to agree - not just leaders and not just those within specific groups. He wanted unity so that there would be no divisions among them and so that they would be perfectly united in mind and thought.

It’s hard to imagine that Jesus or Paul were simply saying stand together and confess the name of God or Jesus even though you have different beliefs about the Word of God. Nothing in the words of Paul or Jesus could bring us to that conclusion.

What Jesus and Paul desired is what the early church sought to achieve. When many tried, for example, to uphold the doctrine of modalism—that is the belief that there is one God who reveals Himself in different modes throughout history (Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit) - the early church wrestled with the idea and affirmed the concept of the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD. They could have stood arm in arm and just declared that they all believed in God but they didn’t. They meticulously sought to separate truth from error and encouraged, even demanded, that everyone stand upon the truth not error.

The modern day church would do well to adopt such a passionate desire to stand unified.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Ask the Lord to bless the work of Student Life as they seek to make disciples throughout uni/TAFE campuses around Australia. Pray for workers to be brought into this harvest field, for funds and for resources to be available.

ª Ask the Lord to bring genuine unity across the city/town you live in.

 Word Moment –  In our relativistic and individualistic world it’s become totally taboo to tell anyone that they are wrong or incorrect in their beliefs. Within this world view it is imperative that Christians know what they believe and why they believe. More than ever we need to know our Bibles well so that we can stand up for the truth at a moment’s notice.