I am continuing to explore what it means to live in unity with the body of Christ—both locally and universally.
In my first two articles about unity, I looked at the problems of pride, cliques and preferences, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the impact that words can have on the well-being and binding together of the church.
Oh Lord, continue to humble my heart as I continue to discover the ways I have promoted disunity in Your Church. Break my heart for what breaks Yours.
6. Be the first to seek reconciliation and forgive.
“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (Colossians 3:12-13)
If you’ve wronged someone, go to them and admit it even if they don’t know about it. Again, it comes back to having an attitude of humility and seeking reconciliation.
I know how hard it is to forgive someone who’s hurt you, especially when it’s a fellow Christian.
But Jesus died for us even while we hated Him. No one has sinned against you as much as you’ve sinned against your Father, and He still loves and continue to forgive you as you sin daily. We are called by Him to do the humanly impossible by forgiving, which we do by the power of His Spirit. Because He has forgiven us, and His Spirit dwells within us, we can forgive those who have sinned against us.
Forgive even when they haven’t apologized. Forgive even when they’ve embarrassed you. Forgive even when they’ve betrayed you. Forgive even when they’ve lied about you. Forgive even when they’ve lied to you.
Because that’s what your God has done for you.
"But even if he [the wrongdoer] is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you." (C.S. Lewis)
7. Remember Who has saved you. Remember Who has saved them.
Remember who you are as a saved child of the Creator. It's amazing. You are chosen, valued, rescued, secure, and loved beyond human comprehension.
And so are they.
Yes, the grandmother who gives "feedback" about the drums every week. The young man with all the tattoos and the young woman with all the piercings. The parents who hastily try to comfort their crying baby so they can listen to the sermon being preached. The husband and wife struggling to reconcile and rebuild a marriage. The woman whose husband divorced and left for another woman. The elder whose prayer goes on and on and on.
They're your family. They're broken, weird, beautiful, and loved... just like you.
See them the way Christ sees them.
"To a true child of God, the invisible bond that unites all believers to Christ is far more tender, and lasting, and precious; and, as we come to recognize and realize that we are all dwelling in one sphere of life in Him, we learn to look on every believer as our brother, in a sense that is infinitely higher than all human relationships. This is the one and only way to bring disciples permanently together. All other plans for promoting the unity of the Church have failed." (A.T. Pierson)
8. Serve one another and serve with another
We can't serve others unless we're first committed to serving the One Who has saved us.
Serving is beautiful, and it's completely contrary to our first instincts as human beings who want, want and want. But in remembering the One who has saved us, we see the epitome of true service: laying down His life (even unto death) and sacrificing His time, His energy and His status. He literally made Himself a servant: healing others, teaching others, listening to others and all the time, not allowing Himself to be celebrated as a King on earth.
Then He died for us.
He calls us to love Him first and others second. We can't love others if we're not loving—and serving—Him first.
"You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving." (Amy Carmichael)
Ask the Lord to give you a heart for others by seeing them as He sees them: beautiful, broken people who were uniquely crafted and shaped by His hand. Our hearts should be aching to love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ as He did.
"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 am for Your kingdom's cause,
As I walk from earth into eternity."
(Hillsong)
We may not be able to physically die for others. We may not be able to heal others. We may not even be in positions to verbally teach others. But we can wash each other's feet. We can forego recognition and compliments. We can refuse to take the glory that might be attributed to us and point others to the One Who served us first. For without His Spirit and His strength, how can we see the rest of the Church for who they are: loved, cherished, redeemed children of the King and members of our eternal family?
Even more than that, serve with one another. Go into your communities, into your towns and cities and counties and states and country. Humbly serve those who are spiritually lost. Serve those that the world looks down upon and scorns. Get your hands dirty. Be Jesus with skin on. Make disciples. Together, glorify the name and kingdom of God by actively going against Satan's desire for you, which is to remain isolated, apathetic and lazy.
Nothing unifies a group of people as much as dying to self and doing battle alongside them.
"The only way it is possible to have one mind is to have the mind of God derived from the unity of the Spirit of God, a unity which comes only when believers find the will of God and give themselves unselfishly and unstintingly to its fulfillment." (John F. Walvoord)
