Thursday, May 21, 2020

"..agree to live in unity.." - 1 Corinthians 1:10 (TPT)


Many topics arise in the New Testament, one that is of utmost importance to Paul was unity among the family of God.

Paul treats this as one of the most crucial matters for God's family that he invokes the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to emphasize how much this matters to him and the Lord Himself. 

In our day of Church splits and rifts that develop unchecked between Church members and denominations, there is much more that unites us than divides us and Paul is drawing attention to that fact. 

As the family of God, we hold the message of Jesus who died for the sake of all humankind, and with that message, we can impart forgiveness and the life of Christ to others who receive that message and make Christ Jesus their own Lord and Savior. 

The message of the cross has no room for discord and infighting, which characterizes the divisive splits which have divided God's family for generations. Rather than advancing the kingdom of God, we have tended to push our platforms or ideological agendas. These mean nothing to Christ.

"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. And if a household is divided against itself, that household will not last." 
Mark 3:24-25 (GW)

Jesus had permanence in mind when He made the statement "a kingdom divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last." The context was about the kingdom of Satan and its rule being divided, Jesus used a negative example to prove a point, there cannot be permanence where authority is divided among differing opposing ideologies. 
When it comes to God's kingdom, there can only be one King with one purpose, which is to expand His kingdom of love to fill the entire earth. 

The Jewish tradition of God being one God is spoken of in the Shema. The Shema is a declaration of the basic principle of Jewish belief, proclaiming God's absolute unity.

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God; the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." 
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NASB)

Even though God is revealed in scripture as a Father who abides in another (otherworldly) dimension, there are also examples of embodiment in which the Father has taken on flesh and revealed himself as a human; this is evident in the life of Jesus Christ. There are also examples of a spiritual personality, which is also an example of the Godhead, which speaks of God's desires and intentions to people in the form of whispers and inspiration. The Shema unites all three of these facets of God into one expression, thus proclaiming God's unity.

In the Hebrew, it reads: "Yahweh our Elohiym is one Yahweh." It is implying that Yahweh is unique, holy, and set apart from and not like any other Elohiym, (an Elohiym is a name for a ruler or judge, a divine one chosen to rule) Yet, Yahweh is entirely different. 

The Israelites said in the Shema that "The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" Not only does Yahweh have three different facets of His person (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit) all equally God yet still one, the Israelites also said, "…Yahweh, our Elohiym, is one Yahweh" (the one and only.) They recognized that there was none higher than Yahweh. He is the true God, and there is no other. 

Our God is a blending of different facets of His character, which fully represent who He is. He is a devoted benevolent Father who loves his family, He is a son who is an heir to a kingdom in which all of the creation resides, and He is a Spirit which empowers and communicates His desires to men. Although each aspect of His character (or nature) is different, they all operate in complete concert together (total unity) to form a complete picture of who God is.

"Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong. This will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the Son of God. Then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him." 
Ephesians 4:11-13 (CEV)

The purpose of being Christ-followers is for us to receive the Faith of Christ and walk in that faith. We must live in unity with our brothers and sisters by utilizing the talents and gifts we have been given so that by serving each other, we form a perfect representation of God as we grow strong individually and corporately. That is what Paul is describing as the unity of the faith.
  
Unity has a purpose, and that purpose is to reflect the multi-faceted characteristics of the believers as one body, much like how God has different facets of His nature reflected as one. Paul says that when we reach the unity of faith with all of our brothers and sisters, we will reach the end (complete maturity) and a full understanding of Christ (this anointing) and ultimately reflect the divine nature.

Satan hates unity, for it speaks of his demise and an end to his plans. He has injected sin into every human attempt for unity. There is no way for man to achieve unity without Jesus, who has removed the curse of sin. Any human effort to achieve unity apart from Jesus is destined for failure, for there is no natural cure for sin. Truthfully, everyone must come to the cross of Jesus and die to their sinful nature before they can even become aware of and partake of the divine nature.

"We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God's own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world" 
2 Peter 1:3-4 (CEV)

We are on this journey of faith given to us by Jesus, which has as its end the goal for us to be like our heavenly Father and reflect His characteristics and nature; this is accomplished through the anointing or impartation of (the Christ) which makes us more like Him. The result of this change is that we can rule and reign with our heavenly Father on the earth and bring forth a more righteous government, one that will not be subject to corruption but will be under the rule and reign of our heavenly Father with His sons and daughters as regents.

I, for one, invite unity among the saints as the highest goal we could achieve at this present time. It speaks volumes of the mercy and grace of our God.

Be Blessed;
Stephen Barnett

No comments:

Post a Comment