Dwelling in Unity

  One of the things that my church is doing is that we are going through the book of Hebrews and this may have caused a few jokes about coffee.  (How do you know that God drinks coffee?  Because He Brews it)  My pastor mapped it out where we started wit Hebrews 1 at the beginning of Advent and the book will take us right through Easter.  My pastor put together a daily reading plan for the sermons that are going to be preached.  The whole church is encouraged to do the daily readings and it will help with the understanding of that weeks sermon.  Also, the small groups of the church are going along with the sermons and discussing them and finding ways to help apply that weeks sermon.  This is really nice because the church is on the same page and hopefully we are discussing, learning and applying the same things.  This has gotten me thinking about not only being on the same page, but this idea of dwelling in unity. 

  We all talk about unity and how we need it, but what does it look like.  Does it mean we all think alike?  If it does, life would get boring really fast.  Does it mean striving for a goal? There is that, but whats the goal and who or what decides that goal?  Once we decide what the goal is, how are we getting there?  The NFL playoffs are starting this weekend and the goal of every team is to win a Super Bowl, but how its done can be different.  If we look at the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, they had a great defense and an offense that got the job done.  The San Fransisco teams of the late 80's had a prolific offense, and a good defense. Once you know who you are and what you want to accomplish, the net steps are before you.

  So what does unity look like, especially in the church.  I don't think that it means we are all to look alike, think alike, and all do the same thing.  That would be boring and I think that would really limit God and how we see God.  As my home church goes through Hebrews together I hope that we become unified in Christ Jesus and that we can be of one accord, not only with our relationship with God, and others.  This is how I see it happening. 

  The first idea can be found in the High Priestly prayer found in John 17.  This is where Jesus prays for the church, He not only prays that we are one as He is one with the Father, but that He dwells with in us.  The only way we can start to be of one accord is having a relationship with God and being in right relationship with Him.  Just as the Trinity dwells in a relational unity, we need to be in that same relationship with others.  The only way that is possible is through a relationship with Jesus.  Jesus is the one that makes unity possible, the Holy Spirit is the appler/convicter and God the Father came up with the grand scheme.  In essence, our relationship with others is a reflection of how our relationship with God is going. 

  Not only do we need to dwell in unity with God and others, we to remind ourselves that we are one body.  We have to know where we fit in the body and use those gifts.  When we try and use gifts that we don't have or dont use the gifts we have, the Body of Christ suffers and the world does not get a full or a wrong picture of who God really is.  God has given each one of us gifts to use for His glory and when we use those gifts, we are glorifying God and it is an act of worship

  The third idea of unity is that we put into practice what we know and interact with each other.  In Colossians 3, Paul exhorts the church and tells them and us to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  Most importantly, unity is not only an interaction with God, but it is interacting with others.  It is letting God live through us in everything we do and our interactions with others.  This means that we do life together, and it is more than just having fun together.  It is worshiping together and apart of it is coming along side each other and correcting attitudes and actions with grace and humility.  It is not lording over, but it is helping a brother or sister out.  It is helping each other grow in grace maturity. 

  Unity does not always mean that we all think the same way or do the same things, but finding having the end result be the same.  It is helping each other grow in grace and maturity, and being able to have difficult conversation.  We just might be able to learn something if we focus more on listening first and then reacting.  Tod often we want to get our point across and in the process we are bringing other people down.  When we have the mind of Christ, dwelling in unity often means interacting with each other in grace, humility, love and understanding.  It is being firm and gentle on the essentials and providing grace and liberty on the non essentials