“Whoever is not against you is for you.”

Luke 9:50

Unity is hard thing to achieve these days. With all the political and cultural differences in the world, even the Body of Christ is divided among itself, but they especially seem to be divided with the world.

As Christians, we are supposed to be in the world without being of the world. But that doesn’t mean that we must be against the world either.

We can get so passionate trying to protect the integrity of Truth, that we go far beyond the love of Jesus and draw a line of hostile division instead. When this happens, the Truth doesn’t even have a chance to be heard through us.

Ephesians 2:14 -15 reminds us that “Christ himself unites us with the world, and in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separates us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He did this by creating in himself one new people from the two groups” (paraphrased).

So what does this really mean? It means that instead of being focused on judgement and condemnation; instead of being focused on the law of the Old Testament; instead of being focused on the speck in other people’s eyes, we need to focus on the grace that Jesus brought us to overcome! Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. This means that the obedience of the commandments is still important, but the Hope of help and forgiveness is of far greater importance. If you are going to preach the death of judgement, you must also preach the Life of the Cross.

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God! You were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, but now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ. As a result, he has brought you into his presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:19-22).

Isn’t this where we all were at one time? Separated from God by our actions and thoughts? But God was not against us! He was for us!!! He wants nothing more than for every person to come into His presence.

We must unite as Christians to preach the Life of the Cross before we preach the death of judgement. And we must remember as Christians that the world needs to see that we are for them! Many of them have no idea what the voice of Truth really sounds like because they hear so many untrue voices. And sadly, some of those untrue, and even hateful, voices come right from within the church.

How can you commit today to show someone in this world that you are not against them? That you and Christ are for them? That there is hope and healing to be found! How can you break down a hostile barrier between the world and the Church today?

12 words

The Life of the Cross is greater than the death of judgement.

Lord God, humble me today. Help me to remember the days before I knew you. The times when I myself was of the world and needed healing and hope. God, bring me the opportunity to speak your Life into someone today. Help me to find the balance between not engaging in the worldly activities and sharing the Good News of unity of the Spirit that you desire for every single person. Break down my walls of division today so I can build your walls of unity. Amen.