Thoughts for another day

Feb. 26, 2014.

Today's verse:  Jn. 17:20, 21a. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:  (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

Oneness in Christianity is non-negotiable.  Though many we’re one in Christ Jesus and through Christ, in Whom we’re born again, we share a common DNA the Holy Spirit gives us in our new birth.  There’s neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you’re all one in Christ Jesus, says Paul (Gal. 3:28) and it’s possible only because of the shed blood of Jesus in whose participation we share in the mystery of the God-head in that we are one all in Christ, though many.

We look back at the prayer Jesus made with such passion to His Father in heaven asking for the entire community of believers to be one as He and His Father are one.  Jesus prays not only for the apostles with Him at that time, but also looking at us across the centuries, He prays for us who have come to believe in Him through the Word that went out through the mouths of the apostles and then through those who believed in the Gospel of salvation, down to our generation. 

If Jesus wants us to be one, how is the church so fragmented and in so much disarray over petty matters and other things of faith.  It’s because we’ve never been able to understand the heart of the Lord and His yearning for oneness of His followers.  I hate it when a preacher stands on the pulpit and denounces a particularly body of Christians because their beliefs and practices differ from his.  Is he doing anything to build up the body of Christ?  Rather, is he not destroying it, to which he will have to answer the Lord?  My friend, we need to avoid all things that propagate the separation of one Christian brother from the other and pray that no matter what our differences, we’ll all come and bow before Him as one.  What a joyous thing that will be.