United in mind and conviction – 1 Cor 10 and John 17:20-22
Unity
Unity Quotes
Love and Unity
We need to stop thinking that our primary duty toward our fellow believers is to critique them. It’s not. Our primary duty is to love them. Paul says we owe a debt of love to each other (Rom. 13:8). Yet it seems we invest far more time in learning than loving.
Honestly evaluate the amount of time you spend acquiring information compared to the amount of time you spend asking God to increase your love for His children.
Francis Chan, Until Unity
My Pondering
Unity with principles
Grace with preferences
Love with all
or said this way,
Love the sinner / Hate the sin. Let love rule.
Word: 2024 Love to 2025 Unity – ULLIB
Love and beyond
Love is my word of the year for 2024. It’s such a big and important word and could and should be my word of my whole life; to live love.
As 2024 closes out, I have selected Unity as my primary word for 2025. I love how God sometimes speaks. Thanks to this author, He did. This devo helps and certainly connects the two. From it and other ways which God has been speaking to me, I came up with this pithy acrostic: ULLIB.
So I wanted to share this devo regarding the Composition of love:
What is the composition of Love? In other words, how would you describe or define love? Jesus defined love for us – it is laying down our lives for each other. Is there anyone here for whom you are willing to die? Well, this is what Jesus expects of us. So when we say we love, let us think again.
In day-to-day terms, what does it look like? It means putting the other person’s interest above my own. It means helping someone even when it’s not convenient. It means overlooking people’s faults and weaknesses. This is where the rubber hits the road. This is where the profession of our faith is tested.
Love is an action word – feelings may accompany it, but it is a decision of the will.
Today, love is often misrepresented as just feelings and something that happens to you when the mood and the environment are right.
The Bible defines love very differently. One only needs to look at 1 Corinthians 13. That is our standard.
Love is something we do for another person.
Love is not a feeling. Love is wrapped in flesh and blood. I cannot isolate myself from the family of God and say I have love. That is a contradiction.
That is why meeting together in church or a home group is important. Christianity is personal as well as a corporate faith. We live the faith together. Love cannot be practiced in isolation.
Do you know how many bible verses are there that say “one another”? There are 59 verses in the New Testament on one another.
You can unite around ideology, theology, a cause, or even a common enemy – but that unity is fragile. Should there be a change in any of these elements, the unity will disintegrate.
Love transcends all this. The ideology can change; the cause can change but if you love unconditionally from the heart you can still be united.
You do not have to agree on everything to love. Love that demands agreement on everything, is not love. Its control, manipulative, and often uses fear to get conformity.
In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.
If only we practice this more!!
Unity – Psalms 133:1
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is
Psalms 133:1
when brothers dwell in unity!”
My take: When any group is in accord, working together for common good it is a beautiful thing. Especially brothers and sisters in Christ. This unity must be of the Bible and Spirit. There is no greater unity than this. It instantly breaks down all ethnic and cultural barriers.
This unity must be based on essential Christian doctrine or its a cult or mutant. At the same time, grace needs to be extended to non essentials and preferences. When studying the Bible, we should apply the same. Some things back in the day were preferences, like a women covering her head and not wearing pants. What are we to do today when violation of essentials like women dressing as men and even surgically and chemically artificially altering their bodies in effort to change their gender and usurp God by becoming men and vice versa.
The Bible states there are time to separate, like here in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” So we see essential traditional values based on clear Scriptual doctrine does matter.
Our purpose should however is to strive for unity as we read here in 1 Peter 3:8
“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”
Unity in essentials
Liberty in non-essentials
This tried and true saying sure resonates with me and i think is very aplicable, ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’.
My prayer: Lord, may I unite under Your holy banner and not be deceived nor lured by Satan and his cohorts. Keep me in sync with Your will and close to Your heart. Help me discern and be edified by Your Word.
Unity
Pondering Psalms 133:1
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!”
My take: When any group is in accord, working together for common good it is a beautiful thing. Especially brothers and sisters in Christ. This unity must be of the Bible and Spirit. There is no greater unity than this. It instantly breaks down all ethnic and cultural barriers.
This unity must be based on essential Christian doctrine or its a cult or mutant. At the same time, grace needs to be extended to non essentials and preferences. When studying the Bible, we should apply the same. Some things back in the day were preferences, like a women covering her head and not wearing pants. What are we to do today when violation of essentials like women dressing as men and even surgically and chemically artificially altering their bodies in effort to change their gender and usurp God by becoming men and vice versa.
The Bible states there are time to separate, like here in 2 Thessalonians 3:6
“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” So we see essential traditional values based on clear Scriptual doctrine does matter.
Our purpose should however is to strive for unity as we read here in 1 Peter 3:8
“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”
Unity in essentials
Liberty in non-essentials
This tried and true saying sure resonates with me and i think is very aplicable, ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’.
My prayer: Lord, may I unite under Your holy banner and not be deceived nor lured by Satan and his cohorts. Keep me in sync with Your will and close to Your heart. Help me discern and be edified by Your Word.
