By David ReayFriday 2 Sep 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. (NIV)
Unity amongst any group of people is hard to come by. It can be made even harder if we confuse unity and uniformity. Unity is all about different people working towards a common goal in sometimes different ways. Uniformity is all about squeezing such people into one mould, overriding differences and diversity.
Think of an aircraft flying off to Fiji. The people who board that flight are all unique individuals with not much in common apart from the fact that they are headed to the same destination by the same means.
So, it is with Christians. We are so very different, and yet we are headed to the same goal of maturity in Jesus by the same means of the empowering Spirit of God. Our unity lies in this, not in our personalities or our styles of expression.
Oneness in the church does not mean we all have to meet at the same time, sing the same songs, agree on every specific point of doctrine. Oneness means recognising we have a common hope of eternal life because of what Jesus has done for us.
Demanding we all be the same is a prescription for authoritarian control. Demanding all churches become one big church assumes administrative processes will bring about unity. Our unity is best witnessed when very different people decide to relate harmoniously with one another on the basis of their common possession of life in Jesus.
Blessings,
David