GodReflection:
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; – Psalms 95:6
An erroneous conclusion took root in my soul somewhere along my path. I am a child of my church culture. It’s a sin that didn’t live inside of me at birth. It is a sin I had to learn. I learn it from fellow believers. I learned disunity. I don’t do unity well. .
Somewhere along the way—marching under the banner of truth—mistakenly I assumed that unity in Jesus is no big deal. My guess is that I was taught to practice disunity from those who claimed to make proclamations from the Word of God.
Oh, I understand I am to practice unity with my church pew friends. I am even to be united with the right sort of churches—those on the same church tree who sort of agree on the same big-ticket items that “my church” believes. However, I am told by fellow believers that some churches, with the same name on their sign as my church, are off limits when it comes to unity. Where do such ideas come from?
From the Acts of the Apostles through the Revelation of Jesus to the Apostle John—I read sketchy accounts of the churches from the first century. They are nothing less than true stories of sin-tarnished humans attempting to live by the power of Jesus Holy Spirit. Their struggle was to unite with the Holiness of God.
I live with the very same struggle. The closer I grow in unity with the holiness of God the greater my own sinful nature come into focus.
Here is what I think. I have no power to create unity apart from Jesus Christ. Unity among believers can only result from unity with Jesus.
As a sin-tarnished fellow human being, shouldn’t blood that flows from the cross possess sufficient power to unite me to every human—past, present, and future—who depends on the same sustenance?
To grow in my unity with Jesus is a desire that must live at the very core of my walk. It is only through unity with Him that I can unite with other motley humans—like me—as together we submit our lives to the Son of God.
The closer I grow into the image of Jesus, the easier it will be to recognize the same image in fellow believers. In this process, we find common soil and begin to have solid ground upon which to unite.
The Apostle Paul shows members of the church at Ephesus how to practice unity:
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. . . (Ephesians 4:2-6).
So, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).
It sounds as if my life’s task is to grow into the likeness of Jesus so that I can unite with all who are members of his body to one day experience what it means to enjoy the whole measure of fullness of Christ.
When I begin to see worship as a 24/7 state of being, I begin to see unity as a gift of worship I can present to my Creator. How About It—Let’s Get Together on The Important.
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on How About It—Let’s Get Together On The Important.
God Reflection 
Amén, dear Gary, amen
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