Unity! It is a word that all Christians agree upon verbally but find it difficult to live out in practice.  You will never hear a person preach against unity, yet you will hear them express opinions that will destroy unity.  So, what is required to experience unity among God’s people?  The concept is simple.  We place our focus on God. The problem is that other important concepts get placed above our devotion to God.

Some would say that loving others is the most important purpose in a Christian’s life.  The problem occurs when our concept of loving others is different than others concept of loving others.  Therefore, some will say that because others do not love in the manner that they can agree with, they cannot be united with them.  That is not what Jesus taught.  In John 17:20-26, Jesus is praying for all believers to be one.  He desires for them to believe in Him, so that they can be one.  The only way to achieve unity within the Christian church is to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. 

Therefore, the focus is always on Jesus Christ.  Out of our love for God through our confession of faith in Jesus, we can achieve unity with others.  We begin to view others not through our own personal viewpoint.  Instead, we learn to see people and especially fellow Christians through the love that God has for all of them. So how do we achieve unity?  The first step is submission to God!  We must be willing to sacrifice our opinions that may be important, but not when it causes disruption that takes away from God’s overall purpose of following Christ.  Finally, we must be able to forgive!  People will be hurt by other followers of Christ.  It is a fact of life!  But how do we respond?  Do we react and hurt others as well, or do we forgive them and learn to live in a restored relationship.  God has restored a relationship with you.  I pray that all of us have the courage to forgive so that we can live in a restored relationship with other fellow believers.

Read Psalm 133 and John 17:20-26