The World is going CRAZY!
Our world is going crazy again. Israel. Iran. Protests in the streets. ICE raids. A return to discriminatory practices. Politicians applauding folks who fought to keep slavery alive. It feels like the world is unraveling—and in many ways, it is.
Right now is one of the open doors of opportunity that believers have to show the world a different way to live. This is our opportunity to fulfill Jesus’ prayer in John chapter 17 that He says would show the world that Jesus is who the Bible says that He is. We do this by living lives unified with other believers.
Genesis chapter 11, verse 1 says, "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words." That’s a picture of unity—everyone on the same page. But their unity got twisted. Instead of pulling in God’s direction, they decided to try to build their own way up to God, make a name for themselves and stay where they were comfortable. These decisions put them in direct opposition to God.
Much of the New Testament is about God’s desire for us to be unified with each other in alignment with God’s plans. The Apostle Paul writes a lot about this, but he summarizes this in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 18 through 22:
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Paul writes about this idea that our body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, should be joined together with other temples so that the two can be built together into a dwelling place for God. As much as we have individualized the Gospel, it is much more about WE than ME.
God downloaded power inside of unity. In Genesis chapter 11, verse 6, God said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” Even though these people were in direct opposition to God, they still were so powerful that nothing was impossible to them because they were unified!
From Genesis to Revelation, wherever you see unity, God’s power shows up. Wherever you read about division, you see God’s power stifled.
In the Church today, we’ve got our own towers. We’ve got our own lanes, labels, and styles. And we’re divided more than we’d like to admit.
The fact that we can still identify churches as white churches, black churches, Hispanic churches or Asian churches, grieves God.
Unity is not uniformity. It’s not about looking the same, singing the same, or voting the same. It’s about serving the same Savior. Or as C.S. Lewis said: “Unity is the road to personality.”
Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians 12:20: "As it is, there are many parts, yet one body." The church, like a body, needs each member to be uniquely themselves. A bunch of hands is not a body. One hand and a bunch of feet that are trying to be a hand are also not a body. A body is made up of hands, feet, arms, legs and a bunch of different parts that function best when they function together.
The world is looking around and seeing the craziness that is happening all around them. That craziness is actually darkness. Let’s be the people, and the churches, that celebrate differences and lean into connecting with people who aren’t like us. Let’s shine brightly by living lives full of the power that comes through unity!