Unity Within the Family Of God
Maintaining unity within the family of God is vitally important. Steph Nickel reminds us that we need to do everything we can to restore broken relationships.
Maintaining Unity
Many people think the Bible is just a list of manmade rules and regulations. They don’t realize that it is God’s Word and that much of it is incredibly practical and immediately applicable to day-to-day life. Matthew 18:15-17(ESV) is one such passage.
It says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Here is a step-by-step plan to achieve and maintain unity among believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, we are not only members of the same family but also of the same body, as the Scriptures teach us.
To a certain degree, we can apply these guidelines to other relationships as well. In either case, it is important to remember that we should be concerned with restoring the other individual to fellowship as much as—if not more than—we are concerned about protecting ourselves. And it’s never a matter of proving ourselves right and “winning” a disagreement.
The verses that follow this passage are very familiar and are quoted often. But as I’ve often said, it’s vital that we learn the context of any given portion of God’s Word. Verses 18-20 read this way:
I [Jesus] say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
Matthew 18:15-17 (ESV)
The Importance Of Unity Among Believers
Unity among believers in Jesus Christ is of prime importance to the Lord. After all, it was the last prayer Jesus offered for His followers before He was crucified. We know that any prayer Jesus prayed was perfect, a declaration of His Father’s will.
Every prayer He offered when He walked the Earth will be answered. Though we do not see unity among God’s children in our day, the time is coming when we will be truly united.
Just a quick aside . . . in heaven there will be no more debate about points of doctrine. But such is not the case here on Earth. Some believe that to attain unity, we must agree on everything. I do not, however, feel this is necessary.
Ultimately, there will be a binding together of all that is good and a loosing of all that does not honour God. Another way to think of it is that there will be a restriction, a binding, of all that is not good, and we will, for all eternity, be loosed from all the chains that hinder us. God’s children will experience this perfectly and completely in heaven. We do, however, enjoy this to a certain degree as we seek to live in unity here on Earth.
God Values Genuine Unity
God values true and genuine unity so highly that He promises to be with those who are gathered in His name. Of course, God is omnipresent; He is everywhere at once. But this promise indicates that in a special way, He will be among those who are gathered in His name, those who diligently do their part to maintain godly unity.
It is a wonderful idea to memorize verses 18-20, but I would encourage you to make it a family project to memorize this entire section, Matthew 18:15-20.
In so doing—and by putting into practice the imperatives in this section of scripture, we teach ourselves and our children many valuable lessons.
Working Out Differences
First, when someone sins against us—when they are unkind, hurtful, and even mean—we ought to try to work it out, just the two of us. Just a word of caution here: We must teach our children the importance of staying safe. It is often unwise for them to meet another person alone. I remember an incident that happened many years ago. In this case, my son was at fault, but how we handled things would have been appropriate even if he hadn’t been. I went with him to offer moral support, but he was the one who had to ring the doorbell and apologize.
Everything worked out between my son and the neighbour boy. However, things don’t always go this smoothly. Sometimes we have to get others involved. Now, this doesn’t mean we become the aggressors or encourage our children to do so. After all, godly unity occurs when we seek the good of the other party. It isn’t about getting our own way.
Try as we might, sometimes the other individual simply refuses to acknowledge that they were in the wrong. If, after we done all we can, they still show no interest in re-establishing a right relationship with us, we may have to walk away. As hard as it is, we must do so out of concern for them, not because we feel we’ve earned the right to snub them. After all, Jesus said we were to forgive seventy times seven—and He didn’t mean a literal 490 times. We are not to keep a tally of the number of times someone wrongs us.
While it is wonderful get along with others and be at peace with them, even more incredible is the fact that God Himself is personally and actively involved when this is the case.
What do you think the gospel is? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Steph Nickel
Steph Beth Nickel is eclectically interested and eclectically involved. In all she does, Steph seeks to nurture and inspire. She is currently working on the first book in a nonfiction series. Nurture and Inspire LOVE is a compilation of the first devotionals she wrote for HopeStreamRadio.
Steph is a freelance writer and editor. She is the coauthor of Paralympian Deb Willows’ award-winning memoir, Living Beyond My Circumstances, published by Castle Quay Books. Deb and Steph are working on a follow-up book.
You can visit her website, stephbethnickel.com, to learn more about her.
Visit Steph’s contributor’s page or at Steph Nickel’s Eclectic Interests.
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