Oneness Not Sameness

Quotes:

“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” - ― J.K. Rowling

“United we stand, Divided we fall.”- KY State Flag

“All for one and one for all.” ― Alexandre Dumas

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” ― Winston Churchill

“A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists. Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song.” ― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“Unity is vision...” ― Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams

“We are members of one great body…. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole”

― Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Psalm 133:1-3 [985 BC written after David gave instructions to Solomon on building the temple. I Chronicles 28:11-21]

Unity – Oneness – but not Sameness.

We are all different… Thank God.-)

Yet we have a common good, goal, “Salvation”.

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The inference is not on the 2 or 3 but on the “together”.

Together – Greek: Sue-Nog-Go – From which we get the English Sympathy.

Unity as in twain becoming one flesh. Not the same flesh. A unit.

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

My wife and I are “one flesh”, yet when you’ve seen me you haven’t seen my wife. Thank God.-)

“If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary”- Ruth Bell

Oneness Not Sameness.

Working together for a common goal, that’s the key.

I Corinthians 12:4-27 “4- Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5- and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6- and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7- To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8- For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9- to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10- to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11- All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 12- For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13- For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slavesfn or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14- For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15- If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16- And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not

make it any less a part of the body. 17- If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18- But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19- If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20- As it is, there are many parts,fn yet one body. 21- The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22- On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23- and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24- which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25- that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26- If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27- Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” -ESV