Accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior made us a member of His family, the Body of Christ, and we also became His bride. We were grafted into the vine, the bloodline of Jesus. This made us into an instant blood relative to every Christian throughout time, co-equal with every believer as a brother and sister having the same father. All believers are bonded into the same family.
As an adoptee, I experienced the special blessing of being chosen by a family to raise me as their own! I was wanted! My character, values, work ethic, and the principles I live by are all primarily a result of the environment in which I was raised. However, my nature-the genetic make-up of who I am is a direct result of the genes passed down through the bloodline. There are many theories of environment versus genetics in how we mature as adults, but I can tell you from my personal experience that genetics play the most significant role.
During the birth of my daughter, I saw for the first time someone who looked like me! She had my ears and eyes. When she focused on something, she got an intense look on her face that reminded me so much of myself.
For years I’d had many questions about my medical history and heritage. After the birth of my daughter, those questions ultimately led me to begin the search for my birth family. When I finally found them, I felt as though I had come home from a long journey! However, it was not because I needed to find love-because I had been loved and cared for by my adoptive family. It was more a feeling of being complete. I was with people I looked like and who had similar mannerisms and talents.
It gave me a sense of belonging. Yet, it also caused internal struggle, because I found it was easy to love my newly-found birth family. My heart was torn as I tried to deal with the deep love and loyalty I felt for my adopted family, as well as the newly-found feelings for my birth family. It took quite a while before I was able to put into proper perspective the special relationship I now have with both families.
*When you became a Christian, you found a new family, made up of those who have the same re-created nature in spite of their differences.
Yet, they are totally unique and different in personality, talents, and abilities. As a member of the Body of Christ, it is important that we understand what Christian unity is by learning to treat one another with the same love and care that we should find in our own "earthly" family.
There will always be those in our "heavenly" family that say and do things that cause great hurt and pain and, as a result, need to be forgiven. Jesus prayed that all Christians would become one as He is one with the Father. (John 17:11) We may understand that all Christians are one, and see the need for oneness in the Church, but misunderstand the fundamental meaning.
*Christian unity is not based upon agreeing with one another or having the same doctrinal beliefs. Nor is it compromising your beliefs for the sake of unity.
*Oneness comes when we recognize the true meaning of our relationship to one another.
Just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus commanded the disciples not to "leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised," which they had heard Jesus speak of "but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." He told them, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:4,8)
At the beginning of Acts, we read, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." (Acts 2:2-4 KJV)
The day of Pentecost was the day the Church universal began. It was the day the Holy Spirit was poured out to permanently reside within believers. Prior to that day, the Holy Spirit was given on a temporary basis to select individuals and He could depart at any time.
When Moses finished the first Temple (called the Tabernacle) in the wilderness as the Lord had commanded him, the people were all in one accord, walking in obedience to the Lord. "Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." (Exodus 40:34) This was because the Lord was pleased with the obedience of Moses and the people.
Later on, we find the "glory of the Lord" appearing to all the people after Aaron, along with Moses, offered a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a peace offering on behalf of the people. This so pleased the Lord that "Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown." (Leviticus 9:24)
Once more, at the dedication of Solomon’s temple, "When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place the cloud filled the temple of the LORD . . . for the glory of the LORD filled his temple." (1 Kings 8:10)
It took ten days after Jesus commanded them to stay in Jerusalem before the disciples were "all with one accord in one place." This "one accord," this unity, was based upon the one common thread: Jesus’ command that they stay in Jerusalem. This command for obedience caused each disciple to focus on God’s will for each of them.
After Jesus ascended, we are told, "They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. They stayed continually at the temple, praising God." (Luke 24:52-53) While at the temple they set aside their personal needs, goals, and ambitions to seek God’s will together as one-not individually, but collectively through worship, praise, and the study of the Scriptures. "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." (Acts 1:14)
When they arrived at that place where the needs of each other became more important than their own needs, the glory of the Lord fell upon them in a mighty and powerful way.
*The Church began when they took their eyes off themselves and focused them upon Jesus and His will for them as one body.
They became both the new Temple of the Holy Spirit and "living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." (Romans 12:1)
*The primary purpose of the Church is to fulfill the Great Commission.
However, before that can be done we must learn how to worship and praise the Lord, study the Bible, and pray for the needs of others so that they might be edified and strengthened together as a whole, not just individually. When things are allowed to occur that disrupt unity to the Church, She fails in Her primary purpose.
Gossip and the pointing of the finger must be stopped so those slanderous ways will be destroyed. "Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it." (James 4:11)
The word "brother" is used in this verse because it signifies the close relationship, or bond, each Christian has with other Christians. To slander means to speak anything that may hurt or injure another. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be most careful not to defame anyone or say those things that cause great hurt.
*When we gossip or judge another, we are, in effect, putting aside the great law of the universe to "Love your neighbor as thyself." (Matthew 22:39)
*We should say and do those things that we would want said about, and done, to us.
We must be tender with others, seeking to edify, to build up and strengthen. We wouldn’t want our faults and weaknesses told to others behind our back, or worse still, having false stories told about us.
*When people slander others, they set themselves up as judge and jury.
They have, in effect, placed themselves on the same level as God. Only God has the authority to set aside law. Slander becomes not just a sin against another person, but also against God because He forbids our engaging in it.
If you have been a victim of this (and unfortunately too many have), then you need to forgive those who have done this to you. However, if you are guilty of this sin, then you must ask those whom we have harmed to forgive us.
*The law of love demands that everyone should be treated with unlimited care and concern.
To do otherwise is to negate the saving work of Jesus’ death on the cross.
*Put aside your grievances, and forgive others as you have been commanded too if you want to see the "glory of the Lord" fill the Church just as it filled the Temple
