GOD DESIRES UNITY AND RECONCILIATION
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“I do not pray for these alone,
but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may
be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in
Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”—John 17:20-21
Sin is a divider.
That is what separated mankind from the Father God in the Garden of
Eden, and it has been fracturing relationships ever since. Adam and Eve had children after they were
sent from the Garden of Eden. The first
child born was Cain and then his brother Abel.
In Genesis chapter 4, we find that Cain was a farmer and Abel was a
sheep rancher. At some point, Cain
brought an offering to the Lord from what he had harvested, and Abel’s offering
was the first-born from the flock of his sheep.
God “respected” Abel’s
offering but Cain’s was not. God
noticed Cain’s attitude and talked to him about it. And then to help clarify to us what God
meant, we find in Hebrews 11:4 that Abel’s offering was by faith and a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain’s. God is
a God of faith. Cain was offering
something up to God without faith, and that is why he was corrected. However, Cain would not receive the
correction and ended up killing his brother, Cain (4:1-10). This was the first recorded violence and the
one responsible for Cain’s death was Abel, himself. It was not the club held in his hands, but
the attitude that Cain held in his heart against his brother. God
desired unity and oneness; however, Cain could only think of himself and
how he felt. He dealt with the entire
situation according to his emotions.
Sin has been separating people and fracturing relationships
since the Garden of Eden. However, it is
also the reason God considers
reconciliation so very important. He
wants to re-establish an intimate relationship with fallen humanity, and for
the church to shine their light for the world to see.
The last time that Jesus prayed for His followers was before
going to the cross, and He asked “that they may all be one” as the
Father and His Son are one (vs. 21).
Despite the fact that we cannot attain perfect unity with God until we
reach heaven, we do have the capacity to walk in humility and harmony with Him
by living in obedience to His Holy within us.
God desires for us
are unity, with one another within His church. We will always have difference in what we
prefer, and how we interpret certain Bible passages, but our common identity as
Christians is based on the essential truths of the faith as revealed in God’s
Word. The unity Christ advocates is
possible only when each member of His body walks in submission to the Spirit so
that together they can achieve the purposes of God and reflect Christ’s
character in their behavior.
Prayer—Father I ask You
to forgive me for the times that I have not walked in faith and allowed sin to
separate us. I ask you to help me and
strengthen me so that I may be One with You as Jesus was, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
