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- John 13:35 “by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”
- There’s a reason Jesus was so emphatic about unity – it’s the one thing Satan most frequently uses to destroy churches
- Unity is critically important
- Eph. 1:15-16 “15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”
- Paul is thankful, in part, because there was a love for all God’s people in the Ephesian church
- As a church member – you are a source of unity
- each of us is responsible for it
- What does this mean?
- It means we don’t put up with gossip and negative talk
- Mt. 18 – Jesus was clear about how when we have a problem with a brother or sister we go to them and then if they don’t listen we take someone else with us
- We stop negative talk and gossip and encourage people to go to the source
- James said it this way, James 3:6 ‘The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”
- We don’t engage in gossip and negative talk
- this means we watch for it in ourselves
- and we don’t allow it in others – can still be nice
- Does this mean you have to agree with everything? NO, it means when you don’t agree, you go to the one who you don’t agree with and talk to them out of love
- It means we prioritize forgiveness and unity
- knew a woman who was still angry for something that happened in a church 40 years before, she said, “I’ll never forgive them”.
- Jesus was very clear that we are forgiven with the measure we use – as a church of second chances – we forgive quickly
- We have to forgive and we have to make the unity of the body of Christ our priority – I’m so fanatical about this that if someone comes up to me and say “they” I have to know who “they” are so I can bring healing – because the church matters too much!
- It means we don’t put up with gossip and negative talk