Daily Devotional for Friday 13th September
Unity
Today Paul returns to one of his favourite themes: unity. As you may remember, earlier this week we saw how Paul used ‘we’ to talk about the Jewish Christians, and ‘you’ for the Gentiles (non-Jewish believers). Paul reminds the Gentiles in today’s passage that they were once ‘far away’ but have now been ‘brought near by the blood of Christ’ (v.13). Before they were foreigners, excluded from citizenship within God’s chosen family…but His plan all along was to save everyone. Jesus came for all. And now Gentiles are part of God’s family. Both Jews and Gentiles have ‘access to the Father by one Spirit’. Paul refers to Christ’s peace which has allowed the two groups to come together and be reconciled and united. He has ‘destroyed the barrier’ (v.14) and made ‘one new humanity out of the two’ (v15).
It seems that there is division all around us. Countries are at war. People argue and become violent over political differences. People write hateful comments on social media. Unity can be hard to come by these days…even within the church! People argue over worship styles, the chairs, and the coffee! It’s important to note that unity doesn’t mean we’re all identical, without our own opinions and thoughts. But unity and peace go hand-in-hand. That means we can share our points of view without it affecting our relationships with others. It means we can disagree while still acknowledging that we’re all loved by God and belong to His family. When the peace goes, there is no longer unity and instead a barrier has been set up between people.
God wants us to live in peace and unity. He wants us to love others and to know that we are loved too. He wants us to remember that we are all members of His family. Paul sums it up in one of his other letters, ‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28).
Time to reflect…
• Where can you see unity around you? How about disunity?
• Have you ever disagreed with someone else, but kept the peace? Or have there been times when there was a barrier put up between you and others?
• What do you think unity should look like within the church?
Pause to pray…
God, thank you that we have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Thank you that we are part of your family and have access to you through the Spirit. We pray for peace in the world. We particularly lift to you the countries currently at war, and we ask that you would be at work in bringing peace to those situations and to those affected. We pray for unity within the church and healing for broken relationships between people who are part of your family. Amen.
