How To Get Along

“Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”

Ephesians 4:3


We don’t make unity or manufacture unity. We just keep the unity going that Jesus provided in his body on the Cross. Unity is something that was provided for us, a gift to us. Imagine the pressure on you and me if it was up to us to have to come up with a way to be unified with God and other people. Needless to say it would be impossible as the requirements would vary from person to person as the old saying is true, “You can’t please everybody but you can make everybody miserable.” The good news is unity begins with God. He created the means and provides us with the ability to come together and stay together as we don’t hold ourselves together, God holds onto us. All things were created by Him and for Him. He holds it all together in the palm of His hand.

Unity begins by coming to Christ and becoming a member of His body, the church. Unity is a work of the Holy Spirit as it is He who places us into God’s family. The source then of unity is Christ. Coming to Jesus is what unites us, what makes us family and provides us with the power to live as one. Sin separates, Jesus unites plain and simple. Just like in marriage the mystery of unity is revealed in, “What God has joined together let no man separate” the scriptures remind us. God is the unifier, not us. Unity is the supernatural work of the Spirit in the heart of every child of God.

Unity isn’t an option then, it’s a way of life in the Spirit, it’s simply how God operates. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit working in perfect unity. We don’t need to stress over unity or even strive in the truest sense for it. What we need to do is be grateful for it. Life without Jesus is hard, it’s a constant grasping at the wind, it’s like trying to grab water, always reaching for something that's elusive, only to be disappointed that we can’t lay hold of that which we are reaching for. Unity on the other hand is the position from which the child of God lives and operates from. We already have everything we could ever need satisfied in Christ Jesus.

The book of James says we have not because we ask not and that selfishness is what causes people to war against one another. Unity is not just possible in Christ, it’s a way of life, it’s not the end result, it is the source, the beginning, the very basis of all that we think, we say and we do. It’s understanding we don’t fight for victory today as followers of Jesus, we fight from the place of victory. The battle is the Lord’s, the battle has already been won! The same is true with unity. We don’t need to try to figure out ways to unite. If we are in Christ we already are united. What we need to learn to do today is how to think and feel, to live and act as people who are already united, because that is what we are, united in Christ Jesus.


“How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony”


Psalm 133:1


I LOVE YOU!

Michael Osthimer

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