Unity in Diversity Part 1.

 All through my Christian life I have felt challenged about the Bible's instructions about being 'united'. I can understand in a small way being 'united with Christ' (Ephesians 1:11) but that is my personal relationship with Jesus that He bought for all people at the Cross. But 'all believers were united in heart and mind.' (Acts 4:32) that is a whole different picture.

What does that look like in my relationships? I recognise that I am the clay and He is the potter (Isaiah 64:8). I understand that our Father chose to make every person unique, He gives me His love for each person He made and wants me to show that love to all. As a parent He wants His children to love one another as He has loved us, John 15:9.

How can we be united in the church, for example, when we can see people across the room who we know haven't talked for months because of an offense. How can we be united when I know someone has judged, I have forgiven them but they find me difficult to be around?

This week when talking to Father about this I was so thrilled to realise that all born again believers are born of the same Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4). Without Him we are not born again or a child of God. It is the Father Who draws us (John 6:44) and it is the Holy Spirit, Who raised Jesus from the dead, Who comes to live in us (Romans 8:11) So we all come under the same Name. But just like children in the same family have the same surname, but can be very different, or like peas in a pod, so it is similar in the Body of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul describes the variety in Christ's Body so well. 'God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us............. We are one body with many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body....... we all share the same Spirit'.

When I was working as a volunteer in a women's prison doing 'Joy for Life', a lovely girl came up to me prior to the start of class and said she had just become a Christian. She explained that the other Christians, who I knew were about to attend the 'Joy for Life' time, had told her that she couldn't be a Christian as she was a lesbian. After a quick arrow prayer I gave my sister in Christ a big hug and just said to her 'welcome, 

you lesbian, me proud'. We all have stuff to deal with. She went on after six months of attending class to tell me she had broken off her relationship, and after a further six months, to say Father God had shown her she was no longer a lesbian.

Do we expect the believers we mix with to be all in the same mold and anyone slightly different in their beliefs, or actions, or the way they pray, we keep away from? I am learning to not be judgmental of believers who have different ways of doing things or opinions to me. I pray that Father shows me how He sees them and bring my thoughts into line with His love. This is all so exciting, not that we feel so great when seeing people we are not drawn to, but the wonderful Holy Spirit will show us how to love every other person in His Body with His power not our own natural reactions, 1 John 4:7

In Summary - 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves His children too' 1 John 5:1

For further study https://www.joyforlife.org/index.php/real-love/