The unity of the Spirit

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4: 1 – 6

When Paul wrote these words to the church at Ephesus it was in the context of unity in the church between Jew and Gentile.  He was showing them how to live in the unity that God was calling them to.

Never have these words been more appropriate recently than in the UK where the country appears to be tearing itself apart over Brexit.  

Within the Church there are as many different opinions over Brexit as outside and no matter how much we believe we have heard from God, our attitude to those who may differ is vital. Having a condescending, superior, patronising attitude to those we disagree with will only reinforce divisions but the Church is called to live and work in unity. The Church in the land needs to model and show a different way and not join in the highly opinionated, wholesale anger and frustration that is so evident.

God has an incredible plan and purpose for the UK but it involves bringing his Kingdom and his will into the land. Brexit is part of that process but not the destination. The Church has a great calling to rise above the divisions and dissent and focus on the Lord and his designs. 

I don’t think any part of the Body of Christ does not earnestly desire God to move in sovereign power and bring revival to our land. All of us want to see loved ones saved. All of us, I am sure, long for God to breakthrough with miracle working power to bring healing, restoration and reconciliation but for our nation to benefit from this, it requires the Church to arise in unity; to deal with jealousy, personal and selfish ambition, to show love and grace to those we disagree with. The Brexit process is a great learning experience. 

Paul shows us the way. First we must be humble and gentle. That is a million miles away from the worldly sense of entitlement especially to personal opinion that is so prevalent. Being humble means considering others before ourselves, listening calmly even to things we would never agree with and not shoving our opinions, no matter how Biblical, down the throats of others even if they are trying to do this to us.  

Secondly we must be patient, a quality most of us struggle with. We want things now, we want our opinion heard and we get frustrated when others do not see the sense in what we are saying. The key here is prayer. God can change opinions, even our own, in a microsecond with his divine revelation. Asking God to intervene, to show us where we may be in the wrong and to grant us patience with others of different opinions, will achieve far more than half an hour’s carefully crafted argument, let alone ten minutes haranguing. This will help us bear with others in love.  

Finally Paul exhorts us to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.This excludes loud arguments, flouncing, huffing and puffing and nasty looks. Instead we must focus our eyes on Jesus, looking to him to and trusting him to work out his plans and purposes for our lives, for the Church and for the nation. 

As the Body of Christ, we have a high calling to pray and bring in God’s Kingdom and will for our nation. But this will only be achieved as we model unity in the Church to the nations.

Father, I pray that you would show us the way of unity, to love those we disagree with and to be one, even as you are one. Forgive us for our jealousies and pride that drive divisions into your body and the nation and help us look to you who loves us all. We declare you have a high calling on United Kingdom. Show us how to participate through prayer and attitude in your plans. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Walk humbly with our God

He has showed you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

In the preceding verses Micah asks the people how best he should come before God. He suggests he should perhaps bring burnt offerings or thousands of rams or rivers of oil or even sacrifice his firstborn to show his sincerity. However God does not want extravagant outward shows of devotion, he wants lives committed to him by obedience. He wants his people to do the things he asks of them and to show the same kind of qualities as he does.

What God requires is justice because he is the God of justice. He wants us to give what is right and proper to people, to be truthful and honest and not to lie, cheat, steal or take bribes. He then requires us to love mercy because he is a merciful God. He wants us to show kindness and generosity to those in need or weaker than ourselves; not to trample on the poor but look after them. In several places in the Bible God berates his people for being full of meaningless religious activity instead of showing justice, kindness and mercy and looking after others (for example Isaiah 58: 6 – 10).

Finally Micah says that God requires that we walk humbly with him. This is the most important thing that God asks of us. It rates alongside ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength’ as fundamental to the Christian life. Everything else pales into comparison with walking with God. 

Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:21). We know little about Enoch except his genealogy and that he walked with God for 365 years and then God took him away. He did not live like all his ancestors did – he walked with God – and he did not die like his ancestors – God took him away.  However this was enough for him to be included in the hall of fame of Hebrews 11 where it says that ‘by faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death; he could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God’ (Hebrews 11: 5).  Enoch pleased God only because he walked with him.

Walking with God is incredibly important and is the most wonderful invitation that anyone can be given. Of course it is important that we show our faith through practical works but these must never be a substitute for our relationship with God.  Works must flow out of this relationship for when they do they will not be meaningless sacrifices or empty gestures. Instead they will be infused with the mercy and justice of God and come covered in his fingerprints.

Washing the feet

All through Jesus' three years of ministry the disciples would have private arguments amongst themselves about who was the greatest of them (Luke 9: 46 – 48 and 22: 24). Every time Jesus lovingly corrected them but on the night of the Passover meal, the day before his crucifixion, Jesus showed them that being great in the kingdom meant being the servant of all (Mark 9:35).  He did this by washing their feet.  We find this in John 13.

When one was invited to another’s home or went to visit, people would be clean but on the way their feet got dirty from the dusty roads. It was the job of the lowliest servant in the house to wash the visitors’ feet (Genesis 18:4 and 19:2).  When Jesus got up from the meal and started to wash the disciples’ feet it was shocking. You can imagine the protests from Peter and others and then the stunned silence as Jesus continued his task.  He was their teacher and Lord, not the one to wash their feet but Jesus was showing them the true meaning of servanthood.

Servanthood is not servitude but an honest desire to serve others and put their needs before your own. Paul teaches in Philippians 2: 4 each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. Too often we are self absorbed but we need to see how we can serve one another and do good to them.

Alan Vincent teaches one way we can do this.  He says that Jesus washing the disciples’ feet is a wonderful picture of the real relationships we need to have in the church. Our dirty feet are representative of the impurities of everyday life that like dirt on feet need to be washed away. Just as Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, he wants to wash us clean from the impurities of our lives by the washing of the Word. We must resist the temptation to be like Peter and refuse him or then to go completely over the top and think we are so bad that Jesus must wash us all over. We must let Jesus do this and he may use others. If someone comes with loving correction to our lives, let us be humble enough to receive it. Let us learn to give and receive this correction in true humility.