Unity, the Another Aspect of Love!

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” - Romans 12:9-11 NIV

Yesterday, we looked at what love means in the context of Romans 12:9-11 but we are going to look at another aspect of love today.

Since we know love is a characteristic attribute that shows highest regard to someone, it is what unites people together. Love is the top form of characteristic attributes. A long time ago, one of my friends invited me to come to Saint John’s Anglican Church on Sunday morning. The priest or one of the leaders gave the congregation a quiz about the fruit of the Spirit. I think the question was: “What is the best characteristic attribute Christians should have out of the fruit of the Spirit?” The fruit of the Spirit includes “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Another friend of mine, who also go there, had same answer as mine. Our answer was that love combines the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. I think that answer was the best out of the rest of answers. Another example of love comes with unity is the illustration of Jesus Christ and God when He came down to the earth. Jesus Christ was the Son of God. God’s intention for Jesus was that He had to be crucified on the cross for people’s sins. Although Jesus did not want to crucify Himself on the cross because of the suffering, He persevered what He had to do (Luke 22:42). He longed to be at the highest place and His name to be above every name three days after the crucifixion (Philippians 2:6-11).

As human beings now take part in the body of Jesus Christ, God wants us to love one another, in order to be in perfect unity (John 17:20-26). Thus, we can glorify God as one body of Christ (Romans 15:5-6). Therefore, we should live our lives as the children of the light (1 Thessalonians 5:5-11) as well as the light of the world, that others can glorify God through us (Matthew 5:13-16). I think I had a couple of groups of church members that were in unity. We used to go restaurants after church services to grab a bite and for some fellowship. I thought about this and wondering about how my New Zealand church members could be united. The main reason that I want to be united with church families is that I consider them as my family in Christ. To be in unity with one another, I believe we should humble ourselves up to point that we are honouring them above us.

Tomorrow, we are going to conclude the series by looking at what it means to have spiritual fervor with us. Ask yourself a question today: “What life would look like if Christians are gathered together and how we are able to make that happen in our lives?”