Living together is essential for people in the life
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Life must be shared.God wants us to live life together.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
This coexistence is what the bible calls unity. Today, however, the word is losing most of its biblical meaning.
Togetherness is now a matter of casual conversation, socializing, eating and playing.
Where is your unity? The question is where is your church? It means that.
Staying behind for unity means waiting for newness. Go beyond the appearance of true unity in the ministry. It is living together.
It includes unselfish love, faithful participation, practical service, sacrificial gifts, strong compassion, and the commandments given to one another in the New Testament.
When it comes to unity, the number of people is crucial. A little is preferred.
You can worship with a large crowd. When the number of groups exceeds ten, it means that no one is involved and it is always a time when people are in a hurry, after which a few people control the mountain.
Jesus ministered in a small group of disciples. He could have chosen more, but he knew that twelve was the maximum number if everyone in a group wanted to participate.
The blood of Christ is made up of tiny cells, just like your body.
The life of Christ’s body, like your body, is contained in the cells.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Life must be shared.God wants us to live life together.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humility of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
This coexistence is what the bible calls unity. Today, however, the word is losing most of its biblical meaning.
Togetherness is now a matter of casual conversation, socializing, eating and playing.
Where is your unity? The question is where is your church? It means that.
Staying behind for unity means waiting for newness. Going beyond the appearance of true unity in the ministry. It is living together.
It includes unselfish love, faithful participation, practical service, sacrificial gifts, strong compassion, and the commandments given to one another in the New Testament.
When it comes to unity, the number of people is crucial. A little is preferred.
You can worship with a large crowd. When the number of groups exceeds ten, it means that no one is involved and it is always a time when people are in a hurry, after which a few people control the mountain.
Jesus ministered in a small group of disciples. He could have chosen more, but he knew that twelve was the maximum number if everyone in a group wanted to participate.
The blood of Christ is made up of tiny cells, just like your body.
The life of Christ’s body, like your body, is contained in the cells.
We can only be truly united when we make our lives bright. The Bible says this on this subject.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
He thinks the world will be united in darkness, but God says it will be in light. Darkness hides our hurts, our mistakes, our fears, our failures and our shortcomings.
In the light, however, we reveal them in a clear way and make known our true identity. In fact, truth requires courage and humility.
That means being exposed to fear, being abandoned by people and being hurt even more. Why would he take such a risk?
Because this is the only way to grow spiritually and have emotional health.
The Bible says, then confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
We can only grow by debating the problems we face. Most of all, the hardest thing is to be honest with ourselves and with others.
Helping each other is a skill of giving and receiving. It is interdependence. The Bible says that He created them and made them think of each other equally without the separation of the results between the bodies.
The most important thing in unity is to support each other. It is about building relationships, taking responsibility for each other and helping each other.
Paul says, that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
We all become stronger in our faith when those who rise up walk with us and encourage us.
The Bible commands us to be accountable to one another, to strengthen one another, to serve one another, and to honor one another.
More than fifty times in the New Testament we are commanded to do different things for each other.
The Bible says, therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace, and the things by which we may edify one another.
Each person is responsible for everything in the body of Christ.
God wants you to do everything you can to help them.
Seeing someone else’s problems as your own is not about advising or forgetting to give something, it is not about helping to show off, it is about getting involved and sharing people’s problems.
A person who views human suffering as his own says, I understand what you are going through and what you are feeling is not new or strange or crazy.
Today some people call this compassion but the bible describes it as seeing people’s suffering as your own.
The Bible says this. Put on therefore, as the elect, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Seeing someone else’s suffering as your own fulfills two basic needs for people: the desire to be understood and the desire to be understood and the desire to be accepted for your feelings.
You are always building unity when you understand someone and make sure their feelings are right.
The problem we have is that we are always in a hurry and do not have enough time to do this. Or we are preoccupied with our own problems.
Being preoccupied with our own problems dries up the compassion we should show others. There are different levels of unity, each of which helps us at different times.
The smaller levels of unity are unity in participation and unity in studying the Word of God together.
The deepest level is when we serve in unity, serving together in missionary walks as well as in relief projects.
At the deepest level, it is the unity of participation in suffering. This is a place where we can enter into each other’s pain and sorrow and open up to each other.
Christians who understand this level of unity are those who are persecuted, despised, and martyred for their faith in this world.
The Bible commands us to bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
We need each other first when we are in deep trouble, sorrow and doubt. When circumstances are so difficult that our faith fails, we need to trust our friends more.
We need friends in the small group to have faith in God and pull us in.
In a small group, the body of Christ becomes real and tangible even when God seems to be far away from us.
this is what Job desperately wanted in his distress. He shouted like this.
The fact that a person does not show warmth to his desperate relative is not afraid to endure it all.
Unity is a place of grace, where error is not accommodated but destroyed.
Unity is where warmth prevails over judgment.
We all need warmth, because we all stumble and fall and need to get back on track.
We must give mercy to each other, receive from each other. Thus saith God, ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
If you can forgive, you cannot have unity. God warns us to be patient with each other and if someone complains about this, forgive each other as the Lord forgave you, because bitterness and revenge kill unity.
Because we are imperfect sinners, we hurt each other when we spend too much time together.
Sometimes we knowingly and sometimes unknowingly hurt each other, but in any case, rebuilding and restoring unity requires great reconciliation and grace.
The Bible says, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
God’s mercy moves us to be merciful to others. Remember, you will not be asked to forgive anyone more than God has forgiven you.
When someone hurts me, I have two choices: do they use my strength and emotions for revenge or for reconciliation? You decide one of these.
Many people don’t forgive someone who hurt them because they don’t know the difference between believing in people and forgiving.
Forgiveness is letting go of the past. And trust is something that happens in the future. Whether the person hurts you asks or not, you should forgive immediately.
Trust, however, is built over time. If people come back, God has commanded you to forgive them quickly with a simmer, but trusting them quickly will not be thirsty for you.
You must not allow them to hurt you again and again. They have to make sure they change from time to time.
The best place to rebuild lost trust is in a small group with courage and responsibility.
There are other benefits to being in a small group and committing to that unity.
It is a very important part of your Christian life.
For over 2,000 years, Christians have been gathering in small groups.
If you are not part of such a group, then you do not really know what you are missing.
In the next chapter we will look at what it takes to form such a group with these believers, but I hope this chapter has created in you a thirst for truth, mutual support, seeing other people’s problems as your own, and reconciliation for true unity. You are created for life together.