Jesus taught us to pray and say "Our father in heaven." In the body of Christ, we all have the same Father. When we believe in Christ we become children of God. Other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church is our spiritual family.
During his ministry on earth, Jesus formed a family, starting with twelve disciples. God, the Father and head of this family, is love, and so the family motto is "Love." "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. . . . Love your neighbor as you love yourself." [(Deuteronomy 6:5); (Leviticus 19:18); (Matthew 22:37, 39)] "If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples." (John 13:35)
No branch of this family can function properly without unity and reconciliation with the other branches of the family. God chose many members, "people from every tribe, language, nation, and race," to join his family (Revelation 5:9). Yes, Jesus came for them as well. They too have been redeemed, and we will all be together in heaven.
When we come together here in this life, we begin to experience that genuine love that will be ours for eternity.
"Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also." (2 Corinthians 5:18) As the body and family of Christ we need to have strong, united relationships one with another.
Just as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, we are called to preserve this family unity. We may feel that the family is full of weaknesses, struggles, and problems, but rather than spending so much time criticizing it and pointing out its many faults, we need to be building the family of Christ and encouraging fellowship between its members.
May God help us to live as one body, with one spirit and one goal: to lift the name of Christ higher everywhere.
- 5 JULY -