The Love Principle - Study 27: Love as Unity

Colossians 3:12-14 NIV 

[12] Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. [13] Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. [14] And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.12-14.NIV)

I have lived through several church fallouts and splits. I didn’t study them – I didn’t need to: they happened right in front of me. Some happened because of theological differences of opinion – but these were almost always minor and obscure. Some happened because of matters of disputable taste: in music or decor or clothing or Bible versions. Some happened because of finance or power. Some happened because of egos or personality clashes – this was always an issue, to be honest. 

All had another common cause, one that was obvious with hindsight, but that no-one would have admitted to at the time. 

All happened because of a lack of love. 

And maturity. Often maturity. Some of the arguments were so utterly pathetic that it left even teenage me shaking his head and wondering when the adults would grow up or show up. 

But lack of love was always a factor. 

In our local supermarket, they have a system where you can self-scan your shopping while you are still going round the store. It can work really well and help you skip long lines, particularly at the end of the month when salaries have been paid.  

However, occasionally the system has not been updated properly and the price of the goods on the shelf does not match the price of the goods on their system. That’s when you need a customer service assistance to manually fix the price for you. 

When we love things – our hymns and songs, our pet theologies, our dress code, our way of doing things, our taste in decor – more than we do God or our neighbours, particularly our brothers and sisters in Christ, then that’s when division occurs. That’s when the price tags have been switched and we value things incorrectly. 

That’s when we disobey God and pick meaningless battles with our brothers and sisters. 

I have to be plain and direct: this is sin. 

There is no other word for it. 

And the only solution to a division like this is love. 

That’s why 1 Corinthians 13 is the solution to the divisions exposed throughout 1 Corinthians. 

That’s why Philippians 2:1-11 is the solution to the divisions exposed in Philippians 4:2-3. 

Because love is the solution. Love solves all of our relationship problems with other Christians.  

Not just any love. Brotherly and sisterly love won’t necessarily solve them. How many of us love your family but don’t always get along with them? 

Friendship love won’t necessarily solve them. How many of us have friends that we keep at arms length because we don’t agree with them?

Romantic or physical love won’t necessarily solve them. How many of us have partners or spouses that we feel a longing for, but we often have arguments with them? 

No, there is one love – only one love – that unifies our disunity and resolves our arguments and settles our disputes. That is agape love. It is divine love. It is the love above all others loves.  

Our problems with each other people are never solved by rational arguments or debates or disputes. These are ‘zero sum games’ where someone has to win and someone has to lose. 

They are not solved by giving someone the ‘right hand of blessing’ and sending them away to do their own thing. Even that can cause grudges and regret. 

No. The answer is love: Love and only love. 

These few verses teach as so much about how we should interact with each other because we love each other. They also teach us why we should love each other.  

One of my brothers-in-law worked for a while at Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. It’s one of the world’s biggest mining projects in the world. They say it will produce 430,000 tons of copper and 12,000 kgs of gold every year. That mine will make a lot of people very, very rich. 

But that mineral seam is nothing to the seam we are about to hit in Colossians. Because here, in these few verses we likely skip over way too easily, is the secret to fixing all our broken relationships, in particular those in our churches. 

So let’s start booking at something that perhaps you might not have thought had anything to so with love, but are mistaken: let’s look at Reason. 

Reason 

Colossians 3:1-11 NIV 

[1] Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. [3] For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. [5] Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [6] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. [9] Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. [11] Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.1-11.NIV)

Way back when I was working for a different company, I was given a project to improve a business process. Let me tell you, the team that supported that process were not happy that I was there. They were convinced that I was going to get them fired! That was their idea of improvement. 

Nevertheless, I was tasked with finding out what they did and why they did it. The ‘what’ part is always easy. Most people know what they’re doing at least some of the time. 

But asking why they do it is a different thing. They do it because it’s the way they've always done it, or because that’s the way their instructions or their boss told them to do it, or because they simply can’t fathom any other way to do it. 

Or often, and we have to be honest about this, because they really aren’t that bothered about what they do, are in the job for the pay cheque, and just want to do the minimum with the minimum fuss and go home. 

Let me tell you something: it isn’t that much different in church. If you challenge established ways of doing things, you find that the justification for why they are done that way is often very thin, and those arguing against change are often very... set in their ways. They don’t question anything because they are comfortable just ticking a box and going home. They don’t want to think about why. They would rather not think about anything much, if they are honest. 

But now we come to one of the most challenging aspects of the Christian life and we have to understand why. If we don’t, then our obedience will disappear like snow off a dyke as soon as things get hard – and they will. They absolutely will. 

We are commanded to love (John 13:34). We are commanded to love even our enemies and those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-45). Within that whole spectrum of people we should love we absolutely find those in the church with whom our character does not mesh, or whose politics we do not appreciate, or whose taste in anything is not the same as ours, or whose theologies differ mildly from our own, or who are not in our peer group, age group, social circle or clique.  

But why? Why are we called to do this? 

Paul explained this so crystal clearly. So clearly, in fact that we might find it a little unnerving. 

We must love firstly because we died: 

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 NIV 

[14] For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. [15] And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. [16] So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. [17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/2co.5.14-17.NIV)

In Christ we died. The old, somewhat psychopathic, way of valuing people according to the value they produce for us has gone. Now we see people as made in the image of God and ransomed by Christ on the cross. They have value now not because of who they are, but because of who Christ is; not because of what they can do, but because of what Christ did for them.

We also love because we are hidden. 

The idea is something similar to a seed being planted, or a caterpillar in a cocoon waiting to emerge as a butterfly, or a baby waiting to be born. We are in the process of being transformed from one state to another, into the likeness of Christ. As Paul explained elsewhere: 

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV 

[18] And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/2co.3.18.NIV)

Romans 8:29 NIV 

[29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.29.NIV)

Philippians 3:20-21 NIV 

[20] But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, [21] who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/php.3.20-21.NIV)

But why does Paul mention it here? 

Because he is constructing and developing an argument that the old opinionated, divisive, demanding behaviours need to be set aside. They may have been part of who we were, but they are not part of who we will be, so they should not be part of who we are now. 

Right at the heart of the famous text on love, 1 Corinthians 13, Paul made a similar argument: 

1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV 

[11] When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.13.11.NIV)

In doctor’s surgeries, shopping malls and some airports, it’s not unknown to see little play areas to keep small kids occupied. If you see little kids playing in there, it’s fine. It’s actually a little cute and quite innocent. 

Imagine for a second how it would feel to see a fully developed adult, two metres tall, built like a brick house, playing with those toys, forcing their outsized frame down the slides, sucking their thumbs and crying in a fit of frustrated temper when their peers try to move them along. 

That would be a lot less cute, right? 

Paul’s argument is that turning from loving your brothers and sisters in Christ and creating division over petty and ridiculous issues looks exactly like that – if not worse. 

Do you want to indulge in it now? 

Apart from the reality that we died to these behaviours and are hidden in Christ, we also see that we will be raised. 

I am a fan of some of the modern innovations in air travel. I like checking in early online. I like arriving at an airport where I can register and drop my bags myself. There’s so much less of a queue. And if I can do it early, even better. 

Whenever you drop your bags, you have to confirm that a whole bunch of potentially dangerous objects are not in your bags. I’m okay with that. It keeps us safe while flying. 

Paul’s argument is that divisive behaviours are like these dangerous objects. We can’t take them with us. They have to be left behind: 

Galatians 5:19-21 NIV 

[19] The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/gal.5.19-21.NIV)

If we have to leave them behind to get into heaven, then we should get used to life without them on earth. 

Because of these, Paul tells us to take a very crucial step: lift your eyes. 

Colossians 3:1-2 NIV 

[1] Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.1-2.NIV)

Divisions in churches are very rarely to do with eternal matters. Most of the divisions I have seen are to do with petty, grubby, and sometimes thoroughly unsavoury issues on earth.

Paul’s directive here is really simple: stay out of them. Avoid them. Do not make major problems out of minor issues (Romans 14).  

Some of you might object and say that these issues are of vital importance to you. However, should they be? Are they really so important? When you get to heaven, will you honestly regret that you didn’t fight for a Bible version to be used or certain songs to be sung or the walls to be painted a different shade? 

I sincerely doubt it. 

The world has enough of war. Choose your battles, Christian. Some issues are just not worth it. 

Not when you consider the price the church might pay for your divisive behaviour. 

So we see, then, the reason why we ought to be done with divisive behaviour. I find it quite compelling. 

We move one now to see the three steps Paul tells us to do to be done with it for good. The first of these is to Clothe ourselves. 

Clothe 

Colossians 3:12 NIV 

[12] Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.12.NIV)

As soon as we reach a certain age, we are able to clothe and dress ourselves – until we reach an age when we are no longer physically able. We stand in front of a wardrobe. We select our garments. We put them on. We check a mirror to see how we look. Then we’re good to go. 

For some of us, it’s a process that takes a few minutes. For others it takes longer, and involves most of the clothes in our wardrobe having a brief vacation on our bedroom floor. 

The clothes we wear are our choice – except if we have to wear a uniform, of course. At all other times, we make a deliberate choice to wear the clothes we choose and we bear the consequences of the clothes we wear. 

There are times when we are forced to wear them. If we want to enter sites of a specific religious interest, we may find ourselves being asked to wear extra clothing to cover our legs or arms or even our head. 

At all other times, we choose the clothes we wear. Clothing ourselves is an act of the will according to what we think is appropriate for the situations we face. 

Now we come to this verse. In common with other verses in Scripture, we are asked to put off some ‘clothing’: 

Colossians 3:5-11 NIV 

[5] Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [6] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. [9] Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. [11] Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.5-11.NIV)

There is similar teaching elsewhere in the Bible: 

Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV 

[22] You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; [23] to be made new in the attitude of your minds; [24] and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.4.22-24.NIV)

Now examine the behaviours and attitudes we are told to put off: 

• Sexual immorality 

• Impurity 

• Lust 

• Evil Desires 

• Greed 

• Anger 

• Rage 

• Malice 

• Slander 

• Filthy language 

  
  

What are each of these? Are they not all violations of the commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves? Are they not all sins committed against other people? 

Now look at the good deeds we are commanded to put on, to clothe ourselves with: 

• Compassion 

• Kindness 

• Humility 

• Gentleness 

• Patience 

• Forgiveness 

• Love 

  
  

Are these not all expressions of love for our neighbour, as ourselves? 

What Paul said, both in Ephesians and Colossians, as well as Galatians 5:13-26, is that the exercising of these attitudes and actions is not instinctive. It is not dictated by nature or character or upbringing or environment. 

No, it is a choice, in the same way that putting on our clothes is a choice. We choose to do these things. If it were not a choice, then God would be thoroughly unjust to hold us accountable for our sins, and God is absolutely not unjust. 

Also, Paul would be wasting his time telling us to put off one set of behaviours and attitudes and put on others. 

No, it is a choice. 

We have to understand how this works. In a previous study, I used the picture of a safety net, held aloft by members of our fellowship or community, which catches us when the pressures of walking life’s tightrope become too much. If we choose the negative behaviours and attitudes – the works of the flesh –  we weaken that safety net. We drive away those who are holding it aloft. We hurt them. In doing so, we hurt ourselves. We don’t make ourselves stronger, we make ourselves weaker. We make ourselves more vulnerable. 

But if we choose the positive behaviours and attitudes – the fruit of the Spirit – we strengthen the safety net by buttressing our fellowship and community, and we make ourselves stronger and less vulnerable. 

That is precisely why we are told to clothe ourselves with these things. 

Two weeks ago at time of writing, I made a bad mistake. The weather had been quite mild during the day, so I thought I could get away with a light jacket to go to a Bible study group in my neighbourhood. 

I was wrong.  

As I left my friend’s house to go home, the temperature was around zero. I felt so cold. I shivered the whole ten minutes walk home. It felt like a whole lot longer. 

Don’t ever underestimate how cold life can be. There us an old saying in Scotland that I had ignored: ‘Ne’er shed a cloot ‘till May is oot’ – don’t remove a layer of clothing until the end of May. 

We should never fail to clothe ourselves with these behaviours and attitudes until Christ comes to take us home. 

Otherwise, we will suffer because if it. 

Apart from the reason why we should seek to be united and to love our fellow Christian, and the behaviours and attitudes with which we should clothe ourselves, we also see that we should Bear With them. 

Bear With 

Colossians 3:13 NIV 

[13] Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.13.NIV)

As a rule of thumb, we do our best to avoid Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport when we fly to or from the Philippines. It’s just not a nice experience. It’s worse in the early morning because that’s when most long haul international flights arrive from Europe or the USA. Due to the long distances involved, most are wide-bodied A350s or B777s, which makes immigration queues to get into the country a nightmare, especially if the air-conditioning can’t cope with the high volumes of people and the steadily climbing heat and humidity. 

The story goes that an American woman was in such a queue when she began to complain vociferously: ‘That’s what’s wrong with this country – you’re all so inefficient. Nothing works well. That’s what holds this country back.’ she snapped. 

When she reached the front of the queue, an unusually surly Filipino immigration officer (they’re usually friendly to a fault) said to her, ‘Well, Ma’am, if you don’t like it her that much, I don’t see why I should let you into the country.’ And he promptly sent her back to the States! 

One American rock band came up with the rather brilliant line ‘Patience is a virtue, but she won’t always wait’. Patience in a long line is one thing. 

Patience with our fellow believers is often another. 

We often have the notion that Christians ought to be one rung lower than the angels in terms of our behaviour and attitudes. This leads to chronic disappointment when we discover that they’re just people like us. That disappointment then leads to anger and frustration, which shows itself in poor behaviour, which then provokes poor behaviour from the other person, and before we know it we’re spiralling downward into an ever more divisive situation. 

Here Paul gives the Colossians, and us, the answer: 

Bear with and forgive. 

He doesn’t limit this to certain issues. He doesn’t say some things are too big to forgive and others not. He doesn’t condition it on the other person being sorry and seeking forgiveness. 

He simply says that we should forgive. 

That might sound alarming to us, but Jesus said the same thing, and He said it in a way that was even more alarming: 

Matthew 6:14-15 NIV 

[14]  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. [15] But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.6.14-15.NIV)

Mark 11:25 NIV 

[25] And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mrk.11.25.NIV)

Luke 6:37 NIV 

[37]  “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.6.37.NIV)

Do you see it? 

We are not commanded to forgive because of what someone else has done. That is absurd. They would have to have done something wrong for us to need to forgive it. 

No, we are commanded to forgive because of what God has done. He has forgiven us. The debt He forgave for us is way bigger than anything we could be owed by other people. And so we are required to forgive others (Matthew 18:23-35). Our forgiveness by God is linked in these verses to our forgiveness of others. 

Why is that? 

Because love forgives. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 NIV 

[4] Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [5] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.13.4-5.NIV)

Love cannot bear grudges.  

Love is God’s way. It is Jesus’ command. If we set aside love and instead seek to bear grudges and unforgiveness towards those who have wronged us, we have no faith in God’s way and are seeking our own. We are living in disobedience to Him. 

Worse, we have stopped believing in a just and righteous God. As Paul taught: 

Romans 12:17-19 NIV 

[17] Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. [18] If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. [19] Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.12.17-19.NIV)

When we choose grudges and unforgiveness, we are effectively telling God to step back because we don’t trust Him and will instead have our own revenge, and that is wrong. That is faithless. God might as well not exist for us. 

Paul commanded the Colossians to bear with, to be patient with, their fellow believers who are not like them. He developed this further in Romans: 

Romans 15:7 NIV 

[7] Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.15.7.NIV)

But how do we do this when other people's behaviour or culture does not fit our little cookie-cutter concept of a Christian? 

Firstly, we need to ask if they are genuinely in the wrong or if our opinions and tastes are misplaced. If we cannot find anything in the Bible that directly addresses their behaviour (without being massaged or interpreted by our own cultural biases), then we are the problem, not them (see Romans 14:1-15:13 to see how Paul worked this out between the Jewish and Gentile believers). 

Secondly, we need to seek and appreciate the good in what they are doing, even if there are aspects of it that we don’t agree with. 

Thirdly, we must be humble and willing to learn from them so that we can grow as believers in Jesus Christ. 

But what about when they get things really badly wrong? 

Of course, there may be some sins for which there are criminal repercussions. Justice for these actions should always be sought.  

But for everything else, the Bible gives us clear guidelines on how we can strengthen the unity of the Body of Christ while dealing with the issues between us (Matthew 5:23-24,18:15-20). 

At the heart of it all is acceptance, bearing with each other, forgiveness and love. 

Because for a Christian there is no other way. 

Apart from the reason why we should want to be united in the Body of Christ, the things we should clothe ourselves with and bearing with our fellow Christian, we also see the thing we should Put On. 

Put On 

Colossians 3:14 NIV 

[14] And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.14.NIV)

People are notoriously fickle. Nowhere is that more obvious than the things that pull them together, but also drive them apart. 

Let me give you a good example. 

One of the most legendary groups of sports fans is the Tartan Army: the fans of the Scottish national football (soccer) team. They are known for parading through streets on kilts with bagpipes playing, supporting their team passionately, and also having an astonishing capacity for alcohol. Friendly with most other supporter groups (most notably except the English), they are known across the globe for being great ambassadors for their small nation. 

Scotland is also a nation riven with passionate sporting rivalries. While sport can unite when the national team is playing, it is literally the case that a group of supporters could join together to support the nation in the national stadium on one day, and then a few days later shout serious abuse at each other because their clubs are playing instead of the national team. 

Friends one minute, rivals the next. 

It all depends on the ties that bind. 

The same thing that unites us can also repel us. 

I’ll give you another example. I spent most of my life in the Baptist church. However, thanks to a quirk of my upbringing I served in an interdenominational mission organisation and worked freely, without any issue at all, beside people from many denominations. I also worked in different denominations. It didn’t bother me. The differences between them in Romania were so small anyway. The Gospel was the main thing, not the denominational badge on the door. 

I was told that the pastor of a local Baptist church had resolutely refused to work with my team. So I went to his church service to meet with the guy. He was pleased to meet with another Baptist. But as soon as I mentioned who I worked for, the door slammed shut. 

He could not work with another organisation that wasn’t part of his denomination. 

The same thing that united also divided. 

I want you to see the insanity of this. I want you to see the pettiness and the immaturity of it. I want you to be appalled by the silly divisiveness of it all. 

Why?

Because these people have chosen the wrong things around which they are united. They have chosen the wrong cause. 

There is nothing in this passage that restricts this unity to people who think like us, look like us or act like us. In fact, the very fact that we are told to ‘bear with’ others tells me that there are differences that we are simply required to suck up and deal with. 

The thing that binds us together is not people who are like-minded, from a similar theological background, with a similar upbringing, from a similar class or even from a similar place or country. 

It’s love. It’s only love. It’s only ever love.  

Nothing else. 

Look at Paul’s famous teaching on the functioning of the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12.

How does it end? 

1 Corinthians 12:31 NIV 

[31] And yet I will show you the most excellent way. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.12.31.NIV)

So Paul’s teaching on the many diverse gifts and personalities in the church, and how we need to learn to work together for the common cause of the Gospel, ends with this verse.

Where does he go next? What is this most excellent way? Is it identifying a common theology or missiology or eschatology? 

No. It’s this: 

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NIV 

[1] If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. [3] If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. [4] Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [5] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. [6] Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. [7] It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. [8] Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. [11] When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. [12] For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. [13] And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.13.1-13.NIV)

Understand this: love causes and strengthens unity. Where there is no love, there is no unity; where there is no unity, there is no love. 

Love is also the cure and the antidote to disunity. We cannot be disunited with people whom we love. 

It is love that takes all those good attitudes and behaviours we discussed earlier and bundles them up all together. Without love, we run out of steam and every one of them will fail. 

We saw all of these virtues earlier in the study: 

Colossians 3:12-13 NIV 

[12] Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. [13] Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.12-13.NIV)

These are our interface with other people. This is how we interact with them. 

In a fallen world full of fallen people, of course every one of these will be stretched and strained. That’s life. That’s how human beings are. There will always be times when we feel like these are about to snap. 

What is it that will keep us going, even when our relationships with other people are under severe stress and we're talking to them through gritted teeth, barely restraining ourselves from exploding? 

Love. Love makes the difference. 

Not our love. Our love won’t last five minutes. Our love is brittle and will snap so easily. 

It’s God’s love. It’s agape love. We receive it. We realise how little we deserve it. We share the grace-filled gift of that love with others. 

That is what unites us. 

Conclusion 

Colossians 3:5-15 NIV 

[5] Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [6] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. [9] Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. [11] Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. [12] Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. [13] Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. [14] And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. [15] Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.5-15.NIV) 

While I was a missionary in Romania, I worked on a very international team from as many as ten different countries. It was always a marvel wherever we went. We were constantly asked how we could work so well together. 

The truth is that often we did, but sometimes we didn’t. Sometimes there were disagreements. There were noses out of joint. Toes were trampled on. 

That’s how life is in a monoculture. In a multi-cultural environment when people are away from home, it’s amplified even more. 

But in that setting you are really relying on each other. You need to have each other’s backs.

As an immigrant, no-one understands quite how you feel as deeply as another immigrant. You get together and solve your problems because you must. You hurt yourself if you don’t. 

If only God’s people had the same mentality. 

We too are strangers in a strange land. We too are in hostile territory. But our enemy is not our brother and sister. Our enemies are the world, our own flesh and the devil. We ought not to fight each other, especially over small, petty, insignificant issues.

We ought to be united. 

This study has been about how that should take place. 

We saw the reasons why we should seek unity with our brothers and sisters. It has nothing to do with whether or not they are similar to us or agree with us or even like us. First and foremost, it’s about what Jesus did for us: about how our old life is dead and our new life has arisen. It’s about how our perspective ought to have shifted from the petty, pathetic power plays of this world to the glories of eternity.  

For that reason, disunity over issues that don’t matter in the grand scheme of things ought to be the furthest thing on our mind. 

We saw that we should clothe ourselves with loving behaviours and attitudes: deliberately choosing to remove things that are destructive to unity and to put on things that strengthen it. 

We saw that we should bear and be patient with our fellow believers, forgiving them as Christ forgave us. 

Lastly, we saw the power of the love principle, in that it is the essence of all obedience and the line between righteousness and sin. 

Let me end with what I believe is the most powerful set of verses to support this idea of Christian unity: 

John 17:20-23 NIV 

[20]  “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, [21] that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— [23] I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.17.20-23.NIV)

Understand this: as Jesus approached the deadly pain and torture of an unjust death on the cross, He prayed. He prayed for us. He prayed for us to be one. 

The issue of unity was so critically important to Him that He prayed for it as He was approaching His betrayal, suffering and death. 

Will you be an answer to His prayer? 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, I am challenged and chastened to see how important Christian unity was to You. I ask You to forgive my divisive behaviours and attitudes. Help me to be the answer to Your prayer. Amen. 

Questions for Contemplation 

• Why should we seek to be united with our fellow Christians? 

• What are good behaviours and attitudes to strengthen this unity? 

• What can you do to strengthen the unity of your Christian community?