“12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” -1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-14 (NIV)
As believers and disciples of Jesus, we know that He is the head of the church and that we are the members that make up His church despite what our role is in the Body of Christ. You may be familiar with the popular saying “Unity in Diversity.” This is a concept of: “unity without uniformity and diversity without fragmentation.” This quote means we must understand that despite differences in others (whether its social, political, cultural, physical differences, what you do for a living and even your own opinion), your focus is shifted on unifying to build each other up. This is the same when it comes to you and I being a member of the Body of Christ: that we grow His kingdom and support each other in our faith. We are a corporate team who each have different purposes but always helping each other work toward the same goal. We must understand that there is no such thing as corporate worship without the church, and there is no church without unity. The church itself is not a building or place made up of brick and stone but is you and I coming together to worship and glorify our God. Our church is made up of the unifying of all God’s people no matter our differences. David makes this clear when he wrote in Psalm 133:1: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
Prayer Focus: Take this time right now to reflect and thank God for who you are in Christ and for who He has made you to be. Praise God that when He knitted you together in your mother’s womb He set you apart to be so different and unique. Every one of us is different in some way whether it be our background, callings, talents, gifts our passions, etc. We are all diverse in so many ways but in Christ Jesus we are unified, we are called, we are chosen, and we are the church. God has called us in to unity and He has a great purpose for our unity; as John 17:23 reads: “I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Let Jesus’s prayer be our prayer unto God that in each other despite our differences and are own opinions we will live in Christ so that we may always live in unity.
If the opposite of unity is selfishness; than we must pray for selflessness