PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Romans 12:5, 10
So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. . . . Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
CONSIDER THIS
As our children were growing up, we had a saying in our home: “Friends will come and go, but family is forever.” When a minor scrap would break out between siblings (as one sometimes did), or friendships would get in the way of sibling relationships (as they sometimes did), we would come back to this principle time and time again.
We also worked hard to guide our children never to speak ill of their siblings. “Words create worlds,” it’s been said, and we wanted them to create a good story in their own minds, and in the minds of their siblings, about their most precious and lasting relationships. After all, we are family. We have now had the privilege of watching a beautiful reality play out—our grown children love one another deeply.
I often think about the phrase, “family is forever,” when I read today’s passage from Romans 12:5. Paul is resonating with the teaching of Jesus in John 17:20–23 about the family of God and the purity of our relationships with one another. In a very real way, family members belong to one another. We are like one body caring for itself. Our actions impact the others in our circle of love, and real care should be taken to serve one another given our integration with the lives of the others.
Paul, seeing Christ as the head of the body—a metaphor he found quite useful—affirmed Jesus as the leader of our family (Eph. 4:15). Just as my children are in me as their father, and I am in them as my children, in a similar way we as the church are in Christ—and he is in us.
And that is where union with Christ meets real-world application. The bond of love between family members has primacy in all our relational interactions. As a friend once put it, “We fight for love.”
Therefore if my sister or brother is in pain, then I am in pain. We fight for love.
It’s a family thing.
If a family member of another political perspective or ethnic background is in pain, then I am in pain. We fight for love.
It’s a family thing.
It is only in this identifying with, and honoring of, our family members that real healing can occur in churches or society. Family is the paradigm that will bring the healing in the body of Christ that we all desire.
I simply cannot allow my disagreement with a family member to compromise my love for them or stop me from taking actions that serve and honor them even in the midst of disagreement or misalignment. We can be truthful and loving, at the same time. In fact, we must. We are in Christ, together.
It’s a family thing.
Here we must take a deep breath, and, quite honestly, grow up in Christ. It’s not easy, but it’s necessary. Jesus in you, and Jesus in me, means we do not abruptly leave those with whom we disagree without pursuing reconciliation (though we are honest in the process). Jesus in you, and Jesus in me, means we do not talk behind backs, dehumanize people in response to a newscast or social media post, or laugh when someone falls hard.
We belong to Jesus, and we belong to one another. Union with Christ reminds us of this irrepressible truth. Family love can be costly, but it is the welcome cost that comes with union with Christ and union with his people.
Jesus prayed that “all of them [us] 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” (John 17:21). Belonging to one another, and living out that membership in one another, is the primary evidence that we are actually in union with Jesus as a community.
Come, Lord Jesus. Help us be one.
Paul puts it this way later in his letter: “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Rom. 12:10). Putting our union with Christ and one another ahead of our most firmly held opinions, valuing being loving more than being right, we can become one.
Followers of Jesus are one family, in union with Christ. In this reality lie the seeds of our healing.
THE PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I am in you and you are in me. I recognize today that being in union with you means being in union with those who are in the covenant family of God. I resist the impulse to place my opinions before my love, to place my views before my care. In Christ Jesus, I pray, amen.
THE QUESTIONS
Have you ever experienced belonging to another brother or sister who didn’t share your personal views? If so, what was that like and how has it impacted you?
For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt
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3 Responses
The fact “There is one body, and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope — at your calling — one Lord, — one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6), are words that guide my relationships with other believers. We are under attack daily by the dark forces of this world to say or do things to divide this one body in Christ. This is not easily done, but we are commanded to maintain this unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace by living a life worthy of our calling. I have attempted to do this by intentionally forging relationships with fellow believers from other Christian Faith traditions.
The Way the Body of Christ Can Be One
Viewing the risen Jesus together with other Christ-followers as we watch Him work in and through each other will override our divisive personal views about doctrine or politics or any other obstinate opinions that we have. Observing Christ living in and acting through each other will unite our hearts in overwhelming love for the risen Jesus when He is being literally and clearly demonstrated in our midst. Our love for each other will soar.
So why not? Why not gather and cultivate an environment where Christ-followers can watch the living Jesus work in and through each other? Why not let the Holy Spirit (Christ in you, the hope of glory) take control and personally direct our church services by prompting anyone present to say and/or do whatever He tells them to?
The world has seen enough tightly programmed and rigidly run Christian meetings. It’s time to let Jesus lead us and be the literal Head of His body, not a mere figurehead whose authority is usurped and overridden by human hierarchy and control.
Many times, I’ve experienced the living Jesus working in and through a group of diverse people who are free to listen to and obey His Spirit together. I always leave in awe about how Christ’s presence unites our hearts in love that sweeps aside human pride and opinions. Why not make that the norm for Chrisian worship gatherings? See 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Romans 8:14.
One body. Different members. One purpose.
Romans 12:3-8
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,[f] with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Staying 💪’n Christ
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong IN the Lord and IN His mighty power.