Friday, February 20th

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February 20: Proclaiming the Word Together
 
The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. 
—Acts 13:4-5

The lyrics to this classic Christian song were written in the 1960s, when racial tensions were high in the United States:

We are one in the Spirit,

we are one in the Lord.

and we pray that all unity

may one day be restored.

And they’ll know we are Christians 
by our love, by our love.

These lyrics were penned by Peter Scholtes, who was leading a youth choir at the time. He searched everywhere for a song that would be appropriate for a series of events designed to bring together people of various cultural backgrounds and different denominations, but he couldn’t find a song that would work. So he wrote this song—all in a single day.

Perhaps the most significant reason unity is important for the church is because we’ve been entrusted with the calling of proclaiming the gospel to those who are near and those who are far. Our unity is a significant piece of our witness to a world that’s divided in every conceivable way, polarized by political differences, socioeconomic differences, racial differences, and religious differences.

The world is accustomed to seeing relationships fractured by jealousy, fear, and mistrust. So when they see Christians in community, showing authentic love to one another the way God intended, they pay attention.

When Paul and Barnabas were sent out as the church’s first missionaries, they knew how crucial it would be for them to be of one heart. They would face many obstacles from the outside, not the least of which was that many of the Jewish leaders wanted them dead. And they would be leaving everything behind—family, friends, their church, and the comforts of home—for an unknown future. Besides all the natural challenges they were up against, they would also face spiritual opposition. They would need to be united with each other if they were going to remain strong.

The same is true for us. There may not be a wanted poster with our faces on it, but we do come up against opposition—from the world, which often doesn’t understand the values we hold sacred, and from Satan, who would like nothing more than to thwart our mission by stirring up division between us.

Unity doesn’t happen automatically. When we become Christians, we don’t wake up the next morning with glowing feelings about every other believer we meet. We still have personality clashes; we still disagree with one another at times. So how can so many different voices join together into a unified melody?

A. W.  Tozer, a renowned theologian, described Christian unity this way in his book The Pursuit of God: “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

If we want to create a beautiful symphony, we have to resist the urge to compete for a solo and instead play the part we were designed to play. When we are in tune with Christ, we will be in harmony with one another as well.

—Stephanie Rische