TLIC FAMILY. DAY 275. OCTOBER 2: THE SAME MIND.

THINK TOGETHER

What unifies your family? What is something that you all agree on?

READ TOGETHER

One of the most important things that Jesus wants us to do is to be united with other Christians. He wants us to agree with each other about God and his salvation. Here’s how he says it to the Philippian Christians:

Philippians 2:1-2. ¹So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ²complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 

Why is Jesus so concerned with our unity? First of all, because unity is how we picture God to the world. Remember, God is a Trinity – he is Father, and Son, and Spirit. The Trinity are perfectly united. They always share and always agree.

Second, our love and unity prove that we have the encouragement, and the love, and the Spirit of Jesus living inside of us. If Jesus is always loving us we can always be loving each other. If Jesus is always agreeing with us about God, we can always agree with each other about God and his love too.

Christians don’t have to agree on everything. We don’t have to agree on what our favorite song is, or which team is our favorite. We don’t even have to agree on bigger things like how to run a church, or how to solve every problem. But we agree that Jesus is our Savior, that he loves us, that his death on the cross forgives us, and that we want to love him and love others too, just like he does.

The great thing about church is that everyone can look different, and sound different, and even think differently about many, many things, but what they will all have in common is that they agree that God loves us and saves us through Jesus. Jesus alone is what unifies us, and he will always be enough.

Because of Jesus all who trust him are joined together by the Spirit.

With Jesus we can share love and unity with each other.

DO SOMETHING TOGETHER

Go to church this weekend and point out to your children how everyone is very different (ages, races, boys-girls, tall-short, and even different ideas.) Ask your kids to think through what we all have in common?

PRAY TOGETHER

Jesus, you have brought us all together by your love. Help me to care about others and agree with other Christians about you. Amen.