Unity Of Believers

Read John 17:20–23

We live in a world that categorizes people. It tells you that you must pick a and assign labels — white, evangelical, American, black, charismatic, rich, poor, doctor, lawyer, sanitation worker, conservative, liberal. The evil scheme of these false identities is revealed in the truth that those labels were not given to you by God but by the world to assign false value and create disunity.

As believers, we have to stop approaching the world with insignificant labels and start believing the truth. The only identity that matters to God and the only way he is approaching us now or ever will approach us is as a child of God. That’s it. We are all children of God, and we are united by his spirit through the work of Christ. Everything else will fade away in eternity.

Christ desires that we would not only be united but that we would be united like Christ is united to the Father, that we would be one. Today we are praying that God would help us shed the labels that keep us from being united and embrace our true identities as His children and His church.

Prayer:

Father, it is so easy to get caught up in the name game. Help us to repent of that. Help us to find our true identities in you. Father, we pray as Christ prayed; that we, your people, would be united. That we would be one as you and him are one. So that the world knows that you are God and that they are loved. Help us be committed to this goal today and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.