Ephesians 1:4-12
Verses 4-5 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—
As we have gone through this list of armor pieces we have learned various things about our relationship with God and with each other. One of the most important things for God’s people to understand about His army is the needed unity required to win the battles and wars we find ourselves in. Fighting battles on our own will wear us out, cause us to question why we are even fighting and maybe even give up but when we are with others who are with us in understanding and purpose we will be less likely to be discouraged.
Knowing what we believe and who God is in that belief is even more important in our day as churches have lost their focus on God and His commands and turned their eyes more on what society says is proper and true. In our study about the belt of truth we talked about the importance of knowing there is absolute truth and that is what we must base our thinking and actions on. Knowing absolute truth is what binds us together in this army of God, which raises the issues of how to deal with those trying to be in our ranks but who oppose the truth.
Since we are chosen by God for this army we need to remember it is His opinions which matter. He is truth and has given us the Bible which shows us truth. The Bible isn’t open for personal interpretation, we don’t get to decide what parts of it we want to live by and which parts we want to ignore or claim are out of date. While different churches have different views on things like end times, when baptism should happen and styles of music, we can still find unity because those are not things which affect our salvation.
There are things we should always agree on as members of God’s army and those are the things he set rules about. He didn’t make rules because He wanted us to be bored and miserable in life, He set rules so we would live in ways which reflect Him and His character. This is one of the most important things to remember about being a Christian, it isn’t about us and unity with the world, it is about our relationship with Him and other believers as we all aim to be more unified with Him and His ways.
Making It Personal
Do you desire unity with God or the world? What do you do to be unified with God? What are some ways you know God and the world are not in line with each other?
Making It Personal Kids
Whose opinion should matter most, Jesus or the world? Does Jesus matter to you? Why is it important to make friends who love Jesus as much as you do?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for reminding us that to be unified with each other we need to first be unified with You and truth. Give us wisdom in seeing what it true and of You versus what we are told is true and not of You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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