“You must get along with each other.” 1 Corinthians 1:10 Message
“You either learn to get along or you are left to go alone.”
My thoughts today are about “agreement.”
The choices are simple really; you either learn to get along or you are left to go alone. And it is a learning process. The Bible plainly establishes the intended reality; from the beginning, God said, “It is not good that man should be alone . . God sets the solitary in families.” Genesis 2:18/Psalm 68:6 NKJV. You were just not created to be on your own.
Yes, normal people need their space, but normal people also need the company and mutual contribution of others. The Church was born for community and birthed in community, and is meant to model both the unique diversity and unity that is a viable pattern for everyday life. Read Acts 2:41-47/4:32-35 NIV.
It is the God-given differences that make others more necessary and most valuable to you. “Vive la difference!” Read 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 NIV. I don’t need you to be a duplicate of me, nor me of you. One of us ends up being a cheaper copy of the other’s originality, or both lose some measure of who we were designed to be. Our simple goal is to be more like Jesus everyday.
Sure there are adjustments everyone will have to make, but those should be voluntary not demanded. Sometimes you have “to go along to get along.” You choose to do that, not because you must, but because you choose to value the relationship with another as worth such a small sacrifice. If you and I require one another to agree on everything, then we become less personally authentic and have less opportunity to grow individually or together. You do not have to agree about everything, but you need to be agreeable about anything. “Be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose . . in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Read Philippians 2:1-11 NIV.
I think people waste much time about external dissimilarities and extraneous opinions and personal preferences yet miss the most incredible, powerful dynamic of spiritual agreement – sharing a true oneness of heart and spirit that releases God to work His will powerfully in lives, marriages, friendships, and churches.
The story of ancient Babel illustrates the purely natural dynamic of agreement that required God’s intervention. “The Lord said, ‘If as one people . . they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.’” Read Genesis 11:1-9 NIV. Imagine then the available power of spiritual agreement as on the day of Pentecost to people “in one place and in one accord” with the intention and timing of God. See Acts 2:1 NKJV. Those 120 unified and empowered believers changed their world, and ours!
Jesus said, “I tell you this: whatever you prohibit on earth is prohibited in Heaven, and whatever you allow on earth is allowed in Heaven. I also tell you this: if two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask, My Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together because they are Mine, I am there among them.” Matthew 18:18-20 NLT.
Together, anything within God’s will is possible. How you are willing to relate and work together with others in ordinary, everyday life has much to do with what God can do through you. Unleash the power of agreement in your life, work, home, and relationships.
My prayer for you today is that you appreciate diversity and value unity highly.