One Body in Christ

Text: Col. 4:16
More Lessons: John 17:21-23
Bible Reading in one Year: Isaiah 52-54

After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea: Col 4:16 (NIV). The Church of Christ must function as a single entity. In today’s text, the Apostle Paul instructed the Colossian Church to share the revelations they were taught with the Church at Laodicea and vice versa. The early New Testament churches did not have conflicts of teaching and doctrines because they received from one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all who is in all and through all. The reason for the many differences in doctrines, revelations and teachings today is that people are teaching the traditions of men and not the Word of God.

The Word of God is the standard for one and every church congregation. God still speaks to His church and what He says to one, He says to all. That is why all the books of the Bible written by different people in different ages do not conflict and all speak of the same subject; they all point to Christ. This should be true of the words God speaks to us today. Jesus in John 17 says: I pray that THEY ALL may become one even as I am one with the Father. The will of Jesus is that all of us may be one and not divided. Anything that causes division is not of the Lord. There are many doctrines that have come into the church but not from the Lord. Those are the horns that have scattered the flock of Jesus. They don't have their source in God. When we see much of differences than oneness in the church and emphasize on these differences than what unites us as Christians, then we are not functioning as the Lord desires. The divided church is not of Christ because a house that is divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus promised to build His Church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That means that the Church Jesus builds is not a divided Church and will stand in the face of all the barrage of the artillery of hell against her. The Church of Jesus will be strong again and hell will not overcome it.

Prayer/Action
* Pray against all the forces that are working against the unity of the Church.
* Ask God to bind His Church together again in answer to Jesus’ prayer.
* Ask God to use you to unite your local assembly and not to break it.

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