by Jerry Senn
“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and one soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common … and great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:32,33b)
What an amazing spirit of unity was experienced when these brothers and sisters in Christ of the first century, first begin to face threats of severe persecution. The very rulers who had illegally tried Jesus and murdered him on a cross, were the very men now making direct threats upon the apostles, if they continued to talk to others about their master.
But, Satan’s power cannot penetrate the hearts and souls when they are bound in love and concern to take seriously their commitment to the Anointed King, Jesus. We don’t know the future of what our generation of believers will encounter. But, we know what will be demanded if we follow in Jesus’ blessed steps. As Paul puts it in Ephesians, “keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.” (See Eph 3:1-3)
(In my file on Ephesians, I found the quote below, unsure who wrote it).
“We call on all men and women to put aside denominational preferences and allow Christ to create a spiritual and cooperate unity of all who are baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:26,27). We do not seek to be ‘the only Christians’ but to be ‘Christians only.’ We are willing to settle for God to do the saving, the adding, the sustaining of our spiritual relationships to Him, as we take only the Bible as our guide in matters of faith and practice. We will extend fellowship to all thom Christ has fellowship and call everyone to the one standard of Gospel Truth.
“No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, to call Bible things by Bible names and do Bible things in Bible ways.”
"Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything in perfect harmony."
— Colossians 3:14