To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 2:14 “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea.” 

One of the most incredible effects of the gospel of Jesus Christ is how it touches hearts in a uniform way wherever it does its work. In the verse above, the apostle Paul tells the Thessalonian believers, who were Greeks, how they had become imitators of the churches in Judea, who were Jews.  The gospel had the effect of taking Gentiles and Jews, natural born enemies with different religious, cultural, and national backgrounds, and making them imitators of one another.  There was a unity that occurred between these very different people as they became members of the family of God.  That was a sure indication that their spiritual birth had been real, for when they were brought into the family of God, they all took on a family resemblance, spiritually, that wasn’t there before they were saved.

That’s the way it is with any born again child of God. It doesn’t matter what they were before they were given this new spiritual life, all things became new with their new life.  With this new identity as children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).  Obviously, this doesn’t mean that they look the same, have the same language, and are suddenly of the same economic standing in the society.  No, what happens in the new birth is that each person suddenly becomes an imitator of Christ as the Holy Spirit transforms them into that image.  Suddenly there is a new love relationship that has no regard for race, nationality, family background, social standing, or anything else. If Christ truly transforms a life, there is a wonderful oneness that transcends all differences.  And it is a oneness that is not possible in any other way.  Because at the new birth, a believer receives “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) both in terms of how they see everything around them and in how they understand the fundamental teachings of the Word of God.  Now,   for the first time in their lives, they have the resident Teacher, the Holy Spirit, living within them (1 John 2:27). 

There is truly only “one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” i.e., in all who have been born of the Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:4-6).  In other words, there is a unity and a love relationship among believers that is unique in all the universe.  That’s why division, disharmony, and disunity is so detrimental within the church of Christ, and a sure sign that it is not God, but the enemy of the Church, who is at work in such situations. 

It is an awesome thing to behold, the oneness that is possible when those from diverse backgrounds with all their historical prejudices and reasons for division become united in love as brothers and sisters of Christ.  It is a separation from what once was to a unity that one never knew could exist before they were born again.  And to think that it’s a unity that even transcends generations and ages, as we will all see when we enter the full realization of God’s kingdom in heaven someday and take our seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb with all those believers who have come before us.  So, what’s your relationship with those who are one in the body of Christ? Are you an imitator of those who are one with Christ, or is that something you have no interest in or any knowledge of?  If so, then perhaps you aren’t a branch in the vine (John 15:5), a sheep in the fold (John 10:16), a stone in the spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), or a member of the body (1 Corinthians 12:12), all different analogies for the same thing, the wonderful unity that exists within the world-wide body of Christ.  However, if you’re not, you can be, but it will only happen if you, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, are born again into the wonderful family of God.