“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.”
In today’s passage, Paul is asking, “What good is the work of Christ if it isn’t going to radically change our lives and relationships for the better?” Paul writes this chapter starting with a list of rhetorical questions — the answers should all be, “Yes! Of course!” He’s really setting them up to call them out on disunity, making sure that they are applying their rational understanding and belief about Jesus to their real life interactions with each other.
So what about you? Do you have any encouragement from belonging to Jesus? Does his love bring you comfort? Are you united with other believers in the Spirit? Is your heart tender as God does a work in you? If you are answering, “Yes, yes, yes, and yes!” then challenge yourself to a deeper commitment to unity.
The Spirit will lead you into greater levels of agreement (which comes with a gradual release of your own opinions as the most important ones). The Spirit will deepen your love for others which will lead you into serving them sacrificially (which means it will hurt sometimes). And the Spirit will lead you together into a mission greater than you have ever known. The only way to win this spiritual battle we face is to fight in the same direction together. That starts with a soft and tender heart.