United by the Bond of Love

Dear Readers around the world! God's Peace! Our article this week is by a Pastor who was at our annual convention! I hope we all can learn together more about love! The title of the article is:

United By The Bond Of Love
(Article written by Pastor Chuck Bylkas, who is also a Central Board member)


Dear Friends,

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one: and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.”John 17:20-22

At our recent church convention there was considerable discussion on the subject of unity in the Body of Christ. The Kingston congregation had selected “Bind Us Together in Love” as the theme for the convention. While this sounds like an obvious goal for Christians, how do we go about achieving such unity? Because we are selfish by the old nature, we tend to get along only with those who agree with us. We agree to unity if others see things our way. We try to come to a sense of compromise or general agreement on matters of principles or practice, but such efforts only result in a cosmetic unity, or it fails because we rarely agree completely with anyone on anything.

We cannot solve this problem. True oneness cannot be achieved by the efforts sinful human beings, but rather by the work of the One Man, Jesus Christ. When Christ prays the High Priestly prayer in John 17, He is not praying for something that He hopes may happen, but rather what He knows will happen. God the Father answers the High Priestly prayer, and His answer is the Cross. Because of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are united with Him and one another by faith.

The Apostle Paul asks the question to a church in Corinth that was selfish and divisive “Is Christ divided?” The answer is a resounding “No!” Indeed, we are all uniquely different, but we are all part of the same body; the Body of Christ. “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all…Now ye are the Body of Christ, and members in particular. ” I Corinthians 12:4-6, 27

As members of the Body of Christ we are united by the bond of love and called to use our gifts to edify one another. To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, unity is not something that we hope to create, but rather a new reality in which we are allowed to participate. May God grant us grace to recognize the unity that He has established in the Body of His Son and enable us by the power of the Holy Spirit to build one another up in love.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation: to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” II Corinthians 5:17-19

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Chuck Bylkas