January 19, 2021
5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6 so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Romans 15:5-6
In times where division seems hard to overcome, I look to what is the most uniting thing of all – The saving grace of Jesus Christ.
God sent us Jesus to be our one and only savior, to show us a path towards unity, though we often argue about the uniformity of a kingdom that we cannot fully see. Unity, however, is understanding that we all have the same goal, we want the same outcome, we want to see glory brought to the name of Jesus. In the past years we may have seen more disagreements with what that should look like, than agreement, but looking to the words of the apostle Paul, written to a church that seemingly couldn’t agree on anything, he writes: “may the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony…”
It’s an interesting word choice here by the translators: harmony. To be in harmony is interesting because it does not mean that everyone is the same. Best understood in music, harmony is what gives us a richness to a piece as the notes, though played or sung at the same time have an effect on one another. There are times when a those notes comes together and seemly clash against one another, when there is dissonance among the wavelengths of sound. They create a tension, but also cause intrigue. Typically speaking, though, this tension does not last forever, but gives way to the resolve, when the notes align in that perfect harmony that is pleasing to the ears, and elicits peace and comfort to the listener.
In much the same way, I believe that in the long music of life, we experience those times of dissonance, where we clash with the ideas of another, or can’t seem to find a point of which to agree. However, we must not give up or give in to disunity because of such clash. The Scriptures remind us over and again that Christ’s love is the perfect bond of unity (Colossians 3:14) and as we seek to bring praise to God through our words and our actions, even among those with whom we disagree we can find harmony as we work together to bring glory to God the Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Grace & Peace,
Sam