Union PART II

A deeper look at Union reading the scripture written to us today

Paul Ellis’s words on Union :

« God made you so that you could participate in the overflowing love and life found within the Godhead. You were created to love and be loved and to share his divine life in spiritual union.

Manmade religion says you have to work hard before you can draw near to God and if you sin he will cast you aside, but the gospel of grace declares that one with the Lord, you are as holy and righteous as he is and your future is eternally secure. Our union with the Lord is intimate, unbreakable and the means by which we experience the abundant life that flows from the fullness of his love.

Union in the Bible

The word union does not appear in many English Bibles, but our union with the Lord is mentioned hundreds of times in scripture. It is found in the phrases like “God with us,” “Christ in you,” “in Christ,” “with Christ,” “with him,” and “in him” (see entry for Matt. 1:23). It’s in numerous promises (“I am with you always”) and word pictures (“I am the vine, you are the branches”). And union is implied in the word fellowship.

The word that is usually translated as fellowship (koinonia, 2842) literally means partnership, community (or common unity) or communion (or common union). Koinonia is not a verb in the sense of having fellowship after church. It is a noun that describes the common union believers have with each other and the Lord.

Union is more than relationship for it describes the mystical connection that all believers share with God the Father (Eph. 2:18, 1 John 1:2-3, 2:15), God the Son (1 Cor. 1:9, 10:16), and God the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14, Php. 2:1, 1 John 4:13). Our union also joins us to the church or the body of Christ (1 John 1:7). Koinonia-fellowship is about living fully out of our connection with Christ and his body with our hearts “knit together in love” (Col. 2:2). »

Now here I am looking into the verses Paul refers to »

Union with God through Christ through the gift they gave. That is the holy spirit. That is “my” trinity that I believe.

2Co 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.[f

Grace came when God gave His Son to the world in sin. They did not deserve it by God loved them. Grace came because of the Fathers love. They sent the comforter, the very holy spirit of Christ to dwell in us. So we now all fully share this spirit in us and we fully share being in Christ. Christ in us and us in Christ by the Grace of our Lord!

Phl 2:1

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

Our Union is the full sharing not of the scripture, not of church, not of a race or country. All these cannot take the place of the “one sou;” “one mind union” that comes from having Christ living in each member of His body.

No matter if they are in Africa, Persia, China or the Good Ole USA! We have this union that bridges the generation gaps, and distances. It is the holy spirit that encourages us to love everyone to death. We have this same spirit of Christ that comforts us and it is because we all have the exact same spirit of Christ in us.

When we realize this truth we can act like ONE in harmony In Christ. But what happened?

Sola Scriptura was never needed in the first century church and they knew the love of Christ. They did love to the death. Why? IN the reformation we left following the Roman Empire controlled church and joined one just as weak when Luther and all claimed “Sola Scriptura” in the Protestant reformations

One thing is necessary. Union by the Spirit.” Sola Spirit” would have been better. The first disciples of Christ did not have the Bible we have today and only had oral teaching and some letters or perhaps some Torah. But they did love each other

Phl 2:2

Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Phl 2:3

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Phl 2:4

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Phl 2:5

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

What happened? We have more than 45,000 denominations or divisions cutting the Body of Christ into pieces today. How did this occur?

We replaced the living spirit of Christ with the most subtle of all idols….the Bible! Or at least what we in each of our divisions or heresies call “the rightly divided word” Without the Love of Christ to serve and the His spirit dwelling in us we break off and create our own division based on some details that we in our pride hold truer than the others. We start denominations over whether children can be baptized or adults, since we know not that the spirit is what baptizes us not rituals or water only.

IN love we can agree to disagree on minor details. We can agree to disagree and we will every day. We can allow the Lord Himself interpret His Scripture and He is the only one that can rightly divide the whole word of God since He was the Word in the Flesh.

All denominations that call on the Lord are our brothers. IN fact all mankind our brothers and even our worst enemies. Why? Why would we treat all men as our brothers and not just our fellow patriotic gang. Why/ Because all men were created in the same image of God and it is Gods intention that all be saved! AlL men are friends we just havn’t made into friends YET!

Love holds His open arms of welcome to the whole world. There is union finally on the cross.

1Jo 4:12

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

God is spirit. We do not see God through new revelations and ideas, unless they are revelations of Christ. He was the only way to see God in the flesh! Look at the life he lived on the earth and now the life He lives in the heavenly places with you today!

Jhn 14:9

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

1Jo 4:13

Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

This is the way we can experience being in Christ. By loving not arguing with each other and warring with other over doctrinal differences. The end or the purpose of the doctrine is the love of God, not division and stife.

We have this spirit of Christ living in us so why do we squelch and grieve it by cutting His body into pieces.. Unity is perfected in love.

Rom 13:10 “ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

The spirit of Christ, our holy spirit, is the glue that holds all of us together in the body of Christ. So we should not ignore or deny its power and potential. It is the power to be witness of the body of Christ. It is the sap in from the Vine that give every branch its fruit. It is the life blood and soul of the Body and the body of Christ cannot live without the holy spirit.

Sola Spiritu not just Sola scriptura! That is a poor replacement for unity and love in the spirit of Christ. Solo Amor! Only the love as it was defined by the life of Jesus and then written down by the prophets! Jesus is the only interpreter of the Word of God and when we stray away from that truth, we may be biting and killing each other even in the name of God!

1Jo 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

It is this spirit that we all have in common in the Body of Christ, the church, the ekklesia, those who are called by Him! He has made the way for us through His sacrifice on the cross now we have the gift poured into us. We can have full sharing with all those who want it.

Col 2:2

That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

This is a beautiful way of saying we are all in union with each other in the Body of Christ. We can be encouraged to walk in love with each other and to the world through this spirit. This spirit has already “knit us together in love”

It is love that united us! Here in the Greek Paul chose Sumbibazo as the verb translated “knit together” The word basically means “to put together” and depends on the context it is used in. It is used as “to put together in one’s mind, to compare” But other places “to cause to coalesce, to join together, put together”

Being knit together this way is how the Creator has made our physical bodies in the womb. Our own bodies are perhaps the best way to understand how closely we are in Union with our Head the Lord Christ. We must hang tight with our head Christ and let no man separate it from the body. The Church without its head is a dead church.

Col 2:3

In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Col 2:4

And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

The way we can have unity and union is shown to us everyday as we eat, sleep, walk, love and live in the body He has lent us.

Eph 4:16

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Every joint, every organ, fiber and nerve grows and is put together like a tapestry. Every part makes a beautiful whole. But it all comes from the head as the source and that is Christ. And it only works in Union and in Love. Any thing else is sickness and death. Seperation of the body parts or separation of the 45,000 or more denominations! Christianity was not formed to have multiple flavors but only one.

When we are in harmony we like the physical body, can repair and grow into a man or woman.

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