Agreeing in the Lord
Divisions corrode churches from within.
This is why Paul took seriously reports that two women in the Philippian fellowship had fallen out. He made space in his letter to “entreat” them to “agree.” And in his approach to addressing the disagreement between Euodia and Syntyche, the apostle gives us a helpful model of reconciliation. He makes it clear that we must remember we are bound together with our brothers and sisters “in the Lord.” This phrase explains who we are at our core: we are not our own; we belong to Christ.
So Paul pleads with Euodia and Syntyche to remember their unity “in the Lord” and to submit to God’s instruction as it came through the apostles, just as we submit to God’s word now in the Scriptures. The Bible is clear that as Christians, we must first love and serve God. Then, as we seek to please God, He will so work in our hearts that we desire to serve our neighbors for their good, to build them up (Romans 15:2).
When we forget that we belong exclusively to Christ, we will very quickly begin to champion our own agendas, establish our own causes, fight for our personal rights, and get on our high horses to dispute with anybody who doesn’t agree with us. Dissension among believers can cause us to grow distracted by petty and often peripheral concerns, sapping the energy of the arguers as well as all who are caught up in the dispute. Instead of reaching out, the church then becomes inwardly focused. It is utterly incongruous for us to insist on our own way when we belong to a Savior who never did so. If Jesus had thought of Himself in the way we so often and so easily think of ourselves, then there would have been no incarnation, there would have been no cross, there would be no forgiveness, and there would be no hope of heaven for us.
We should not pretend that dissent doesn’t exist among believers. It does. But as a company of the redeemed, we are to work through our disagreements on the strength and foundation of our unity in the Lord. Our focus cannot remain on ourselves. In the healing and mending of fractured relationships, we must imitate Christ by initiating reconciliation.
This is a call to all of us. If you find yourself today in the shoes of Euodia and Syntyche, then the call to you is clear, though challenging: “Agree in the Lord.” Whatever else divides, your unity with other Christians is stronger. And if you find yourself today in a church with a Euodia and a Syntyche, then you are called to act in the way Paul commanded his “true companion” to act: to help those who are divided to reconcile. True love takes the initiative. True love gets involved. True love does not allow division to corrode; instead, it pursues the unity that builds up.
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
The High Priestly Prayer
1When Jesus had spoken these words, mhe lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, nthe hour has come; oglorify your Son that the Son may pglorify you, 2since qyou have given him authority over all flesh, rto give eternal life to all swhom you have given him. 3tAnd this is eternal life, uthat they know you, vthe only wtrue God, and xJesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I yglorified you on earth, zhaving accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, aglorify me in your own presence with the glory bthat I had with you cbefore the world existed.
6d“I have manifested your name to the people ewhom you gave me out of the world. fYours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything fthat you have given me is from you. 8For I have given them gthe words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that hI came from you; and ithey have believed that you sent me. 9I am praying for them. jI am not praying for the world but for those kwhom you have given me, for lthey are yours. 10mAll mine are yours, and yours are mine, and nI am glorified in them. 11And I am no longer in the world, but othey are in the world, and pI am coming to you. qHoly Father, rkeep them in your name, swhich you have given me, tthat they may be one, ueven as we are one. 12vWhile I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have wguarded them, and xnot one of them has been lost except ythe son of destruction, zthat the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now aI am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have bmy joy fulfilled in themselves. 14cI have given them your word, and dthe world has hated them ebecause they are not of the world, fjust as I am not of the world. 15I gdo not ask that you htake them out of the world, but that you ikeep them from jthe evil one.1 16kThey are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17lSanctify them2 in the truth; myour word is truth. 18nAs you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And ofor their sake pI consecrate myself,3 that they also qmay be sanctified4 in truth.
20“I do not rask for these only, but also for those swho will believe in me through their word, 21tthat they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that uthey also may be in vus, so that the world wmay believe that you have sent me. 22xThe glory that you have given me yI have given to them, tthat they may be one even as we are one, 23zI in them and you in me, athat they may become perfectly one, bso that the world may know that you sent me and cloved them even as dyou loved me. 24Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be ewith me fwhere I am, gto see my glory that you have given me because you loved me hbefore the foundation of the world. 25iO righteous Father, even though jthe world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26kI made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love lwith which you have loved me may be in them, and mI in them.”
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
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