Bind Us Together Lord
Randall Caselman
5/21/97
Bind Us Together Lord
God made us for relationships, man to God and brother to brother. God created us for togetherness in family, church and community. He placed us in groups and then instructed us on how to get along with one another. Togetherness, fellowship, family, congregation is God’s arrangement. He even commands such.
What God has joined together let no man put asunder. This command is in the context of marriage but can be applied to other fellowships: family, religious and social. We can say this because of other scriptures.
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I pray for those who will believe in me... That they may be one, Father, just as you and I are One... That they be brought to complete unity. John 17.20, 21, 23
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Agree with one another so that there be no divisions among you so that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
I Corinthians 1.10
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Six things does the Lord hate... And he that sows discord among brethren.
Proverbs 6.14 and 19.
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I urge you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions among you... For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites.
Romans 16. 17-18
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As much as possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men.
Romans 12.18
The question is not, does God want us to get along, but how? Relationships are healed when we are willing to:
Take The Initiative. If there is something between you, your brother or neighbor, regardless of whose fault it is, you have the Bible-given responsibility to go to him, get to the bottom of it and settle the question immediately. The principle is,
If your brother has aught against you, leave your gift at the altar and go reconcile. Who is at fault, who started it, how the brother will react has nothing to do with it. We must take the initiative.
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God demonstrated His love to us while we were yet sinners.
• Jesus took the initiative. Be like Jesus. Do it now.
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Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.
• Don’t give the devil a place and time to work.
Silence is not golden. Step in. Do something today to heal the hurt. Don’t wait for the other party.
Sacrifice Your Own Interest. Our generation has been taught to look out for number one. Take sides. Support your own welfare. This is not Bible. No wonder families, churches and nations are feuding. Here is truth: If we love our spouse, family, the church and our neighbors, we will be willing to sacrifice self on their behalf. Paul told the church at Philippi,
Each of you should not look out only for your own interest, but also to the interest, the good, of others.
Philippians 2.4. This is exactly what God did in our interest.
He placed our sin on Jesus who knew no sin so that we might be made righteous by His sacrifice.
2 Corinthians 5.21. Are we willing? Our family, the church and our neighbors need to see the Jesus in us.
Place A High Priority On The Spiritual. Ruptured relationships do a tremendous amount of harm, the greatest of which is spiritual. It’s tough to lead a spouse, children, neighbors to Christ while relationships are strained. The biggest deterrent today to evangelism is ruptured relationships in our homes and churches. We lose our focus. We are here to seek and save the lost. Let’s do it by healing ruptured relationships. No soul, not one single soul, is worth winning an argument over. Gaining the whole world and losing a soul is a loss. Would we give winning an argument in exchange for our son or daughter’s soul? Let’s return to placing spiritual things first, in family, church and in our neighborhood. Pray together; study together; worship together; work together; seek first the Kingdom together. This is why God placed us in groups: family, church, community.
Encourage. Encourage. Encourage. Hard feelings and encouragement are mutually exclusive. We cannot feel ugly toward another individual while encouraging them.
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other. Live in peace. Encourage the timid, and help the weak. Be patient with all. I Thessalonians 5.14-15. The choice is ours daily: To be a Barnabas, a Gaius, an encourager and exhorter or we can be a Diotrophes, the egotist, loving our own preeminence above better relationships. Folk, let’s put it behind us. Get up each day being an encouragement to your family. Then it will carry over to the church and our neighbors will see Jesus in us.
Show Appreciation. In the book ofz Revelation Jesus found something good to say about each of the seven churches in spite of their weakness. Say it. Write it. The one who can’t find something good in others reveals his own heart. We must get over this continual fault finding, complaining, critical judgment of others.
• Hold your spouse, tell them how much you appreciate them.
• Tell your child,
I love you.
• Say it to a brother in Christ.
I appreciate you because _____. That’s healing. Now don’t you tell me you love me and then run over me, destroy me. That’s not healing, but sickening.
Well of course, love is the answer to all our ruptured relations. Paul says
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on having its own way. I Corinthians 13.4-5.
I hear a lot today about tough love. Tough love is a man-made phrase. God’s love is expressed in the fact that He gave His only begotten Son. Yes, there is a time for toughness in our relationships, but let us make sure the motive is genuine agape love, not our own selfish preference that motivates our feeling.
God created us for relationships. He wants us to enjoy togetherness, brotherhood and fellowship as a family, as a church and as good neighbors. Jesus is our example. We will never be more like Jesus than when we love one another.
—Randall Caselman
