Good morning, brothers and sisters, may the grace and peace of our Lord be with you!<\/p>\n
The word\u00a0koinonia<\/em>\u00a0comes from the New Testament.\u00a0\u00a0It means \u201ccommon being\u201d, a word that depicts a group of people who have become one body and are sharing life together in Christ.\u00a0 In the words of the Old Testament,\u00a0koinonia<\/em>\u00a0is \u201cbrothers dwelling together in unity\u201d (Ps 133:1).<\/p>\n Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, for\u00a0brothers to dwell together in unity! This is a \u201csong of ascents\u201d, which the Israelites sang while ascending together on their pilgrimage up Mount Zion to worship God.\u00a0 They walked the same path, worshipped the same God, sang the same song, and experienced a unity almost too beautiful for words, a taste of heaven on earth.\u00a0 The Bible describes it as \u201chow good!\u201d and \u201chow pleasant!\u201d.\u00a0 The psalmist David uses two comparisons in this psalm to recount two great blessings for the children of God:<\/p>\n \u201cBrothers dwelling together in unity\u201d is the Old Testament foreshadowing of the\u00a0koinonia<\/em>\u00a0that was to be realized in Christ.\u00a0 In Christ we receive both the blessings of redemption and eternal life, becoming brothers and sisters who live together in unity.\u00a0 When Peter and the disciples preached on the day of Pentecost, three thousand people believed and were baptized, and the first church was born in Jerusalem.\u00a0 The first thing that others noticed about them was their\u00a0koinonia<\/em>:<\/p>\n Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and\u00a0breaking bread\u00a0from house to house, they were taking their\u00a0meals together with gladness and\u00a0sincerity of heart,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>praising God and\u00a0having favor with all the people. And the Lord\u00a0was adding to their number day by day\u00a0those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47)<\/em><\/p>\n A group of people with one mind in the temple, taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.\u00a0 This joyful and harmonious scene was greatly favored by all the people.\u00a0 And the result?\u00a0 The witness of\u00a0koinonia\u00a0<\/em>brought many to Christ, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.<\/p>\n \u201cBrothers dwelling together in unity\u201d in the Old Testament, is now complete in Christ.\u00a0 \u201cHe Himself is our peace\u201d; if we have Christ, we have peace.\u00a0 In Christ, we need only receive and preserve peace, but we need not (nor do we have the power to) make peace:<\/p>\n For He Himself is\u00a0our peace,\u00a0who made both\u00a0groups into\u00a0one and broke down the\u00a0barrier of the dividing wall,\u00a0by\u00a0abolishing in His flesh the enmity,\u00a0which is\u00a0the Law of commandments\u00a0contained\u00a0in ordinances, so that in Himself He might\u00a0<\/sup>make the two into\u00a0one new man,\u00a0thus\u00a0establishing\u00a0peace,\u00a0and might\u00a0reconcile them both in\u00a0one body to God through the cross,\u00a0by it having\u00a0put to death the enmity. (Eph 2:14-16)<\/em><\/p>\n The context of this passage was disunity between the Jews and the Gentiles.\u00a0 Jews viewed Gentiles as unclean and did not associate with them.\u00a0 This prejudice has been deeply ingrained in the Jewish nation for thousands of years, resulting in a high wall comprised of complex racial, religious, and cultural factors.\u00a0 Jesus destroyed this barrier of the dividing wall and has made the two groups one.\u00a0 With his own body on the cross, He put to death their hostility and enmity, and made the two one by reconciling both of them to God.\u00a0 Before Christ, there was distinction among the two groups.\u00a0 After Christ, there is no longer any distinction.\u00a0 In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, only the new creation.<\/p>\n In Jesus, first there is unity, and then there is peace.\u00a0 Jesus made the two into one new man (Eph 2:15), and made both groups into one (Eph 2:14).\u00a0 After being made into one new man, peace will naturally follow, because this is one body (Eph 2:16), and there cannot be walls within one body.\u00a0 The Lord has made us one, and thus peace has been established among us.<\/p>\n Therefore I,\u00a0the prisoner of the Lord,\u00a0implore you to\u00a0walk in a manner worthy of the\u00a0calling with which you have been\u00a0called,\u00a0with all\u00a0humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another\u00a0in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the\u00a0bond of peace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>There is\u00a0one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one\u00a0hope of your calling;\u00a0one Lord, one faith, one baptism,\u00a0one God and Father of all\u00a0who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph 4:1-6)<\/em><\/p>\n The Lord has already given us unity and peace, now we must strive to preserve them, according to the ways of the Lord.\u00a0 This unity and peace were given to us in Christ, and so we must preserve them also in Christ.\u00a0 If you are not in Christ, no matter how hard you work by man\u2019s standards, you will never have peace.\u00a0\u00a0Koinonia<\/em>\u00a0is the fellowship of believers and consists only of believers.\u00a0 If mingled among them are those who believe only in religion but not in Christ, then there cannot be peace.\u00a0 In reality, there are many churches that suffer discord, spending much time and energy arguing about internal affairs, so much so that they do not have the desire nor the strength to go out and share the gospel.\u00a0 Oil and water never mix.\u00a0 If the merely religious are treated as brothers and sisters, and those who are Christian-by-name-only are embraced as part of the family, this becomes the very opposite of diligently striving for the unity of the Spirit, and in fact, is a conscientious effort to destroy such unity.\u00a0 This is not to say that we should be hostile towards those who are outwardly religious but do not know Christ; rather, we should share the gospel with them in love, hoping that they would one day come to salvation in Christ, and join in the believers\u2019\u00a0koinonia<\/em>.<\/p>\n There are two ways to diligently preserve the unity of the Spirit\u2014one is proactive, the other is defensive.\u00a0 The first proactive aspect has to do with our attitude, which includes having humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance for one another in love, and being united in the bond of peace.\u00a0 Speaking of the bond of peace, there\u2019s a small act that can have a great ripple effect, if everyone takes it seriously\u2014greeting one another.\u00a0 Every time you come to church, take some time to greet others, and show genuine care for those who may feel left out.\u00a0 In time, there will be warmth in the church.\u00a0 Another aspect is the teaching of truth.\u00a0 There must be a constant teaching of the biblical truth that \u201cThere is\u00a0one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one\u00a0hope of your calling;\u00a0one Lord, one faith, one baptism,\u00a0one God and Father of all.\u201d (Eph 4:4-6), and the whole body must be exhorted to strive diligently to obey this truth.<\/p>\n The defensive aspect is to prevent the influence of secular worldviews and trends from infiltrating the church.\u00a0 If worldly values such as discrimination, materialism, and individualism are brought into the church, this will allow barriers and walls to be built up among brothers and sisters, and will destroy\u00a0koinonia<\/em>. How can we avoid the influence of the world?\u00a0 Only by constantly drawing near to God, learning from His word, having fellowship with one another, worshipping God, and praying together with fellow believers.\u00a0 May the Lord bless you, that you may always experience how good and how pleasant it is for \u201cbrothers to dwell together in unity\u201d!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning, brothers and sisters, may the grace and peace of our Lord be with you! Behold, Brothers Dwelling Together in Unity! The word\u00a0koinonia\u00a0comes from the New Testament.\u00a0\u00a0It means \u201ccommon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,57,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotionals","category-koinonia","category-pastor-warren-wang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1958,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>It is like the precious\u00a0oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard,
\nEven\u00a0Aaron\u2019s beard, coming down upon the\u00a0edge of his robes.
\nIt is like the\u00a0dew of\u00a0Hermon, coming down upon the\u00a0mountains of Zion;
\nFor there the\u00a0Lord\u00a0commanded the blessing\u2014life forever. (Ps 133:1-3)<\/em><\/p>\n\n
He Himself is Our Peace<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Be Diligent to Preserve the Unity of the Spirit<\/strong><\/h3>\n