Living in the Vine 16 

True Brotherly Love

John 15:12-14 & 17; 13:34-35; 17:23; 1 John 3:11-20; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 3:1-4.

I once heard a pastor preach on ‘division in the church’ from 1 Corinthians. Essentially, he was patting his people on the back implying that they were doing okay as he wasn’t aware of any divisions in his own church. As I was listening, I was very aware of the bigger picture across the town and I was bursting to reprimand him, knowing that he had been speaking negatively against other congregations – not just once but numerous times. All of these churches were trying to be obedient to God’s call for them and their witness in that same town, but they were also quietly judging this pastor in return! 

So often we read the scriptures from our perspective and experience, with pride blinding us to our own failings. We don’t see how the enemy uses such worldly matters as competition, personal ambition and jealousy to successfully prevent God’s Kingdom being expressed corporately. 

In the1 Corinthians passage, Paul was addressing a city-wide Church involving numerous small congregations, all of which together comprised the whole Body of Christ in Corinth. When Father God looks down from His heavenly perspective, He sees only one expression of His Body in each location and He longs for it to be whole, not divided. Speaking negatively or critically about another part of Jesus’ Body brings a degree of limitation and oppression on both parties. Jesus earnestly prayed before His arrest that we might be brought to complete unity in order that the world might witness an authentic expression of His resurrection life – the core ingredient of that being genuine, sacrificial love for one another. That is how Jesus demonstrated Father’s love to us.

Love is the often-ignored pre-condition for seeing ‘much fruit’ in our towns and villages. Love is the challenge. Are we willing to give ourselves, not just to acknowledge each other but to love and serve one another, working together in order to see His Kingdom come? To do so may, to some degree, involve a personal cost of some sort, for we need to seek God’s bigger Kingdom picture over and above solely our hopes and aspirations for our own congregation. 

For the sake of the Church’s genuine Kingdom witness, we should determine not to let worldly matters divide us any longer.

The truth is that we do not readily feel comfortable with everyone: personality clashes, irritations or past history can cause us to hold back from accepting and expressing Jesus’ love to some. And we do not have to agree wholeheartedly on every single point of doctrine or to be at the wishy-washy woke extreme of ultra-acceptance. Rather, for the sake of the Church’s genuine Kingdom witness, we should determine not to let worldly matters divide us any longer, whatever the cost to us or our pride. Doing this will clearly please Jesus (John 15:14).

Back in 1999, the founding group for our Prayer House comprised diverse individuals from an almost-Catholic, retired Anglican vicar, to ardent fire-carrying Pentecostals, and all flavours of God’s people in between. We were knit together in complete love, unity and peace. This group formed the core of the Prayer House, where we learned that unless there is genuine unity and love between us, we will be prevented from seeing the breakthroughs and level of spiritual ‘fruit’ that we long and pray for.

Additional reading: 1 John 1:6; 2:6; 2:9-11; 4:11-12; 4:19-21.

Prayer time

Thinking especially of your relationships within your local Church or across the wider Body of Christ in your town or village, read slowly and deliberately through 1 Corinthians 13.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any ungodly attitudes in your heart, such as unforgiveness, anger, or keeping a record of wrongs. Is there any person or people that God brings to your mind?
• Spend time in repentance with Father God for your lack of love; forgive those you need to forgive. Be as specific as you can and do not rush this. 

Give any remaining time to sitting in His presence, abiding in His love.

Sarah Winbow

To see previous installments of this devotional, follow this link. 


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