Together part 5
It's not good that man should be alone. It's good that man should work together. When we work together we come into the unity of faith. The unity of ONE new man. And we are all members of that ONE new man's ONE body. Let me say it this way, to quote a movie I like, "Same team, Farva." The problem is that we still see things in the realm of duality. Good and evil. Us and them. When it's really just US. We "destroy" our enemies by making them our friends. I believe this is what the Apsotle Paul was talking about in Romans 12:20, "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." And I've heard this preached like this, "Be nice to your enemy, because God's gonna get him in the end!" When the truth of the matter is... God already got him. God got all of us when Jesus was raised up from the earth and drew us all into Himself. I don't know why we always and immediately think of fire as "hell fire." Hebrews 12:29 tells us that, "...our God is a consuming fire." So when I see fire in the Bible I think about God. I think about love. Like when death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire in the book of Revelation? That was just God consuming anything that wasn't... Him. And THAT'S what the coals of fire we heap on our "enemy's" head do. They don't burn him... don't punish him... they consume him. They purify him. I'm telling you, when somebody shows you nothing but love, it's hard to respond in any other way BUT love. Remember what Papa Smurf said, "We rise to the level of love that we're shown." If you show somebody love, you give them something to rise to. That's what love does: It lifts us up. It equips and empowers us with everything we need in order to experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that IS the Father/Son relationship between God and man. God IN man. God THROUGH man. God AS man. And that's what happens when we work together. When we receive and release His love for us. When we receive His love for us by releasing that love to each other. That's what it's all about. That's the New Commandment. A New Commandment for a New Man. Love one another as Jesus loves us. Receive and release. Receive and release. Receive and release. Stop trying to get something you (think you) don't have and just start sharing what you do have! Let love connect us and bind us together. Stop hating your own body--we're all members of the same body--and start cherishing it. Start celebrating differences instead of trying to force conformity. Let people be who they are, even as you be who you are! Because we're all in this together. Jesus is altogether lovely. Every bit of Him. The bit I have and the bit you have. And when we put our bits together then He (we) is lovely all together!