One
Accord
by
Chaplain Jim Robinson
In reality, the Christian life involves everything you are and everything you have. It involves the mind of Christ actually possessing us so that we think His thoughts and develop His attitudes toward ourselves and toward other people.
"Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:1-5)
We are admonished to put others before ourselves. We are admonished to be of one accord. When I think of this passage on being of one accord, I find myself immediately thinking of two things. First of all, relationships I have had with other people when we were not of one accord. That was not pleasant. It hurt. It’s not good to not be of one accord. As I think of this I find myself praying,"Lord, help me to have the attitude of Christ. Help me in a difficult situation to be willing to be submissive, to be willing to not be right, or to be right and not make an issue of being right. Help me, O Lord, to have the attitude of love and the attitude of reconciliation. The attitude that would resolve a controversy or a difficult attitude or feeling. Help me to have the attitude that would make it possible to be of one accord."
James 4:11 says, "Do not criticize one another my brothers. Whoever criticizes his brother or judges him, criticizes the law and judges it." If we are going to be of one accord, there is not a place for unnecessary criticism of our brothers and sisters. Now surely that would never happen. Surely we wouldn’t have a Christian brother or sister that would criticize another brother or sister. But – it does. I know because I’ve been guilty of such a thing. Maybe other people have been guilty of that also. We are not to live with the attitude of criticism of other people. We are to live with an attitude of love and acceptance. Yes, there may be, at times, criticism because how else can we reprove or rebuke a brother. The kind of criticism that’s healthy is the kind of criticism where you go to a brother or sister face-to-face in private and say, "I have a problem let’s talk about it." It is not the kind of thing you say in front of other people. It’s not the kind of thing we put in a container that we would ordinarily call gossip. It’s something we take care of as quietly as possible, and as straightforwardly and openly as possible, but privately with the individuals concerned. That’s important. One of the other things I think of when I read that we are to be of one accord is the day of Pentecost, when they were all in one place and in one accord, of one mind. I’m not suggesting that we repeat all the historical happening of the Scripture. I am saying that when brothers and sisters, when people in a local church are in one place and in one accord, we are in a very good position to have God’s Spirit descend upon us to fill us and work miracles in our midst, and accomplish things that we could never accomplish on our own. To accomplish a level of love and acceptance for each other that we would never have on our own.
James 5:7-9 says, "Be patient then my brothers until the Lord comes. See how the farmer is patient as he waits for his land to produce precious crops. He waits patiently for autumn and spring rains. You also must be patient. Keep your hopes high for the day of the Lord’s coming is near. Do not complain against one another my brothers so that God will not judge you." Did you get that? We actually put ourselves under the judgment of God when we complain about brothers and sisters. Do you begin to get the feel of this, the attitude that Christ had? He was willing to be a servant. We need to keep that in mind. We need to pray that we might have unity. Oneness in love for him, and for each other.
It’s really easy when we have one love for God and for each other to set the stage for blessing and evangelism of those outside of the family of God. All it takes is a group of people that are really learning to love and encourage each other rather than criticize, in honor preferring the other person to themselves. People, whether you realize it or not, if this is the attitude, you have just set the stage to draw people like bees to honey, because people are attracted to groups who love each other. When that love is based on the truth of Scripture and a real relationship with Jesus Christ, you’ve got something mighty powerful, and mighty solid that will draw other people in.
Much of my life has been devoted to evangelism. But I think the most powerful instrument of evangelism is simply a group of people that are living together in love. That does more to draw in the non-Christian than anything else going.
I John 4:7,8 says, "Dear friends let us love one another because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love." We are to live in love. We are to live as one soul. I don’t know exactly what that means, I didn’t really research it to try to determine exactly what that means. But we get the general idea. We’ve all heard about people wanting to have soul mates. I think it means we are going to be soul mates with one another. It’s interesting to me that in the love of Christ and the workings of the Holy Spirit, we live in this kind of love. As the mind of Christ is in us, we can learn to love and be soul mates with people that, apart from Christ, we’d probably never even be friends with. This relationship crosses racial lines and educational and economic barriers. All these things just kind of dissolve so that a rich man can relate to a poor man and vice versa. We can all relate to each another. We can be soul mates in Jesus Christ. That’s exciting to me!
We are to be of one mind. We are to have the same thoughts and attitude as Jesus. We have that, not because it is something we do through human strength, rather we have that because we determine in our hearts that we’re not going to stop God from doing a work within us if He wants to. He wants to. He wants to so mold us, make us, and transform us so that we love people. That we love not only those people who treat us right, but we love those people who treat us badly. We not only pray for those brothers and sisters that we think treat us right, but we pray for the people that misuse us and treat us wrongly. When someone is treating you badly what do you do? You have to pray for them, and you have to put the responsibility for their behavior on them and don’t dare let it affect you or start behaving badly just because they are. You pray, "Lord, help me to love this person I’m having trouble with." That’s the way to victory. The way to overcome problems with people is to let God help you turn your enemies into your friends. It’s hard to beat that process. The world’s way is to just beat up on your enemies. But Christ’s way is to love your enemies so much that they become your friends. As I think back over my life I can’t think how many times I’ve had relationships with people that have been hostile but, because of the love of Christ, because God’s Spirit is faithful, somebody who is an enemy ends up becoming a friend! We learn to love each other. To me that is what the Gospel is all about: It’s about changing people’s hearts and minds so that our enemies come to love us. When my enemy is coming to love me you know what’s really happening? He’s coming to love my Jesus at the same time. It almost always happens that way. In almost every case where somebody who has been hostile toward me, over a period of time there is change and they’ve become friends; they also became friends of Jesus because that’s the power, that’s the dynamic in this living relationship with Him.
After we become saved, all of life should be spent living out that Christianity, living out the principles He teaches us so that we serve Him with our whole heart and our whole life. I would suggest that when we have bad relationships that we learn to do whatever we have to do to help solve it. I know it takes two sometimes to solve a problem. Nevertheless even if you think you are the so-called innocent party, you may have some blame. Even if you don’t, you’ve got a responsibility to help resolve it. Ask for God’s help and work toward having good relationships with your brothers and sisters. We do not have the right as Christians to ever harbor ill will or grudges against any other brother or sister. We do have the right to love and encourage one another. Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death on the cross.
I probably won’t have to die for Him. But when I think of "even death on the cross" I find myself thinking of the song, "I’ll live for Him who died for me, how happy then my soul shall be." I’ll live for Him until I die, whenever that is, because that’s what it’s all about. Working out your own salvation has nothing to do with earning your salvation or earning your way to heaven. Working out your own salvation is just allowing God to work in your heart and life to accomplish those things He wants to accomplish by His grace and power. You don’t have any power. He’s the one that’s got the power. Allow Him to do it and do not stop Him. In God’s economy, we can’t do anything by ourselves, but we do have the ability to be so stubborn that we stop Him from doing it. He won’t save you against your will. He won’t make you a saint against your will. He won’t make you into a missionary or a preacher against your will. You have to cooperate as He calls you and as He works in your life. Let’s resolve to let the mind of Christ take over our lives. To let him rule in our hearts and lives to be the people He wants us to be.
"All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of His resurrection; to share in His sufferings and become like Him in His death, in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life." Philippians 3:10,11