February 21, 2023
Tuesday
Hear, O Israel
Colossians 3: 12-14
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called…
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Shema Israel—“Hear, [O] Israel”—are the first two words in the Hebrew prayer known as “the Shema.” They are found in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” The prayer was central to the Jewish faith as the nation entered Canaan, a land filled with multitudes of “gods” The Shema affirmed that the God of Israel was one God, not many. To violate that belief was to violate the integrity of the Jewish faith.
The apostle Paul echoed the Shema in his call to Christian unity: “There is one body and one Spirit . . . one hope . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). To disrupt the unity of the Body of Christ with dissension or anger is to violate the integrity of God: Father, Son, and Spirit. Because God is one, His people must be one in “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (see Ephesians 4:3).
Let the words of Richard Baxter (below) inspire your thinking today about love and unity.
A point to ponder…
In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.
Richard Baxter
Read the Bible through in a year
I love you!!!
© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich