“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” – John 17: 20-21

Last words are important. What someone says with their last words are often some of the most important words they have every said. So, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, one of the last things he every prayed for was that we would be united, together, one.

Jesus said that one of the ways that people will believe in God is that they will see and be impacted by the “oneness” of believers and by our “complete unity.” In Acts 2:42-47, Luke paints a beautiful picture of what the family of believers should look like – a group of people who love the same God, who live with the same purpose, and who love each other so much that they would sacrifice their resources and pride to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters.

As Christians, our being brothers and sisters in Christ is so much more important than anything else that has the potential to divide us, and it is through our unity that we find our strength.

It was Jesus’ love, his humility, his oneness with the Father, and his genuine care for people, that opened hearts to him and allowed him to impact the world more significantly than any other person in human history. It wasn’t his knowledge of the scriptures or his ability to win an argument that won people to him - the Pharisees had that! It was the way that he loved. The way that he truly cared about people. The way that he took the time to see the needs of the people around him and allow himself to be interrupted in order to love them, that led so many people to leave everything they had to follow him.

Yes, leadership is important. Politics are important. Healthy debates are important. The way that we as a country operate is important. But there is nothing more important than leading people to a relationship with Jesus. And I promise you, it won’t be our ability to win an argument that will bring people to him, it will be the way that we, as Christians, love each other and the rest of the world. It will be the way that we, as a community, choose the best interests of others and act on their behalf that will win people to Jesus.  

So, remember… our hope is not in the things of this world, but rather in the One who created the world. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, who through love, paved the way for us to be with him in Paradise for eternity. Love your brothers and sisters well. Love people who don’t know Jesus well. And always choose winning the person over the argument, because what good is winning an argument if we do so in such a way that it turns people off to Jesus?

“For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” - Hebrews 12:2

I don’t know about you, but I find this one of the most majestic, yet challenging verses in the scriptures to comprehend. I mean, what joy did Jesus have in enduring the cross? There was nothing joyful about the pain of being whipped and beaten, tortured and mocked. Even more, there was nothing joyful about bearing the weight of sinful humanity, having His Father turn His back on Him. His Father, His best friend, the only one who truly knew Him fully, turned His back on Him in that moment because of the sin He carried, leaving Jesus to cry out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). It must be, it can only be, that the joy of knowing each of us was so precious to Jesus that when He considered the cross and everything He had to endure to be with us, His greatest emotion was joy.

In his book Deeper, Dane Ortlund writes, “The living God is so glorious and kind, he cannot be known without being adored” (pg. 13). He is the one who bore our sin so we could bear His name, the one who wore the crown of thorns so we could wear His crown of righteousness. He’s the one who put on a scarlet robe (Matt 27:28) so we could wear his white robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10).

I simply want to encourage you, don’t lose a heart sense of the profound length to which Jesus went to save you, because he’s been to the cross, He endured all that for you, and He’d do it again and again. Allow your heart to marinate in the joyful fact that you are worth the pain of the cross, that the one who created the universe saw all you would be and do, the good, the bad, and the ultra-ugly, and decided not only that you were worth creating, but that you were worth dying for too.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
- 2 Corinthians 8:9

Jesus came into the world to live the perfect life that we never could and die the death that we deserved, staring death in the face and paying the price, once and for all, so that we could forever be with God… if that's what we want.