One of the most powerful things that we as followers of Christ can do to demonstrate the truth of who we are, is to demonstrate unity as the body of Christ to a watching (and hateful) world. The world despises the truth and the true church of God. It desires always to turn us away from following after Christ and further, it knows that single Christians are easier to pick off than those who are following after Christ in the unity of the body. The world understands that destroying our unity is the key to defeating the message of the Gospel. It is crucial that we understand that our testimony IS that message. We are called to be the light bearers, gossipers of the good news of Jesus Christ, we are called to BE the manifest glory of the risen Savior, who is God made flesh, Jesus Christ!! Beloved, with this highest of callings on our lives, with the very Glory of the risen Christ as our focus and drive, with the certain knowledge that we are surrounded by not only a great cloud of witnesses but also terrible storm of enemies, let us be remanded into the custody of this simple truth: God calls true believers to be united in the fight against evil!! God calls true believers to be shaped by the simple truth that He is the One in charge, not us. And when we are all following after God, united by His Spirit, informed by His Word, we will all be moving in the same direction, and that direction runs counter to the false narrative of a fallen culture and world. This puts us at odds with that world, it puts us on their radar as enemies, it puts targets upon us, and upon our works. Do not ever fall victim to the incorrect idea that the church and the world are aimed at the same thing, that we can be both faithful to God and friends with His enemy. We must all be certain that we are fighting against the true foe, and not against our family over things that are not central to the gospel. This is extremely difficult for us when our flesh exerts its influence, when we think that WE (in our great wisdom) are RIGHT about something... oh, my precious child, be assured of this simple truth; if we are right about ANYTHING, it is only the mercy of God which has made us so! Let us set aside our pride and stand together for the gospel of Jesus Christ, once delivered for all the saints!!