Team Playing

So unity in Christ has been on my mind a lot lately, for a variety of reasons. I've talked about love for fellow Christians in a previous post, how important it is that the world can "know us by our love." But in my devotional recently, I was struck by a different angle. I was reading Ephesians 4 in The Message version (don't judge! It's good to switch things up a little because some verses stick out more with different wording) and I stopped short to think about it.


Throughout the chapter, Paul had been encouraging the Ephesians to mature in their faith, to have endurance, and then we get to verses 4-6.

You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

This really made me think, because we usually think of Christianity as a road, and we occasionally acknowledge that other Christians are also on the road. But what struck me was that we are all on the SAME road, in the SAME direction, so we should stick together. Life is often portrayed as a race, but it's not supposed to be. A race means competition, and competition means trying to be better than someone else, and that sometimes means putting others down to put yourself ahead.

I kept reading as Paul elaborates on that, saying that we all have different callings within our same direction, that we must grow up in our faith, and that we must put away all the old worldly ways.

Verse 25 made me stop.

What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

"We're all connected to each other." This reminds me of 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul talks about the church being one body, how one part is no better than any other. Maybe it was just coming from the context I was in, but it hit me in a new way.

Most of you are familiar with team sports such as football, basketball, even Ultimate Frisbee. Whether or not you have ever played on a team, I'm confident that you know that it is a bad thing if one of your team members gets hurt, so you would never intentionally injure one of your teammates.

But imagine a team, with the same goal and same purpose and same strong enemy, that is constantly divided! One of the stronger, "star" players knocks over a weak teammate and breaks the ankle of another strong teammate so he can get the glory. Or a well-respected athlete spreads rumors about another teammate so that no one plays to her. Wouldn't you think that team was insane? After all, who would hurt one of their own when a strong and unified enemy stood ready to destroy the whole team?

Yet we as Christians tear each other down every day!

Why do we do this? Ultimately, of course, it comes down to the fact that we are all sinners. But I think a big part of the problem is that we feel like we have something to prove. I don't know who we're trying to prove it to (ourselves? others? God?) but we act like we have it all together, with just enough visible flaws for us to appear spiritual.

But our actions show that we are, in fact, no better than the world. We gossip. We spread rumors. We form our little cliques and shut everyone else out. We tear people down. We ignore each other. We get mad at each other and worst of all we let our anger get in the way of our worship.

If our disunity (read: insanity) as Christians can break my heart, imagine how it breaks God's heart! Brothers and sisters, we can't go on like this! There is too much at stake for us to fracture our relationships over petty disagreements and frustrations. The enemy stands ready to take any foothold.

It's time to start treating each other as God intended: with love and respect as teammates in the cosmic battle for our souls.