“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2)
What was the joy set before the Lord as a reward for enduring the cross? Was it to sit at the right hand of God in glory? He already had that before coming to the earth so it must be something else. I believe it was the joy of seeing the redemption of mankind, and the restoration of His creation. In love, He would lay down His life for His friends (Jn. 15:13). For creation, it was a return to what God had originally created, but for mankind, it was more. The Father was putting the Second Adam to sleep so He could make a helper suitable for Him (Gen. 4:18-23). From redeemed man He was going to make a Bride for His Son (Eph. 5:25). The Lord has been patiently waiting for His reward. He will receive it at the marriage celebration when He presents to Himself a Bride that has made herself ready (Rev. 19:7).
How important is it to you that the Lord receives His reward? Jesus is always concerned about His joy being fulfilled in us (Jn. 15:11; 17:13). Should we not be concerned about Him receiving His reward? If we make ourselves ready, both individually and corporately, this will come to pass. Certainly, maturing in the fruit of the Spirit is part of our preparation but there is more. We will never reach full maturity or fulfill our destiny unless we are also functioning as properly joined members of His Body (Eph. 4:16). We must realize that we are not independent of one another. As I have shared in other articles, we are living stones being built together into a spiritual house for God (1Pe. 2:5). Jesus prayed on earth that we would be one with each other, with Him, and with the Father (Jn. 17:20,21). In the Spirit, we have been joined together as one body in Christ. We are in God and He is in us, both individually and corporately. We must mature in this corporate unity before we can be a mature Bride.
It is not an easy thing for us to mature in unity. Most of us probably do not even know what it means, or we would not be doing some of the things we do. It requires a change in mindset about our identity. We are individuals, but we are not independent. “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom. 12:5). We need to change our mindset from an independent identity to a corporate identity. Even how we view spiritual maturity should change. We hear a lot about becoming mature sons of God, but personally I do not believe that should be our main goal. Gifts were given to every believer to edify the Body “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:14). Please note that “a perfect man” is singular. God views the goal of maturity as believers walking in love, as one man.
I used to think that when the Church reaches maturity, we will have a unity of knowledge, but this passage in Ephesians is referring to a unity of “the knowledge of the Son of God”. We are to grow in our knowledge of God, not in our knowledge of doctrines. We are to work at building up the body of Christ in love. To separate from other believers because of doctrine is not love. A family is still a family, even if the members think differently. Walking in unity means that even if we have different views, we can agree to walk together to serve God (Amos 3:3).
It takes effort to accept believers who think differently than us, but what if God has given them something that we need? What has helped me to listen to teachers who so not see everything the way I do is to remember that “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1Cor. 13:9). If we only see in part, then from where do we get the other parts? We all want to have a full picture of things, but God only gives each of us a portion of it. We usually make up the rest from what we “think” is correct, which usually includes some human traditions. When I listen to someone’s teaching, I try to discern what God is saying through that person, but I also try to distinguish it from what they may have added to it from their own understanding. Because they say something I cannot agree with does not give me the right to walk away from them. I accept them as members of God’s family, and I try to see what Christ is doing in them.
There is a place for honest conversations about the things we disagree in, but these can only occur when we make a commitment to walk love. Love is the bond that keeps us together (Col. 3:14). Too often, we put others in theological boxes which we would not want to be placed in ourselves. Unless a teaching is a “destructive heresy”, we should not focus on confronting it (2Pe. 2:1). If we focus on what is true, the things that are not true will fade away.
There is a maturity and a unity of the Spirit that we must contend for if we are to become the Lord’s reward. In a previous article (The Lord’s Search) I shared how the Lord is still searching for a body of believers who will stand in the gap as one man to intercede for the land (Ezek. 22:30). He is looking for us to fulfill our priestly ministry with one heart, one mind, and one voice.
Highway in the Wilderness 