TRUTH: Unity comes when the people of the church recognize one another as family

Unity calls us to see that…

1. A commitment to Jesus makes us family
Matthew 12:50 :: For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

2. The family unit is a model for the church
Ephesians 2:18-19 :: For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God

3. The church is a body whose members have responsibility to one another
1 Corinthians 12:18-19 :: But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be?

4. Individualism has led us to…
Separate our relationship with God from our relationship to the Church

5. Diminish the importance of our earthly family and therefore our heavenly family
Hold our earthly family as more important than our heavenly family