Keep Them Together

Do you "have it all together"? The concept of togetherness often appears in Scripture. "All the believers were together and had everything in common" (Acts 2:44). "I pray that you . . . may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" (Ephesians 3:17, 18). "Let us not give up meeting together" (Hebrews 10:25).

Jesus was speaking of marriage when he said, "What God has joined together, let man not separate" (Matthew 19:6). But this principle has a broad range of application. We get ourselves into trouble any time we pull apart what God designed for togetherness.

Take truth and love, for example. God has joined them together in Scripture (see Ephesians 4:15), and both flourish in healthy churches. Some churches, long on love and short on truth, surround you with kindness but leave you starving for the Word. Others teach truth, but use it like a sledgehammer and leave you bruised instead of built up. We need both truth and love. Let's keep them together.

Or consider divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Scripture makes it plain that God is in charge, yet our choices matter too. The Bible brings God's part and our part together beautifully in passages like 1 Peter 1:5: "through faith" (a choice we make) we are "shielded by God's power" (a promise God makes).

Another example, often ignored today, is the biblical pattern for conversion. According to the book of Acts, when people heard and believed the good news about God's grace and Jesus' death and resurrection, they repented of sin, confessed their faith in Christ, and were baptized. Despite the confusion created by centuries of denominational wrangling and theological hair-splitting, the Bible still tells us what we must do to be saved. Why pull apart what the Lord has joined together?

The "togetherness" principle carries practical relevance for our churches. Never underestimate the importance of small expressions of unity: praying and reading Scripture together, partaking together of the bread and the cup, extending "the right hand of fellowship" (Galatians 2:9) at the church door, lifting our voices in united songs of praise. (Surely the devil smiles when rancor over church music steals the harmony from our worship.) Are we building strong bridges between church leaders and followers, between preachers and elders, between old folks and young?

And what about family togetherness? Children absorb lasting life lessons from small actions grownups consider routine: holding hands and praying together at the dinner table, taking family vacations, playing games, or working side-by-side on household tasks.

When I was a boy, all the members of my family kept busy with our own farm chores and activities at school and church. But some of my warmest memories revolve around our together times: Sunday afternoon baseball games with my brothers under the shade trees in our yard. Arriving home from school to find a snack waiting for me on the kitchen table as my mother (without prying) asked me how my day had gone. The humid summer night when my dad rigged up a spotlight on the side of our garage so my brothers and I could pitch horseshoes in the yard until long after dark.

Some of the best things in life don't require a lot of money or effort. We just need to be available—and get together.