One

One is an interesting word. It's small. It only has three letters. It's just one. There's not much to it. You might describe it as insignificant or finite. It certainly is simple. It's singular. It's just one. One doesn't really cause you to stop and ponder it very much.

When I was considering looking it up in the dictionary, I thought, oh, hi! There would be one definition. Probably a number, a numeral. But I nevertheless went to dictionary.com and looked it up. And there I found 27 definition entries for the word one, including that one means existing, acting, or considered as a single unit, entity, or individual, of the same or having the single kind nature or condition, united in thought or feeling, attuned to the same mindset.

One. God created humans to become one. If we look in Matthew 19, verses 4-6, Jesus himself, our Creator, Matthew 19.4, answered and said to them, Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife?

And what is all of this four, all this romance and marriage and male and female? And the two shall become one. That's what it's about. Verse 6, So then, he says, they are no longer two, but one flesh. And therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. Joining together and making one, taking two very different individuals, a male and a female, of the same species, but totally different hormonal, brain, body system, different way of thinking and approaching. And you take these two entities and put them together.

This is a purpose that Jesus said we are here as humans to fulfill, that we can become one. And God does not want something that he has joined or is joining together or unifying to become separated. How do two very different looking, thinking, acting individuals come to be a single entity? Let's review that process over in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25 through 29.

Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25 through 29. Paul uses the analogy of marriage for the reality of the union between Jesus Christ and the body, or Jesus Christ and his bride, Jesus Christ and the church. And we see here how to become one. Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 25. Husbands love your wives. This is the first part of two becoming one. Just like Christ first loved us before we ever even knew about him, we weren't even alive at the time.

Husbands are to love their wives. Husbands often begin that process before the future wife even knows anything about it. They're sort of moonstruck or Venus struck or starstruck or something by this female, and they just can't think about anything else. So they get all gooey in the head and can't think and can't work, and finally get up enough nerve to say hi and maybe invite her out on a date. He goes through a loving sequence of courting her, giving her things, taking her places, saying nice things to her.

It is an act, an expression of love before she loved him. Not that that happens in every case, but this is kind of the typical. And so, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the Word. Here, with the church, we don't just sort of fall in love with our Lord and Master and live happily ever after.

Turns out there's more to making two one than just showing up. We are not automatically one with God. We require some work, some change, some altering, some amalgamating with the thought processes and the ideals, the mindset of Jesus Christ. And so, he cleansed her with the washing of water by the Word through baptism and through taking away her sins, taking away the enmity, the hostility between God and man, the rebellion, the mind that doesn't want to love and serve and give. He takes that away from us, gradually, beginning with baptism, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, a bride fully committed, fully decked out, ready for the wedding, fully unified and ready to go in a close walk together forever.

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own body. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. A nourishing cherishing. So before we can be one, we have love, we have some repentance, some change. We then have cherishing, just like God does to the church, back and forth. And this begins to stitch together, as Ephesians 4 talks about in verse 16. This love from the whole body, joined and knits together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working, by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself and love. What that's saying is you have a bunch of parts and it ends up one. That's what the body of Christ is. It's one. A bunch of pieces, a bunch of members who end up as one. How do two very different looking, very different thinking beings, as a God being and a human being, ever become one?

The dictionary definition again says one is existing and acting as a single unit united in thought and feeling. How do you do that with someone of a different species? God is a different species than human. He's not homo sapien sapien. He's spirit, spirit, spirit. We're different. How do you become unified? Well, let's review this process. Going on here in Ephesians 5 now in verse 30. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. This is quite a reach across not only the universe, but it's a reach across dimensions. From the physical dimension into the spiritual dimension, we are now members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. How does a human being get to that kind of oneness with someone of a different dimensional species, as it were? I don't have a better phraseology to put that there.

For this reason, verse 31, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So, like the physical marriage is patterned after this relationship, he says, this is a great mystery. How does this happen? This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you, in so particular, so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

These are the tools by which two different individuals become one. And this union of humans in marriage is symbolic of God's purpose for you. It's why you're here on this earth. So that you can be one. So that you can become that three-letter word. In fact, for you and me to become one is a mandate from God. Let's go to John 17, verses 21-24. We might think, well, it would be nice to be one, or it would be okay to be one, or it might be a charming thing to be one. Let's not miss the fact that it's a mandate from God and a requirement for anyone who will be in the kingdom of God.

Well, it is an option, but without it, the other option is not a good one. John 17, verse 21, cutting into his statement here, that they all may be one. Wow, that's asking a lot, isn't it? Think how different we all think about things and the different viewpoints we have. And the strength, actually, of decision-making is in gathering a multitude of counsel from the various viewpoints, the various philosophies, the various feelings, the various experiences that people have.

And he says that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me. Now, here we begin to get some real strong clues, how this works. Just as in marriage, the two become one flesh, and their relationship is very tied together, mentally, physically, in every way. So we are said to be desired to be one, because as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us. This is not a distance relationship.

This is not some kind of, we're all in the same sort of club, but we're segregated or separated. That the world may believe that you sent me is the focus here, the byproduct of that. This is important that we are one, that we become one. Otherwise, the world will not know, they will not believe, that the Father sent Jesus Christ here as the Messiah. So to him, it's very important. Verse 22, And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one.

Didn't say we are one, but that they may be one. We have that option. We have the opportunity to become as one as the Father and Christ are, at least eventually in the kingdom, when we are made in spirit. Verse 23, This is how we are made one with God, because his Holy Spirit, after baptism, comes into us and he lives in us. And you and me, that they may be perfect in one. This is not just sort of semi-quasi oneness, perfect in one.

And that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am. So there's a reward for being one, and that is to be with the oneness of the family of God in the kingdom of God. One is not merely an option, then, is it? One is not merely a possibility. It is your and my expected state by Jesus Christ, and the expected state by which we will be considered heirs in the kingdom.

One is the only acceptable state for each person who will enter that kingdom. Today I'd like to see how this oneness happens, how it takes place, how we grow in it, and also to note that there are roadblocks to people who attempt it, and we must not be foiled along the way. The process for becoming one is defined in verse 23. It's clearly defined. I am them, and you are me. We cannot do it on our own. We actually have to be injected, as it were, by a different mindset, a different way of thinking, a different nature, a different spirit altogether.

We have to submit to that and say, I like that. I want that. My human mindset, which is fractionable, fractioning, it's divisive, dividing, is what I don't want to do. I want to be of the unifying oneness that God is, and I want to submit to them and me that I may be perfect in one.

This is putting on Christ. This is putting in Christ, putting on Christ, whatever you want to. Putting on the mind of Christ, being like Christ, being perfect like your Father in Heaven. And oneness comes from those who are one. They are the source, but it also comes from them being in you. And without them, you cannot be at one with them. Oneness is God leading you into oneness with the Elohim, the Hebrew word for the word God, the family of God, this ever-growing family. And we are being led to oneness with that family, not just an individual, not just God the Father, whom we are told to pray to, and not just Jesus Christ the Son, because they are both one and the same mindset. They are both one. And they are expanding that family. They've already named members of the family. They've already named the apostles. They've already named David. They've already named Abraham. They're set. All they have to be is resurrected. They're in the family. They are of that Elohim and will be once they're resurrected fully. Now, Satan hates oneness. He just despises oneness. He is the author of confusion. Another synonym is disorder, tumult, or division. So when you have confusion, disorder, tumult, division, that's not one, is it? That is going a different direction, a different mindset. And yet we have been of our Father the Devil, and he is a divider. And we need to repent of that and embrace the one mentality that comes from God the Father. It says in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 33, For God is not the author of confusion, or tumult, disorder, division, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let me read that again. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. The word peace is an interesting word. It's translated from the Greek word eirene, like Irene or something. It means to join, of all things. Here we have a God of oneness, of unity, and the God of peace is a God who joins.

We might rephrase this or rewrite this verse that I just read. God is the author of making one, as in all the churches. It's kind of what it says. He's not the author of confusion, but the author of peace, which means making one, or to join.

In 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 through 9, we find that Satan wants to divide you away from oneness. Let's notice this warning. 1 Peter chapter 5, beginning in verse 8.

Be sober. Margin says, be self-controlled. Be vigilant. Margin says, be watchful. This is important. This is like a warning. If there's somebody trying to kill you outside, and they've entered the building, and you need to escape, how would you plan your exit? That kind of thing. You be very, very self-controlled, aware, watchful, and you work out this very difficult escape from this one who wants to kill you. Because your adversary, the devil, is walking about like a roaring lion. It's worse than just an individual wanting to kill you. Lions can smell where you are. They can hear much better than a human. This individual, like a lion, really knows right through the walls where you are. Seeking, whom he may devour. And to devour by a lion isn't just to sort of eat you a bite at a time. It's to rip, and rip, and rip. We see him out on the plains there in Kenya, and when they eat, they tear, and they pull, and they rip chunks and pieces off. Well, it says, resist him steadfast in the faith. What is the faith? The faith is, love God with all your heart, soul, and might. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's the mindset of the God family. You stay steadfast with the mentality of one. You resist him, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. We have a lot of individuals just like us who are going through these things at the same time. But God, and this faith that we're supposed to have, this love of God, the deep trust in God, and this oneness mentality of God, has fruits. Love has a fruit of joy, and it has a fruit of peace. Remember what peace means? To join. So God's nature, leading us to oneness, is through loving, through submitting to love, and by joining. God is a joining God. He is all about everything becoming one. To join can mean to harmonize. And God is going to remove those who are arrogant and divisive to him in his will of joining. Let's notice over in Zephaniah chapter 3 verses 11 and 12. Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 11. Now if we take this, which is written to ancient Israel, but apply it to the type of Israel that is the modern church, notice this seriousness of God towards stitching together, bringing oneness, and against those who would tear that apart. It just shows here how important to God this aspect of our calling is. It says, It says, Now if we think we can be in God's church and full of pride and haughty, and think, no, we don't have to submit, we don't have to love, we don't have to do what Christ did for us. We don't have to honor others. We don't have to walk carefully in true love. He says, Verse 12.

It's interesting how one is accompanied by submitting. You cannot go to God or to Jesus Christ and say, I'm not going to do it your way, but baptize me. I dare you. Give me that Holy Spirit and see if you can change me. I don't think you can, but give it a try. That would be ridiculous. That would just be crazy. To be one involves submitting. Let's go to Ephesians 5, 21, just a little ahead of what we were reading before with husbands and wives. Ephesians 5, 21-25.

Submitting to one another in the fear of God. Submitting to one another is part of the God mentality. Jesus submitted to the Father, we submit to Him. Wives submit to husbands, children submit to parents. We submit to governing authorities, civil authorities, family authorities, church authorities. We're a submitting group. That's what we're supposed to be. And submitting and oneness go together. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. It says in verse 21, For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let their wives be their husbands in everything. Do you want a oneness marriage? Do you want a marriage where you're one? It involves submitting. Do you want a church where you're one? It involves submitting. Do you want a kingdom where you're one? It involves submitting. One always involves submitting. What kind of submitting? Verse 25. What kind of submitting? What kind of authority or whatever are we supposed to be submitting to? Just to calm us down, husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. It's through that combination of loving in a godly way, true real love, and submitting to that love and to that organization or that authority, that structure that God has placed there, that oneness results.

Jesus Christ submitted to the Father and He said, We are one. A wife to a loving husband? One. Church members. Let's go to Philippians. Just a page over here. Philippians 2, verses 2 and 3. Paul says to the church, Therefore fulfill my joy by being like-minded. I want you to notice a few words here. The first is like. Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love. Now we've got like and same. Same love. Being of one accord and of one mind. See how all this goes together? We're not through yet, but we already have like, same, one and one. How does this happen? Verse 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. This is how one is done through love. Its humility, its submission, its looking out for others. Verse 4. Let each of you look out, look out, not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Oneness grows. Oneness becomes then a reality.

What were you called by God to do? Do you know what your calling is? Is it to tithe? Is it to preach the gospel? What are you called to do? What are you called to do? You are called to be one. That's really what your calling is. That's my calling. We are called to be one. To enter into those three letters in that concept and ultimately remain there for eternity in a wonderful relationship that is tighter and more cohesive and more joyful and more supportive than anything that we can even begin to imagine as human beings.

In Ephesians 4, back on the page again, verses 1-3, Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. We have this calling. We need to walk worthy of it. Not just sort of have it, but we're not doing it. Verse 2, notice how we do it? With all lowliness and gentleness. With long suffering. Bearing with one another in love. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's that unity, one, and there's that word, peace, which means to join. God wants to join. He wants to join you to His family.

He wants you to be joined to His whole mentality. And to be close, so close that you're just as close to Him as Jesus Christ is close to Him in every way. How do you repel the divisive, separating tactics of Satan? How do we do that?

Satan wants to come in and divide, and he's very successful, keeping us from being as one as we should be. But we fight that. How do we go about resisting those tactics? Well, the answer is to put on Christ. We have to put on Christ. We have to put in Christ. We have to become like Christ, become Christ-like, to have this mind in you which was in Christ. If you look in the sixth chapter of Ephesians, just page back again, verse 10 through 13, find here some armor of God. Now, the armor of God can sound like a bunch of pieces of military things that you put on your body, but that's not what he's talking about here.

He's just using another example of putting on Christ because Christ is the armor. Let's just notice here what the armor is. It's not armor, it's Jesus Christ. Ephesians 6, verse 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, put him on. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The more we put on Christ, the more we become like him, the less Satan can have any influence or effect on us. If we resist him, he will flee far from us.

We pray every day, God, do not let us succumb to Satan's influences or be taken captive by him. We do that by putting on the mind of Christ. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness and the heavenly places. How do you fight that? I can't even see those places.

I've never been there. They're invisible. The people are invisible. They're not even people. They're angels. How do you do that? Well, you do that by putting on Christ, as he says. Therefore, verse 13, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Now, he mentions the things here that are in this analogy, the armament of God, truth.

Jesus Christ is the truth, the way, the truth, the life. Your word is truth, the logos. He was the logos. Another thing he says, the gospel. Jesus Christ came with the gospel. It's about Him. It's His message. It's His gospel. It talks about put on faith. What faith? The faith of Christ is the faith. It's His faith, not our faith. It's the trust that Christ has in the Father, in the family, in the plan, in the kingdom. We are to develop that same trust and confidence through Him putting that in us.

It's about His righteousness. The Bible tells us to let His righteousness be done in you. This is about putting on Christ. It's not about putting on armament. And once we have Jesus Christ in our minds, shed abroad in our hearts, with His kingdom, with the gospel, with the faith, with the truth, and we are living that, we are able to push aside the influences of Satan the devil.

It is very unifying. Notice verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. We are in this together. We are in this together. There is a Bible study that was done at a recent family weekend, in which Mr. Steve Myers talked about the shield of faith, for instance, that is mentioned here. And this shield Paul is describing is a Roman shield, four feet high, wider than a human, so that that shield actually covers the person on both sides of you a little bit. And when the whole army lines up, and everybody's shields covering not only yourself, but partly the guy next to you, you form a wall, a wooden wall, that fiery darts and arrows and missiles are thrown at this wall, but the Romans always dipped their wooden shields in water and soaked them in the water of God's Word, in the Holy Spirit, and those fiery darts had no effect. But you see, it wasn't one soldier with a shield protecting himself. And when all the soldiers put their shields up, all together they protected everybody, and they went forward as an unbelievably powerful unit. We are in this together, and as Paul says, this putting on Christ has a power. It has an inclusive involvement with everyone as you supplicate for all the saints.

That is how the body of many becomes one.

One is what God is. It's what the Elohim family is. The one mind of God, the one spirit, the one goal, the one mission, the one mindset of love defines God. It defines Jesus Christ. And it defines the followers. By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have my kind of love for one another. They are inviting you to join them as one, to lock arms with them and neighbor, and go forward together in helping and serving and fulfilling God's will, which is one. There is admonition to us in the church to fall in step with God and to join this oneness. Let's go to Hebrews 10 and verse 24. Hebrews 10, verses 24 and 25.

Paul says, and let us consider one another. As we face an enemy that is horrible, we don't face it alone. We face it together, and we shouldn't just consider, oh, how will I fare? What exposure do I have here? But rather consider one another up and down the line as you seek to help support, defend, encourage the rest of the family, the rest of one. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. As we consider one another out of love and good works, with love and good works, we are doing the same thing that the husband and the wife are doing, the same thing that the father and the son are doing, the same thing that Christ and the church are doing. We are doing that as members of one. And as we consider and help and serve one another, verse 25, we don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Because we are concerned about each other, not about our own skin, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, encouraging, not just encouraging, but exhorting one another, prodding, helping, little correcting, little course correction. And so much more as you see the day approaching. We really need to be involved in that. You know, the final outcome of your human experience will be one of two things. I'll define them this way. One or done. You know? That's the way it works out. There is no other possibility that's stated in the Bible. If you go to Revelation 21, verse 3, let's take a look at this familiar passage of Scripture with the oneness of the Bible. John says, I saw a new heaven and new earth in verse 1, now verse 3, and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God. The word there means the habitation, the dwelling place of God. It's no longer going to be up in heaven. He's going to come and make his house, his home, his habitation here. Behold the dwelling place of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. Notice, it's with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself will be with them, and will be their God. You see how it all became one in the end?

Verse 27, But there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie. Nothing but one will be in the kingdom of God, and anything else that would cause one to become two or one point something won't be there. So, brethren, we need to help each other to be one. This isn't about individual ones. This is about one as an entity, just as the dictionary defined it. In conclusion, we have seen the goal that God has for us. We have seen the adversary's discouragement. Let's go forward from here with locked arms and unified minds by putting Christ inside of us and taking self out. That self that would divide, and Christ that stitches together. This Prince of Peace, the Prince of stitching together. I'd like to close by reading Romans 13, verses 11-14. Paul talked to a congregation like this via letter. He gives us some instruction as to what to do. Romans 13, verse 11. He begins in verse 11, and do this. He's referring to the previous sentence, which was about love. Loving others. Do this. Love others. Knowing the time that now is high time to awake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. And therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. See, we're to put on the armor of light. Jesus Christ is the light. We're supposed to put him on. Let us walk properly, as in the day, in the light of Jesus Christ, as he walks, as he inspires, as he encourages. Not in revelry and drunkenness or in lewdness and lust. Not in strife and envy. But, verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.