“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.”—1 Corinthians 1:10–12
In 1776 the members of the Continental Congress came together to sign the Declaration of Independence, committing the fledgling United States to war with England. Many people had grave doubts about the future of their cause. The only hope for success was that the disparate colonies with their divergent interests and needs work together. As Benjamin Franklin put it when he prepared to affix his name to the Declaration, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Those words were not dramatic license. The penalty for failure was severe, and the only way to avoid that was to join forces.
As Christians, we face a powerful enemy who is committed to our destruction. Satan is looking for a weak spot in your defenses that will allow him to strike. If you resist today, he will be back tomorrow. The reality of this opposition highlights the importance of God’s people encouraging each other to resist the enemy and win the victory.
Satan knows that if he can separate a Christian from the fellowship and teaching of his church, it will be much easier to defeat him. Lions rarely hunt prey that is in the middle of a herd, even of mostly defenseless animals. Instead they focus on the stragglers—those who have strayed or fallen behind from the group. Those are the easy targets.(Daily in the Word)
