Matthew 22:36-40
The Greatest Commandments
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
John 17:20-26
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Acts 4:32
One Heart and Mind
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
1 Corinthians 1:10-15
A Church Divided Over Leaders
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
John 14:6
Jesus Says He is The Truth
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus teaches us that the Greatest Commandments are about Love...Jesus wants us to love God and love each other...He teaches us often to love our neighbors...He wants all who believe in Him to be united in His Love...But this is very difficult, since God gave us each a mind to think on our own and to come up with our own ideas...Often, we think our ideas are better than our spouses, our friends, and our neighbors...We like our own ideas and we like to be right about things...We like to save our own faces, sometimes even if we really do not know for sure that we are correct...We like to be right and will argue, it seems for our right to be right -even if we are wrong...This type of thinking does not lead to fellowship, or togetherness, or unity...It is hard to love your neighbor, when one is always trying to be right...Love is what brings us and everything together -and of course this makes the Greatest Commandments make perfect sense...
To make things even more difficult, we believe in different things about Jesus...In some of the nuances and some of us interpret the four gospels a little different than others...When we read a parable of the Great Teacher, we might see this meaning today, and another meaning tomorrow...That being said one can have not only us seeing two or more meanings in His teachings, when others read and interpret Him teaching or teachings in another way it can divide us...For example, I have found different meanings in the Parable of the Lost Son -and have written about that parable more than once...
Jesus before He is arrested prays for all believers...He prayed that all His disciples be in unity and to act as one...His words were "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you."...This prayer was answered later in the Acts of the Apostles when all the believers were of one heart and one mind...Love does not divide...Love brings people together...
One might think that division and all believers not being united, might be because Jesus is in heaven now and has been physically removed from us for two thousand years...But we find Paul writing the Corinthians about divisions among the earliest of believers...And they all knew Cephas, or Peter, was with Jesus...Peter was a close eyewitness to His Majesty...Peter could have and I am sure tried to keep everyone believing along the same lines, but things must have happened early on as the believers grew in number...
I think one of the reasons for Him telling us that He is Truth -is that the Truth is Truth...There is One Absolute Truth in life and it is Him...If Truth were a multitude of things, then His teachings might vary from believer to believer...But there is no multitude of the Truth -He is the One and Only Truth...
Jesus is a complex Man and Being...Many of His words, teachings, and parables are and can get quite complicated and yet some of His teachings are quite simple...But in the end He teaches us about the two Great Commandments of Love and the unity of love, His Love...Love is what keeps people together...This togetherness of believers did happen once in the Acts to the early believers...Those believers were of one heart and one mind...It will happen again in His Second Coming...One day this Love will bring everyone and everything together...