Psalm 133:1–Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 

If it cost you great humiliation in order for unity and joy to be attained in your relationship, would you endure it?  Obviously we all want great peace and unity in relationships, but “the means” to get there usually cost us something that we struggle to embrace.  Is loving God and people worth giving up “our image” for in order to dwell in peace and unity?

Even when we consider a relationship with God, the only way that relationship gets deeper with love and trust, is for there to be a sacrifice.  A sacrifice that sees Jesus as worth sacrificing myself to, in order to have a greater experience with Him.  That same mentality must be extended to other believers in our midst.  It is impossible to have love and unity with God, and be divisive with people…(1 John 4:20)

From a Christian perspective, if we are unwilling to humble ourselves in order to dwell in unity with people (as much as it depends on us, Romans 12:18) than we don’t want unity!  So we can’t experience what David is talking about in this Psalm, because what we really want is great experiences with God without sacrifice!  But that runs counter to Jesus and what He was willing to do in order to express His deep relationship with God, and His desire to have that relationship with us!

Things become very predictable in relationships when there is no desire to grow in Christ.  Because of a desire for greater love, Jesus demands us to continually sacrifice our image for the sake of relating to Him, but also for pleasantly unifying with others!  To want a great experience with God and pleasant relationships, as we refuse to sacrifice our image, is to really communicate we want neither.  We realize our image at this point, is more important than God and unity…

In His Love, LD