6 Images of Unity - Discussion Starters

One body, many members. In His holiness, does Christ have many qualities? How do you know that? Will we ever fully understand the complicated but loving Christ? Try explaining how the Holy Spirit is like the wind. Hard to do unless you look first at John 3:8 where you’ll find an elegant word picture of the Holy Spirit. How should we look at images in the Bible about God? Does every dimension of God have just one eloquent example of what God is like? Or are there so many images it takes us a lifetime to study all of them fully?
The people of God. What kind of people belongs to God? People like you? People like me? Some Christians try to skip over the people of the Old Testament because they feel they are not Christian and so are not part of God’s family. What would you say to a person with this concept? Did God set up a special people as His many centuries before Jesus came to live on earth? Do you consider yourself to be one person belonging to a “people of God”? Is that how God sees you? If not, why not? Why did God choose Abraham’s descendants as His people? How did they qualify as people of God? Are you sure?
The household of God. In what way(s) are God’s people like the stones and other elements in a well-constructed building? Or are they more like a group of people learning to live together on earth? How important is loyalty to being a member of God’s family? Loyal to what? Have you ever seen children and teenagers develop a fierce loyalty to “their” sports team? Can we have an even stronger loyalty to God’s people? Or to the Father of us all? How? Think of some ways we as Christians can be helpful to others who want to live a Christian life but just don’t have a close family relationship with anyone…
The temple of the Holy Spirit. What are some differences between a temple and a finely built residential structure? How did people who lived a few thousand years ago distinguish between temples and ordinary buildings? Does Paul describe the human body as the temple of God? What are some elements of the human body that can be as wonderfully made as the components of an elegant religious structure? The unit of the believers. Paul felt very strongly about the importance of this bond. Does the church you belong to exhibit a strong loyalty to each other within the church? How can we build a structure of unity in our churches?
The body of Christ. Compare your human body with its many parts to a single unified body in Christ. Try to explain what Paul meant when he describes Christian unity as an outcome of diversity. If you could choose a trend for your church, would you like to see it growing with more or with fewer differences between us? If you’d love to see more diversity, try to describe what a marvelous diversity could be like. Our church is growing, but are we becoming more or less a body of togetherness? Can we harbor both diversity and unity as a group of Christ’s followers? How?
Sheep and shepherds. Spiritually speaking, let’s say that I’m a sheep. You’re a shepherd. How will I know that you are a good shepherd? How will we sheep follow the signals that will lead us to safety and comfort? Will there be enemies to our fold of sheep? Will we be able to choose good shepherds and stay away from bad ones who would lead us astray? How? Back to the present. Are there people wanting you and me to follow them even though they are not good leaders and do not follow Jesus and His teachings fully? Is there hope for us? What can we do?

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6 Images of Unity – Discussion Starters

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