Oneness from the Beginning

Displayed on the official seal of the United States of America and on much of our national currency is the well-known Latin phrase E pluribus unum or “out of the many, one.”

The phrase came into use very early in the American Revolutionary War, because the key to gaining independence from Great Britain was in uniting the various American colonies to resist this foreign, oppressive government.

This meant that people with different interests, political systems, and backgrounds had to find a way to join their efforts or be crushed by the superior military power of Great Britain.

At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin famously remarked, “Gentlemen, we must now all hang together, or we shall most assuredly all hang separately.”

His words reflect this sentiment that unity must be forged out of a shared commitment to defeat a common enemy.

At the heart of our national story lies the issue of forming, in the words of the Preamble to the US Constitution, a “more perfect union,” and the coinciding story of the powers and pressures that can either strengthen that unity or put it at risk.

As we look around at what plagues our nation today, it is clear that we are sewn together with a very fragile thread that requires constant attention to protect and maintain that “more perfect union.”

This is no less true in our marriages. The divisions, arguments, and conflicts that are so tragically common in our marriages have affected us all on one level or another.

In John 17:21, Jesus prayed for His disciples and for those who would  follow them: “May [they] all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

If the issue of our unity or oneness, according to Jesus, is so critical to our witness, what do infighting and divisions say about us to a watching world?

This area of unity is critically tied to our mission found in Matthew 6:33, and so we must be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

This passage is an excerpt from Kingdom Marriage: Connecting God’s Purpose with Your Pleasure by Tony Evans. 

View the entire Kingdom Marriage collection on Tyndale.com .