How to Live in Harmony

How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! It’s like costly anointing oil flowing down the head and beard, Flowing down Aaron’s beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes. It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing, and ordains eternal life.

Psalm 133

This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in them. If we claim that we experience a shared life with them and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God themself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s child, purges all our sin. If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—simply come clean about them—God won’t let us down; they'll be true to themself. They'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of them. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

1st John 1:5-10